Alva Review-Courier -

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia's striking teachers cheered, sang and wept joyfully Tuesday as lawmakers acted to end a nine-day classroom walkout, ceding them 5 percent pay hikes that are also being extended to all state workers.

A huge crowd of teachers packing the Capitol jumped up and down, chanted "We love our kids!" and sang John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads." The settlement came on the ninth day of a crippling strike that had idled hundreds of thousands of students, forced parents to scramble for child care and cast a spotlight on government dysfunction in one of the poo...