Free Republic

One of the rafts on the Raging River ride at Adventureland Park in Altoona, Iowa flipped, resulting in the fatal accident, CBS News affiliate KCCI reports. On Friday, the ride reopened to the public for the first time since 2020 and underwent a full inspection first, park officials said, according to KCCI. Six people were on the raft when it flipped. Because the ride is at a remote distance from the park entrances, it was difficult for fire officials to get to the location, KCCI reported.

BEDFORD — The district attorney in Bedford County has brought dozens of charges against a man for firing a 12-gauge shotgun at civil rights marchers last August, striking one in the face and endangering 19 others. The announcement from Lesley Childers-Potts came just days after Spotlight PA and The Tribune-Democrat learned the prosecutor had been given the results of a State Police investigation into the shooting in early March — and just one day after the news organizations asked why she hadn’t acted on it. Terry Myers, 51 of Schellsburg, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a...

PITTSBURGH -- Darrin Kelly, president of the powerful Allegheny-Fayette County Central Labor Council, says that not one of the Democratic candidates running for president has reached out to him to ask about or listen to what union families in western Pennsylvania are looking for in a nominee to challenge President Donald Trump in November. "Not one," he says abruptly. That omission is obvious in just about every proclamation about the energy sector coming from the mouths of most Democratic candidates, whether it is Sens. Bernie Sanders' and Elizabeth Warren's pledging to ban fracking, or former Vice President Joe Biden's recent...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Monday floated the possibility of an all-woman ticket if she wins the Democrat Party’s presidential nomination in 2020. While campaigning in Altoona, Iowa, Warren was asked if she plans on selecting a woman as her running mate. “It would be entirely presumptuous of me to talk about running mates,” the Massachusetts senator replied, before adding: “But I gotta say — why wouldn’t I have a woman for a running mate?” Elizabeth Warren on her potential pick for vice president: "I gotta say — why wouldn't I have a woman for a running mate?" https://t.co/fprbtlkGba pic.twitter.com/4cTTEn62lo...

PITTSBURGH - Good things come to those who wait, and for folks who have been craving a Clark Bar, the chocolate covered peanut butter crunch bars first developed in Pittsburgh will be available in November. The maker of Mallo Cups is very close to rolling out Clark Bars at its plant in Altoona, the first to be produced in western Pennsylvania in decades. Anthony Forgione, CEO of Boyer Candy Co., said via email on Friday that Clark Bars will be available in its outlets and online within the next three weeks and will be released nationally by Thanksgiving.

Natural gas developers in Pennsylvania are hoping a recent water quality report by the Susquehanna River Basin Commission could squelch plans for a fracking ban that’s currently being considered by the neighboring Delaware River Basin Commission. The SRBC’s Remote Water Quality Monitoring Network report, which was released last month, revealed that water quality scores at 14 of the 16 stations in the basin were in the “good” or “excellent” categories According to a fact sheet from the Susquehanna commission, the monitoring stations are located in areas where active drilling takes place, as well as areas free of development, in order...

A former Marine working as a bartender in Altoona, Pennsylvania, tackled an armed suspect Tuesday and foiled a robbery. Fox News reports that the incident occurred at Ajay’s Bar around 1:00 a.m. The first of two surveillance videos shows the former Marine calmly retrieving money from the cash register while the suspect has him at gunpoint. Seconds later, the former Marine is seen bum-rushing the suspect, driving the suspect to the floor, and wrestling for the gun:

The next time you drive through a highway work zone, or past an accident scene or a disabled vehicle, think about Robert Gensimore. A highway foreman for PennDOT, he was struck by a car and killed last week while setting up flares to warn motorists about an accident on Interstate 99 near Altoona. Gensimore was 45. His funeral is this morning. He was like many of us. Married, two kids, star high-school athlete, active in his community as a volunteer firefighter. He was just doing his job when he died. About 90 PennDOT workers have been killed on the job...

