Ina Jaffe
Ina Jaffe is a veteran NPR correspondent covering the aging of America. Her stories on Morning Edition and All Things Considered have focused on older adults' involvement in politics and elections, dating and divorce, work and retirement, fashion and sports, as well as issues affecting long term care and end of life choices. In 2015, she was named one of the nation's top "Influencers in Aging" by PBS publication Next Avenue, which wrote "Jaffe has reinvented reporting on aging."
Jaffe also reports on politics, contributing to NPR's coverage of national elections since 2008. From her base at NPR's production center in Culver City, California, Jaffe has covered most of the region's major news events, from the beating of Rodney King to the election of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. She's also developed award-winning enterprise pieces. Her 2012 investigation into how the West Los Angeles VA made millions from illegally renting vacant property while ignoring plans to house homeless veterans won an award from the Society of Professional Journalists as well as a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media. A few months after the story aired, the West Los Angeles VA broke ground on supportive housing for homeless vets.
Her year-long coverage on the rising violence in California's public psychiatric hospitals won the 2011 Investigative Reporters and Editors Award as well as a Gracie Award. Her 2010 series on California's tough three strikes law was honored by the American Bar Association with the Silver Gavel Award, as well as by the Society of Professional Journalists.
Before moving to Los Angeles, Jaffe was the first editor of Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon, which made its debut in 1985.
Born in Chicago, Jaffe attended the University of Wisconsin and DePaul University, receiving bachelor's and master's degrees in philosophy, respectively.
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Lost birth certificates, name changes and even getting to the DMV can all be challenges when older people try to get a new driver's license in order to vote in states with strict voter ID laws. -
The VA West Los Angeles Medical Center was supposed to be a home for old and disabled soldiers. After decades, it's being transformed into a community for at least 1,200 chronically homeless veterans. -
Researchers found that a simple letter to doctors, focusing on their high prescribing rates, reduced their tendency to give risky antipsychotic drugs to their patients, including some with dementia. -
Medicare pays more than $16 billion a year for hospice services. But a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services says hospice patients don't always get the care they're promised. -
At an expensive Beverly Hills fundraiser, the former president talked about how to motivate voters to get to the polls. "We have to get systematic about registering voters," he said. -
A big coup in Democrats' efforts to retake the House would be to defeat California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher. But too many Democrats on the ballot may divide the vote — shutting them out of the runoff. -
Registered Republicans now make up just 25 percent of the state's electorate. If they are divided in this race, a Democrat could claim second place in the state's open primary. -
At least a million more home aides will be needed in the next decade, U.S. statistics suggest. And about a quarter of today's 3 million aides who help older adults avoid nursing homes are immigrants. -
A new study from Human Rights Watch finds the residents are being given the drugs despite an FDA warning that they can increase the risk of death for older people with dementia.
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Critics say Feinstein — the oldest member of the U.S. Senate at 84 — should not run for another six-year term. But an expert says chronological age doesn't tell you much about ability.
