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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Many struggle with tremors and balance much of the time, but when the music starts, these people dance. It gives them joy — body and soul. Scientists say dance might have lasting brain benefits, too. -
Rain, and lots of it, is falling in parts of California as the first of several El Niño storms makes its way across the state. In the Los Angeles area, county officials have spent extra to offer more shelter options for its large homeless population.
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Testing your hearing is just a phone call away. Doctors hope a cheap, simple at-home test will encourage more people to get their hearing checked, and get help if they need it. -
At 81, Gloria Steinem is still going strong. The noted feminist has been on tour promoting a new book, My Life On The Road, which she insists is not a memoir.
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Lydia Smith, 87, is one of the 2.6 million women ages 65 and over living at or below the poverty line. Older women are more than twice as likely as men to live in poverty. -
Many families must sign a binding arbitration agreement when a loved one is admitted to a nursing home, pledging not to sue if something goes wrong. Proposed rules would ban that requirement. -
Filmmaker Richard Glatzer, who directed a number of well regarded indie films with his husband, Wash Westmoreland, has died. Glatzer had Lou Gehrig's disease but chose to keep working.
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Non-drug approaches for treating aggression and other symptoms of dementia work better than antipsychotic drugs, a study finds, and are less risky. That includes teaching caregivers how to respond. -
Members of the AARP's Nevada chapter toured the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas --demonstrating older adults are comfortable with, and interested in new technology.
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Way too many residents of U.S. nursing homes are on antipsychotic drugs, critics say. It's often just for the convenience of the staff, to sedate patients agitated by dementia. That's illegal.
