As always with the government... a quick buck in their pocket is what is at stake. The fool probably went to bed and had this Great Dumb Idea!!! Give the guy a break when he wakes from this sleep he will have thought it was just a dream... maybe a nightmare even. Everyone is trying to make quick $$$ off of anything that moves. This is somewhat like CNN trying to make us pay for their videos when everyone else is letting us view them for free on other news sites... here's CNN wanting us to subcribe to their site, well I've sent them emails and said hey look ABC, ATV, CBS, CBC,... and countless other sites do not charge for this service and you think you are going to and make money at it. DREAM ON.

...we're missing the whole story. Democrat, Republican, Independant, whatever--I haven't seen someone do something this stupid without any explaination. I could be wrong, and this guy might really be one of the dumbest polititians on earth. I believe we're missing something though. Regardless, as almost everyone else pointed out, this is not a good thing for the people of the United States.

Joel Myers has been a thorn in the Weather Service's side (more like a gadfly) for some time now. Word is that Santorum introduced the bill to get Myers off his back and is starting to regret that he ever introduced this bill.

I urge you all to do what I did. I emailed Senator Santorum and told him I was aware of his efforts to remove this vital service from the very agencies of the government that should continue doing it and that I was aware of the money he has received from private industry to pass legislation that promotes those companies that paid him the money. Write him and your own congressmen about this situation. Mention that it is a conflict of interests and that he should be investigated by the Ethics Committee.

I think this is BS. Come on people lets fight back. Lets bring this bill down. We have the power.

As a conservative, this is really embarrassing. Not only that, as a 28-year broadcaster I can say that Accu-Weather's so-called service is the least accurate of anything out there. They are a joke in most of the broadcast industry.

I don't see how this could be lawfully plausable. I mean, they're putting a stop to companies trying to offer a free service at their own cost because the big companies who charge money are "losing out." What's next? Shutting down every web site that posts news articles because services that require payment are "losing out" as well? I don't think so.

As a Republican, I'm embarrassed. This country has a lot more problems than free weather info. I'm pretty sure this guy wasn't elected to worry about things like this. Weather can be everyone's concern. Let it continue to be a FREE public service. Everyone needs the service, let legit advertisers pay for wanting to be seen. Let it go Sen. Santorum.

I wonder if cable companies are gonna charge to view the weather channel now

Technically they do ... it's what you pay for in TV service.

They already are................cable ain't free.

Senator Rick Santorum is just a money sniffing, computer illiterate, dumb a** who has
the private corporations pulling on a rope, that is fed through the fat ring pierced through his nostrils.

[cartoon sketch here]

We're paying over a dollar more a gallon for gas, then they want to mess with Social Security, and now want us to pay see the weather. I can't afford to drive to work now, or retire, or feed my children now I have to pay to see the weather? What's next? Will everybody be required to subscribe to satelitte radio to get news, weather and sports? We are slowing losing freedoms.

I agree. The Bush administration is an insult to humanity. Let's kill more inocent civilians with "Shock and Awe". Let's imprison the middle class in debt as we watch the economy get worse and the deficeit increase beyond repair. Let's make our children pay for this administration's greed. I say justice must be done. Bush must hang! F*ch him and his brainless, distubing face. How the hell did such a moron become a President? He is a mass murderer. "NO WMD"

I don't know why I'm surprised someone brought it up, but Bush has absolutely nothing to do with this article. You should try to keep your opinions on topic, or at the very least semi-indicative of intelligent life.

Any valid points you may have had are undermined by your glaringly biased insults.

You have no idea what you are talking about. This bill and this article have nothing to do with the Republican party just one a****** of a Senator concentrate your wrath on him.

Bush must not be doing to badly to have won re-election very handidly as well as increased control of Congress. As far as the economy goes I don't know what your talking about, the stock market is at a stand still but by and large our economy is humming right along in great shape.

What the heck are taxes for then? I doubt this will pass, but if it does, I will be furious. So many great free programs will go down if this passes.

Indeed... a lot of free, spyware-ridden bandwidth-hogging apps like Weatherbug... what a pity.

Oh yeah.. out of all the great programs... talk about WeatherBug. Which actually uses a different network for its weather data. I don't know what you were talking to say. As*hole.

