The speed limit is going up on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. After studying the issue for more than 18 months, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission voted Tuesday to increase the speed limit on most of the toll road to 70 miles per hour from the current 65. The change is set to take effect in the spring. Areas that now are posted at 55 mph will remain at 55.

Service workers union local 668 has announced a strike date for county workers at the Human Services building in Beaver Falls. Joe Mann of the S.E.I.U. told Beaver County Radio newsman Pat Septak yesterday that, unless a tentative contract agreement is reached, they have planned a one-day strike for Tuesday, April 5th, 2016. This includes workers with the Office On Aging, Beaver County Behavior Health and Children and Youth Services. Last week, they set up about 20 informational pickets to call attention to their contract impasse with the county. No new talks are scheduled at this time.

A judge has sent 25-year-old Tyler Seevers of Hopewell to federal prison for more than 22 years for taking sexually explicit photos of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter and that girl’s sister on his iPod Touch. U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose imposed a term of 270 months on Seevers, and a lifetime of probation. Prosecutors said he took the photos in July 2014. His girlfriend discovered them and turned over the iPod to police.

A Coraopolis man will spend three years in federal prison on a child porn conviction and pay $9,000 in restitution to the identified victims in his porn collection. U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer imposed that term today on 30-year-old Stephen Hutchinson, and also ordered that he be on probation for 12 years after his release. The FBI said Hutchinson possessed the images and videos on his computer in March 2015.

A Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice is stepping down in a widening scandal over explicit and offensive emails he and others exchanged with friends and lawyers. Justice Michael Eakin’s decision today makes him the second member of the state’s high court to quit over the past 18 months over the email scandal. The 67-year-old Eakin, a Republican, has been on the state Supreme Court since 2002.

Some 2,200 United Steelworkers have begun returning to work one day before the seven-month anniversary of being locked out in a contract dispute with Allegheny Technologies. The union voted earlier this month to approve a four-year contract with the Pittsburgh-based speciality steelmaker, which has 12 plants in Pennsylvania and five other states. The company locked out the workers on August 15 after contract talks had stalled. About 1,500 of those locked out work at six plants in the Pittsburgh suburbs, including two plants the company says will remain idled until they can turn a profit. The National Labor Relations Board had to approve the contract because if filed unfair labor practice allegations against the company during the lockout. The workers today began returning to work gradually as production ramps up.

An elderly woman from Lawrence County was the victim of a weekend scam. State police in New Castle tell us that the victim from Mohawk School Road in North Beaver Township received a call that was a scam  from an unknown male claiming to be her grandson and needed $4,000. The caller instructed her to purchase i-tune cards, which she did. The caller called back…and the victim game him the numbers on the back of the cards.

A Pennsylvania House vote could be near this week on a proposal to legalize medical marijuana in the state. The state Senate approved a medical marijuana proposal last May only to see it stall in the House.

Hopewell Parks And Recreation held its annual volunteer appreciation dinner Saturday at the Aliquippa Elks. Beaver County Radio News Correspondent Sandy Giordano reports that Pam Fiejdasz, director, announced that a toddler playground will be built at the park this summer. Janice Gibson, board member, told the group that a fund drive to raise funds as a nonprofit to add to the park, Friends of Hopewell Park, is being formed. She said, “We need help”. The township acquired additional property and the funds will be used to build in that area.