The Altoona City Council needs to approve the latest contracts for both police and firefighters. The city needs no less than 14 additional police officers, no less than six additional firefighters. The Department of Public Works also needs additional manpower, with a 4% wage increase. The ...

Critical Race Theory is not what most people think it is. It is a way of looking at how society is structured, how that structure perpetuates inequality and how people are perceived and treated, ultimately impacting their ability to move up in our society. It is not a theory that racism is ...

The current system for the Pennsylvania Game Commission to clear away dead deer needs to be improved. As I write this, five days ago, a deer was found dead on our property. This is a common occurrence as we live along a road where deer frequently cross. The game commission was aware of this ...

As a small-town retired retailer in the Altoona area, I took great interest in the Business Insight article written July 3 in the Mirror by the Blair County Chamber of Commerce. Having operated a small shoe store in Hollidaysburg for many years, I never saw a need to join the chamber. Boy, ...

The Altoona Water Authority is to be commended for its professional, lengthy negotiations with representatives of the former Cooney Brothers Coal Co. The purchase of the company’s 2,450 acres above the Horseshoe Curve and below the village of Coupon will benefit our watershed by reclaiming ...

On June 2, the Altoona Mirror posted an article discussing Gov. Wolf’s charter school reform proposal, which he says would “save” taxpayers $395 million per year. However, that’s simply not what his proposal would do. Wolf’s counterintuitive plan would actually funnel the money ...