Causing us to snarf up our very first cup of coffee of the day, our pals at the PAIndependent report this morning that top officials at the debt-saddled Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission received personal vehicles valued at $28k each and that the agency footed the bill for maintenance and upkeep.

In all, the agency spent $450,000 in vehicle expenses in less than five years from January 2007 through August 2011, the period covered in the audit, the Independent writes, citing a report by Auditor General Jack Wagner's office that was made public this week.

Shocking exactly no one, auditors concluded that they "found no convincing reason to allow commissioners to use commission-purchased vehicles for personal use,” even if they were American-made sedans, SUVs and station wagons.

A Turnpike spokesman, Carl DeFebo, did not comment on the sweet wheels. But, c'mon, what's he gonna say?

The rest of the day's news starts, as always, after the jump.

Have you long suspected the guy next door to be an al-Qaeda sleeper agent? Do you stay up nights worrying about the machinations of Moose and Squirrel? Have you DVR'ed one too many epsiodes of "Homeland" And do you have some extra space on your iPhone?

If you answered "Yes" to any of the above questions, well, then the Pennsylvania State Police has the app for you.

From an actual press release we just received:

"A new smartphone application has been developed to help the Pennsylvania State Police receive reports regarding suspicious activity that may be linked to terrorism.

"The "See Something, Send Something" app allows suspicious activity to be captured as a photo or written note and sent to the Pennsylvania Criminal Intelligence Center (PaCIC).

“This App provides concerned citizens with an effective communications and reporting tool,” State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan said. “The See Something, Send Something mobile app, developed by My Mobile Witness, sends terrorism-related tips directly to PaCIC where tips are evaluated by analysts and assigned for investigation as warranted,”  Noonan said.

The application, which is available at no cost for iPhone and Android phone users, also includes information on what to look for and when to report suspicious activity, along with how to receive important alerts.

“No one knows what goes on in your neighborhood better than you,” Noonan said.  “You may see or hear things that seem out of the ordinary and raise your suspicions -- if you see something suspicious taking place, report it.”

“One tip from an alert citizen can prove valuable and protect Pennsylvania from a potential terrorist act,” Noonan said.

But in the age of paranoia, the news release includes an important (if thunderously obvious) caveat. But it bears repeating nonetheless if the agency intends to turn the residents of, say, Meadville, into Junior G-Men.

"Factors such as race, ethnicity, national origin, or religious affiliation alone are not suspicious activity.  For that reason, the public should report only suspicious behavior and situations (e.g., an unattended backpack or briefcase in a public place) rather than beliefs, thoughts, ideas, expressions, associations, or speech unrelated to terrorism or other criminal activity. Only reports that document behavior reasonably indicative of criminal activity related to terrorism will be shared with local, state and federal partners.

We're off to download it now. It was either this or the new version of Diner Dash where an elite team of Navy SEALs helps you track down and eradicate particularly pesky customers.

When they return to work later this month, Pennsylvania lawmakers will begin the 2013 legisaltive session with a projected $478 million budget surplus, but demands, including mounting pension costs and the potential expansion of the state's Medicaid rolls, loom.

But they're not alone. Legislatures in other states will similarly begin their 2013 sessions with cash balances, but with plenty of demands on where that money should be spent.

In Indiana, for instance, Gov.-Elect Mike Pence will take office with $500 million budget surplus and $2 billion in cash reserves. He's pledged to give some of that money back by cutting Hoosier State's personal income tax, Stateline.org reported.

Elsewhere, Iowa expects to finish its fiscal year $800 million to the good, while Florida boasts a $400 million surplus. In Michigan, lawmakers have an extra $1 billion in their general fund, Stateline reported.

“States aren’t talking about new extravagant array of new programs,” Sujit M. CanagaRetna, a senior fiscal analyst at the Council of State Governments told Stateline. “State Medicaid bills are continuing to surge, so whatever little surplus states might have generated will likely go back into that”

As of last month, Pennsylvania tax collections were running $171.5 million ahead of estimate, according to state Department of Revenue data. Collections for December, totaled $2.4 billion, which was $112.4 million, or 4.8 percent more, than anticipated.

Thus, we're going to dispense with the usual pleasantries and just get on with things. As we try to chug down our Double Caffeine with a side of Caffeine and extra Espresso Vente Double Death Coffee, while don't you check out this indispensable countdown of the Top Five Stories making news on this 10th day of January?