Friday, August 12, 2016: Live streaming coverage of the Donald J. Trump for President rally in Erie, PA at Erie Insurance Arena. Live coverage begins at 2:00 PM ET. Erie, PA Watch the live stream of the event below beginning at 2:00 PM ET: Erie Insurance Arena Friday, August 12, 2016: Live streaming coverage of the Donald J. Trump for President rally in Altoona, PA at the Blair County Convention Center. Live coverage begins at 7:00 PM ET. Altoona, PA Watch the live stream of the event below beginning at 7:00 PM ET: Blair County Convention Center

An Iowa man noticed the same silver Jeep lurking in the parking lots of Walmart and Target stores over the past few weeks... he decided to investigate and what he discovered is extremely disturbing. ... what he discovered compelled him to write a passionate post on his Facebook page urging people to help solve this problem. He noticed an "I served" Iraq sticker in the back window and decided to stop and talk with the man...

A Russian college student in Pennsylvania was charged with unlawful possession of 'weapons of mass destruction' and risking catastrophe on Friday, according to authorities. Penn State Altoona student Vladislav Miftakhov, 18, was arrested Friday after Altoona police found homemade bombs and bomb-making materials in his room while investigating a possible marijuana growing operation, according to a criminal complaint. Police also found marijuana plants but called backup when they discovered fuses attached to aluminum and plastic containers. After officers removed Miftakhov from a class and attained a search warrant, investigators discovered one pound each of atomized magnesium and Chinese potassium perchlorate...

Carletta Nicholson of Altoona, an African-American and a Muslim, said she worked at the Middle School from 2009 through the 2012 school year, and during that time, she charges, she was subjected to insults on a daily basis, being called "Osama Mama," "a Muslim terrorist," "crack baby," "Killadelphia," "black people brought drugs to Altoona," "all blacks are on welfare," and a great many other comments. . . Nicholson is asking U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson in Johnstown to appoint a "civil rights monitor, master or trustee over the defendants in order to assure that defendants do not discriminate in the...

(AP) POM WONDERFUL PRESENTS: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD, Pa. (AP) — The central Pennsylvania city of Altoona is changing its name to make some money — and to help independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock make a point. Spurlock is giving the city $25,000 to be named after his newest movie — "POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold." The name change starts Wednesday and lasts for 60 days. The Sheetz convenience store chain, which is based in Altoona, helped broker the naming rights deal. The company paid up to $250,000 for its "role" in the film, which skewers the...

Saturday, April 9, 2011 Bishop Adamec Goes Unnoticed and Unmourned into Retirement last January Bishop Adamec of the highly troubled Altoona-Johnestown Diocese retired in January of this year. How was it it was missed? Someone should have been popping the cork of champagne. But like the despot of a distant oriental country flooded with sand and camels tethered in the ruins of better days, his unhappy reign has passed like the report of a swinging rusty sign, deep in the rust belt somewhere between Detroit and Saginaw. He's been accused justifiably of Simony and of being a protector of predatory...

City Police are looking for an armed robber this morning. The latest local business to be hit by crooks is the Dollar Store at 914 31st Street. Police say a man walked into the store around 7:30 Monday evening, showed he had a handgun and demanded money from the cash register. He then fled the scene on foot getting away with an undetermined amount of money.

The Altoona Housing Authority no longer will mail application forms to people who want subsidized housing, a policy change that could help control an alleged influx of New Jersey residents. The authority has been mailing 100 to 150 applications per month for Section 8 and public housing, mostly to people lacking a local preference, including many from New Jersey, authority Executive Director Cheryl Johns said. “We’ve been bombarded,” she said. “If someone wants an application, they’ll have to come and get it.” The new policy would make it less convenient for people to apply and get on the waiting list...

ALTOONA -- Miguel Padilla, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, visited Altoona one night and murdered three people after being denied admission to a social club. He had been in the United States for 17 years and had accumulated an arrest record before he shot his victims. Even so, the U.S. government neglected to deport him, a lapse that led hometown Congressman Bill Shuster to question the competence of the federal bureaucracy responsible for policing immigration. This month, more than a year after the murders, Altoona implemented a law of its own aimed at driving illegal immigrants out of town. The...

ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — A man was charged with shooting and killing the owner, a bouncer and a patron of an after-hours club where he was denied admission early Sunday. Miguel Padilla was being held without bond in the Blair County Jail after his arraignment on three counts of criminal homicide in the shootings at the United Veterans Association Club, authorities said. All three men were pronounced dead at the scene and Padilla, described by police as an illegal immigrant, was arrested there shortly after the shooting, police said.