The Associated Press reports Gov. Corbett’s top aide is leaving his job.  The Philadelphia Inquirer writes that supporters fed up with the pummeling the administration is getting from critics are prodding the administration to make staff changes.  The state’s beer wholesalers have come out against a proposal to sell off the commonwealth’s wine and spirit stores.  And Corbett announces he'd like to pass prison reforms by the end of June.

Critics of a plan by the state’s Department of Corrections to outsource the work of its nurses to private companies are breathing a sigh of relief. 

Pennsylvania’s state prisons already contract with private companies for certain medical, psychiatric, and pharmaceutical services.  But SEIU Health Care Pennsylvania, the state’s biggest health care workers union, is rejoicing over news that nurses won’t be added to that list.

Rep. Mike Fleck (R-Huntington County), an outspoken opponent of such a move, said the training prison nurses receive makes them better equipped than private contractors to deal with prison inmates. He remembers a story of one nurse who had to intercept a back brace sent by a doctor to an inmate patient.

“She literally could take four steel rods out of it and really dismantle the thing and you had some superior weaponry there,” he said.  “So it’s things like that that just the normal person wouldn’t think about.”

Gov. Corbett announced last summer he would look into privatizing prison health care as a way to cut costs, and similar privatization plans have been floated by past administrations.

But Fleck, whose district includes two state prisons, said he’s not convinced privatizing nursing care in prisons isn’t cheaper than having nurses paid and trained by the state.

“The turnover rate is incredible,” said Fleck, referring to privately-employed nurses working in prisons.  “The money leaves the area because most of the private, contracting firms are not domiciled in Pennsylvania.”

Last fall, Fleck sponsored a bill to prevent the privatization of nursing staff in state prisons.  Republican Senator Dave Argall of Schuylkill County sponsored a Senate bill to do the same. 

“My predecessor, Larry Sather, introduced pretty much the exact same bill a number of years ago,” said Fleck. “10, 15 years ago Mike Veon had introduced the same bill, and typically the administration has backed away from it.”  Fleck said he’d still like to pass a bill to prevent such privatization efforts completely.

Two legislative proposals would expand the selection of wines that can be shipped directly to Pennsylvanians’ doorsteps, and both are awaiting action by state House lawmakers.  Out-of-state wineries would be able to ship bottles directly to Pennsylvania customers under the plans.  The measures are popular, even with some in-state wineries that already have the ability to ship direct.

“I would be in favor of that because at this point, it does not affect us one way or the other as far as what it would or would not allow us to do,” said Carl Helrich, who owns Allegro Winery in York County.   He said he’s not too worried about facing competition from out-of-state vintners shipping to his own Pennsylvania customers.  “We’re a small winery making small hand crafted artisan style wines versus the wineries that are trying to you know sell three million gallons of a certain wine,” he said.

Under both legislative proposals, wineries would still have to pay all the same taxes the state levies on wines and spirits.  Helrich said whether or not out-of-state wineries would be able to keep their prices low with those added taxes depends on the volume they’re moving.  “At a certain point, you have to pass a lot of that onto the customer,” said Helrich, “and they’re really the ones who are going to drag their feet as to whether or not they want to, you know, eat all those charges or not.”

That’s where the House proposal has an edge, at least for winery owners – it doesn’t limit how much wine can be shipped direct.  The Senate plan does.  But neither proposal may move before the end of the session.  The House Republican leader has said he’s set on a wholesale privatization of the state’s liquor system, not a bit-by-bit approach.  Rep. Curtis Sonney (R-Erie), sponsor of the House plan, said the Legislature shouldn’t desert his bill yet. 

“If privatization fails, then we can finally move forward with at least getting direct shipment of wine,” Sonney said.  “And if privatization is successful than, obviously, direct shipment’s going to be a part of that anyway.”

Springboarding off of the president’s affirmation of gay marriage, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports the state Lege isn’t likely to do any such evolving.  StateImpact PA writes the Public Utility Commission has a nearly-final plan for collecting and distributing natural gas drilling impact fee money.  The PA Independent takes a look at a House bill, similar to one passed in the Senate weeks ago, that would relax direct shipping regulations for domestic wineries.

A group of state House Republicans who have gone apostate, mucking up GOP leadership’s plans.  Also from the Post-Gazette, a look at the bitter fight between two Democratic candidates for the state’s 12th Congressional District. The commission announced by Gov. Corbett to re-think higher education meets today for the second time.

Pennsylvania isn’t alone in its search for ways to ramp up its lottery revenues.  The Tribune-Review reports on a House Democrat’s bill to sweeten the jury duty deal by offering a tax credit to self-employed Pennsylvanians.  And the online public auction of Transportation Security Administration-confiscated stuff at airports closes this morning.

Something like an invitation has gone out from the state.  The Corbett administration is asking private companies to pitch themselves as the best possible managers of lotto operations.  “We will not sell the lottery,” said Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser, whose agency oversees the Pennsylvania Lottery.  “We’re simply considering private management to make it more efficient and more manageable.”

To catch you up on the weekend that was: Rick Santorum aimed fire at Franklin & Marshall pollster Terry Madonna, calling him a “Democratic hack” when asked about Madonna’s latest poll showing Santorum’s lead over Romney shrinking from nearly 30 points to two.  The week ahead: state House members debate eating their own.  A bill to reduce the number of representatives from 203 to 153 is slated for debate.  And the Associated Press reports Gov. Corbett is looking into privatizing the Pennsylvania state lottery.

The state Senate has approved a bill to let Pennsylvanians get wine shipped to their doorstep.  But when it comes to modernizing the state’s liquor system, House lawmakers don’t want just a taste – they want the whole case.  "It’s time to modernize,” said House GOP spokesman, Steve Miskin.  “You can’t modernize in piecemeal fashion.” 

President Obama is urging governors to cool it on the college cuts.  The Philadelphia Inquirer is on app-watch.  Plus, federal lawmakers have made it illegal for welfare recipients to spend or access their benefits using ATMs in casinos, liquor stores, and strip clubs.