This is not the first time that state has taken the turn towards companies instead of the choice that is best for the people:
"including a draconian law now on the books in Pennsylvania, which strips local governments of the right to choose their own homegrown broadband solutions without the prior approval of a monopoly phone company. In late 2004, Verizon dictated the law word-for-word to local legislators..."
http://progressivetrail....ticles/050413Karr.shtml

Here are a few related links:
His statement: http://santorum.senate.g...22&CFTOKEN=38509331
His Email: http://santorum.senate.g...Information.ContactForm
Email your senator, as they would vote on his bill: http://www.senate.gov/

What is all this info on it being free. According to my info the US government is run off of our tax dollars. Why is it that the government wants us to pay over and over in taxes. Oh that's right, so they can spend it. I wish I could go into work tomorrow and tell the boss that in order for me to work I will have to charge him an hourly few, because my salary just pays me to come to work.

Thanks for the link. I submitted my feedback under the 'economy' topic.

I'm really getting sick of these computer illiterate people in public office trying to pass their stupid laws. Its just insane.

Honestly, the very first thing I thought of when I started reading this was, an April fools joke. Its that stupid.

This is probably the type of pure idiot who would want to tax email messages because its taking money away from the Post Office.

exactly.

When I first read this, it was with stunned disbelief. It was incredible to think that this was being raised at all - until you read all the other details.
Some may suggest that it is questionable as to why Senator Rick Santorum is introducing this bill. "Joel and Barry Myers have donated nearly $2,750 to Santorum's 2006 re-election efforts. Public records also showed that since 1999, the Senator received nearly $5,000 in contributions from AccuWeather executives, raising questions of whether the company attempted to court favor with the Senator through campaign contributions."
If this is correct, I am sure that the vast majority will draw the same conclusions about Senator Santorum's motivation, as I did.
I'd be willing to bet that if several hundred of the Senator's voters were to suggest changing their votes to the opposition to maintain free weather services, then the senator would soon change his stance and drop this bloody stupid bill!

The whole idea is just crazy--especially since the NOAA is still going to have monitor the weather all the time, and making the information publicly available is not that much overhead. It's not like they can just issue warnings without constantly monitoring the conditions as always.

Plus, part of the reason we pay taxes is so the government can provide us services. This is one of them. And from what I understand, it's more like NOAA is providing raw data, not processed information like these private firms are.

Something fishy seems to be going on here, especially given all the hints to AccuWeather.

Luckily, it's just a bill, and the majority never become law. Let your representatives know what you think--especially if this representative is yours. :)

Senator Santorum is merely spewing talking points that were spoon fed to him by his friends at Accu Weather. It is well known that the private weather industry has been trying to gain a monopoly on weather information in this country, without having to fund the infrastructure that provides it by the way.
This is pandering of the highest sort, and any thinking person knows that if a bill such as this becomes law, it would be disasterous for the tax paying public.

Of course, another corporate kiss-ass Republican, who will do what dollar signs tell them to do.

I hope he gets sucked up in a tornado.

rofl @ the tornado.

Maybe if he paid for his weather information...

but we have the best government money can buy.

"Capps said groundwater contamination from the gasoline additive has affected more than 1,800 community water systems in 29 states with a potential cleanup cost of $29 billion. MTBE makers, including large oil companies and refiners, dispute that estimate but have argued they need liability protection because of an expected surge in lawsuits."

Happy Earth Day!

The NWS/NOAA should not be providing a pretty GUI to their information (They can if they want, but it shouldn't be their main focus). They should however provide ways of accessing their data via XML, RSS, etc, etc.

This is where their main focus should be: providing data to the public. Let commercial vendors, the public, etc parse the data and display it how they want.

What I don't want if for NOAA to be backed into a corner where they are only allowed to give the data to the few companies that pay off politicians. That is flat out criminal. We'd basically be forced to pay for data twice (taxes to NOAA to give the data to [weather company] and then pay fee/advertisements to view it).

If we can't get the data directly from NOAA, then we shouldn't pay taxes for it. Let weather.com, accuweather.com, etc pay to maintain NOAA.

How on God's green earth could such a thing happen?! This is absolutely ridiculous! There are no grounds for something like this! I can see it now, a family living out in the country can't tell if there's bad weather coming because they haven't paid their "Weather Bill" yet this month. Weather effects everyone and everything on the earth! How can you put a tax on information like that? Sounds to me like AccuWeather is making contributions to the Senator to further their own agenda. How can you say its wrong for the government to have its weather agency report, for free, weather information to people around the country? I would think having something like that is a good thing! But in this age, where the Almighty Dollar rules, I guess its conceivable and accepted behavior.

The sad thing about it all... is this bill could actually pass. Its unfair, and there are no grounds for it and maybe I'm being a little pessimistic, but I think it could actually pass. Especially if something is not done about it.