1. Reminding us that it's important to have friends in the right places -- especially if they wear black robes and wield the power to interpret the law -- suspended state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin has asked her colleagues on the state's highest court to toss the corruption charges lodged against her, the Post-Gazette reports this morning. Orie Melvin is set to go to trial on Jan. 23 on charges that she illegally used public resources for political purposes, the PG reports.

2. Did we say $200 million? We meant $500 million. But, hey, what's a couple of zeroes between friends? An article in the journal Environmental Practice (and trust us, you do read it for the articles) claims that PA counties and municipalities may have missed out on as much $303 million in natural gas impact fee payments last year because state regulators undercounted the number of wells affected by the law, the Times-Tribune of Scranton reports.

With Gov. Tom Corbett set to unveil his own transportation funding proposal sometime in the coming days, Democrats in the state House have reintroduced legislation that would implement the recommendations of the administration's own funding advisory council.

"As we begin a new, two-year legislative session, we remain hopeful that Governor Corbett finally will show some leadership on this issue that is of paramount importance to Pennsylvania residents, motorists, workers and businesses," House Minority Leader Frank Dermody said in a statement.

That panel, chaired by PennDOT Secretary Barry Schoch released a report in August 2011 calling for inflationary increases in motor vehicle license and registration fees and lifting the cap on the state's wholesale gasoline tax (an increase that would almost certainly be passed along at the pump).

Democrats and Republicans in the state Senate have formulated or are formulating their own funding proposals. Corbett said late last year that he wanted to meet with lawmakers to gauge their support for various funding schemes. He's yet to discuss specifics.

Corbett has been lukewarm on proposals that would pass costs along to motorists, though he has acknowledged that the state will have to come up with revenue to pay for the $2.5 billion in needed road and bridge repairs.

Business leaders have positioned the debate over transportationf funding as an economic issue, arguing that the state's competitive hinges on a well-maintained highway and bridge network.

Democrats made a similar argument Wednesday, pointing out that new spending on infrastructure would, among other things geneate:

• 35,000 to 145,000 full-time equivalent jobs will be created and sustained. This is a 50 percent increase over the base transportation improvement program.
• $125 million to $150 million in additional sales tax will be generated (in 2011 dollars), an increase of 65 percent over the base transportation improvement program.
• $235 million to $260 million in additional personal income tax will be generated, an 80 percent increase over the base transportation improvement program.

WIth a Thursday deadline looming for the Corbett administration to decide whether to accept the Camelot Group's bid to manage the $3.5 billion Pennsylvania Lottery, state Treasurer Rob McCord's office has released a letter it received from a senior administration official defending the plan.

The Dec. 28 missive to McCord, a Democrat, from state Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser, a Republican, goes to great lengths to explain why the GOP-led administration believes it has the right to hand the day-to-day management of the Lottery to Camelot. The U.K-based company has managed the National Lottery in Great Britain since 1994.

Late last year, McCord, a likely candidate for governor in 2014, said he'd withhold payments to Camelot if he believed the company's contract with the state was illegal. 

Camelot submitted the loan bid to manage the Lottery and the state would be required, by law, to retain ownership of the agency, which funds programs for senior citizens across the state.

The administration had until Dec. 31 to decide whether to accept the bid, but successfully sought an extension until Jan. 10 so that the union representing Lottery employees could submit a counterproposal.That happened on Tuesday. Another extension is likely, given that the Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to hold a Jan. 14 hearing on the bid proposal.

You can read the full text of Meuser's letter below, but here's his explanation of why the administration believes it doesn't need to seek legislative authorization to privatize the Lottery's management:

"Pennsylvania law and regulations grant the Department of Revenue broad authority over operating, controlling and administering the Lottery," Meuser writes. "The administration believes that exploring and executing a [private management agreement] for the Lottery ... are well within that authority."

PA Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser defends proposed privatization of PA Lottery. by

McCord's letter starts after the jump.

Letter from state PA state Treasurer Rob McCord on PA Lottery Privatization by

With the state's prison population on the wane, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections says it plans to close two prisons in western Pennsylvania and replace them with a new one in Centre County.

"This is a responsible, conservative plan to replace capacity at a time when our population is declining," Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said.

