We need to get their (Congress's) attention to stop the across the isle bickering and get to work on putting America back on it's feet. Our politicians need to work together...period. Or, we'll elect someone that can and will in 2016.

So far I have been talking in third person. To put a face to the problem I am providing the readers of two true-to-life stories. My name is Gonzalo Duran. I expect to graduate on May 2014 from Fordham University. I am the CEO of Devil Dog USA Incorporated; and an advocate for the Bronx and Veteran community. Two years ago, my current status was not as appealing as my beginning introduction was. After a great successful 8 years of service in the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and 1 tour of deployment within Iraq, I was discharged honorably and left the Military. As soon as I got back to the great state of New York, I was immediately faced with unemployment, homelessness, legal issues, and the inability to seek higher education without medical benefits from the VA. I attempted to enroll and comply with the programs set by the VA and by New York State but I could not qualify. I sought as much help as I could from the civilian sector but they did very little to nothing to help me in my situation. I had to find a balance of VA and VSO’s assistance and suffer with decisions between losses and gains – unfortunately, it was more on the side of losses rather than gains. The odd part to this is that I had a full knowledge of all the programs and the transitional process but could not prosper. It took me a full solid year to situate myself and another year to bring me back to the caliber I am at now. With God’s grace, a lot of trial and error, I decided to dedicate my time to serving my fellow Veterans and I have chosen to use what I have learned to help other Veterans to avoid the hard transitional period I went through. To illustrate for you, from a personal perspective one aspect of what I mean by ‘hard transitional period’ I will give you a specific issue I had. When I first came back home to the Bronx, I could not find an apartment and it would still be a few months before my educational benefits would go into effect. I tried to apply for unemployment but again, I was going to have to wait a few months, and I then applied for VA disability and was told I would have to wait 2 years. I then went back home to live with my mother for two months. I then got a suit from the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs (MOVA), went into a broker’s office with a lump sum of money in-hand which came from my last paycheck from the USMC and from my old church with a ‘I don’t take no for an answer’ attitude. I was very lucky to finally have found good solid citizens who just wanted a good tenant. This is how I was able to build a foundation to start my new life even with so many obstacles in front of me. What I failed to learn was that my case was a one-in-a- million. Since that time of my life, I have found countless Veterans who have faced the same hurdles that I was faced with but for much longer periods of time. I have devoted much of my time to helping those individuals I have come across but I was faced with a dilemma that everyone and everything was against me. Recently, I met Yegor Zubarev, in one of my classes. He always seems positive and very energetic. He approached me after class once he saw one of my Facebook post. We discussed my projects and what my organization was all about. After speaking, we left with a sense of mutual respect and foresight of future collaboration. A few weeks went by and we began talking on how Zubarev could help within the organization since we are expanding. During a brief conversation, certain signs I read made me ask him a few questions I would to a friend/client. Zubarev told me his story of how he came to this country from Russia and joined the USMC to better himself. How he excelled in the service and became a citizen for it. Then he discussed the horrible effects of his honorable discharge. He took all the steps that he was informed of for transitioning but the cracks in the issues above caused him to end up at his present status. Zubarev is currently a Fordham University student with ambitions of Law School; he is currently living in a shelter and facing many obstacles. This is similar to a situation I faced two years ago myself. Seeking education and getting treatment but facing homelessness, unemployment and the problems that follow. Since that night I have devoted my time to pull him through this tragic event in his life. He has selflessly given his time to helping others before him, by helping me and now, I will show him what his efforts will bear. I saw a quality in him that I see in myself and other great figures. We have a willingness to persevere through hardship. Not for self-preservation but rather in a unified effort of brotherhood for ones’ peers. Why are there problems like these? Because I need the people to help me deal with the elected officials who are required to help in this venture. They promise assistance but once I make it back to my study to situate myself and begin the process. I either get buried in bureaucratic paperwork (or “red tape”) that will not go anywhere or I am told that there’s nothing they can do. This is the worst part because the banquet, forum (or lecture) where I met with them was dedicated to the exact thing I was asking for assistance with. I am demanding an audience so I could take the opportunity to discuss the problems with them and maybe find a way to close the cracks on the system. Monetary means and support is all we need to venture out and our main goal is to help the countless Veterans who are out there. If we were to fail, we would at least have done better than our counterparts or what the above parties have done so far. If however we succeed, we will set a higher standard and a model to emulate for other organizations- for profit or non-profit, and we will be there to continue to help and support the Veterans. To make this clear, this article is dedicated to those that are suffering because of the system and its flaws. These flaws ca...

Tooele County citizens elected officials Tooele County Commissioners are trying to remove. Let Tooele County Citizens vote on if Auditor and Clerk departments should be merged.

This petition is to support the candidacy of Tom Houghton for the 16th Congressional District in Pennsylvania. Joe Pitts is out of touch with the voters of the District. The gobbly-goo letter I got from him to explain why he didn't want the government to re-open was the last straw. He could have at least gotten my name right. It's time for the voters of the 16th District to say "No" to Joe Pitts. Tom Houghton has a deserved reputation as a consensus-builder who can help end the stalemate in Washington.

Too many people have worked to hard to make Lansdale a destination. We need to keep that going and Jack Hansen is not the person to do that because he has shown that politics are more important than community! We need to get him out of politics here in Lansdale!

With congress being the least productive in all history, cutting food stamps, veteran benefits, cutting off unemployment to so many, this a travesty. We the people need to make a stand.

On September 12, 2013 my family dog, Major, was removed from his home by the animal control officer for biting an individual. The individual was a contract worker that was working on cutting down a neighbors tree. The individual was advised by my father, the neighbor and his supervisor not to reach over the 5 foot chain link fence to pet Major. The current dog ordinance states that upon release from quarantine by appropriate authorities, should the owner desire to retain the dog the owner shall pay all quarantine costs. The dog shall not return to the city limits of Flatwoods, KY. This ordinance is unjust in that it punishes dogs that are protecting their owners. The way that section 11 of the dog ordinance is worded would allow for a dog to be removed from the home if the dog was protecting the home owner from an unwanted assault by biting the assaulter. This is simply wrong. Major did not have any complaints against him for running loose, biting or being a nuisance. The dog was simply protecting his property and his owners.

The financial crisis in the postal service is a manufactured crisis by Congress and the media. There is much misinformation about the financial condition of the Postal Service,but Congress continues to use postal service revenues to reduce the deficit even though the money is not from tax dollars.The biggest drain is the unique and burdensome requirement by Congress to prefund retiree health benefits 75 years in the future and to do this in a 10 year period. The Postal Service needs to be taken off budget and prefunding stopped.

It's not fair to cut the pensions of anyone, especially Veterans, stop spending all these billions of dollars to foreign countries, cut salaries of government officlals and see how they like it

My neighbor recently retired from the postal service and alerted me to this problem. Further research confirms that the postal service has been under attack by those with an agenda that intends to privatize our public services. The Post Office is already a cross between an agency and a business and is capable of self-funding through its business operations without taxpayer dollars. This service should be honored and nurtured, not bullied into unsustainable "prefunding" of its retirement program for the next 75 years over the next 10 years.

The USPS affects our daily lives, economy and jobs. It is unjust to force the failure of this national institution just for the greed of it's detractors.

If our leadership had to live under the same rules, laws, and programs, they would likely "fix" many of the problems in a quick hurry !!!