JohnH wrote:
Notice the company this "donor" represents:

http://query.nictusa.com/cgi-bin/ind_detail/MYERS|JOEL+N+DR|STATE+COLLEGE|PA|16801|ACCU+WEATHE R/

Talk about a blatant bribe. Weather info you've paid for sold off for a
measly $4050.

I'm largely in agreement and even though I'm a Republican I don't care
much for Santorum. While I do feel this is a pretty clear-cut case of
rent-seeking, there is an issue here in that we don't want the
government crowding out private investment in the market. A good
example of this is the way in which some municipalities are starting to
provide free wi-fi services, which is obviously not being looked on
kindly by companies which have made investments in order to bring a
service to market. This is different from simple competition because
the government in many cases has unique powers at law (such as
exemption from permitting and zoning procedures).

That being said, the AccuWeather situation is in my mind quite
different because the NWS has been around since forever ago and one can
make the argument that fundamental weather forecasting is a matter of
public welfare no different from national defense or fire departments.
The change here is the Internet, which has made it easy for the general
public to have access to NWS data which were previously known only to
insiders like us, who knew how to call for a preflight briefing for a
trip to the beach.

-cwk,