The agency says it will close state prisons at Cresson in Cambria County and Greensburg in Westmoreland County and open a new prison in Benner Township in Centre County. The move is expected to save about $23 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1, Wetzel said.

The 800 employees who will be affected by the closings will be moved to new jobs within the Corrections Department, Wetzel said.

Complete a year ago at a cost of about $200 million, the new prison will house about 2,300 inmates. Inmates from the Cresson Prison, which was largely a mental health facility, will receive those services at Benner and neighboring Rockview State Prison.

In a conference call with reporters yesterday, officials with District 13 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees says it can generate $799 million more than the $34 billion in profits that Camelot says it can generate over 20 years, our friends at Capitolwire report.

Both Camelot’s bid and the union’s counter-offer would depend on an expansion of Lottery gaming, including Keno and online games, to meet their respective projections, Capitolwire reported.

A Camelot spokesman told Capitolwire that the company had "put forth a bid that would guarantee the economic future for senior programs, while transferring risk from taxpayers to the private sector. It is truly a win-win and is backed by $200 million of guaranteed money. The proposal put forward today is based on targets. Not a single dollar is guaranteed."

While the union is saying it can generate more money it's not at all clear that it can come through on our hope that an English manager will institute 4 p.m.tea-times with scones and clotted cream, along with Saturday morning viewings of Premier League football. But a blogger can dream, after all.

The Corbett administration is supposed to make a decision on the bid by Thursday, but the Senate Finance Committee has slated a hearing on the proposal for Jan. 14.

In an interview with the Morning Call, state Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser said it was likely the administration would seek an additional extension on the bid deadline to accommodate the hearing.

The rest of today's news starts after the jump.

It's no secret that Gov. Tom Corbett has always had problems with Pennsylvania's conservative movement.

From his notorious "living document" comments about the state Constitution during a 2010 primary debate to right-wing gripes that he wasn't going far enough on school choice, the Republican governor has sometimes had to struggle to keep his base.

So the administration may be a tad annoyed this afternoon by a research memo put out by conservative activists Ryan Shafik noting that Corbett's approval numbers in recent polls are worse than former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's were at the same point in 2005. More astute readers will recall what happened to Santorum when he faced re-election.

In an e-mail to reporters, Shafik, who runs Rockwood Strategies in Harrisburg, argues that Corbett needs to improve his standing among a number of important constituencies if he wants to win re-election in 2014.

Citing 2005 and 2012 polls by Quinnipiac University and a poll released Monday by Democrat-friendly Public Policy Polling, Shafik concludes that:

• Corbett has a 57 percent to 30 percent disapproval rating among female voters, lower than even Santorum's at the same time. And that Corbett's overall re-elect is parked at 41 percent, compared to Santorum's 50 percent.
• In the Public Policy poll, Corbett barely breaks 40 percent against the only delcared Democratic candidate for governor: former DEP Secretary John Hanger and has narrow leads over other hypothetical Democratic opponents, including state Treasurer Rob McCord and Attorney General-Elect Kathleen Kane. Neither official has declared for the office and vast swaths of voters still remain unfamiliar with them.
• Republican dissatisfaction with Corbett is also steady at 30 percent, where it's "very rare for Republilcan disapproval to [crack] 10 percent," Shafik writes.

The administration turned heads last spring when it shook up its internal staff, as Legislative Secretary Annmarie Kaiser and then chief-of-staff Bill Ward moved on to other posts. Some of Corbett's top advisers and fund-raisers also met with the governor to discuss his sagging approval ratings.

The New York Times reports that outgoing New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has courted several high-profile successors, including former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell:

"Mr. Bloomberg has mused about a Mayor Charles E. Schumer with the Democratic senator from New York, and teased Mortimer B. Zuckerman, a fellow billionaire media mogul, about a possible bid. The mayor’s advisers raised the idea of a run with Edward G. Rendell, the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and mayor of Philadelphia, and with Edward Skyler, Mr. Bloomberg’s former top deputy in City Hall, according to several people.

The mayor’s most formal overture was delivered to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, perhaps Mr. Bloomberg’s most quixotic choice for the job. The mayor personally encouraged her to enter the race about a year ago, three people who were told about the discussions have told The New York Times.

The conversations suggest that Mr. Bloomberg and his aides long for somebody who can match his own blend of celebrity, success and self-assurance.

