Thank you for contacting me regarding net neutrality. I share your concern for a fair and open Internet.
On April 30, I sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler asking him to take steps to ensure that the Internet remains open and accessible to all users and content providers. Specifically, I asked Chairman Wheeler to avoid a framework in the FCC's proposed Open Internet Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would allow some content providers to sign “paid prioritization" or "fast lane" agreements with Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This approach could upset the basic concept of an open Internet by creating a "two-tier" system of access that would be very difficult to remedy in the future.
I also asked Chairman Wheeler to carefully consider the current legal framework for ISPs, and seek additional comment on whether it would be beneficial to reclassify ISPs as telecommunications common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act, instead of their current deregulated treatment under section 706 of the Communications Act.
I have a long history of fighting for a free and open Internet and remain committed to this goal. Thank you again for contacting me on this important issue, and please do not hesitate to contact me in the future.
Sincerely,
Bill Nelson
P.S. From time to time, I compile electronic news briefs highlighting key issues and hot topics of particular importance to Floridians. If you'd like to receive these e-briefs, visit my Web site and sign up for them at http://billnelson.senate.gov/news/ebriefs.cfm
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Friday, May 9, 2014
Response from Senator Bill Nelson regarding Net Neutrality
Monday, May 5, 2014
Confused about Florida's real real estate recovery?
- I used the search string - Florida real estate recovery 2014 -
- and received the following collection of conflicting results:
- www.heraldtribune.com/.../20140210/.../30210...
Housing recovery will slow in 2014: Florida Realtors
tbo.com/.../housing-recovery-will-slow-in-2014-flori...
Debt Repayment in Florida Hurt by Sluggish Real Estate ...
www.bloomberg.com/.../2014.../debt-repayment-in-flori...
STORY: Foreign Buyers Drive Florida's Housing Recovery
www.businessweek.com/.../foreign-buyers-driv.....
Housing recovery radar: Where are the next hot spots?
www.cnbc.com/id/100961977
There's economic optimism for 2014 …but not a lot - Miami ...
www.miamiherald.com › Business
Top 10 real estate trends for 2014 - CBS News
www.cbsnews.com/news/top-10-real-estate-trends-for-2014/..
Florida Home Prices and Home Values - Zillow
www.zillow.com/fl/home-values/
After a Slow Start, Florida's Housing Market Recovery Picks ...
pascoflrealestate.typepad.com/...realtor/2014/.../after-a-slow-start-floridas...
Mar 26, 2014 - ORLANDO, Fla. – March 26, 2014 – Florida was one of the first states to feel the effect of a national recession with job losses starting in April ...
Friday, May 2, 2014
The Pro Se Courtroom Experience
Picture yourself playing a three tiered
chess game for the first time against an experienced opponent.
Simultaneously you are playing poker against another experienced
opponent, who bluffs and cheats. Loud music throbs in the background,
heavy metal, rap, or whatever you don't like. Screaming children run
in and out. The room is too cold or too hot and dimly lit. The stakes
are perilous. If you lose, you could lose your house, your children,
your money, each one, or all at the same time. Unfair? Uncomfortable?
You bet. This can be the pro se courtroom experience. On top of all
that, the judge speaks a different language, doesn't speak directly
to you at all, doesn't allow you to speak, instead speaking in that
different language and only to your opponents.
You came in to court for a dispute
which you thought would be fairly decided by the judge. In your naive
fantasy, you imagined the judge as a benign super hero ready and
waiting to sort out the dispute and see through the lies the other
party spews. Sometimes it works out that way, sometimes not.
Sometimes, whoever tells the best lie wins.
So how to prevent this scenario? The
obvious answer, is do not represent yourself in court. Hire an
attorney. However, this is not possible for many. According to the
Florida Bar's Economics and Law Office Survey completed in 2012, only
35% of the attorneys who responded stated that their hourly rate was
less than $200. And 24% of the responding attorneys stated that their
hourly rate is over $300.. And the trend for the years 2005 through
2012 tells a bleak story for wage earners:
Florida Real Median Household Income Trends since 2005
The
current median household income for Florida is $45,040. Real median
household income peaked in 2007 at $52,938 and is now $7,898 (14.92%)
lower.
