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Serving Fayette County, Mon Valley Communities & Greene County Sunday, May 6, 2018
84,000 readers each week
vol. 37 no. 236
$2.50
Adah man pleads guilty to charges from fatal police chase By Mark Hofmann
mhofmann@heraldstandard.com
Right to strike Teacher strikes abound in state By Mike Tony
W
mtony@heraldstandard.com
Mark Soroka
Top: Ringgold teachers began walking the picket line in front of Ringgold High School in October. Above: Maria Degnan (standing) answered questions during a town hall meeting held by the Ringgold Education Association in November to give an update on the then-ongoing teacher strike and contract negotiations.
hen Ringgold School District teachers began picketing in front of Ringgold High School in October, they exercised an option that teachers across Pennsylvania have turned to with a higher frequency than anywhere else in the country, according to a study by a Pennsylvania think tank. A recent study by the Commonwealth Foundation, a Harrisburg-based free-market think tank, found that Pennsylvania has had 131 teacher strikes since 1999, leading the nation and affecting 300,000 students. The Commonwealth Foundation noted a 2012 Mother Jones study that found that nearly 90 percent of teacher strikes in the previous four decades had happened in Pennsylvania. Commonwealth Foundation Director of
Strikes, Page A4
SUV plows through Uniontown home By Alyssa Choiniere
achoiniere@heraldstandard.com
A family of five, with two young children, escaped unscathed when an SUV plowed through their Uniontown home early Friday. Driver Richard
Index Today High: 61 Low: 49 See C6.
“Rocky” Crossland, 56, of Uniontown reportedly went airborne on a steep embankment at the intersection of Lincoln and Prospect streets at about 12:30 a.m. He was injured and extricated
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Alyssa Choiniere | Herald-Standard
This house, at 25 Prospect St. in Uniontown, was significantly damaged after a driver went airborne over an embankment at Crash, Page A4 about 12:30 a.m. Friday.
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heraldstandard.com
An Adah man who led police on a chase in 2015 that led to the death of a Fayette County woman has pleaded guilty to the majority of the charges. On Friday, Jonathan Switch, 26, pleaded guilty to charges of homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault, fleeing or attempting to elude police, accident involving death, recklessly endangering another person, resisting arrest and various traffic violations. Fayette County Switch Assistant District Attorney William Martin said, in exchange for the general guilty plea, the commonwealth dropped charges of criminal homicide as well as one of the two fleeing charges. Switch, who was scheduled for trial on Monday, fled a traffic stop on Route 119 and turned onto Bute Road on Oct. 23, 2015. On Bute Road, he swerved around a car waiting to turn left. The vehicle of a trooper involved in the chase hit the car, killing Bendetta Lynn Miller, 66, the driver.
Chase, Page A4
Charleroi man killed Saturday in motorcycle crash in Bentleyville A Charleroi man was killed early Saturday after he crashed the motorcycle he was operating in Bentleyville. Washington County Coroner Timothy Warco said Charles John Chester, 39, died when he lost control of his motorcycle near Mile Marker 32 in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 in Bentleyville around 12:20 a.m. Saturday. Warco said Chester struck the jersey barrier and was thrown into the path of and struck by a tractor trailer truck. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:25 a.m. State police were assisted by Bentleyville and Fallowfield Township volunteer fire departments as well as Mon Valley EMS. State police are investigating.
Obituaries Andabaker, Joan, Bridgeville Chilzer, Pamela, Monessen Chojnicki, Anthony Jr., Carmichaels Dillow, Barbara, Nemacolin Dirda, Betty Doris, Uniontown Fabian, Ella Franklin Jordan, Uniontown
Grimes, Andrew, Vestabuurg Keating, James “Pap”, Perryopolis Leapline, Robert Eugene, Dunbar Lesko, Adena Flecher, Fredericktown Petroff, Russell, Brownsville Shutok, Theodore, Uniontown