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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A close, contentious California primary race was finally decided early Wednesday morning. State Treasurer Phil Angelides won the Democratic nomination for governor, narrowly beating out Controller Steve Westly. Angelides will run against Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the fall.
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The city of Vernon, with less than 100 legal residents, has long been controlled by just a couple of families and at one time went more than 25 years without an election. But a lawsuit and government investigations could change all that. -
There are some ambitious plans to get many of the tens of thousands of homeless in Los Angeles County off the streets and into homes far away from the downtown area known as Skid Row. But many cities say they're already doing their part.
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide. California's air quality goals have implications for industry and auto makers because they often lead to a ripple effect for laws across the country.
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For months, Los Angeles city officials have complained that regional hospitals are dropping off their indigent patients in the city's tough Skid Row area. On Wednesday, a group of city council members released a videotape that seems to have caught one hospital in the act.
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered his third State of the State address Thursday night. Schwarzenegger, who has suffered a drop in the polls and whose initiatives were defeated in a special election last November, struck a conciliatory tone. -
A Hollywood stage show has become a hit by playing juvenile angst for laughs. Mortified features adults from all walks of life reading aloud from diaries, letters and poems they composed as teens for the amusement of total strangers.
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Attorneys for death row inmate Stanley Tookie Williams meet Thursday with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. They will argue for clemency for the Crips' co-founder and for commuting his sentence to life in prison without parole. Williams is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Dec. 13.
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Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been talking tough in his bid to take control of the city's large, troubled school district. Such a takeover could put Villaraigosa at odds with the teachers' union, a group he once served as a labor organizer.
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New Orleans today began allowing residents from eight of the city's 18 postal zip codes to return home as part of a phased return program. Many areas of the city still lack electricity and clean water.