“The mayor believes he is special,” Mr. Rendell said in an interview in his Philadelphia office. “He wanted somebody at a very high level to come in to do a job he has often said to me — and he’s not the only person who says it — is the second most difficult job in the country.”

In an interview with New York magazine, Rendell, who served two terms from 2002 to 2010, and has high-profile gigs for MSNBC and the investment bank consulting on the possible privatization of the PA Lottery, dismissed the idea:

"The major stumbling block to Rendell's candidacy is the fact that he lives in Pennsylvania and is only familiar with Manhattan, where he grew up. “I’m not sure how many times I’ve stepped foot in Brooklyn,” he said. “I have no understanding of Queens and no understanding of the Bronx.”

Brennan, 48, reported on time to begin serving his term at the Lehigh County Jail, our Mothership colleague Kevin Amerman reports this morning.

Brennan seemed stunned last week when Judge Maria L. Dantos rejected his request for house arrest on his mandatory 90-day sentence for driving drunk as a second offense and ordered Brennan to serve 90 days to 23 months in jail.

Brennan asked Dantos to reconsider, saying incarceration could ruin his new government job as a research analyst in the Legislative Policy and Research Office of the House Democratic Caucus. Brennan asked for house arrest in Dauphin County — a scenario prosecutor Stephen Van Natten wasn't opposed to.

Brennan is on leave from his $72,000-per-year job without pay or benefits, House Democratic spokesman Bill Patton said. Patton said Brennan's employment status will be reviewed when he's released from jail.

The rest of today's news starts after the jump.

A bare majority of Pennsylvanians (52 percent) support Corbett's controversial lawsuit, the poll by Democrat-friendly Public Policy Polling concludes. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (62 percent) think the sanctions imposed in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child-sex scandal are too severe.

Despite that support, little more than a quarter of voters (27 percent) support Corbett's handling of the Penn State affair, compared to 50 percent who disapprove, pollsters found.

That's contributed to an overall approval rating of 38 percent, compared to 52 percent who disapprove, PPP pollsters found. That net -14 percent rating ties him for fir the 4th most unpopular governor that PPP has polled on.

Corbett had narrow leads against eight, potential Democratic challengers for governor 2014, including incoming Attorney General Kathleen Kane and newly re-elected state Treasurer Rob McCord.

The poll of 675 voters was conducted from Jan. 4 to Jan. 6, with a margin of error of plus of minus 3.8 percentage points.

Read the full polling memo after the gap.

So we'll ease into things this morning with a Scranton Times-Tribune profile of state Sen. John Blake, D-Lackawanna.

Freshly named the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, the onetime head of the state Department of Community and Economic Development will play a key role in helping the state's fiscally distressed small cities, the newspaper reports.

Chief among the issues facing small cities -- including Allentown -- are funding problems in municipal pension systems. Allentown, for instance, is looking at leasing out its water and sewer systems to raise an estimated $150 million to $200 (*corrected, 10:13 a.m.) million for its pension system. Our Mothership colleague Emily Opilo has been on that story like white on rice.

Blake tells the Times-Tribune that the pension reform he believes "is more worthy of the attention of the governor and General Assembly is the inefficiency of having over 3,000 municipal pension systems statewide," he said. "The small scale of many of these multiple pension systems cannot secure the level of contributions or the investment returns that are availed members in larger pension systems."

Pretty sound stuff. Also, we just loved his "Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience" Especially that "Tyger, Tyger" poem. That one just rocked.

What? Hmmm ... Not the same guy? Ohhhh ... that's William Blake? Give us a break, we needed a flimsy premise to get into today's entry. And a protracted name joke about a long-dead 19th century Romantic English poet seemed just the ticket ...

The rest of today's news, which might or might not include at least one Allen Ginsberg joke, starts after the jump.

Gov. Tom Corbett was on CNN yesterday talking about his decision to sue the NCAA over the fines it levied on Penn State. Here's the video:

Our Mothership Colleague Kevin Amerman reports:

"Former state Rep. Joseph Brennan looked stunned Thursday afternoon when a Lehigh County judge rejected his plea for house arrest and instead ordered Brennan to serve jail time for driving drunk after punching and choking his wife this summer.

Brennan pleaded guilty to simple assault and DUI as a second offense. Lehigh County Chief of Prosecutions Stephen Van Natten told Judge Maria L. Dantos the agreement called for probation on the simple assault charge. Van Natten said there is a mandatory 90-day sentence for the DUI charge and said he was not opposed to Brennan serving house arrest in Dauphin County, where Brennan recently got a new job.

