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COVID and Conflagrations by Tracy E. Hill, Ph.D. This month, I decided to see how the United States was faring with interstate travel during the current pandemic as well as witness firsthand the devastating wildfires out west. My 90-year-old engineer-trained father-in-law spends countless hours in assisted living isolation (due to COVID) trying to figure out Read more
Gerrymandering: Cheating the American Voter by Cathleen McGowan Ten-year census data is so important for our political system. In 2021, after the census is completed, each state will re-draw district lines for state and national governments. These lines will stay for ten years. Rigging this process through gerrymandering is a real threat. Four years ago, Read more
Voting & Your Rights to Vote by Tracy E. Hill, Ph.D. Did you know that Saudi women got the right to vote just a few years ago (2015)? And in Turkey and Belgium, voting is mandatory with more than 85% of citizens showing up to the polls. In the 2010 Rwanda elections, more than 97% of Read more
Biggest Culprit to Parents’ Wealth: Family by Tracy E. Hill, Ph.D. The Pennsylvania Department of Aging recently concluded the “Financial Exploitation of Older Adults Study Report” which audited random case files (455) from ten PA Area Agencies on Aging over more than a dozen counties which had reported considerable exploitation (financial) cases three years ago. Read more
The Psychology of Protests by Tracy E. Hill, Ph.D. A recent paper, “The Activist’s Dilemma,” in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology looks at the effect of extreme behavior on popular support for social movements. Considering this year has been fraught with angst and anguish and scattered with protests around the world, I found Read more
New Retirement Income Benefits by Stan Corey There is new information about the timing of when someone should elect to begin receiving retirement benefits under the new Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act, which was signed into law on December 20, 2019. Two of the most critical changes that came about as Read more
Hacked, Tracked, and Blinkered by Angie Littlefield A flurry of e-mails alerted me. Individuals I didn’t know had joined something called a “household” on a loyalty card I have for a drugstore chain. I quickly went to my local store where the kind cosmetics lady looked up my receipts from December to see if I Read more
Assemblage In the Summer 2020 issue of Generations, the journal of the American Society on Aging, professors Janine Wiles of the University of Auckland and Gavin Andrews of McMaster University look at the concept of “home” and how its meaning may have changed for older adults. They discuss the two basic components of home: the physical-material Read more
Finding a Job After 50 by Amy Crooks I hate looking for a new job. I know I’m not the only one out there who feels this way. Over the past few decades, I’ve held several positions at different companies. However, due to mergers, layoffs or the opportunities for advancement, I had been happily settled Read more
The Aftermath: A Community Scattered by Michael Orr On November 8, 2018, the Camp Fire engulfed the town of Paradise, California and several nearby smaller-communities. The wind-driven fire left more than 11,000 homes in ashes and took the lives of at least 85 people. Ninety-five percent of Paradise was wiped off the map in a Read more
