"As the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Republican National Committee (RNC) prepare for conventions, their policy committees are drafting party platforms. But when it comes to policy on aging, these platforms haven’t changed significantly in 20 years. While Social Security, Medicare, and caregiving do matter, the exclusive focus on these policy issues wrongly assumes the homogeneity of older adults. In addition, it perpetuates and reinforces ageism. It’s high time the DNC and RNC take a new, broader look at their platforms to include more policies that address the modern and diverse needs of older adults."

Go here ->   https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/511158-both-parties-need-to-create-a-pro-aging-party-platform

"The current attacks on the post office, Czubakowski said, seem to be part of the long-running push from private shipping firms and conservatives to privatize the Postal Service.

“They’ve already accomplished, I believe, what they’ve set out to do,” Czubakowski said. “And that’s to undermine people’s confidence.”

But businesses that rely on the post office are running out of patience with the Trump Administration.

“Robbing the people of the post office is so divisive and it doesn’t even make sense,’’ said Bushel & Peck’s Gennett. “Republicans like the post office, too. They don’t hate the post office. Just the Trump administration does.” 

Go here -> https://upnorthnewswi.com/2020/08/18/late-medicine-and-food-gone-bad-as-trumps-usps-delays-hurt-wisconsin-families-and-shops/

"Faced with jittery citizens, increasingly pissed-off Democrats in Congress, and impending lawsuits from a large group of state attorneys general, the U.S. Postal Service today said that it would temporarily back off on the controversial policy changes that have led to a collective freakout about whether the Trump administration is actively attempting to sabotage the upcoming election by hampering mail-in voting. Unfortunately, the agency’s statement left it unclear whether it would actually reverse any of the moves it has already made, or simply halt additional changes, making it difficult to tell whether it was announcing a substantive backtrack or simply making a PR play."

Go here -> https://slate.com/business/2020/08/postmaster-general-dejoy-will-stop-screwing-with-the-mail.html

"Throughout its 245-year history, the Postal Service has persevered through rain, snow, heat, gloom of night, and even a global pandemic to serve the American people. But now this vital public service is under attack from within. In the course of two short months, a new Postmaster General has dramatically slowed the mail by banning overtime pay, dismantling mail sorting machines, removing mailboxes, and other service cuts.

On August 24, the House Oversight Committee will grill Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump ally, and Republican mega-donor, about whether these reckless actions are aimed at suppressing mail-in votes in the November election. This is a legitimate fear, given President Trump’s war on vote by mail."

Go here -> https://inequality.org/great-divide/postal-service-cuts-privatization/?source=feedburner

And here -> https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2020/08/19/state-politicians-squabble-on-postal-service/

"Nancy, a single woman with cerebral palsy, experienced a decline in functioning in middle age. By using a personal care aide (PCA) a few hours each day to help her bathe, dress, cook, and clean, Nancy was able to live on her own for many years.

As her needs increased, she reached limits on what Medicaid would pay. Nancy made the difficult decision to move to assisted living with onsite 24/7 personal care support.

Then COVID-19 hit. Nancy knows the advantages of social distancing, but her care requires close physical contact. Her PCAs take public transportation and care for others besides Nancy. They do not have regular access to personal protective equipment (PPE) because of shortages and lack of priority status to obtain such equipment. The facility attempts to compensate by screening staff members’ temperatures and symptoms upon arrival and through reliance on handwashing, but Nancy worries this is not enough. She hears that in some states up to 50 percent of deaths from COVID-19 are people who reside in long-term care facilities."

Go here -> https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2020/invisible-covid-workforce-direct-care-workers-those-disabilities

"The Direct Care Worker Story Project aims to enhance the visibility of this workforce, amplify its voices, and draw on workers’ unique wisdom to inform policy and practice.

The Project seeks to address the lack of representation of direct care workers in public narratives and ensure images used to depict long-term care work are grounded in workers’ and clients’ real experiences."

Go here -> https://phinational.org/workers-stories/

"Debates about working time tend to focus on quantity. Are American workers having to put in too many hours, especially those with caring responsibilities? This is of course a vitally important question. But it is not the only one. It matters not only how many hours people work, but how much control they have over them. Irregular work hours lead to income volatility for hourly wage workers, increasing the difficulty of making ends meet.  “Just-in-time” scheduling practices put workers in a vulnerable financial position—both by destabilizing earnings and by disrupting their access to safety net programs—and make it difficult for them to arrange childcare, attend school, or pick up a second job."

Go here -> https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/08/18/unpredictable-work-hours-and-volatile-incomes-are-long-term-risks-for-american-workers/

"Trump Payroll Tax Action Won’t Work, Could Endanger Social Security and Budget," Paul N. Van de Water, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, August 13, 2020
"President Trump’s executive action to allow the deferring of payroll tax payments will provide little or no near-term economic stimulus. Meanwhile, its potentially chaotic new rules will create significant compliance burdens for businesses, and workers may not see larger paychecks — and those who do could face surprise tax bills in a few months.