Real Median Household Income: Florida, National
Household income often assumes there
are two wage earners, but we cannot be sure from the statistics
given. And we also can't be sure of the family size, this could be a
single wage earner, a one person household. Or a family of any number
with only one adult working; or a two income family with no children.
We don't know from these numbers. What we can glean is that, since
the median household income in 2012 Florida was $45,040.; that works
out to $865.000 per week gross earnings; and around $634.00 net.
Which in turn works out to less than $16.00 per hour net, based on a
forty hour week. And the wage earner is up against the decision
regarding whether to eat and pay the bills or pay an entire week's
check for around three hours of an attorney's time.
Crunching the numbers its easy to see
that the decision to self-represent is dictated by daily survival. I
encourage consumers to educate themselves as much as possible. And
while non-lawyer document preparers may not offer legal advice, legal
document preparers can offer information, and explain procedure and
time lines to consumers. Document preparers can also prepare the
documents thoroughly and professionally, and if nothing else the pro
se litigant's claim is down on paper in court filings in black and
white.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
I Count Myself Lucky
In 1972 Ms. Magazine was published for
the first time. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was for many years
the cornerstone of a grassroots push - equal pay for equal work. In
2014 there remains disparity between women's earnings and men's for
the same work. It's a shame.
My personal belief is that women often
fail to demand to be paid for their full value. Some women tend to be
hesitant to ask for more -- when more is exactly what they deserve. I
have always shied away from the pink collar ghettos, work places
traditionally dominated by women, and traditionally low paid. When I
worked for others, I trained myself to only accept positions where
males were my peers so that I could put forth the argument for equal
pay for equal work.
As an employee, I have worked as a food
server, printing press operator, graphic designer, and most often as
a salesperson. As a salesperson, I learned many life lessons.
1. Don't work for crooks. My mama
always told me that, but sometimes its hard to know the difference at
the outset. But once you know that the organization or boss is not on
the up and up, its time to go. If the organization is dishonest they
will eventually deceive you. Eventually you will either find yourself
caught up in their web of deception or they will turn against you.
2. Demand to be paid for your value. In
most companies, it is considered bad form to discuss salary with
co-workers. Some work places even demand compliance with this rule
right in their company handbook. I never went with that, I always
tried to find out what others earned. I asked. Some people will tell
you its not your business and are offended, others will just say.
Employers don't like such discussions, because they much prefer to
keep you ignorant. Sales organizations are usually very open about
what everyone is earning, commissions are transparent. If you sell x,
you are paid y.
3. Keep your own integrity. Set your
own standards. You have to be able to look yourself in the mirror
every day. Even if it is the norm in the company to do something you
do not approve of, it doesn't mean you have to do it. You may not
last very long at that workplace if you refuse to go along to get
along. But, who cares? Why would you want to stay at a company that
condones poor customer service, shoddy workmanship, unsafe practices,
or illegal acts?
4. Follow your heart. Do what you love,
and love what you do. I count myself lucky.
5. If you can discover that you are
your own favorite boss, I think you'll be a happier person. I think
so, but I don't know. If I close my eyes, I imagine that not everyone
is cut out to work for themselves. But its hard for me to see it. I
understand that some people like the constancy of a regular pay
check; prefer to be told what to do; and would rather leave work at
the end of the day and forget about it. I live and breathe my work,
because I love what I do. I have worked in my own business or
self-employed for so long, I know that the financial hills and
valleys are just part of the landscape. If a valley is too long and
too deep, time to make adjustments, that's all. And I've never been
too keen on anyone telling me what to do, how to do it, or when to do
it. My attitude was quite irritating to many employers. I am better
suited to being my own boss. Are you?
Thursday, April 10, 2014
10,000
I know in the big picture, 10,000 hits
isn't much. However, this blog just surpassed 10,000, and I want to
say thank you for your interest. I try to keep my content relevant.
You, my readers, are made up of document preparers, customers, pro se
litigants, and people who still believe that America is a great
country. Lots of flaws, lots of warts, but great all the same. Thank
you for your readership and comments. I receive some emails from
individuals thanking me a for a good read. And believe me that means
a lot. Writing a blog like this is like shouting into the dark and
hoping for an echo.
THANK YOU.
