Pennsylvania politics with Baer and Micek

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    Guests:  John Baer and John Micek

    There are some interesting things going on in Harrisburg.  Next week’s three scheduled Senate hearings on the effort to privatize Pennsylvania’s liquor stores could tell us more about what it will take to pass a new law.  Then there’s an investigation into bribes and bid-rigging within the Turnpike Commission, a vacancy on the State Supreme Court, and a new bill to expand transportation-funding for bridges, roads, and public transportation.  Our politicians have been making headlines too.  Senator Pat Toomey raised the ire of the State’s conservatives but earned points among the electorate when he took an active role in trying to broker a gun bill in D.C.  and U.S. Representative Allyson Schwartz led the pack of possible Democratic contenders a few weeks ago when she announced her bid to take on Governor Tom Corbett in 2014.  We’ll talk about all this and more with two Pennsylvania politics observers — JOHN BAER, columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and JOHN MICEK, editorial page editor of the Harrisburg Patriot News and author of the Capitol Notebook blog at PennLive.com.

    Photo: In this April 10, 2013 file photo, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, left, and Republican Sen. Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania, right, announce that they have reached a bipartisan deal on expanding background checks to more gun buyers, at the Capitol in Washington. A bipartisan gun control deal by Toomey and Manchin inspired Senate conservatives to drop their filibuster plans, even though many Republicans who allowed the legislation to advance said they were unlikely to vote for its passage in the end. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

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