A Charlottesville man arrested in July during a protest at Anthem insurance headquarters could have a trespassing charge dismissed in six months, a Henrico County judge said yesterday. General District Judge L. Neil Steverson ruled that he would dismiss the charge against Joseph A. Szakos, 55, executive director of the Charlottesville-based Virginia Organizing Project, if Szakos stays out of trouble for the next six months and stays off Anthem’s property.

Lowand middle-income families pay a disproportionate share of taxes in Virginia, a study by a tax policy institute concluded yesterday. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the Virginia Organizing Project, which represents low-income Virginians, said Virginia families earning less than $19,000 a year pay 8.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while the richest taxpayers—those making more than $1.5 million a year—pay only 6.3 percent.

It’s been amusing to watch the outrage directed at Anthem by a liberal pressure group, the Virginia Organizing Project. The other day members of VOP demonstrated outside against Anthem’s headquarters. Their point was that Anthem has raised VOP’s premiums at the same time that it is lobbying against health care reform supported by VOP. Well. VOP is free to seek coverage elsewhere if it doesn’t like Anthem’s rates. Meanwhile, it has been agitating for a “public option”—i.e., a government-run health insurance program that would compete against Anthem and other private insurers, and that would (a) use tax dollars and (b) operate at a loss.

A leader of about 60 protesters outside insurance giant Anthem was charged with trespassing yesterday after entering the company’s headquarters to ask about rising premiums. Joseph A. Szakos, 55, executive director of the Charlottesville-based Virginia Organizing Project, was arrested by Henrico County police after he and four other demonstrators made it as far as a vestibule before being stopped by locked doors.

As the debate intensifies over revamping the U.S. health-care system, Bon Air resident Cindy Greer understands the fear of change. But as a registered nurse who has worked at a free clinic and as a mother whose son is still recovering from a bad motorcycle wreck last year, Greer has seen the current system’s flaws. That’s why she plans to travel with other Virginia Organizing Project supporters to Washington tomorrow to rally for universal health coverage.

http://www.virginia-organizing.org
(804) 261-7497
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http://healthcare09.org/