Season draws deer hunters into woodsHARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Game Commission expects about 550,000 hunters to take to the woods as the state’s 12-day deer rifle season opens.The game commission has previously estimated that about 750,000 hunters — or roughly 75 percent of those with licenses — hunt on the opening day of rifle season.But commission spokesman Travis Lau says that estimate is dropping because more hunters are taking deer during archery season.The game commission says archery license sales have increased every year since 2007.That doesn’t mean today’s opening of rifle season is no longer a big deal, however.Last year, 27 percent of the total deer harvest occurred on the first day of rifle season, and similar numbers are expected today.Some schools are on holiday today too.

Prisons to end food loaf punishmentHARRISBURG — State inmates are no longer being punished with the baked brown slabs known as food loaves.The Department of Corrections has stopped giving the food loaves to inmates in restricted housing who misbehave with their food. The department began replacing the food loaves late last month with bagged meals.The department’s executive deputy secretary, Shirley Moore Smeal, says officials are trying to humanize the handling of dangerous inmates in restrictive housing.New York did away with food loaves last year in a settlement over its treatment of inmates in solitary confinement.John Hargreaves of the Pennsylvania Prison Society calls the decision “a step forward,” saying inmates weren’t happy with food loaves.The loaf was a combination of beans, rice, raw potatoes, carrots, cabbage and oatmeal.

Erie Zoo eyes new lion exhibit, bearsERIE — The Erie Zoo’s gates will be closing soon for the winter, and that’s when some heavy activity begins.Not by the animals, but by the zoo staff, who have a slew of projects they want to get done after Thursday’s season closing.One major project scheduled to start this week is a $600,000 transformation of the Capybara exhibit into an outdoor lion exhibit. Right now, the lions are housed inside the main zoo building.The zoo also is working to write a 10-year master plan, which could include getting bears. Executive director Scott Mitchell says one thing that many people want to see at the zoo are bears.The zoo does the master plan about once every decade.