John Baer: Harrisburg: Getting darker before dawn?

THE LARGEST full-time legislature in America is set to stampede out of Harrisburg for its annual summer break - leaving, as usual, a bunch of good ideas trampled underfoot.

It's something your lawmakers do because they can; so few who care are watching and expectations for anything more are so consistently low.

But that could change.

Just as the 2005 pay grab forced some ousters, change and improvements, a breaking investigation could mean better days ahead.

State Attorney General Tom Corbett reportedly is ready as soon as next week to announce the first in an expected series of criminal charges against former (and possibly current) lawmakers and staff.

There is a lot of chatter that this probe into the use of $3.6 million in taxpayer-funded bonuses (some over $20,000) paid to some legislative employees for working on political campaigns goes beyond the bonus issue to cover-ups and obstruction of ...