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Opinion

Readiness program calms kids’ anxiety

Editorials

This is an editorial focusing primarily on the Altoona Area School District. However, the message within it should be of interest to every district in the six-county Southern Alleghenies region, as well as beyond. The message is one too late to be implemented for the 2026-27 school year, but it’s not too late — or early — to be contemplated for the 2027-28 school year, or beyond. For many young children, this is a month for anxiety about the new experience that only is weeks or days away — the experience of starting kindergarten or first grade. However, many Altoona School ...

Making my bed isn’t about productivity

Opinion

While visiting my mom, my son asked, “Why do I have to make my bed at Grandma’s house?” I smoothed the quilt over the mattress and answered without thinking, “Because Grandma likes it neat and she deserves a nice space.” My response surprised me. What did being tidy have to do with worth? I somehow managed to frame household chores as a matter of being deserving. Self-worth is a lifelong lesson for me. Like many of us, it’s something I’ve worked on through therapy and journaling. I confront my demons, and I like to think I’m slaying them one by one. I thought my ...

Four-letter words no substitute for thought

Opinion

Swearing was once rare, reserved to convey the utmost shock, pain or rage, or the deepest disappointment, disgust or disbelief. The audiences at “Gone with the Wind” in 1939 were scandalized and titillated when Scarlett O’Hara asked Rhett Butler what would become of her if he left, and Rhett, played by Clark Gable, replied, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” At the signing of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, Vice President Joe Biden told President Barack Obama, “This is a big f---ing deal.” The then-veep at least had the discretion to whisper the obscenity, but ...

Protect our endangered species

Letters to the Editor

As someone who has spent a lifetime studying, writing about and painting America’s wildlife, I am deeply troubled by the steady erosion of conservation protections taking place across our nation. Perhaps most concerning is the recent rollback of a long-standing Endangered Species Act regulation that recognized habitat destruction as a form of “harm” to endangered wildlife. While species remain legally protected from direct killing, narrowing this definition weakens one of the most effective conservation principles we have ever embraced: protecting the places wildlife depends upon ...

SB600 Smart Meter choice is needed

Letters to the Editor

Are these mandated Smart Meters causing physical and mental harm to the people and nature? I believe they are and I believe that is why Sen. Doug Mastriano submitted bill SB600. Many people have reported to Sen. Mastriano’s office that shortly after having the Smart Meter installed on their home they started experiencing health problems. People are reporting headaches, dizziness, heart palpitations, sleep issues, brain fog, fatigue, ringing in the ears, skin tingling and itching, anxiety and more. Our doctors and health care system know nothing about diagnosing or treating EMF ...

NS merger must be watched

Editorials

The fate of the proposed merger under which Norfolk Southern Railroad would be acquired by Union Pacific Railroad, creating America’s first transcontinental rail freight carrier, is beginning to undergo scrutiny by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board under what is being touted as a tough new standard. Therefore, the review, now just beginning, will not only decide whether the proposed merger would be in customers’ best interests; it also will deliver a verdict on the correctness and effectiveness of the new standard itself. For communities like Altoona that have a stake in ...