Local officials back jobs program

  
Staff Report
News tips: freepress2@ntelos.net

As U.S. mayors gathered in Washington this week to meet with the Obama administration about unemployment and the economy, Virginia local government officials and community leaders are calling for the creation of a Community Jobs program.

The jobs program would provide funding to localities across the country to create 1 million temporary public and private sector jobs. Congressman Keith Ellison from Minnesota has introduced HR 4268, The Put America to Work Act of 2009, in the U.S. House of Representatives to authorize a Community Jobs Program. The bill has 52 co-sponsors. Community groups and local government officials are working with partners around the country to organize in support of this bill, and to ensure that it becomes law.

Advocates for the legislation stress the urgency in creating new jobs. Since December 2007, when the recession began, the economy has shed 7.2 million jobs. In December 2009, the national unemployment rate was at a staggering 10 percent. Read more

The right to vote

Groups urge Kaine to restore voting rights for ex-felons

Staff Report
News Tips: freepress2@ntelos.net

Ten Virginia civil-rights and faith-based groups have joined together to ask Gov. Tim Kaine to issue an executive order that would restore voting rights to most or all of Virginia’s 300,000 individuals who are being denied the right to vote because of a felony conviction, and to put in place a process for automatically restoring rights to others who complete their sentences in the future.

The letter sent earlier today is signed by the following organizations: NAACP Virginia State Conference, Virginia League of Women Voters, Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Virginia Poverty Law Center, Virginia Organizing Project, STEP-UP Inc., Virginia CURE, The Northern Virginia Coalition, American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, and The Rutherford Institute.

Many other Virginia organizations, including the Virginia Catholic Conference, the Virginia Conference United Methodist Church, the Old Dominion Bar Association and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. State Social Action Task Force have also called for reform of Virginia’s felon disfranchisement law. Read more

Vigil on health care Tuesday in Harrisonburg

  
Staff Report
News Tips: freepress2@ntelos.net

Local members of the Virginia Organizing Project are hosting a health-care vigil at Court Square in Harrisonburg Tuesday evening.

The vigil is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on the east steps of the Rockingham County Courthouse in Downtown Harrisonburg.

The vigil will shine a spotlight on the thousands of Americans in our community who cannot afford to pay the costs of their medical bills and are being forced in to bankruptcy.

The vigil is part of a nationwide event on Tuesday, with over 250 vigils planned across the country. Community members will light candles to remember the 45,000 people who die each year in the United States because they lack health care.

Focus | The tax burden on the … who, again?

Story by Chris Graham
With AFP Audio

If you believe the partisan rhetoric, it’s the wealthy who bear the tax burden, and who are deserving of tax breaks to get the economy moving.

A new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the Virginia Organizing Project puts the rhetoric in a new light.

Low- and middle-income Virginians put out significantly more of their income in local and state taxes than the average Virginia millionaire, according to the report, which was released today.

Millionaires pay out 6.3 percent of their income in local and state taxes, according to the report, while low- and middle-income Virginians pay 8.9 percent and 8.8 percent of their income in local and state taxes, respectively.

The reason for the disparity isn’t hard to figure out. Read more

An open letter to Gov. Kaine

Dear Gov. Kaine,

As your term as governor comes to an end, the focus in Virginia turns to the election to select your successor.

As you reminisce on your achievements as governor of Virginia, you will find that you earned a rightful place in the history of Virginia as a overnor who has left a substantial legacy in areas as diverse as the environment, energy, education and business. You have worked hard to ensure the economic future of our citizens in a time of national and international economic turmoil. Virginia will remain a state that is a model for others to emulate and a magnet of business and development as well as an ideal place for families. Read more

Rural Virginians talk health care to Congress

Rural Virginians cleared the air about their position on health-care reform at the “Rural Issues in Health Care Reform” congressional briefing hosted this week by Reps. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) and Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.). Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Rep. Steve Kagen (D-Wis.) also spoke at the briefing.

Jim White, a community member from the Martinsville area, addressed the crowd consisting of members of Congress, congressional staffers, health-care advocates and rural Americans from across the nation. “The health insurance crisis has taken away the ability of many rural Americans to be independent and proud. It is difficult to feel proud when you cannot afford to take your kid to the doctor or you have to help your wife cut her pills in half because she cannot afford to take the prescribed dosage. These are realities that rural Virginians face every day. Not only do most rural Virginians want health-care reform, they need it even more than urban folks,” said White. Read more

Case against Virginia Organizing Project director continued

Virginia Organizing Project executive director Joe Szakos showed up to defend against trespassing charges in Henrico General District Court today but the main witness for the prosecution, an employee of Anthem, failed to comply with an issued subpoena to be in court. The case will be continued to Nov. 23 at 1 p.m.

Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Kristen Knudsen asked for a continuance because their key witness was out of town despite having been served the subpoena on August 5, 2009. Szakos’s defense team opposed the motion to continue the trial at a later date but was overruled by Judge L. Neil Steverson.  Read more

Jim Lindsay | Meaningful health-care reform

The ongoing debate on Capitol Hill about the public health-care insurance option is both mystifying and disturbing. This option is essential to meaningful heath-care reform. Polling results consistently show strong public support for this choice. Congress must recognize that legislation that does not include this critical component will not achieve the core objectives of health-care reform. Further, it will leave many citizens wondering whether our elected representatives are more committed to protecting the private interests of insurers and maintaining the status quo than they are to serving the public interest. Read more

Still on hold for answer on health-insurance premiums

You probably don’t like your health-insurance premiums going up, and that part of the additional money that you’re paying is being used to lobby Congress to keep the U.S. health-care system in the Dark Ages.
Be careful trying to get that message across to your insurance company. You might end up in jail. Read more

Government and Politics Notebook

- Capitol Hill: Report details links between Wall Street, lawmakers
- Virginia Politics: Virginia Organizing Project rally to address mental-health cuts
- Lieutenant Governor Race: Bowerbank talks jobs   Read more

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