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Teachers, school reach agreement
ST. PAUL (AP) -- St. Paul Public Schools and the teachers union have reached an agreement on a new contract.
The tentative deal averts a strike that had been set for today. The St. Paul Federation of Teachers announced at 2 a.m. Monday that it had finally reached an agreement following seven consecutive days of mediation.
The 2-year contract includes all three bargaining units, including 3,200 teachers, educational assistants and professional staff. Neither side offered deals about the agreement.
The district said it couldn't afford the 2.5 percent raises the union had sought. The district also pushed for larger class sizes, while the union wanted the opposite, especially for English learners and special education students.
Plane makes emergency landing
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa (AP) -- Authorities say a small plane made an emergency landing on ice-covered Clear Lake and took off again before authorities reached the lake.
The plane landed on the northern Iowa lake Saturday afternoon and taxied closer to the shoreline.
No injuries were reported, and the plane did not appear significantly damaged. Cerro Gordo County Sheriff's deputy Jeff Bryant says the plane was gone by the time he reached the lake from Mason City. He believes the pilot made repairs.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane is a Tylorcraft fixed wing single-engine manufactured in 1943. The army green plane has a U.S. military symbol on the side.
'Boss basher' wins jobless pay
DES MOINES (AP) -- A former Iowa Workforce Development worker who'd once described her boss as rude has been awarded unemployment benefits.
The Des Moines Register reports that Trudi Snyder was fired after complaining to colleagues last August that agency director Beth Townsend was "obnoxiously rude" and later comparing the agency management to "the Gestapo" -- the World War II Nazis' secret police.
Snyder reportedly told her superiors at a subsequent conduct hearing that, as a staff trainer, she didn't realize it was her job to "put a happy face on everything."
The agency eventually challenged Snyder's application for jobless benefits because she'd been fired for job-related misconduct. In many cases, that disqualifies a person from collecting the benefits.
Last week Administrative Law Judge Amanda Atherton ruled against Workforce Development and awarded Snyder the benefits, saying: "That employees complain about work, their co-workers and their managers is a fact of life."
Information from: The Des Moines Register, http://www.desmoinesregister.com