Moreover, permanently cutting payroll taxes, as Trump says he will later pursue, would endanger Social Security’s financing and sharply increase long-run budget deficits.

In an August 8 presidential memorandum, Trump directed the Treasury Secretary to let employers defer withholding and paying the 6.2 percent employee share of Social Security’s payroll tax from September 1 through December 31, 2020. The deferral would be available to workers earning less than $2,000 a week (or about $104,000 a year). Although the memorandum doesn’t specify the date by which the deferred taxes must be paid, current law lets the Treasury delay tax deadlines by up to a year during certain emergencies. We estimate that this policy would allow for deferring up to about $100 billion in Social Security payroll taxes. Trump promises to seek forgiveness of the deferred taxes, but that would require legislation.

Deferring employee payroll tax payments for a few months will accomplish little for several reasons."

Go here -> https://www.cbpp.org/blog/trump-payroll-tax-action-wont-work-could-endanger-social-security-and-budget

"Column: Trump tax deferral poses a bigger threat to Social Security than you might think," Mark Miller, Reuters, August 13, 2020
"What happens to Social Security if we eliminate its funding? 

That is the question to ask after Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum here last weekend ordering the deferral through year-end of revenue collected under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act - better known as the payroll tax - that funds Social Security.

FICA is the more appropriate name, because it more accurately describes the purpose of these payroll deductions. “I think of it as an insurance premium that we pay for Social Security,” said Bill Arnone, chief executive officer of the National Academy of Social Insurance, a network of research and policy experts on the nation’s social insurance programs."

Go here -> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-column-miller-socialsecurity-idUSKCN2591V5

"Covid strike teams apply an emergency response model traditionally used in natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires to combating outbreaks in long-term care facilities. Composed of about eight to 10 members from local emergency management departments, health departments, nonprofit organizations, private businesses — and at times, the National Guard — the teams are designed to bring more resources and personnel to a disaster scene."

Go here -> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/health/Covid-nursing-homes.html

Who is lobbying for older folks?
"Some want direct government aid. Others want tax breaks. Many want protection against lawsuits.

Nursing homes have been the center of America’s coronavirus pandemic, with more than 62,000 residents and staff dying from Covid-19 at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, about 40 percent of the country’s virus fatalities. Now the lightly regulated industry is campaigning in Washington for federal help that could increase its profits.

Some of the country’s largest nursing-home companies — including those with long histories of safety violations and misusing public funds — have assembled a fleet of lobbyists, many with close ties to the Trump administration."

Go here -> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/16/business/nursing-home-safety-trump.html

"Dive into the stats and data on all things COVID-19. Explore metrics including daily case counts, government spending to help people and businesses, health risk factors, and the virus's economic impact."

Go here -> https://usafacts.org/issues/coronavirus/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Paid&utm_campaign=COVID&utm_content=Issues

"Tracking the COVID-19 Recession’s Effects on Food, Housing, and Employment Hardships," Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, August 13, 2020

"The unemployment rate is very high and millions report that their households did not get enough to eat or that they are behind in paying the rent. We are able to track the extent of this hardship thanks to nearly real-time data from several sources on the unfolding economic crisis.

The impacts of the pandemic and the economic fallout have been widespread, but are particularly prevalent among Black, Latino,[1] Indigenous, and immigrant households. These disproportionate impacts reflect harsh, longstanding inequities — often stemming from structural racism — in education, employment, housing, and health care that the current crisis is exacerbating.

Relief measures have mitigated hardship, but there are significant gaps — including, for example, leaving out the poorest households from any increase in SNAP benefits — and implementation challenges that have delayed aid to some households. The measures are also temporary."

Go here -> https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/tracking-the-covid-19-recessions-effects-on-food-housing-and

"State Medicaid home- and community-based services can provide critical information, counseling, and training to family caregivers of older adults. This National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) interactive map, supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation, provides highlights of available education, training, and counseling services for family caregivers in Medicaid waivers. For more information, read NASHP’s report: State Approaches to Family Caregiver Education, Training, and Counseling."

Go here -> https://www.nashp.org/state-approaches-to-family-caregiver-education-training-and-counseling-in-medicaid-home-and-community-based-services/

And here ->https://www.nashp.org/state-approaches-to-family-caregiver-education-training-and-counseling/ 

"Margaret Haynes’ work and family life began to blur when she and her three sisters took turns helping their father care for their mother, whose health was declining due to Alzheimer’s.

“We thought about moving her into a memory care unit, but Mom was a nurse and had always said she wanted to live in her own home, not in a facility. Also, we really didn’t want to separate Mom and Dad,” says Haynes, who, as COO of the Right at Home Corporate Office headquartered in Omaha, Neb., turned to the services her company provides. Once she arranged for home care, the whole family felt able to breathe again.

