Teachers OK 'intent to strike' authority

Teachers OK 'intentto strike' authority
EAST PALESTINE -- Members of the union representing East Palestine teachers have given their leadership authority to issue an "intent to strike" notice.
Don Carson, spokesman for the 95-member East Palestine Education Association, said Wednesday that the authorization had been granted last week.
No "intent to strike" notice, one step short of actually striking, has actually been issued.
The union and school administration are to meet Sept. 19 with a federal mediator called in previously to try to craft an agreement.
Teachers' three-year contract expired June 30, and they have been working without an agreement.
Electronic voting lesson
NEW SPRINGFIELD -- The public is invited when Ray Butler of the Mahoning County Board of Elections demonstrates the county's new electronic voting system at 7:30 p.m. today at the Springfield Township building on E. South Range Road. Township Clerk Shirley M. Casity said the trustees' regular meeting will follow.
Fatal wrong-way crash
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Police said they don't know why an elderly Sunset Boulevard man was headed the wrong way on the Shenango Valley Freeway when his car collided head-on with another.
Nick Hartis, 75, was pronounced dead at UPMC Horizon, Farrell, at 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, about 90 minutes after the crash.
Police said Hartis was driving west in the eastbound lanes of the Freeway near the John XXIII Home for Senior Citizens and drove head-on into an eastbound car driven by Charles Hawkins Jr., 42, of Hadley Road, Greenville.
Hawkins was pinned in the wreckage and had to be freed by Hermitage firefighters. Police said he was taken to a local hospital for treatment, but spokeswomen for both UPMC and Sharon Regional Health System said he wasn't treated at either facility.
J. Bradley McGonigle, Mercer County coroner, said Hartis died of blunt force trauma and ruled the death an accident.
No kidnapping charge
NILES -- A kidnapping charge against a Linden Avenue woman has been dismissed and a felony charge of interfering with custody was reduced to a misdemeanor.
Rebecca L. Dunn, 35, was arrested at her home last week after she returned from Baltimore with two boys, 12 and 16, police reports say. A neighbor had told police that Dunn and the boys had gone to Maryland, without knowledge of their parents. The three did not return home until that evening.
The original kidnapping charge was dismissed Wednesday in Niles Municipal Court. The interference with custody charge was reduced to a misdemeanor and Dunn pleaded no contest. She was fined $100 and ordered to pay costs. She also was given credit for the eight days she had served in jail.
Arrest warrant issued
YOUNGSTOWN -- An arrest warrant was issued for a Poland man Wednesday after he failed to appear for a hearing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Shawn Willis, 31, of South Main Street, is charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and cocaine trafficking.
Judge Jack Durkin ordered deputy sheriffs to find Willis and keep him in jail until the next hearing is scheduled.