Railroad tracks must always remain clear

January 29, 2022

No reminder ever should be necessary regarding the importance of keeping debris off or from very near to railroad tracks. That does not suggest any need for “dusting” the tracks like people or most businesses do to maintain the appearance or general condition of furniture, desks or other items in homes or workplaces. However, keeping railroad tracks free of debris of any significant size is a safety imperative, not just for trains but also for homes or whatever else of any importance that might be near the tracks. And, the necessity for “clear” tracks is no less relevant ...

Security must be paramount

January 27, 2022

Blair residents should not envision that the issue of security at the county’s magisterial district courts will be resolved completely anytime soon. It is a many-faceted challenge centering on a plethora of possibilities needing extensive discussion before they’re ultimately prioritized and ruled upon. However, “not anytime soon” must not drag out to the point of losing some or most of its urgency. Proceedings at the district courts don’t just involve police, defendants, attorneys and the district judge and his or her staff. Victims, siblings, spouses, witnesses and ...

PSU Altoona chancellor fueled growth

January 25, 2022

Shining rays of sun on some good news: Penn State Altoona Chancellor Lori Bechtel-Wherry has announced her retirement, effective at the end of this year. Bechtel-Wherry has served the school honorably for 38 years — the last 17 as chancellor — and leaves an outstanding legacy. She helped transition the former Altoona Campus into a four-year school while presiding over its impressive growth into downtown Altoona, which has benefited from the college’s presence with new or renovated buildings now being used as classrooms and educational centers. Penn State Altoona, too, has ...

We must remain vigilant for signs of elder abuse

January 22, 2022

Could abuse of the elderly, brought about in part by the pandemic, be a problem escaping detection in the Southern Alleghenies region? Whether or not that is true, families, agencies, elder-care facilities and law enforcement officials must be proactive in watching for signs of that serious problem and be aggressive in following up, when suspicions exist or are brought to their attention by others. For the bulk of two years, the illness and death tolls and the various COVID-19 variants, as well as the efforts to contain and defeat the virus, rightly have consumed most of the attention. ...

MLK’s legacy destined to endure

January 17, 2022

Coleman Hughes, who was a philosophy undergraduate at Columbia University in January 2019, made several noteworthy observations about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in an opinion article — “Martin Luther King, Colorblind Radical” — published in the Wall Street Journal. Those observations merit reflection during today’s annual federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader. “While no one can know what King would have thought about the Black Lives Matter movement,” Hughes’ article said, “we can take a clue from his speech ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ ...

Don’t look now: Tax-filing day coming quickly

January 15, 2022

When the Wall Street Journal reported on Jan. 3 that the coming tax season is destined to cause headaches for filers, many taxpayers no doubt already were fearing the worst. The last two filing seasons, for 2019 and 2020, were nightmarish for millions of taxpayers, especially those who had filed paper returns and were due a refund. For many tax filers, the tax-filing seasons covering those two years were complicated by taxpayers who not only filed paper returns, but who also opted to receive their refunds by paper checks delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, which has been having its ...