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
New Online Course - Parental Responsibility
The Florida Association of Legal Document Preparers
is proud to announce another course offering that teaches document
preparers how to prepare Parenting Plans and the other forms that
accompany them. Parenting Plans are required for divorcing parents;
unwed parents who are separating; and when there is a major life
change in the parents' or children's lives.
Our Online Course - Parental Responsibility
includes forms and instructions for preparing Parenting Plans;
Supplemental Petition for Modification of Child Custody,
Time-Sharing, and Related Relief; Supplemental Petition for
Relocation with Minor Children; and other forms related to these
court actions.
Introductory
Tuition - Only $161.00 - Enrollment Opens 4/5
Please Note - This is not the four hour Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course (Parenting Course) which divorcing parents are required to take; although we offer that course as well - CLICK HERE FOR THE PARENTING COURSE. This Parental Responsibility course is for document preparers to learn how to prepare the forms necessary to file in court for pro se litigants.
Purpose of a Parenting
Plan
The State of Florida
requires that divorcing parents create a Parenting Plan to be
incorporated into their Final Judgment of Dissolution. Likewise,
unwed parents who are separating are also wise (though not always
required) to create a Parenting Plan. The main reasons to create a
Parenting Plan are to define parenting and logistical details
concerning the children that may not have been considered; to create
an overall guideline for parents to follow; and to ensure that the
best interests of the children are upheld. When marriages and
relationships fail, all too often, the children are collateral
damage. Despite best intentions, without a clear cut Parenting Plan,
the children's interests can be lost in the shuffle. The emotionality
present during a break up sometimes causes otherwise well meaning
parents to act in ways that hurt the children.
The fabric of our lives is
woven of minute detail. Day to day activities which families take for
granted can become sources of conflict and stress. To some, the
Parenting Plans created for pro se litigants which are the subject of
this course, are over kill, too many decisions, too much information.
However, if making a minute decision in advance can prevent unneeded
conflict, the extra time it takes to thoroughly prepare a Parenting
Plan, is time well spent.
One of the misconceptions
about creating a formal Parenting Plan which leads to some resistance
is that a Parenting Plan is completely carved in stone. Generally not
true. The Safety Focused/ Supervised Parenting Plan, for important
reasons, is designed to be closely adhered to. But, the Regular
Parenting Plan; and the Long Distance Relocation Parenting Plan allow
for minor changes providing that the parents agree. The court system
and family court judges would prefer not to micromanage parents'
lives, and would be more than happy if everyone would just get along.
FALDP also offers eight
other legal document preparation courses. All of our courses are
completely online, and completely self-paced. Although our courses
are mainly targeted at document preparers who assist pro se
litigants, consumers are welcome to enroll. Membership in FALDP is
not necessary to enroll in our courses. However, we invite all
Florida legal document preparers to apply for membership in our
growing association to take advantage of the benefit of being a part
of a group of like minded business people.
Street Crime is Down - White Collar Crime is UP
The good news is that street crime is
down. A recent study attributes the decrease in street crime to the
fact that people carry less cash nowadays. According to the National
Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Working Paper: Less Cash, Less
Crime: Evidence from the Electronic Benefit Transfer Program (No.
19996, 3/14) crimes have decreased since the 1990s due to welfare
recipients using debit cards instead of receiving checks or paper
food stamps. Cash benefits, child support payments, and food stamps
are all automatically loaded onto an EBT card, no cash in the
process. The abstract for that paper states:
"It has been long recognized that cash plays a critical role in
fueling street crime due to its liquidity and transactional
anonymity. In poor neighborhoods where street offenses are
concentrated, a significant source of circulating cash stems from
public assistance or welfare payments. In the 1990s, the Federal
government mandated individual states to convert the delivery of
their welfare benefits from paper checks to an Electronic Benefit
Transfer (EBT) system, whereby recipients received and expended their
funds through debit cards. In this paper, we examine whether the
reduction in the circulation of cash on the streets associated with
EBT implementation had an effect on crime."
Attributing the decline in crime to
less cash, is a new perspective. Law enforcement and social
scientists have explained the decrease in crime in a number of other
ways.
