Cigna HealthCare expensive
I work at ASU as a custodian making $19,000 a year.
The cost for medication with Cigna HealthCare is too high.
My medication with Cigna is costing me $80 every three months, and my co-pay is $10 for every doctor's visit. Further, when I had a cold in December, my two medications cost $20 each with Cigna. If I were still with HealthNet, the cost would have been only $5 for each medication.
I'm glad my daughter is grown up. Medical care for her with Cigna would be a huge financial burden. Cigna HealthCare is making a lot of money at the expense of hard-working state employees and their families.
Cigna is a huge financial burden for these employees and one they can ill afford.
Who are the scrooges of Arizona? And why didn't the Arizona state employees have a voice in choosing their health insurance? They certainly should have, as health insurance has such a huge impact on them and their families. All state employees deserve an answer to this vital question.
Terry Brown
ASU Facilities Management
Speak out against bike laws
After being one of the 98 that were cited for moving violations on a bicycle during the "bicycle safety sweeps" I contacted a lot of people trying to figure out what was going on. A reply came from Elizabeth Thomas, the City of Tempe Alternate Modes Specialist. She informed me of the City of Tempe Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting that happens on the first Thursday of every month. This month, the meeting is Thursday, Feb. 7, 2002 from 7:30-9:00 a.m. in the Public Works Conference Room, Garden Level West Wing, 31 East Fifth Street. I received an agenda for this meeting which includes "Bicycle Safety Sweeps Discussion and Update". I would like to encourage people to attend this meeting and voice their concerns about the way they are handling the percieved problems.
If you are like me and have a hard time trusting other drivers when you've got 3000 lbs. of metal around you, you may not entirely trust them when you are on a bicycle. And then the City of Tempe wants you to turn your back on these people and "ride with traffic". The mentality that has kept me safe for nearly 20 years has been that they're all out to get me. The way I see it, there is no good or bad side of the sidewalk to be on, they're both bad and the street is probably as bad or worse. The bicyclist needs to be extra aware and use any advantage possible to stay out of harm's way.
For me, riding against traffic has been an advantage. I can see if people coming up to a drive entrance are slowing or not. I can see people pulling out onto the road from the drive entrance/exit and stop or go around them safely. It is also easier to see the people in the left turn lane that would be turning into the drive entrance. The law that you must ride with traffic takes away that advantage for me and causes me to take another risk, crossing major streets without signals or markings. Not only that, but riding with traffic puts more of my safety in the hands of the people that I don't trust when I've got that 3000 lbs of metal around me.
If you have valid concerns about Tempe's bicycle laws, please attend this meeting.
Allen Kelley
Senior
Mechanical Engineering
Hemp food ban ridiculous
I must admit that Sean Michael Reed's column on Monday was the first I've heard of the FDAs ban on hemp food products. The very idea is ridiculous and ludicrous, and it strikes at the very heart of the stupidity that is the "war on drugs."
Ask any plant biologist, and they'd surely tell you that the seed of the hemp plant (the part that's used for food) contains absolutely NO cannabinoids (active psychotropic compounds found in hemp flowers). THC is produced and stored permanently in the resin glands of the plant, a bit of anatomy the seeds completely lack.
The level of government paternalism tolerated by the American public regarding this soi-disant 'war on drugs' is astronomical. Our founders are surely rolling in their graves as they realize the utter failure their great dream has become. How many more lies are we just going to blithely accept as truth from these so-called authorities who so conveniently claim to be "looking out for our best interest?" It makes me nauseous thinking about it.
Maybe I should go smoke a joint.
John Ferra
Graduate Student
Creative Writing
Driving schools effective
In his State Press column Friday about driving schools, Mark Broeske asserts that they are ineffective, yet offers no evidence to support this position. Ironically, he acknowledges that some lawmakers "want more information to support the ineffectiveness of driving schools" as they consider a proposed bill to eliminate them. Then Broeske concludes that the classes would be more effective if they were "conducted the way they should be," and "drivers don't take the class seriously because the people who run them don't take them seriously".
Poppycock! I've taken driving school and the truth is, most drivers there need to let go of their pride, acknowledge their mistakes, appreciate the option to avoid points & a fine, sincerely try to learn something from the class and become safer drivers. With students like that, any teacher would be more interesting and effective. No one likes attending driving school, but just imagine what it's like to teach a group of angry people who think they know everything about driving and that their citations are unjust. Yet, there they are, guests of the judge.
The reality is this. The diversionary driving schools are OPTIONAL. If you don't want to participate, then don't. Take the points & pay the fine or appeal the citation. However, I believe most people take the class because deep down, they know the truth, but don't want to admit that they earned their citation, either through unsafe driving habits or for willful disregard of traffic laws. Ultimately, it's not how the instructor teaches, but rather the degree to which the drivers accept accountability that makes the class effective or a waste of everyone's time.
David Wright
Research Professional
Center for Solid State Science
