Category: default || By jt3y

It's time for another installment of that occasional Tube City Almanac feature we like to call ... In The Mon Valley, Good Government Is On The March! (Cue: "March of Time" theme.)

According to Linda Metz of the Observer-Reporter, one teacher in the Ringgold School District (serving Donora, New Eagle, Mon City and the metropolitan Finleyville area) is suing another for slander.

The suit alleges that the defendant accused the plaintiff of "sexual misconduct" with a principal, an assistant principal, and a security guard during last year's high school prom.

Gee, that must have been some prom. Did they play Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher"?

In essence, the defendant heard rumors of alleged "hanky panky" and reported them to administrators. The administrators (according to the O-R) suspended the plaintiff from work.

Now, writes Metz, the attorney for the teacher being sued is arguing in Washington County Common Pleas Court that the district should be the real defendant for failing to investigate the rumors fully, and for failing to protect her identity.

Meanwhile, Ringgold's picnic at Kennywood (which was itself the topic of angry debate a few years ago ... yes, that's right, they couldn't agree on whether to have a picnic at Kennywood) is May 28. That should be a very interesting day. They're liable to be bopping one another with the Wack-a-Mole hammers in the arcade.

Ringgold needs to hire someone to test the coffee in the teacher's lounge. And maybe the water, too. Something strange is going on down there.

Nevertheless, today, in the Ringgold School District, Good Government is clearly ... on the march! ("March of Time" theme: Up and Out.)

...

In other business, it's another Almanac Speedtrap Alert, this one for people from the Mon-Yough area who drive to Downtown Picksberg using Irvine Street and Second Avenue through Glenwood and Hazelwood.

During morning and evening rush hours, city police have been stationing a motorcycle cop on the "racetrack" stretch between Hazelwood and the B&O railroad underpass, where the speed limit is 25 miles an hour but most traffic is moving a lot faster. Since practically everyone is speeding, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.

I've also seen them pull a clever little trick that I think they learned from the state police. They'll park a marked squad car in plain view on Irvine Street. Traffic slows down near the cop car, and then speeds back up again --- just in time for another officer, in either a squad car or on a motorcycle, parked a quarter-mile down the road, to nail the speeders.

Now, some people call that a "speed trap." Me, I call it a "motorist-derived revenue enhancement measure."

...

Finally, the Quote of the Day comes from Ryan Kish's front page account in last night's Daily News of the trial of the man accused of shooting Shelton Flowers to death at the Loews Waterfront movie theater in West Homestead.

Kish writes that a prosecution witness testified that he heard "four or five" gunshots from at least two different weapons as he left the men's room.

Assistant District Attorney Stephie Kapourales asked the witness if he was sure that he heard two different weapons.

To which, Kish reports, the witness responded: "I'm from Braddock, ma'am. I know gunshots."