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The Altoona Water Authority’s decision to hire a company to help obtain grants for authority capital projects is a decision built on good intentions. It’s in the best interests of all authority customers for that company — Delta Development Group of Camp Hill, Cumberland County — to succeed in the money search. However, that being said, AWA customers would do well to consider a reasonable question, since some of their water-usage revenue, no doubt, will be spent for Delta’s service and expertise. That reasonable question revolves around Blair and adjacent counties’ ...

Politicians involved in FDA raise red flags

It was just one man’s opinion but it’s concerning nonetheless — for the long term as well as the short term. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, an interview about which the newspaper reported on Feb. 17, Dr. Richard Pazdur alleged that fast-track drug approvals had been politicized in a manner in which he never had experienced in his 26 years at the federal Food and Drug Administration. Pazdur was a top federal drug regulator at the time of his abrupt departure from the FDA in December. Pazdur, who is an oncologist, had “scrutinized applications for cancer ...

State should consider I-99 extension

People unfamiliar with Blair County’s mid-20th century highways probably cannot grasp the picture fully of how major roadway projects over the subsequent decades were the springboard for great economic progress. Interstate 99 has been the biggest economic generator up to now for the county as a whole and it isn’t done yet, as this editorial will discuss. However, numerous other improvements, including bigger ones such as the modern, four-lane, limited-access Route 22, Altoona’s 10th Avenue Expressway and 17th Street corridor, plus the improvements to Plank Road, Logan Boulevard ...

AI regulations from social media mistakes

Twenty years ago, no one really knew where social media was going to go. Facebook had just dropped “The” from its name. It was not yet ubiquitous. It was only beginning to move beyond college campuses and into broader public use. By 2006, it opened the doors wide. There were just two requirements: have an email address and be at least 13. It was a revolution without a war. We can remember a time when we weren’t in years-long WhatsApp group chats or documenting every sandwich on Instagram. But the inch-by-inch way social media’s before and after bled together can obscure how ...

Voters must pay attention to all issues

It is the opinion of some people that this year’s midterm elections could be the most consequential of this nation’s history. That viewpoint might be accurate over the long run; there’s no way now of knowing. However, there is an important message contained within that opinion that’s not premature to acknowledge even so far out from the Nov. 3 general election. That is that voters already need to kick into proverbial high gear close attention regarding specific issues in play in 2026 America — not only within the state and, otherwise, within the nation’s borders, but also ...

Sewer work snafu must be corrected

Even if the current concerns regarding Blair Township’s proposed Reservoir Road sanitary sewer project are navigated successfully, the anxiety in play about the project at this time never should have happened. Rather than elements of the project continuing to fall into place on a workable timetable, this multimillion-dollar endeavor instead has evolved into a conglomeration of avoidable errors and, apparently, shoddy management that is a disgrace to the township — as well as to Blair County as a whole. There are plenty of layers of expertise in this county to prevent situations ...