We need a system of credentials through LA-DHS that first responders, fire, police, medical and supplies to reach a disaster area without delay. Critical Infrastructure Operators, such as plant managers, banks, and utility services must get onsite quickly to avert additional secondary disasters. Currently, no credential is honored by all parishes and municipalities, except a credential issued to legislators.

Providers of communications services need to be able to get in to repair and rebuild communication services. The state needs an Emergency Interoperability Communications plan, so that responders (fire, police, medical) can talk to each other. The only way to get into post Katrina New Orleans in many cases was to write Animal Rescue in shoe polish on the side of your vehicle. People died because first responders could not get in quickly, or talk to the outside world.

Insurance in Louisiana has been a lurking disaster, waiting for an event, since 1980. Mortgage companies and banks require homeowners insurance as a condition of the mortgage. Insurance companies currently are insuring homes for "replacement value", calculated at about 2.5 times the assessed value. We need to cap insurance at the assessed value, not replacement value. Banks and mortgage companies have to help individual homeowner get affordable rates, or should insure the banks exposure separately. We need a State standard contract for insurance that provides for proper coverage without requiring each of us to read the fine print of each contract for deductibles and exclusions. Insurers should pay reasonable claims promptly.

Charity was in place long before other hospitals existed. Charity is a teaching hospital. Charity in New Orleans is the only place to go if you were shot or stabbed, having a world renowned shock and trauma emergency facility. Charity should continued, but be more effectively managed. The charity system should extend to small communities in partnership with private hospitals to provide indigent health care without having to transport great distances and wait hours and days for care.

Same job, same benefits, same pay. If woman get paid maternity leave, men should get paternity leave. But your sex should not affect the amount on your paycheck.

It would cost less for the state to send children to private schools, and apparently, would result in a better education. Teachers and support workers would get better pay, too. I went to public schools my whole life, being a military brat, that was a lot of schools. The Federal and State education monies should be spent to get the best education a child can receive. If vouchers can do that, do it. One time on talk radio just before a LEAP test, a caller complained that private schools should take the LEAP test too. A teacher then called from a local private high school to say they took the test to see how they would do. The average public school had a score in the 40's. The private school's lowest score was a 98.

Don't elect crooks. That would fix most ethics issues. Ethics are the principles of right or good conduct. Ethical people do the right or good thing whether they are being observed or not. I believe in full disclosure of all politically related income, but not full public disclosure of private income. This job is a part time job, I have to continue working in private industry to continue to make a living. I believe that private income should be disclosed to the ethics board, but publicly disclosing my private income invades a clients privacy if no protections are in place. PACS, lobbyists, other special interest groups, even unions seeking to influence legislation should reveal their activities and spending, including in-kind benefits such as meals and travel greater than say $20. If we start tracking cups of coffee, it becomes an administrative nightmare.