Feds' weather information could go dark

[DustMolecule]

<snip>
Do you want a seven-day weather forecast for your ZIP code? Or hour-by-hour predictions of the temperature, wind speed, humidity and chance of rain? Or weather data beamed to your cellphone?

That information is available for free from the National Weather Service.

But under a bill pending in the U.S. Senate, it might all disappear.

The bill, introduced last week by Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., would prohibit federal meteorologists from competing with companies such as AccuWeather and The Weather Channel, which offer their own forecasts through paid services and free ad-supported Web sites.
<snip>

More: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/epaper/2005/04/21/m1a_wx_0421.html

[atommom]

1. That sounds like a bad, bad idea for everyone but the companies

that sell weather information.

[acmejack]

2. Santorum never fails to amaze

Everything he does pisses me off. What a gaper...

[ewagner]

3. Here's why..

President of AccuWeather is Dr. Joel N. Myers. Here's his political contributions....

Santorum is bought and paid for...

<http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=PA&last=myers&first=joel>

[Patiod]

5. My 1st thought: "oh, I guess AccuWeather paid him off"

So now instead of Rick Santorum (R-Walmart), we can also use Rick Santorum (R-Accuweather)

[DustMolecule]

4. This just makes me soooooooo mad

Someone posted yesterday about how stupid we all are to pay for things that we have gotten for free! Isn't providing weather data using satellites and such that the taxpayers have already paid for part of the 'service' that a government provides to its citizens?

From the article:

"I believe I've paid for that data once. ... I don't want to have to pay for it again," said Scott Bradner, a technical consultant at Harvard University.

He says that as he reads the bill, a vast amount of federal weather data would be forced offline.....

....A spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the bill threatens to push the weather service back to a "pre-Internet era" — a questionable move in light of the four hurricanes that struck the state last year. Nelson serves on the Senate Commerce Committee, which has been assigned to consider the bill.

"The weather service proved so instrumental and popular and helpful in the wake of the hurricanes. How can you make an argument that we should pull it off the Net now?" said Nelson's spokesman, Dan McLaughlin. "What are you going to do, charge hurricane victims to go online, or give them a pop-up ad?"