By Rep. Paul Anderson
It could prove to be difficult giving up-to-date information in this column during the last week of the legislative session. Much remains to be done, and events could change quickly. The overall conference committee negotiating the supplemental budget was scheduled to meet Sunday evening (May 15), and the governor said he was going to release a transportation proposal on Monday (May 16). Once agreement is reached on the amount to be spent on roads and bridges, the other items still outstanding will probably fall into place quickly. Stay tuned!
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The bill I’m carrying in the House, known as Laura’s Law, passed on a 124-0 vote last week. It still needs to be conferenced with its Senate companion before going to the governor. It was gratifying to see the unanimous vote in the House on legislation that comes as a response to the tragic incident that occurred in Douglas County last fall. Eighteen-year old Laura Schwendemann disappeared one evening and her body wasn’t found until 12 days later. This bill increases the penalty to a felony level offense for lying to the medical examiner or concealing a body or other evidence.
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In addition to the supplemental spending bills left to be passed, there is other legislation still pending. It’s expected we’ll take up a bill pertaining to the Real ID issue, one that deals with relaxed prison terms for low-level drug offenders, and possibly a bill that gives law enforcement some direction on the use of body cameras. The bill that lowers prison sentences is a compromise from guidelines released earlier this year that, in the opinion of some – including me – went too far in terms of sentence reduction. It’s my strong opinion that anyone who sells drugs, especially to our young people, should be locked up for a considerable time. Those earlier guidelines were opposed by many county attorneys and others in law enforcement. The compromise language has earned more support, but much of it stems from the realization that, while it still goes too far, it’s better than the original language.
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It appears the cold and windy conditions from this past weekend caused damage to early-planted crops. The temp at our farm Saturday morning registered 30 degrees, and a pail of water sitting right outside our entry door had a good quarter-inch of ice on it at 6 a.m. By that afternoon, one could see the small corn plants in fields shriveling up and turning brown. The good news is that the growing point of the plants is still underground. However, with the stems also drying up, the question is: can the new growth make its way up through the dried up and fallen over stem? I’ve seen corn freeze before in the spring, but it’s been confined to the leaves being burned back. This time it was the entire above-ground plant that froze. I don’t know if wind chill affects plants the same way it does people, but the wind chill that night and early morning was in the teens and low 20s!
Driving around on Sunday, we didn’t see any soybeans that had emerged, which is good because those young plants are more susceptible than corn to freezing temps. This cold snap could also affect apple trees that were blossoming. It will take several more days to determine the extent of the damage.
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