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Ina Jaffe

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Ina Jaffe is a National desk correspondent based at NPR West, NPR's production center in Culver City, Calif.

Covering California and the West, Jaffe has reported on nearly all of the major news events, elections, and natural disasters in the region. Currently, she covers issues related to aging. She also reports on regional and national politics, contributing election coverage in 2008, 2010, and 2012.

In addition to captivating and informing listeners, Jaffe's reports have garnered critical acclaim. In 2012, her series on rising violence in California State Psychiatric Hospitals was honored with a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media as well as awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors and the American Bar Association. Her three-part series on California's Three Strikes sentencing law won the ABA's Silver Gavel Award in 2010, as well as the Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists. For her coverage of California politics, Jaffe received two California Journalism Awards for reporting on minority political power in Los Angeles and the historic recall election that made Arnold Schwarzenegger governor.

Before moving to Los Angeles, Jaffe was the first editor of Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon which made its debut in 1985. As Weekend Edition Saturday editor, Jaffe shared a 1988 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for the report "A State of Emergency" which covered racial conflict in Philadelphia.

Born in Chicago, Jaffe attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and DePaul University receiving Bachelor's and Master's degrees in philosophy, respectively.

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It's All Politics
3:26 am
Fri November 16, 2012

In California, 'Republican' Is Becoming A Toxic Label

Credit Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images
Citizens vote in Los Angeles County on Nov. 6.
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Originally published on Fri November 16, 2012 10:35 pm

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Election 2012
5:06 am
Thu November 1, 2012

Older Voters Could Decide Outcome In Volatile Wis.

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Originally published on Thu November 1, 2012 6:41 am

The battleground state of Wisconsin has a higher percentage of older voters than the national average. Recently, it's also had a volatile political history, including an effort to recall the governor. Older voters at the Middleton Senior Center discuss their experiences and the issues driving their decisions now.

It's All Politics
3:26 pm
Thu October 18, 2012

Underdog Democrat Is Keeping Things Close In Nevada Senate Race

Credit Julie Jacobson / AP
Democatic Rep. Shelley Berkley greets Republican Sen. Dean Heller before the second of their three debates, on Oct. 11 in Las Vegas.
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Originally published on Thu October 18, 2012 8:00 pm

Early in-person voting in Nevada starts Saturday, and it's not just the presidential contest that's being closely watched in this swing state.

The race for the U.S. Senate is also seen as a tossup, a bit of a surprise for Republicans, who have counted on retaining the GOP-held seat as they try to build a majority.

Republican Sen. Dean Heller — in office for only 18 months — faces seven-term Rep. Shelley Berkley on Nov. 6.

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Presidential Race
7:21 am
Sat September 22, 2012

Obama, Ryan Pitch Medicare Plans To Older Voters

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Originally published on Sat September 22, 2012 10:35 am

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Both campaigns tried to appeal to older voters yesterday. President Obama and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan addressed thousands of members of the AARP in New Orleans. Changes to Medicare and Social Security topped the agenda for both, but NPR's Ina Jaffee reports, there was more to these voters reactions to the candidates.

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NPR Story
4:56 pm
Fri September 21, 2012

Obama, Ryan Talk Medicare At AARP Convention

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Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 6:53 pm

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

In New Orleans today, thousands of senior citizens were treated to two different visions for their future. President Obama and GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan each addressed the AARP.

As NPR's Ina Jaffe reports, they took questions on topics ranging from Medicare to Social Security, and back to Medicare.

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Around the Nation
3:28 am
Mon September 10, 2012

