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Editorial sells short role of free press

By Andrew Leheny I have serious concerns regarding the Mirror’s Dec. 22 editorial “Impeachment doesn’t deter Trump support.” Our Founding Fathers demonstrated clearly the importance of a free press to our nation. Their incorporation of a free press within the First Amendment of the Constitution signifies its value to our Founders. As I read the editorial, I reluctantly had to wonder if the editorial board perceived its duty to its readership as directly tied to our Founders’ expectations of a free press. The focus of the editorial is that despite the impeachment of ...

Trains chug with enduring appeal

There’s an excursion line operated by the Everett Railroad that makes regular runs out of Hollidaysburg. You ride in restored vintage passenger cars pulled by No.11, a coal-fired steam locomotive built in the 1920s. Chugging along on an old track through narrow ravines and deeply wooded hillsides, passing the backyards of houses built a century ago and remote rustic settlements, it’s pure time-travel. In the summer, with all the windows thrown open and the coal smoke wafting in, the sense of a trip back to the past is unmistakable. Then there are those experiencing the ...

Airlines discriminate against science

On your right, you see a miniature horse. Straight ahead, a pig. To your left, a monkey. No, you’re not at the zoo. You’re at the airport, where airlines allow all sorts of untrained “emotional support” animals to fly alongside owners. Yet these same airlines often refuse to transport animals used in lifesaving medical research. Several prominent carriers — including United Airlines, British Airways and Qatar Airways — have yielded to pressure from fringe activist groups and stopped carrying animals for biomedical research. Other airlines have placed severe limits ...

Lozinak achievement award fit for a ‘king’

(Editor’s note: Bob Jubelirer represented Blair County as state senator from 1975 to 2006 and was the Senate’s president pro tempore from 1984-2006). When news broke recently that Altoona Curve owner and my good friend Bob Lozinak would be receiving minor league’s baseball’s highest honor — called “The King of Baseball” — tonight at the annual winter meetings in San Diego, I could not help but take a trip down memory lane. I’m very fortunate to have been quite involved when Lozinak first bought the team and when the Eastern League awarded a franchise to Altoona in ...

Change has been a part of Pennsylvania hunting

Saturday’s sunrise will open the deer season, ending a long custom in Pennsylvania’s outdoors. Since at least the early 1960s, the season has begun on the Monday after Thanksgiving. The board of Pennsylvania game commissioners, responsible for establishing hunting seasons and limits, voted for the switch to stoke more interest in a declining pursuit. Hunting licenses sales peaked at around 1.1 million in the early 1990s. By 2008 the number of adult resident licenses sold had dropped to 671,000, and that trend has continued. Resident adults bought 562,000 licenses in 2018. In ...

Senate drug plan brings death, taxes

The Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act would stall future drug development and deprive Americans of lifesaving cures — all without reducing patients’ out-of-pocket costs. The bill would alter Medicare Part D, the federal prescription drug benefit for seniors and people with disabilities. Today, 45 million Americans receive drug coverage from Part D. Part D is a free market success story. Instead of administering the benefit directly, Uncle Sam subsidizes private insurers who sell plans to beneficiaries. Since these insurers compete for customers, they have every incentive to ...