Section A · Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, June 23, 1999
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Graves slow to join capitol e-mail trend
The Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The governor of Arkansas takes a cellular phone and laptop on fishing trips. The governor of Kansas doesn't even have a computer terminal in his office.
When it comes to cyberspace, most governors are wired to the Internet, but not many use e-mail on the same scale as Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, who spends 25 to 30 hours a week sending and receiving electronic mail.
In Wisconsin, Gov. Tommy Thompson gets quite a bit of e-mail, spokesman Kevin Keane said
Thompson often reviews hard copies of e-mail messages but occasionally opens them up himself.
"That seems to be the communications method of choice with more and more people." Keane said.
"He's learning how to use a computer more and more himself, but he's still a phone person," Keane said.
`while Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee makes sure he's wired on even the water, Kansas Gov. Bill Graves doesn't have a computer terminal in his office. But Graves' office gets about 120 e-mails a week from constituents. Staffers answer them all.`
Gov. Paul Cellucci of Massachusetts is just venturing into cyberspace.
I do it a couple times a week, so
maybe 20 minutes," Cellucci said. "It takes me 10 minutes to type out one of those little messages."
Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack does use e-mail to communicate with constituents but probably spends less than an hour a week on e-mails. Staff members screen the messages, and Vilsack answers a few of the ones shown to him.
"I just don't have the time to read them all," he said.
Maine Gov. Angus King, meanwhile, reads and answers e-mails from the public and officials between meetings and at home at night, spokesman Dennis Bailey said.
"Any time there's a break in the action, he's on the e-mail," Bailey said.
Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes uses email to communicate with department heads and others — even reporters.
"I also answer citizen e-mail but, of course, try to attend to the department heads and others that need an immediate answer," Barnes e-mailed The Associated Press. "I generally get 75 to 100 per day. I don't know how much time that corresponds into.REB."
Freshmen swingers
North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer also relies on e-mail. He accidentally helped spread the "Melissa" e-mail virus in March, but he still uses e-mail, including when he travels.
Tosha Green, Lane freshman, and David Chaney, Wichita freshman, swing dance together during a freshman orientation event sponsored by Student Union Activities. The dance was held last Friday evening in the Kansa Union. Photo by Melissa Thornton/KANSAN
Cloud-seeding may have tackled tornado
The Associated Press
LAKIN — Nine pilots who took off on a cloud-seeding mission to weaken a hail storm last week may have diffused a tornado, a state weather official said.
Pilots from the Western Kansas Weather Modification Program poured cloud-seeding agents into a developing thunderstorm system in northeast Haskell County on Friday.
The system showed signs of producing a tornado, but generated only a small twister that kicked up some dust before fizzling out.
said Curt Smith, manager of the weather project headquartered in Lakin.
"The ultimate effect was that the tornado development appeared to be diminished or nearly nonexistent," he said Monday. "I think I'm going to catch a lot of flak for what I've said."
Officials of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said they were skeptical that Smith's pilots prevented the formation of a tornado.
And Charles Doswell, a research scientist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman,
Okla., said the same claim had been made before — and all the claims are impossible to prove.
Smith said he was not trying to oversell the effectiveness of weather modification. However, he said now may be the time to get serious about studying tornado mitigation, as proposed by President Clinton, after the disastrous Oklahoma City and Haysville tornadoes last month.
The implications are enormous.
What if many other tornadoes produced by severe storms really can be seeded to reduce their force or mitigate them outright?" he said.
A similar storm system Friday in the Oklahoma panhandle produced two tornadoes. Officials at the National Weather Service in Norman, Okla., said no one was hurt and no major property damage resulted from those tornadoes, which touched down in open, rural areas.
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Doswell said the only way to scientifically conclude whether cloud seeding affects tornadoes is to do a double-blind study involving dozens or hundreds of storms.
"To say the difference between the two (Friday night storm systems) is due to their seeding is scientific nonsense." Doswalt said.