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Editorials

Rail system needs national safety standard

Mirror readers, especially those with ties to the railroad industry, no doubt recall the Federal Railroad Administration’s decision in 2019 to drop a FRA proposal to require two-person crews on freight trains. Those same readers might recall a Mirror editorial on Jan. 26, 2020, urging the federal agency to rethink its stance. The following quote from that editorial remains as true and relevant today as it was on that day when it first appeared in print: “The possibilities are sobering regarding what could happen if the single person in charge of a train were to suffer a heart ...

Tuition hike shows colleges are tone deaf

Pennsylvania boosted funding for public colleges and universities this year using American Rescue Plan Act funds, providing an extra $125 million — a move we support. The response to this infusion of cash — raise prices. Again. Republican state legislators admonished the schools — Penn State, Pitt, Lincoln and Temple — when, despite a 5% increase in funds, they announced that the cost of attendance was going up. “It would only be prudent to roll back these decisions for all students, but at a minimum, for Pennsylvania residents attending your institutions,” the GOP caucus ...

Legislature must toughen up on DUIs

This fall, during the legislative campaign season, many Pennsylvania state lawmakers will jump aboard the opportunity to boast about having voted to toughen penalties for repeat drunken drivers. To a small degree, they are justified in seizing upon that opportunity. The action was an overdue step forward in regard to making the state’s roadways safer. Beginning in November, according to the Associated Press, some offenders convicted of a third or subsequent DUI violation will be subject to stiffer sentences. That word “some” is troubling. The correct word should be ...

Exploring turnpike alternatives

No one can say for sure if, or by how much, another 5% Pennsylvania Turnpike toll increase would impact traffic volume. For the second time this month, the Turnpike Commission cut from its agenda a vote that would have authorized such an increase. Annual toll hikes have been imposed since 2009, the negative fallout from an unsuccessful state effort to toll Interstate 80. Because that tolling, if successful, presumably would have pumped money into the turnpike’s coffers, the Legislature inserted a requirement that the turnpike, through 2021, make a $450 million annual payment from ...

Growth exceeded its ‘Target’

What traffic planners know now regarding the behemoth growth Altoona and its immediate surroundings have witnessed since the 1960s could have averted the troublesome intersection that currently exists near the Target store in the Sierra North Plaza — as well as some lesser sources of travel frustration. Trouble is, there was no way to predict back then how the area’s economic landscape would develop over the course of the next 50 or 60 years. Hanging over the area from the start was uncertainty over how Downtown Altoona would survive redevelopment upheaval and businesses’ ...

Grain bin rescue tubes important

Going forward, Williamsburg and its fire department could be in the spotlight for life-saving achievements, not only close to home but well beyond the borough’s borders. Already, the borough is justified in feeling proud about what will be forthcoming. As the June 28 article detailed, the Williamsburg Volunteer Fire Department will be one of 58 departments across the United States to receive grain rescue tubes and hands-on training to prepare its firefighters for grain bin entrapments. Such entrapments are not an everyday emergency. Perhaps the department’s soon-to-be acquired ...