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City’s annual crime report is troubling

Altoona residents had cause for feeling somewhat optimistic when they began to digest the information in Police Chief Joe Merrill’s annual crime report to the city council on May 8, focusing on 2022. However, about three months earlier — in February — the news was hardly settling when Blair County Coroner Patricia Ross released her annual report covering the same year. A better description is that the Ross report contains information nothing short of deeply troubling, with a worse prospect potentially looming for 2023. People of the city and outlying areas need to ...

Mothers deserve to enjoy their most special day

In 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson, acting on a joint congressional resolution, signed a proclamation designating the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day, the daily lives of women were world’s apart from what they are in 2023. At the time of Wilson, most mothers’ lives were virtually cemented in the home environment as fathers toiled in the workplaces of that era, earning “pennies” compared with the paychecks of today. But this weekend — the special weekend each year when moms deservedly are being honored with cards, meals at restaurants, jewelry and flowers — some ...

Altoona taking lead on blight

Altoona has the opportunity to become a great teacher for other Pennsylvania cities — and perhaps even boroughs — if it can implement a successful program for injecting new life into narrow, vacant lots brought about by blighted-structures removal. City council members have mentioned some interesting options on how Blair County’s largest municipality might proceed if such a program were allowed to take shape. For that to evolve, though, the topic must remain a regular item on council meeting agendas. One way for that to happen might be through appointment of one council ...

Drug usage during pregnancy most alarming

Virtually every day, readers, listeners and viewers of the latest news accounts are updated about arrests, court cases and prison sentences tied to the use or sale of illegal substances — plus, on some days, provided reports about overdose deaths associated with those substances. Too infrequently, however, are there reports about the tiny victims of illegal drug use, despite there being many. Last Monday, the Wall Street Journal became the latest media outlet to tackle that horrific circumstance, and the picture that the Journal painted was not pretty. The article, on the ...

Important to hold youth accountable

It is said often that America’s young people are key to this nation’s future. That is true; that cannot be disputed. But in the proverbial big picture, America’s young people are not immune to fair and honest evaluation — and criticism, where necessary. Over the long run, America will benefit from such evaluation and criticism. With those thoughts in mind, it is apropos to reflect on Callum Borchers’ “On the Clock” column that was published in the April 6 edition of the Wall Street Journal, under the headline “Older workers are in demand when bosses want work ...

Altoona keeping close watch on East Palestine

As “neighbors” within the confines of the railroad industry, people of Blair County, especially those residing in and around Altoona, will continue to be sympathetic toward residents of East Palestine, Ohio, where a fiery Norfolk Southern train derailment on Feb. 3 caused serious upheaval in their lives. An Associated Press article published in the Mirror’s April 26 edition told how some families, displaced from their homes either as the result of the derailment itself or the still-continuing cleanup, still are experiencing uncertainty and trauma over what their new-normal lives ...