When I was a kid, I used to want to be a meteorologist, but I certainly wouldn't want to be one if only a select few got to receive the information I was reporting.

IMO... it is what is going to happen if the bill passes. What will happen to the Senator's bank account then.
we will be paying for the service, but be getting less of it. The actual data that is collected using our tax dollars will be sent to these smaller local companies that will be able to profit from it(i.e. weather bug, local news channels etc.) We are going to be shafted. Farmers would be the one's that really are going to be hurt by such a decision.
wait until they use the excuse that this is a matter of "national security".( ooooohhhh )

Wow, what next, do we have to pay to breath air?

nothing more to say...now piracy of weather information will start up!!!!!!

Rochester.NY.14609.042205.Forecast.READ.NFO-RZR

"nothing more to say...now piracy of weather information will start up!!!!!!"

I would believe it. Thats what America is coming to. We are no longer the land of the free.

I can just see them raiding houses for illegal links to radar images.

HAHAHA

The zip would contain a .nfo AND a nice .xml file to make it really look purty!

"The scandilous individuals that are robbing the government of THEIR money *will* be caught! We will punish those for their insolence!"

I know I spell like s***, but I don't have spellcheck on this computer.

Gee, seeing that the National Weather Service is a function of the Federal Government, aren't we already paying for the service?

Come to think about it, don't we pay Senator Rick Santorum's salary too? Maybe you people in PA should give that some serious thought as well.

I am a Floridian, and I rely on NWS radar in the coming months, to help manage power supplies amongst other reasons. Since I help pay for it, I expect to receive the service.

Anyone who opposes the idea of having free access to Weather that may save lives or help with evacuation or not to make unnecessary trips blocking emergency vehicles should be fired!

Heaven forbid you loose your batteries for your portable Radio and TV or a approching storm takes out the local Stations before it hits houses and you have no other way to track an storm!

What happened to the jobs of Senators to protect People and their Lives in case of emergencies?

I really do not understand people like Senator Rick Santorum. It's people like this that need to be expunged from office.

They have no right nor should they even be allowed to think about such actions like this.

I think this is something that needs to be petitioned.

Can you imagine if a Tsunami were headed for the United States, and warnings were only broadcast on Pay-Per-View?

Forget about NOAA and NWS. The answer already exists: wunderground.com - Weather Underground, a worldwide network of amateurs running Internet-connected weather stations. For about $250 (or less if you shop around and/or assemble your own components) you can add your own monitoring station.

No matter what the slick-haired meteorologists on TV say, 95% of weather forecasting technology is just a matter of applying simple formula to accurate measurements taken continuously throughout a region. You can put a tiny dent in the Wunderground network by knocking out a station in a sparsely-covered area, but it won't affect the big picture.

"Forget about NOAA and NWS. The answer already exists: wunderground.com - Weather Underground, a worldwide network of amateurs running Internet-connected weather stations."

weatherforyou.com has operated a similar program, actually longer than Weather Underground.

How are people expected to protect themself from weather threats if they don't have access to the most accurate and up-to-date information on the weather? More lives will be lost if such a bill get's passed!!! Senator Rick Santorum should be removed from his seat for recommending such a bill! If this bill passes then you can say good bye to the best weather data on the net (http://www.nws.noaa.gov/).

I don't want to start a political debate here, only pointing out that this is pure politics. I recall several articles on Betanews that have mentioned senaters, congressmen, etc. without showing the political party they are associated with. Why this one? Politics. Something is crooked in this story and while possible I doubt this is as blatently obvious as it seems...$5,000 in 6 years for a senator is NOTHING. We're talking very little here folks, I can't even buy the new Dimension XPS from dell with that money (not that I want to either). I doubt the Senator is that incredibly stupid to risk his reputation over $2,750, but that's just my opinion.

Well, that money is what was publicly recorded as being donated. It also infers that perhaps there was a friendship between Santorum and Meyers. Nobody is saying AccuWeather bought the bill for $5,000, but it does raise questions.

If they were buddy-buddy, Santorum introducing a bill for his good friend that he plays golf with on the weekends isn't really that surprising - money or not.

Another thing that should be added:

Common journalistic practice as stated in the Associated Press Handbook states that politicians other than the President and Vice President should have their political affilation and district/state following their name.

To suggest the story is politically motivated is missing it entirely. The fact is, we as taxpayers have already paid for the services which the National Weather Service, up until about five years ago, was selling to companies like AccuWeather and Intellicast among others to resell to us. Now that the middleman has been cut out, these companies have a problem.