“I have a hard time finding the right words around the impact the caregivers had on not only my mom, but on my dad, me and my sisters. We had peace of mind that someone was keeping an eye on Mom and reducing the risk associated with her wandering around, or needing help with meals,” says Haynes. “These caregivers focused on my mom’s abilities, versus what she couldn’t do, and found ways to bring joy to her day.”

Go here -> https://www.nextavenue.org/helping-hand-for-family-caregivers/

And here -> https://www.nextavenue.org/assisted-living-job-to-be-near-loved-one-covid-19/

In need of a home, jazz trumpeter Jack Fine, 91, finds one with fellow trumpeter James Williams," Keith Spera, Nola.com, August 13, 2020
"At 91, jazz cornetist Jack Fine thought his rambling days were done. As he tells it, he was a cop in New York and a musician in Paris. He survived three plane crashes and ran a mob-connected club in Greenwich Village. He hung out with Billie Holiday and ate ice cream on Louis Armstrong’s stoop.

Late in life, he moved to New Orleans and became a fixture on Frenchmen Street, a jazz elder statesman with a sweet tone and an endless supply of stories.

Fine recently had to move out of the retirement community where he lived. He was dropped off at the Mid-City home of James Williams, the 32-year-old, Louis Armstrong-inspired singer and trumpeter of the New Orleans Swamp Donkeys Traditional Jass Band."

Go here -> https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/keith_spera/article_307d01b4-dcb0-11ea-a91c-af81954a3c9b.html

"Throughout the 2020 presidential election, as President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked voting by mail as prone to fraud (it’s not), he has also taken pains to distinguish between “voting by mail” and “absentee voting.”

Given that Trump himself is voting absentee in 2020, this hair-splitting on his part isn’t exactly shocking. But Trump’s specific claims — that absentee voting and “voting by mail” are somehow different, and that absentee voters “have to go through a whole process” different from that for mail voters — are worth addressing.

The short version is that there’s no firm distinction between absentee voting and voting by mail. There’s a colloquial distinction between the two, but not a legal one. And there’s no reason to think “voting by mail,” insofar as it informally refers to something different from “absentee voting,” is prone to fraud or other problems."

Go here -> https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/8/18/21373478/absentee-ballot-vote-by-mail-voting

"Narrow Margin is a series by Wisconsin Watch staff, media partners, and a University of Wisconsin-Madison investigative journalism class. The project is examining voting security, suppression, and disinformation aimed at voters in Wisconsin — a crucial state that could determine the winner of the 2020 presidential election. The investigative reporting class is led by Dee J. Hall, managing editor for Wisconsin Watch."

Go here -> https://www.wisconsinwatch.org/series/narrow-margin/

"Most in-person events have been canceled for the foreseeable future, but you can learn about Alzheimer's disease and brain health by attending virtual events. Below are a few upcoming events that feature Wisconsin Alzheimer's disease researchers and memory care doctors."

Go here -> https://mailchi.mp/b872defc634f/headlines-news-from-the-wisconsin-alzheimers-disease-research-center-12348779?e=136f98792c

"Utility Shut Off Moratorium Extended-Wisconsin residents have until Oct. 1 before disconnections start," By Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio Urban Milwaukee,  August 20, 2020 

"State regulators have decided to once again extend a moratorium on utility shutoffs for residential customers, with a new end date of Oct. 1. The decision comes as around one-third of residential customers have fallen behind on their bills across Wisconsin.

Last month, the Public Service Commission voted 2 to 1 to extend a temporary moratorium that was part of an order it issued in March that prevented utilities from disconnecting water, electricity, and heat for customers who couldn’t pay their utility bills during the COVID-19 crisis.

PSC Chairperson Rebecca Valcq again highlighted that COVID-19 cases are still high. She also pointed to the public health emergency, the expiration of the weekly $600 federal unemployment benefit, and schools that are shifting reopening plans to virtual instruction."

Go here -> https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2020/08/20/utility-shut-off-moratorium-extended/

"A Republican incumbent facing a national emergency. A Democratic Party torn between populism and practicality. A divided nation united by the idea that America needs to get out of the mess it's in.

Sound familiar? That's how it was the first time Milwaukee landed a national political convention.

This week, Milwaukee is hosting the 2020 Democratic National Convention, but it's a very different gathering than the one the city had hoped for. About 50,000 people had been expected to come to town. But because of the pandemic, the nominee, Joe Biden, and the delegates are staying home, and all those high-profile gatherings are off."

Go here -> https://www.jsonline.com/story/life/green-sheet/2019/02/19/milwaukees-first-national-political-convention-floor-fights-reined/2880764002/