Breaking News

Editorials

Good time to heed Jesus’ words

Scriptures say that the two revolutionaries who were crucified with Jesus Christ on Mount Calvary on the day known now as Good Friday joined the chief priests, elders, scribes and others in the crowds in taunting, mocking and otherwise verbally abusing Jesus. When one of the two implored Jesus to “save thyself and us,” however, the other rebuked him, saying both of them deserved their punishments but Jesus had done nothing to deserve his. According to Scriptures, Jesus responded to the one who had defended him, saying, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Jesus’ words ...

Our view: PA Turnpike needs more transparency

It has been about eight months since an internal Pennsylvania Turnpike report disclosed that more than $104 million in tolls went uncollected in 2020 — information that turnpike officials initially concealed from the public. That reluctance by the turnpike’s hierarchy was due to embarrassment that the switch to all-electronic tolling had not gone as planned and that losses seemed destined to continue piling up. Transparency regarding the huge loss would only make the embarrassment more problematic, the hierarchy surmised, and those officials subsequently were proven ...

Our view: City smart to address snow plan shouldn’t have to wait

Many Altoona residents might be thinking “A little late, aren’t you?” regarding city council’s Monday discussion of implementing new snow emergency parking restrictions in certain neighborhoods. Of course, the discussion was late for the winter of 2021-22, which already has given way to spring, although winter weather-type conditions in recent days suggest otherwise. However, what was discussed on Monday was not late for winters to come, some of which no doubt will be much worse than the one just past, even if only in terms of frigid temperatures. Many older residents of ...

No way around it: Putin must be overthrown

Much important world, national, state and local news over the past month has been relegated to the background — some completely overshadowed — by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s horrific invasion of Ukraine. Unfortunately, there is no sign of that changing anytime soon. Putin’s threats regarding use of chemical weapons have opened potential prospects for a conflict much broader and intense than what has occurred so far, and news organizations on all fronts must not allow any proverbial stone unturned in their attempts to keep the people of this planet informed. For ...

Addressing dropout rate has merit

The Altoona Area School District is considering a number of good strategies for trying to reduce the school system’s dropout rate. However, some district residents who read — and subsequently gave serious thought to — an article in Tuesday’s Mirror might be justified in wondering whether the district could be failing to give enough attention to two very relevant points. The article in question reported on an Altoona Area School Board meeting last Monday in which board members participated as a committee of the whole, rather than in their official board-meeting ...

Plea deals for 9/11 terrorists most troubling

Surviving family members and friends of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have a right to be livid over military prosecutors’ willingness to negotiate plea deals for five 9/11 defendants being detained at the Guantanamo Bay high-security prison in Cuba. In exchange for guilty pleas, prosecutors reportedly would halt pursuit of death sentences, while also possibly stopping objections to more lenient ongoing punishment for those of the five considered more peripheral to the plot. Something does not “smell” right in what has begun. In a nation where killers of one ...