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Cheers and Jeers from the week that was …

Cheer: Motorists, take note, and put down those cellphones. Beginning June 5, enforcement of Paul Miller’s Law, which prohibits the use of cellphones while driving, began. That means police can pull over drivers who are on their phones for any reason. For the next year, violators will be issued a written warning. After that, offenders will receive a $50 citation. Paul Miller, for whom the law is named, was killed in 2010 in Monroe County when the driver of a tractor-trailer, reaching for his cellphone, crossed into the opposite lane and crashed head-on into Miller’s vehicle. ...

Biden’s border nihilism will live long after he’s gone

The spiteful open-borders legacy of Joe Biden will plague America for generations to come, long after the former president is a fading bad memory. Somewhere between 10 to 12 million foreign nationals are believed to have entered the U.S. illegally under his watch, to add to the existing 12 to 20 million illegal aliens. Almost all were unaudited. They stormed the border for four years without background checks of the sort that American citizens must undergo to purchase a firearm or take out a loan. At a time when citizens were expelled from the military for not submitting to the ...

Step right up: Your guide to can’t-miss summer fairs

You can hear the season before you see it. A distant pop song on the breeze. The clang of a game bell. The sharp, sweet smell of funnel cake. In Mifflin County, fair season doesn’t so much begin as it blooms—one event spilling into the next, each with its own character, its own traditions, and its own pull on the community. This summer, the Embassy Fair’s bright lights and music once again fill Kish Park, marking the unofficial start of the fair season. And it’s only the first of many. From Reedsville to Newport to Port Royal and beyond, a circuit of fairs stretches out, giving ...

Don’t get ‘tick’ed off

Sunshine and warmer temperatures mean more time outside, but a pest about the size of a sesame seed can bring a halt to the summer fun and have a potentially lifelong impact. Lyme disease, transmitted by a tiny deer tick, can affect both humans and their furry friends. While ticks can attach themselves any time of the year, the warmer months are prime time to get bitten. Nearly half of the 16,605 tick bites that led to Lyme disease in the state occurred between June and August last year, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, which noted our state ranks first in the ...

Road work headaches affect us all

Difficulty navigating streets and roads due to major infrastructure replacement projects is not a situation unique to what Altoona currently is experiencing. That is true even though the Mountain City is more compact than some other cities of comparable size in Pennsylvania and beyond the Keystone State’s borders — some of those cities engaged in their own efforts at ridding themselves of deteriorated remnants of the past. Like what is happening here, it is not uncommon to hear stories about motorists and non-motorists elsewhere who are frustrated and angry about what is going ...

What other papers are saying: FAA must start to address worries

Until the midair collision that claimed 67 lives on Jan. 29 near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, followed soon thereafter by a number of other incidents involving planes, some of those incidents also resulting in fatalities, members of the flying public generally had exuded great confidence regarding their safety while using that mode of travel. Now, however, many of those same travelers do not feel quite as secure, due to what has been happening during recent weeks on the air travel front. It is clear that the level of confidence that had existed in the past will not ...