P8 THE SPOKESMAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2021
April saw warmer-than-normal weather
National Weather Service
REDMOND — Tempera-
tures at the Redmond Airport
averaged warmer than normal
during the month of April, ac-
cording to preliminary data
received by NOAA’s National
Weather Service in Pendleton.
The average temperature
was 46.8 degrees which was 2.4
degrees above normal. High
Temperatures averaged 65.5
degrees, which was 5.9 degrees
above normal. The highest was
87 degrees on the 29th. Low
temperatures averaged 28.1 de-
grees, which was 1.0 degree be-
low normal. The lowest was 15
degrees, on the 12th.
There were 20 days with the
low temperature below 32 de-
grees.
Precipitation totaled 0.22
inches during April, which
was 0.51 inches below normal.
Measurable precipitation -at
least .01 inch- was received on
3 days with the heaviest, 0.13
inches reported on the 25th.
Precipitation this year has
reached 1.39 inches, which is
1.62 inches below normal. Since
October, the water year precip-
itation at the Redmond airport
has been 3.43 inches, which is
2.35 inches below normal.
The highest wind gust was
40 mph which occurred on the
10th.
The outlook for May from
NOAA’s Climate Prediction
Center calls for near normal
temperatures and near normal
precipitation. Normal highs for
the Redmond airport rise from
63.0 degrees at the start of May
to 72.0 degrees at the end of
May. Normal lows rise from
32.0 degrees to 39.0 degrees.
The 30-year normal precipita-
tion is 1.02 inches.
IN THE LEGISLATURE
After 100 days, time crush some early buzz as possible
looms larger in the Capitol GOP standard-bearers. Sandy
SALEM — It’s a new month,
but Oregon’s Legislature has
the same headaches.
The 2021 session of the Leg-
islature hit the 100-day mark
Thursday. The Constitution
gives the House and Senate 160
days in even-numbered years
to initiate, bloviate and legislate
before being forced to gavel the
session closed.
When lawmakers returned
to the Capitol on Monday, they
had just 56 days left — no mat-
ter what. The Oregon Consti-
tution requires the Legislature
to shut down by June 28.
In legislative parlance, the
House and Senate must “sine
die” — a Latin word twist that
roughly translates to adjourn
without a future date to meet
in 2021.
The clock was started on
Jan. 19 and doesn’t stop for
nights, weekends, holidays,
COVID-19 shutdowns, Senate
walkouts or House slowdowns.
And when it is over, it’s over.
All bills left are dead. Ideas can
come back the next session,
but have to start over.
Third witching hour: The
Legislature has its own auto-
matic spring cleaning with
four “witching hours” during
the session that kill off bills
stalled in committees. House
Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Port-
land, estimated early in the
session that up to 4,000 bills
and resolutions were intro-
duced. Hundreds of bills stuck
in the maze of the Legislature’s
43 committees were culled
by earlier deadlines. The next
witching hour is Friday, May
14 when bills must be sched-
uled for a final committee vote
in the second chamber (House
bills in the Senate, and vice
versa). There are a few “safe
harbors” for legislation. Bills
in Rules, Revenue and joint
(House-Senate) committees
are exempt from the deadlines.
Legislation resurrection:
When legislative leaders re-
verse themselves and want one
of the dead bills to move for-
ward after all, the job is done
with a “gut and stuff” move.
A bill that has moved forward
can be sent to the Rules or an-
other deadline-exempt com-
mittee where its entire con-
tents are removed (gut) and
an amendment becomes the
entire text of the bill. Look for
the move as the Legislature
scrambles when the end of the
session gets close.
Encore, encore!: Sept. 20 is
the start date for the special
session of the Legislature to
deal with overdue redistricting
maps. Lawmakers received an
letter (Invitation? Summons?)
from leadership last week.
Feeling for an economic
pulse: On Friday, the pre-
liminary June state revenue
forecast was sent to key gov-
ernment planners. The report
won’t be made public until
May 19. But an early version
was sent to the Governor’s
Council of Economic Advisors
and the state Department of
Administrative Services. The
quarterly reports measure how
much money the state is taking
in and spending.
GOP for governor: Specu-
lation of which Republicans
might get into join what recent
history has shown as a quixotic
run for governor has started
early. Bud Pierce, the GOP
nominee in the 2016 special
election for governor won by
Kate Brown, has announced
he plans to run. Oregon Cat-
alyst, a popular conservative
website, recently posted an on-
line poll asking readers to pick
from among five names getting
Mayor Stan Pulliam came out
on top. Others included Pierce,
Sen. Dallas Heard, R-Roseburg
(who is also the Oregon Re-
publican Party chairman), Rep.
Bill Post, R-Keizer and Clack-
amas County Commissioner
Tootie Smith. Candidates can’t
officially file for office until
Sept. 9, but expect more straw
polls across the political spec-
trum over the summer.
House OKs gun storage
combined with partial ban
The Oregon House, on a
largely party-line vote, ap-
proved a bill that combines
storage requirements for fire-
arms with a narrower ban on
guns in some public places.
The 34-24 vote on Thursday
sends the revamped Senate Bill
554 back to the Senate, which
can vote to accept the changes
— and send it to Gov. Kate
Brown — or reject it and force
a joint panel to negotiate the
differences.
Support came exclusively
from Democrats. Three of the
37 Democrats voted no: Paul
Evans of Monmouth, David
Gomberg of Otis and Mark
Meek of Oregon City.
Opposition came largely
from Republicans, mostly
from rural areas. Exceptions
were from Clackamas County,
where both Democratic Rep.
Meek and Republican Leader
Christine Drazan of Canby
spoke against it. No Republi-
cans voted for it.
Two Republicans were ex-
cused.
The vote took place after
close to three hours of debate.
The bill does not have an
emergency clause, which
means that if it becomes law,
opponents have 90 days from
the close of the 2021 session to
obtain 74,680 voter signatures
to force a statewide election.
The number is set by the Ore-
gon Constitution.
PET OF THE WEEK
Meet Ruger, a 4-year-old Staf-
fordshire Terrier mix available
for adoption. He’s a friendly
and social dog that loves to ex-
plore and play. He would bene-
fit from some basic training as
he doesn’t always have the best
manners and can be overly ex-
citable. Ruger has previously
lived with other dogs and cats,
according to his previous owner.
He may do best as the only dog
in his home or with a calm and
tolerant female dog. For more
info, call BrightSide Animal
Center at 541-923-0882.