I was born, raised and have lived in Eldorado for 87 years. When I was a young fellow, I was told the boundary for Eldorado started at Sixth Avenue and 49th Street and extended south to the city line, across the branch railroad tracks. It started in the area now occupied by Electric Motor ...

Another weekend, another mass shooting. Once again a place that we normally think of as safe and ordinary has become the scene of death and injury. With every incident, the response is predictable. First we get “thoughts and prayers,” then talk about mental health and violent video ...

I’ve dedicated decades to my work as an environmental educator. My favorite program is planting trees with students in Altoona neighborhood FEMA buy-out sites and Tyrone’s rain garden. I was thrilled to see these young heroes take action against local flooding. Though retired, I still ...

Editor’s Note: Nancy Collins of Altoona wrote the following about a tree at her house that she must take down at her own expense to repair the sidewalks: “Hi, I am a maple tree that grows on a street in Altoona. I have seen a lot in my 50-some years. Neighbors come and go, cars and trucks ...

A complaint during a recent City Council meeting brought renewed attention to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement armory in Altoona. Although public comment was intense, council members generally did not respond. The complaint follows ICE raids across four Mississippi poultry ...

The Aug. 26 letter by Mark Herbert Townsend requires a rebuttal. First, it is historically factual that firearms have undergone improvements from the day they were invented. Even the men who wrote our constitution saw significant changes while fighting for the freedom we now enjoy, which ...

State should keep care centers open This is in response to the Mirror story last week, “State to close two care centers.” Right now we as taxpayers are doing the right thing for the care of the most fragile of our citizens — the profoundly mentally disabled. The main reason why ...

For eight weeks this summer, the city of Altoona was blessed by young people from many different states. The program was called “Team Effort.” Every week, a different group of young people paid their own way to come here on a mission trip, to help folks in this area with needed projects ...

Earlier this month, my husband and I were shopping at Pleasant Valley Shopping Center. We were there to shop at two different stores. I had set my walker on the sidewalk, but when I went to step up to the walker, I lost my balance and fell flat on my back. The only injury was to my ...

It is about time legislators take a look at the unfair school property tax that has been burdening Pennsylvania residents forever. Now all of a sudden, State Rep. Frank Ryan is offering a proposal to stop the practice of school districts using our homes as collateral to support school ...

For almost 371 years, The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, has held the belief that “There is that of God in everyone.” No exceptions. Friends have worked to abolish slavery, worked to help refugees around the world during and after World Wars I and II and worked to ...

For almost 371 years, The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, has held the belief that “There is that of God in everyone.” No exceptions. Friends have worked to abolish slavery, worked to help refugees around the world during and after World Wars I and II and worked ...

Just think of when the Second Amendment was written. Americans were fighting Indian tribes, English soldiers and loyalists to control the colonies. Families were slaughtered so everyone, even children, needed to use a gun. It was survival in the wilderness. We needed a gun for protection ...

Imagine a dad school clothes shopping with two kids — a daughter in a wheelchair with a broken leg who wasn’t able to try anything on and a son who had his own ideas about what he wanted to wear. Now imagine, after all the size checking and price checking was done, going to the register ...

I am concerned about the destructive effects of petroleum-based fuels to run our machines. We have already raised the temperature two degrees Celsius on the average in the USA, especially near the Northwestern border near Canada. And every day millions of people turn over their vehicles’ ...

I didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump because one was worse than the other. However, it was the conservative Democratic voters, along with the Democratic voters that hated liberal Hillary Clinton, who were responsible for Trump’s victory. No matter who the liberal Democrats ...

Only we can save our Cambria Heights pool. The threat to remove this resource from our students and community is one that we, as a community, must come together over. It is rare to have such an asset outside the county seat or city, in a rural area. Our pool facilities are praised by ...

As a 25-year secondary public school teacher (now retired), I have concerns about guns in the classroom. The National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) says on its website, “Law enforcement officers who respond to an incident in a school could mistake for an assailant a ...

As a Gulf War veteran — after reading an article about the Veterans Administration red flagging veterans — I wanted to comment on exposing the dangers of this back-door, unconstitutional, political-rights grabbing operation. Maybe we should turn the tables and publicly demand mandatory ...

During the last off-year election cycle, Gov. Tom Wolf carried 17 out of 67 Pennsylvania counties. His challenger, Sen. Scott Wagner, carried the other 50. Quite a discrepancy. Wolf retained the governorship because he carried the most populous counties. Looking at a map of Pennsylvania ...