First-Time Campers Beckoned to PA Parks

Four state parks will be holding special programs for Pennsylvania’s third annual “Get Outdoors Day” this Saturday.

Department of Conservation and Natural Resources spokesman Terry Brady says Moraine State Park in Butler County is one of four state parks that will have birds-of-prey exhibits, hiking and biking displays, and tips for first-time campers.

Bald Eagle in Centre County, Parker Dam in Clearfield County, and Pine Grove Furnace in Cumberland County are the other three parks. Brady says the idea is to get new people interested in spending time outdoors.

“It’s a welcome mat, if you will, to be rolled out by the different state parks,” says Brady.

Governor Tom Corbett also proclaimed June as “Great Outdoors Month” in Pennsylvania. In the proclamation, Corbett says he hopes to “reverse the troubling nationwide trends of children spending half as much time outside as they did twenty years ago.”

Brady says Moraine features a scenic lake and is one of the “jewels” of the state parks system. He says it’s been part of “Get Outdoors” since the program’s 2009 founding. Brady says the programs can get crowded, so people should register in advance at the DCNR website.

Counties Differ on "Passive Electioneering"

Allegheny County voters have been free to wear campaign t-shirts, buttons and stickers at the polls. But voters in Butler County have not. The Department of State recently issued a memo that says so-called "passive electioneering" is okay as long as voters don't do anything else to try to influence other people's votes. But ultimately, it's up to individual counties to decide how to interpret the state's ban on electioneering.

Regis Young, that county's Director of Elections, says he thinks wearing campaign paraphernalia at the polls is electioneering. Elections judges there have often given voters a jacket to put over campaign t-shirts or asked them to remove buttons. He says it hasn't been a big problem in the past.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato says it's not okay for poll workers to wear partisan attire, but he doesn't think what voters wear is a big issue. Like Young, he says it hasn't been a big source of conflict. But two poll workers in Allegheny County are suing over the State Department memo, arguing it's illegal.