One of the reasons often cited for the
decline in crime is that we lock up so many people nowadays.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative - "Looking at the big
picture requires us to ask if it really makes sense to lock up 2.4
million people on any given day, giving us the dubious distinction of
having the highest incarceration rate in the world."
Another piece of the puzzle is that we
now have far more laws than in the past. People can break a law that
they never new existed, and find themselves behind bars. The old
saying, ignorance of the law is no excuse, no longer applies. Nobody
knows all the laws. According to an article in The Economist:
"The number of federal laws has risen from 3,000 in the early
1980s to over 4,450 by 2008. Many of these have poor intent
requirements, meaning people are being locked up not to keep the rest
of society safe, but for technical violations of laws they may not
have known existed."
If the pace of law creating has continued,
then, now in 2014, we have double the number of laws as we did in the
1980s. And we are only counting federal laws. State and local law
makers also have to justify their existence by continuing to create
and pass more and more laws everyday.
More prisons and jails. Follow the
money. The cheapest labor anywhere, even less than third world
countries is found right here in America at the Gray Bar Hotel. There
are now over 100 private prisons in the United States. Quoting an article about the prison industry in general:
"The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing
industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street.
“This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions,
conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has
direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction
companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply
companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in
a large variety of colors.”
According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison
industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts,
bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and
canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the
entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and
paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home
appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office
furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners
are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people."
And THAT was the good news. The bad
news is that although street crime, crime for cash is down. White
collar crime is thriving. The stats presented below are not recent. However, the rate of increase seems to be similar or accelerated since the 1990s. This is an excerpt from a early 2000s article on the
National White Collar Crime Center's website (NW3C):
"White collar crime is a term that
is applied to nonviolent crimes committed in business situations by
individuals, groups or corporations for the purpose of financial
gain. Most white collar crimes are associated with some type of
fraud, often involving a lending institution, such as a bank or
insurance agency.
Statistics from NW3C also approximate
that one in three households is the victim of white collar crime, yet
of these, only 41 percent report the incident. Of the small number
reported, only 21 percent are handled by a law enforcement or
consumer protection agency."
The FBI estimates, for example, that burglary and robbery --
street crimes -- costs the nation $3.8 billion a year.
The losses from a handful of major corporate frauds -- Tyco,
Adelphia, Worldcom, Enron -- swamp the losses from all street
robberies and burglaries combined.
Health care fraud alone costs
Americans $100 billion to $400 billion a year. The savings and loan
fraud -- which former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh called "the
biggest white collar swindle in history" -- cost us anywhere
from $300 billion to $500 billion.
Recent White Collar Crime Stats
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that
during January 2014 the government reported 561 new white collar
crime prosecutions. According to the case-by-case information
analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC),
this number is up 0.5% over the previous month.
The
largest number of prosecutions of these matters in January 2014 was
for "Fraud-Financial Institution", accounting for 15
percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for
"Fraud-Other" (15%), "Fraud-Tax" (14.1%), "
Fraud-Identity Theft-Aggravated" (13.2%), "Fraud-Federal
Program" (9.6%), "Fraud-Identity Theft-Other" (7.8%),
"Fraud-Health Care" (6.2%), "Fraud-Other Business"
(3.6%), "Fraud-Computer" (2.7%), "Fraud-Telemarketing"
(2.1%).
Remember, only a small percentage of white collar crime is even reported. And a scant 21% of the reported crimes are ever prosecuted.
In an article by Ben Steverman "Why Drug Lords and Criminals Are SoRisk-Averse" on Bloomberg.com, "convicted felon Sam E. Antar says stock-picking -- trusting in
people and numbers you can’t directly verify -- sets you up as a
mark for the unscrupulous. Antar was the chief financial officer of
Crazy Eddie, Inc., an electronics chain led by Sam’s cousin, Eddie
Antar. The chain collapsed under the weight of its fraud in 1989.
“Investors live on hope and it’s the criminal’s job to take
advantage of that hope,” Antar says:
'If I wanted to be a scam artist today, I could be
very, very successful,” he says. “I’d probably have less risk
of being prosecuted and far less risk of going to prison.'
So do you think that the worldwide mortgage crisis is the result of sloppy paperwork? Far more harm is done to consumers by a thief with a briefcase than by an army of purse snatchers.
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