Dantos rolled her eyes at the request.

"I'm not doing house arrest," Dantos said.

Read the full story here.

How are we doing this, you ask? Why, the same way we do it every year: By cowering in a corner, weeping, and pretending that our vacation isn't really almost over. But not to worry, we've collected ourselves just enough to put together this caffeine- and denial-fueled countdown of the Top Five Stories making news on this 3rd day of January. It starts now:

1. U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey's, R-Pa., vote to back the Senate deal averting the Fiscal Cliff of Insanity has angered his conservative allies, our Washington colleague Colby Itkowitz reports this morning. And faster than you could say Jim DeMint, pundits are already speculating about the Allentown legislator's future in Congress.

2. As we noted yesterday, Gov. Tom Corbett has officially filed a federal antitrust lawsuit challenging the $60 million in fines the NCAA levied against Penn State University as a result of the Sandusky child sex scandal.
The Republican, who's taken flak for his handling of the probe while state attorney general, denied during a news conference in State College yesterday that politics had anything to do with his decision to file the suit.
"This was a criminal matter, not a violation of NCAA rules," Corbett said, alalalalalaing his way past his critics.

Late last night, the U.S. House approved a bill that rescinded tax hikes for the majority of Americans, but still managed to put off, for two months anyway, $109 billion in domestic and military spending cuts.

Meanwhile, for the first time in 22 years, newly elected members of the state House and Senate took the oath of office in a rare New Year's Day swearing-in session, the Associated Press reports.

In all, 33 freshmen (22 Democrats and 11 Republicans) took their seats. The General Assembly formally returns to voting session later this month.

They included Rep. Hal English, R-Allegheny, who told the AP with what we presume to have been a straight face that "Once we get rid of the glitz and the glamour here, we'll get down to work."

The rest of the day's news starts after the jump.

If you're a regular reader of this space, then you're well aware of our ongoing interest in World War I. Via Slate, here's a New Year's greeting from a World War I soldier.

We're talking, of course, about the looming fiscal cliff, that dreaded mix of automatic tax hikes, spending cuts and smug "I Told You So" speeches from U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey that will be triggered by Washington's failure to settle on a deficit-cutting plan.

Toomey also issued a statement last night on the looming cliff, asserting that "I still hope we can avert the worst consequences of the fiscal cliff and protect as many Americans as possible from a massive tax increase. Unfortunately, the most recent proposal from the Democrats calls for new tax increases to pay for more government spending. We need less spending, not more, in Washington.”

So maybe the end of the world is preferable?

Anyway, as is so often the case here at Capitol Ideas World HQ, we've scoured the Interwebs to find the best summaries of this story and what it will mean to you, the politics addict who should probably be preparing for a drunken bacchanal this evening instead of reading about obscure points of domestic economic policy.

Here it is:

In case you're looking for actual reporting, we'd refer you to this outstanding summary from the fine folks at Reuters who inform us that, despite the looming apocalypse, Congress and the Obama White House haven't actually been able to agree on anything.

The rest of the day's news, which is largely free of additional gratuitous references to "The Princess Bride," starts after the jump.

1. The Sandusky Scandal/The Election of Kathleen Kane as Attorney General.
It would be hard to find two stories that did not have more far-reaching impacts this year.

In June, Sandusky,68, the formerly beloved assistant Penn State football coach, was convicted on 45 of 48 counts of child sexual abuse. In October, he was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in state prison for his crimes.

As 2012 opened, Pennsylvanians bade farewell to the late head football coach Joe Paterno, who lost his job as a result of the scandal.

Months later, former FBI Director Louis J. Freeh offered a damning indictment of the university's handling of the scandal, releasing a report that accused senior administrators of a conspiracy of silence that enabled Sandusky to commit his crimes.

At the same time, the NCAA hit Penn State with $60 million in fines and hobbled its football program with scholarship restrictions. The NCAA also stripped the university of its past championships.

Gov. Tom Corbett spent the year defending his handling of the investigation, bristling at continuing questions on why, as state attorney general, he enlisted a grand jury to investigate the Sandusky affair and why it took three years to get the shamed coach off the streets.

And that's where Kane comes into the story.