I was a Workers Compensation Claims Examiner for many years. Now I am an injured worker. I have seen both sides of the system. The system has been skewed in favor of Insurance Carriers. People with settlements entitling them to future medical benefits are being denied for no other reason than the carrier can get away with it. In these situations, the injured workers' attorney has already been paid. There are no longer penalties to keep Insurers in line, and no reason for the attorney to do anything. They don't work for free. The "penalty" system in place now does not discourage Insurance Carriers from playing games with benefits people are entitled to. My adjuster illegally stopped payment of awarded permanent disability benefits. The big penalty for creating havoc in my life: $37.00. The Insurers have total medical control. That means any doctor who still will treat an injured worker is more interested in keeping the Insurer happy than he is about taking care of the injured worker. This year a majority of my medical benefits will be taken away by a game called "utilization review". Instead of reviewing my medical history to determine if a benefit is necessary, my Insurer will send a few pages of records, along with their viewpoint, to what we use to call a "doc in a box". That's a doctor whose going to tell you what, as an Insurer, you want to hear. If these doctors authorize treatment and benefits, do you think the Carrier is going to continue using them? My carrier has gone through 3 Utilization Review companies in the last year! The Insurance Industry had managed to cut benefits, take complete control of medical treatment, kick attorneys out of the system...and there's no one to stop them. I began as an Examiner in 1992. Workers Comp laws had just been changed to protect the injured worker. We called the older cases "starve and settle", because that's what happened. The examiner would stop benefits and wait until the injured worker was in such financial straits that they'd settle for nothing. I have problems getting medical treatment I'm legally entitled to and there's not much I can do. It's time to stop this!

We have discriminatory sanctions against every Cuban "national" who has left Cuba permanently if, at any time since July 1963, the individual was a Cuban citizen, or was permanently resident or domiciled in Cuba. Unlike all other U.S. sanctions, we block Cuban refugees' assets unless the U.S. Treasury Department has issued them a license. For example, a Cuban exile who becomes a Spanish citizen cannot eat at McDonald's in Madrid, open a bank or securities account at a U.S. bank's subsidiary in Barcelona, or be sent a gift from a cousin in the United States without a Treasury license. (A license unblocks Cuban exiles who have legally resided in the United States.) We should end this U.S. discrimination against Cuban exiles in third countries, which imposes huge compliance costs for U.S. subsidiaries abroad, angers countries with different policies toward Cuba, and which provides no benefit to U.S. sanctions policy. Limit U.S. sanctions against individual Cubans to people in Cuba now.

We need to institute a 1% tax on derivative sales transactions on Wall Street. Currently, Wall Street makes about 100 TRILLION DOLLARS per year on derivative sales...and...they pay NO TAX at all for this profit. A 1% tax of the sale of derivatives will bring about 10 TRILLION dollars in revenue which can be used to eliminate our national debt in about 2 years! Some Democratic and Republican representatives are considering bills in Congress to do this...they need our support! Europe has already voted to implement this tax to cure their debt issues...we need to do the same! For more details on this tax, visit http://www.robinhoodtax.org/ .

Do not amend the Constitution to require a balanced federal budget. Defcit spending is appropriate sometimes ---- in a poor economy to invest in the future and make up for a lack of private spending. Balanced budgets are appropriate sometimes --- in a good economy to pay back the debt built up in the poor economy. Balanced budget amendments in the states usually mean no tax increases, only spending cuts of the programs that benefit the most vulnerable. We would all be affected by a balanced budget amendment. It would tie the hands of our government and enshrine the growing inequity between the rich and the poor.

Because of the tragic events at schools, et, our leaders in both state and federal offices feel that they have the right, to change our constitution which was written by some of the most brilliant minds in U.S. history. These folks were elected by us (and sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States (as it was written when they were elected) and should be ashamed of themselves to think that we as citizens, would sit still for this. Don't mess with our constitution!!!

Gas and oil production are up nationally by 25 percent this year, yet Americans are still freezing to death each winter because they have had to make the choice between buying food and buying fuel. But energy is our number one export, and the gas and oil companies are sellling our precious resources to foreign buyers who can pay much more. Fracking, an environmentally perilous technology, is motivated not by necessity but by greed.

"Citizens United" is a recent Supreme Court decision that basically equates corporations with people and money with speech. Both of these actions are civil rights issues, as corporations are NOT equivalent to persons, and there is not an equality of wealth from person to person or between person(s) and corporations. This is similar in nature to the 'separate but equal' arguments that supporters of apartheid gave back in the early 1960's.

Public schools have been decimated over the past few years and, when you increase funding, this funding is going towards testing, teacher evaluation systems, new programs, etc... instead of going for the students. This money should be going towards bringing back teaching assistants, bringing class sizes back down to previous levels, and bringing back social workers and psychologists to work with students who desperately need their services. If an individual claims to be a "lobbyist for the children", then they must do what is best for the children.

Coach Grisham was recorded by a student ranting and raving about the physical build of FLOTUS Michelle Obama. Although he has the right to his personal opinion, he does not have the right to state that opinion before students and others who may look to him as a role model. He used profane language and made the statement sound very racist. He also was noted to have said “I don’t believe in queers. I don’t like queers. I don’t hate them as a person, but what they do is wrong and an abomination against God.” This person is not the role model needed to teach impressionable children. Although the Lauderdale County High School coach was suspended by the school board this decision needs to be revisited and he needs to be fired and his teaching certificate should be revoked.

The title it self is deceiving! Most Americans when asked to decide if Right to Work was for them were misled by legislators and major Corporations that this bill would give them more pay, a bigger voice in deciding what happens in their work enviroment and UNIONS would have little to no voice in deciding who gets a job. Since it's approval workers realize they have no voice, their job can be tqaken from them as easy as it was hard to get and that UNIONS are their only menas of protection. Given the choice to reassess, I believe this law can be defeated.

Make the persons who directly allow criminals and deviants access to guns criminally and civilly responsible for the results of gun violence. Those who through negligence, profit, or facilitation allow deviants to terrorize and create havoc should bear the criminal brunt of their foolishness. Making them directly responsible for their buyers or close acquaintences would cause them to think deeply about allowing guns in the hands of unstable individuals. It would bypass the need to argue constitutionality of gun ownership and make dealers and individuals responsible for ignoring deviance for profit or foolishness.

We must knit the United States together with a high speed rail system at least as fast as that of China.