PENNSYLVANIA - The nation's sixth-largest school district braced for a strike as early as Friday after Philadelphia teachers authorized what would be their first walkout in 19 years.
Union President Ted Kirsch did not immediately call a strike, and classes were still scheduled to begin tomorrow for the district's 205,000 students and 256 schools.
However, the unanimous vote yesterday by the rank-and-file of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers means its 21,000 members could walk off the job once the union gives 48 hours' notice as required under state law.
Talks continued yesterday.
The union has rejected district proposals to extend the school day and school year, increase co-payments for health insurance, base pay on performance rather than experience and level of education, and give principals more say in teacher job assignments.
The union, which says its teachers earned between $28,600 and $57,200 in 1997-98, wants smaller classes, stronger early childhood education, a new reading program and tighter school security.
NASA prepares Atlantis
to revisit space station
FLORIDA - NASA began the countdown at Cape Canaveral yesterday for the launch of space shuttle Atlantis, which will be heading back to the international space station with a new crew and fresh load of supplies.
Liftoff is set for Friday.
``It's been just four months since the last time we launched Atlantis, and we're anxious to get back at it again,'' said NASA test director Jeff Spaulding.
This time, astronauts and cosmonauts will visit a space station that is nearly double in size.
The seven shuttle crew members will be the first to enter the newly attached Russian control module, Zvezda, in orbit.
They will unload supplies from Atlantis and a Russian cargo ship that's already docked to the station, and hook up equipment to be used by the first permanent crew, due to arrive in November.
ELSEWHERE
FLORIDA - The leader of a Jamaican drug gang blamed for 1,400 killings at the height of the 1980s cocaine wars was sentenced Monday to 28 years in prison under a plea bargain. Vivian Blake, 45, pleaded guilty earlier this year to racketeering, conspiracy and cocaine possession with intent to distribute. Blake admitted having a leadership role in the Shower Posse, a brutal Jamaican-dominated gang, while he was living in the Fort Lauderdale area.
NEW MEXICO - The only survivor of a pipeline explosion that killed 11 members of her extended family died yesterday. Amanda Smith, 25, lost her husband and two children in the fiery blast that engulfed the family's campsite near Carlsbad on Aug. 19. She died at a Lubbock, Texas, hospital. A family member filed a federal lawsuit Aug. 30 in Albuquerque, alleging El Paso Natural Gas failed to comply with state and federal rules and did not properly inspect and maintain the line.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., broke her left shinbone while vacationing in Colorado last weekend and will need surgery in the coming days, her office said yesterday. In a statement, her office said Feinstein, 67, slipped on some stairs during the Labor Day holiday weekend and sustained a ``compound fracture of her left tibia.'' No date had yet been set for Feinstein's surgery.
