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Optimism over airport rewarding

Optimism already is paying off for the Altoona-Blair County Airport. It is important that there be no interruption in it, going forward. Last July, officials in charge of the local air facility — specifically, the Altoona-Blair County Airport Authority — were knee-deep in planning for redirecting the airport’s 30-passenger jet service away from Philadelphia International Airport, which increasingly had been judged an inconvenience to most Blair-based air travelers, from a directional standpoint. Now, the optimism that was the foundation for that successful move, effective last ...

Ohio is a leader when it comes to election integrity

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has been working steadily to provide guidance meant to increase security for our elections. He has so far provided six security directives to county boards of elections. Most recently was a set of requirements to configure networks, firewalls, vulnerability assessment tools and equipment with the most recent approved security updates; complete monthly cybersecurity checklists to ensure protection from malicious threats; a county-specific security audit led by his office’s chief information security officer and cybersecurity team; and compliance ...

Pushing public notices to government websites a bad move

Legislation in the Pennsylvania Senate risks allowing local governments to operate in the shadows, leaving taxpayers unaware of decisions affecting their pocketbooks, their communities and their quality of life. State Senate Bill 194, sponsored by Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Adams/Franklin), would allow school districts and municipal and county governments the option of posting meeting and other legally required public notices on their websites instead of publishing them in newspapers, the trusted source of public notices for generations. Proponents of SB 194 believe the bill offers a ...

It’s time to clean up the WNBA

Women’s basketball should dispel the tired platitude that the world would be a much kinder place if women ran it. I just watched yet another video of WNBA player Caitlin Clark on the receiving end of inappropriately violent behavior during a game. This time, Clark’s team, the Indiana Fever, was playing the Connecticut Sun. The Fever were up 10 points, and Clark was in possession of the ball when she was poked in the eye by the Sun’s Jacy Sheldon. As Clark was recoiling away from the jab, Sheldon deliberately bumped her, and then Sheldon’s teammate Marina Mabrey shoved Clark to ...

Keeping cool when the Juniata River Valley heats up

Heat has a way of settling in Juniata River Valley and making itself at home. It seeps in early, ripening the hills and softening the river, then lingers — thick, persistent, demanding everyone pay attention. As July draws closer, forecasts point in a single direction: it will be hot. The kind of summer that fills the air with the hum of window units and makes shade as precious as sleep. This isn’t a summer to ignore. Every credible forecast, whether it comes from the old hands at the Farmer’s Almanac or the digital machinery of AccuWeather, says the same thing: above-average ...

Baby Agnes mystery needs to be solved

The possibility exists that someone — or some persons — in Blair County or somewhere else in the region might be feeling much anxiety or outright fear today as a result of an announcement last week by this county’s coroner and the Pennsylvania State Police. For the benefit of anyone who might have missed the announcement, Coroner Ray Benton and the state police revealed that the unidentified partial remains of a child found deceased on Feb. 5, 1987, in a wooded area between Pinecroft and Bellwood had been exhumed on June 10 with the purpose of attempting to obtain DNA ...