This is my first endeavor at contributing to open source, so bear with me
:-)

I created a variable called 'org-insert-heading-always-after-current'

If it's not nil, and you press M-Return, a new heading is created under
the current heading, ***even if you're on the first character of a
heading***

I added it to the org-custom list, also.

Here's the git commit (on GitHub) that has my changes (against the latest
org-mode as of today).

http://github.com/NathanNeff/org-mode/commit/ee2b727139db6530e8f5b7e076cf27368c3d3182

I followed the directions from here:
http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contribute.php

I would like to apply the same behavior when inserting new list items.

If you're on the first character of a list item, a new list item is still
inserted above the list item.
If anyone has a fix for this, let me know.

  For example, if you have:

* Foo
  <cursor>- List Item 1
  - I want the new list item to go here, not above - List Item 1


Thanks,
--Nate