And yes, that is a signficant chunk of money. The amount of people who can afford those types of contributions are in the single digits percentage wise. So contributing that kind of money is going to get your politician's attention.

bourgeoisdude is way off the mark here. As has already been stated, AP guidelines state that politicians other than the PResident and VP should have their party affiliation, state and district (if applicable) by their names. So the argument that this is all about politics is a false assumption. Furthermore, the original article talks about the $2,750 donated in 2003 & 2004, then states that since 1999, there has "also" been $5000 in donations from Accu-Weather executives. That means that the $5k is NOT inclusive of the $2750, which does make the total contribution $7750.

Santorum has a track record of trying to pass moronic legislation and speaking out of both sides of his mouth at once. This is just the latest example of why he needs to be voted out of office and never allowed to serve in a public role again. I'd also point out that Santorum is from the same vein as Ted Stevens of Alaska, who is notorious for slipping in riders to provide funding for Alaska projects. They both have a "me-first" mentality when it comes to their states.

(accidental double post)

I'm so freaking tired of people being greedy.

The Internet has changed how we do things. It cannot be changed back. The weather forecasters don't do a good job anyway. It's like rolling the dice. Half the time they're wrong.

Letting people get weather information via the internet helps them with their daily lives. No need to get all greedy just because some people are mad that it's hard to get advertisers due to the fact that people can get weather info on the web.

Come on people.....grow up. Quit trying to live in the past and move forward.

Duh......the Internet is not going away.

I've seen the governor of my state going on the privatization attack since he was elected to his second term. He's managed to take care of his friends, wife, and himself while others he's appointed have quit, resigned, or charged with crimes because of their questionable (at best) contracts.

Santorum, as well as other politicians care more about who puts money into their campaign coiffeurs than the people who elect them. They give the businesess contracts that any one of us would love to have.

If someone (I don't have the time or financial resources) would have a website that had all the State Senators & Congessmen with a breakdown of their contributors as well as their voting records, there would be many ex-politicans the next time they come up for election.

Hit 'em where it hurts, folks.

$7,750 is alot of money just to give to someone like "Hey! Hope you get re-elected! You are the s***!"

Classic case, the Senator is listening to one more than the other. That and the money too, they want to pay for those radar maps and 10-day forecasts.

God forbid I have to watch the morning news again rather than goto my favorite website for weather.

This weather information from NOAA is not "free". We pay for it with our taxes. I'm really not interested in paying twice to find out if I need to bring an umbrella with me tomorrow. Ill-informed Senator + Corporate Greed + Technology = Joe Public getting screwed. Enough already!

"$7,750 is alot of money just to give to someone... "

Actually it is very little, especially if you quote the correct amount of $5,000. Hello? Media! Misleading statements come with the territory, the $5,000 INCLUDES the $2,750 that was "donatED".

The $2,750 was for re-election efforts as they put it. Then another $5,000 in just flat out contributions. Otherwise there would not be that many questions...would there?

This is part of the free market. If weather forecasters want to make money, then they will need to add value. Plain and simple.

I'm tired of the public being ripped off so that companies who can't compete with advances can stay in business.

I helped pay for this service, so I should be able to use it. Period.

Same goes for everyone else in this country who pays taxes.

Gee, if all it takes is $5000, maybe I can get Santorum to sponser a law so I can make money sitting on the couch watching TV and eating Doritos. Hey, I can't compete with those people who actually want to work, so I should get special privileges.

There's many other news services that are run from different countries that it won't matter anyway.

theweathernetwork.ca for instance americans can use..

I think someone should look into just what prompted the Senator's interest in proposing such. I would ask a lot more pointed questions. NOAA is a government service and last time I look, I paid the bills and would be STRONGLY opposed to paying for it again...ReElection....really!

Oy.

Hmm, and yet you overlook the fact that it's always the republicans sponsoring tax cuts.

Santorum is an "in the closet" wuss, the republicans should be embarrased that he is one of them. And talk about a corporate wh***, if he would open his mouth for a measely $4000 about banning public weather info, he is extremely easy, that as well should be an embarrassment to the repub party.

It would take more than $4000 to get me to make a public announcement, about something so petty, insignificant and not even a national issue, when the economy, gas prices and so many other more important issues are at the forefront of the nations problems.

His credibility as a effective lawmaker should really be held in question over this. If these are the type lawmaker the republicans have to give us, it is no wonder why they need to steal elections.

We absolutely can do something about this.. and I think rather than just roll over and take it. perhaps we ought to argue a bit..

http://www.thepetitionsi...om/takeaction/594569271

Regards, Catastrophe.