Pa. wins decision in tobacco caseHARRISBURG — Pennsylvania won another round Friday in its long-running legal fight over $126 million that the major tobacco companies are trying to recover under the national tobacco settlement.A Commonwealth Court panel unanimously upheld a Philadelphia judge’s ruling that overturned an arbitration panel’s 2013 decision against the state.The 1998 tobacco settlement requires the companies to make annual payments to the states in exchange for immunity from state lawsuits. Pennsylvania has earmarked its share of the money to help finance health care and research. This year’s payment is expected to total about $349 million.

Ousted manager locks self in officeCOLYWN — A southeastern Pennsylvania borough manager locked herself inside municipal offices after a majority of the town council voted to fire her.Paula Brown said she barricaded herself inside Colwyn borough offices overnight Friday to protect the town’s records. She remained in the building all day Friday and said she will stop running the borough only if a judge orders it. Four members of the seven-member council voted to remove Brown and council President Paul Meuser on Thursday night. Brown said she believes her firing was illegal.

Freeh seeks judge outside State CollegeBELLEFONTE — Former FBI director Louis Freeh wants a judge from outside the State College area to handle the defamation case against him and his law firm filed by former Penn State president Graham Spanier.Freeh’s lawyers filed a motion Friday seeking an out-of-county judge in the litigation that accuses Freeh of scapegoating Spanier in a 2012 report commissioned by the university into its handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.