Los Angeles VA Has Made Millions On Rental Deals

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Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
The 388-acre campus of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Los Angeles was donated to the federal government more than 100 years ago for use as a home for disabled veterans, but is no longer used for that purpose. In 2007, Building 209, pictured here, was designated as a place to house disabled homeless vets. It is currently abandoned.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
An empty room is seen inside Building 209. Although the building is supposed to house disabled vets, it is currently vacant and uninhabitable.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
Building 205, pictured here, sits vacant. It was designated as future housing for disabled homeless veterans in 2007.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
The campus has more than a dozen long-term rental deals with various enterprises, most of which don't serve veterans. There's a private baseball stadium, storage for film sets and a laundry for Marriott Hotels. Meanwhile, other buildings sit abandoned.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
Building 208 (left) and Building 209 are seen on the VA campus. In 2010, the VA budgeted $20 million to renovate 209, but work hasn't started.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
The chapel on campus is abandoned and deteriorating. The 1900s-era building is a rare early-American, multidenominational site. It holds one chapel for Protestants and another for Catholics. The J. Paul Getty Museum provided a $75,000 grant in 2000 to support conservation planning, but no work has yet been done on the building.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
R.W. Williams, 63, a Vietnam veteran, has been seeking medical treatment for a host of ailments, including PTSD, at the VA health center in Los Angeles. He is seen here on the campus near a mural honoring soldiers.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
Conly Mims, 59, a Marine Corps veteran, is seen in the old trolley building. Mims participates in the Salvation Army Haven Program, which caters to veterans struggling with a variety of complex problems such as a shortage of housing and chronic medical issues.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
The Old Soldiers Home in Los Angeles is seen in this photo from 1892. The land was donated to the VA by landholder Arcadia Bandini de Baker in 1887, who specified that it should be used to house wounded veterans.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
Arcadia Bandini de Baker donated the West Los Angeles property more than 100 years ago to the federal government.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
"Barracks Buildings and Park" are seen in this vintage postcard from the Old Soldiers Home.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
The chapel, seen circa 1900, was used for religious services, weddings, substance abuse counseling and funeral rites by both veterans and members of the local community until a 1971 earthquake made the building unsafe for use. It is currently deteriorating, although the VA hopes to save it.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
The Band Stand and Memorial Hall, circa 1900.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
Markham Hall, circa 1900.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
The dining hall, circa 1900.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
Barracks Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 6.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
Campus headquarters, 1935.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
An image of attendants, circa 1949.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
The campus of the VA Medical Center in West Los Angeles was donated to the federal government more than 100 years ago for use as a home for wounded veterans. Building 209, pictured here, was designated as a place to house disabled homeless vets in 2007, but the VA has yet to start renovations.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
Carolina Winston Barrie is the great-great niece of Arcadia Bandini de Baker, who donated the land for the Los Angeles VA campus in 1887. Winston Barrie spent years trying to get the VA to maintain the intent of the gift. Instead, parts of the property have been leased to various commercial enterprises.
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Originally published on Mon September 10, 2012 7:59 pm

Most Los Angeles residents only know the Veterans Affairs medical center in West Los Angeles as something they glimpse from their cars when they're on traffic-choked Wilshire Boulevard. From the road it looks like a park, but within the grounds is the largest medical facility in the VA's health care system.

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The Record
5:01 pm
Thu June 21, 2012

He'll Retune Your Living Room

Credit Tomasz Zajaczkowski / iStockphoto.com
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Originally published on Thu June 21, 2012 6:11 pm

Want better sound from your home music system? Electrical engineering professor Chris Kyriakakis says it might not be your stereo components that are the problem — it might be your home.

Kyriakakis, who is the principal investigator at the Immersive Audio Lab at the University of Southern California, has spent years figuring out how to make the experience of listening to recorded sound as close to what you hear in a live performance as possible.

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Art & Design
5:21 pm
Wed June 20, 2012

340 Tons Of Art: 'Levitated Mass' To Rock L.A.

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Credit Courtesy of Michael Heizer
A 2011 sketch by artist Michael Heizer shows the walkway visitors will use to pass under the granite boulder at the center of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's installation. (Click here to enlarge.)
Credit Tom Vinetz / Courtesy of Michael Heizer
Artist Michael Heizer's megalith finally arrived at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on March 10. It took years for Heizer to find the perfect rock.
Credit Ina Jaffe / NPR
Artist Michael Heizer's handpicked boulder, and its custom-made transporter, sat at the Stone Valley Quarry for months while the moving team acquired permits to haul it through four counties and 22 cities en route to L.A.
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Originally published on Thu June 21, 2012 9:39 am

Los Angeles has a new rock star — a 340-ton boulder perched above a long walk-through trench at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The installation, called Levitated Mass, is a new work by artist Michael Heizer that opens to the public on June 24.

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