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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: baby boomer

baby boomer stories: 42 news summaries

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As Baby Boomers Age, Suburbs Try to Adapt

Street grids become walker-friendly for elderly

Sep 19, 09 12:29 PM CDT
(Newser) - As baby boomers go, so go the suburbs. Now that boomers are entering or at least approaching retirement, the 'burbs are changing face to adapt to their needs, reports the Wall Street Journal. Across the country, communities are changing street grids to become walker-friendly, adding condos where single-family homes once... More »

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baby boomer • Atlanta • aging • suburbs

TECH REVIEW

 Rock Band Matures 
 With Beatles Edition 

Game is good, clean cross-generational fun

Sep 7, 09 5:06 PM CDT
(Newser) - The Beatles: Rock Band successfully brings the winning music-game formula to one of rock’s biggest names, writes Elizabeth Landau for CNN. Designed to be played by as many as six, the game "does make for a great time and will probably be a hit at parties." Meanwhile,... More »

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baby boomer • Beatles • Rock Band • video game reviews • video games • tech review • Jay-ZTV

(AP) - Some Americans haven't let go of one part of the 1960s: getting high on illicit drugs. The percentage of Americans age 50-59 who reported use of illicit drugs within a year nearly doubled from 2002-2007, from 5.1% to 9.4%, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported... More »

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baby boomer • drug use • marijuana • 1960s • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration • middle age • illegal drugs

A Quarter of Middle-Aged
Men Binge Drink

Excessive alcohol consumption isn't just for college kids

Aug 17, 09 5:24 PM CDT
(Newser) - Binge drinking is generally thought to be a college-age phenomenon, but middle-aged people—especially men—live it up as well, the New York Daily News reports. A new study in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that 23% of men and 9% of women between 50 and 64 years old... More »

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baby boomer • alcohol • binge drinking • college • middle age • American Journal of Psychiatry

(Newser) - Now that the financial crisis has destroyed so many nest eggs, many soon-to-be retirees are buying annuities and leaving their kids to fend for themselves, the Wall Street Journal reports. Annuities turn a lump-sum payment into a guaranteed income for life. That’ll provide more peace of mind than... More »

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baby boomer • retirement • financial crisis • annuity

 Mississippi Still Porkiest, 
 but Alabama Closing In 

Obesity up in 23 states: report

Jul 1, 09 12:17 PM CDT
(AP) - Mississippi's still king of cellulite, but an ominous tide is rolling toward the Medicare doctors in neighboring Alabama: obese baby boomers. It's time for the nation's annual obesity rankings and, outside of fairly lean Colorado, there's little good news. Obesity rates among adults rose in 23 states over the past... More »

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obesity • baby boomer • obesity epidemic • Medicare • fat • Alabama • Mississippi • Colorado

OPINION

Live With It:
Retirement
Must Shrink

Longer lifespans, older population mean quitting age has to rise

Jun 26, 09 12:13 PM CDT
(Newser) - With people living longer and having fewer children in developed countries, the population is aging even as the workforce shrinks. And with retirement ages in the 60s, retirees are living longer on pensions. Those demographic shifts make a policy shift inevitable: we’re all going to have to work longer,... More »

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baby boomer • elderly • Japan • work • retirement • retirees • aging • baby boom • Hitachi • demographic trends

Big Three See Bumpy Road With 20-Somethings

Demographic key to rebuilding for US automakers

May 29, 09 2:23 PM CDT
(Newser) - Detroit automakers face a hard road when it comes to Generation Y—consumers aged 22-32 whose business is crucial to securing the firms' futures, BusinessWeek reports. Their boomer parents broke from tradition by shifting to Japanese cars, and Gen Y is following in those footsteps. Detroit “simply must do... More »

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Chrysler • baby boomer • Toyota • General Motors • Detroit • automaker • Ford • Big Three • Generation Y • US automakers • Japanese auto industry

Early Retirees Face Shaky Financial Future

Bucking poll, older workers ditch work
in tough economy

May 24, 09 2:30 PM CDT
(Newser) - A growing number of older US  workers are bucking expectations and retiring early, risking financial hardship in their senior years, the Los Angeles Times reports. Instead of staving off retirement to rebuild diminished nest eggs, many older Americans, frustrated by the job market, are simply calling it quits. Add aging... More »

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baby boomer • retirement • recession • Social Security • retirement benefits

 Grandparents Face 
 Bitter Foe: Other 
 Grandparents 

Jealousy games amount to big consumer spending

May 14, 09 12:01 PM CDT
(Newser) - Baby boomers are joining the ranks of grandparents, and as usual, they want to be the best—which includes outranking other grandparents in their mutual grandchildren's affections. The competition is so fierce that it's an economic stimulus unto itself: 42% of gift spending is by grandparents, the Boston Globe... More »

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baby boomer • big gifts • competition • grandparents • consumerism

ANALYSIS

Madoff Case Likely to Sour Boomers on Stocks

Fraud is final straw after terrible performance, analysts say

Mar 12, 09 1:47 PM CDT
(Newser) - With Bernard Madoff’s long, fraudulent story drawing to a close, stock-market analysts look to the larger effect the $50 billion Ponzi scheme will have on equities, Kate Gibson writes for MarketWatch. Combined with the dismal performance in stocks over the last year, experts say Madoff’s deception has probably... More »

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investing • stock market • baby boomer • equity • securities • Ponzi scheme • Bernard Madoff

Rosie's Menopause Guru? Madonna

'Big sis' tells O'Donnell to 'get the cream' for 'hormone things'

Feb 25, 09 10:37 AM CST
(Newser) - The Material Girl can add another talent to her resume: menopause counselor. At least according to Rosie O'Donnell, who happily overshared in an interview on The Tyra Banks Show. Between investigating the source of all the sweat in her bed and cutting out booze, O'Donnell still has time to check... More »

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entertainment • baby boomer • Rosie O'Donnell • menopause • Tyra Banks • Madonna

Aging Boomers Want Hipper Label Than 'Grandpa'

Forever Young generation outgrows stereotypical grandparent tags

Jan 23, 09 11:03 AM CST
(Newser) - As baby boomers become grandparents, the generation that never wanted to get old is grappling with maturity. Many new grandparents are dodging the bullets of age by avoiding typical “Grandma,” “Grandpa,” and “Bubbe” labels, the Wall Street Journal reports. Preferring to retain her glamour, one... More »

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baby boomer • aging • grandparents • name

 Belt-Tightening Spares 
 Older Workers 

Increasingly, companies value maturity, experience of older employees

Jan 21, 09 8:06 AM CST
(Newser) - As companies nationwide cut tens of thousands of jobs, younger workers appear to be taking a hit as companies try to retain older, more experienced employees, reports BusinessWeek. Boomers increasingly have become corporate America’s gold standard: “When you’re in your 50s and 60s, you’re in your... More »

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baby boomer • unemployment • Generation X • Deere and Co • CVS • Walgreens • financial crisis

Obama Signals End of Boomers' DC Reign

But at 47 he's too old for Gen X; seen as more of a bridge

Jan 12, 09 9:14 AM CST
(Newser) - Baby boomers will lose Washington next week to a new, more pragmatic generation. But which one that is seems up for debate, reports the AP. At 47, Barack Obama is a tad too young for boomers—whose partisan politics are informed by civil-rights marches and sexual liberation—but too old... More »

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Barack Obama • baby boomer • age • Generation X • Generation Y • George W. Bush • President Obama • Generation Jones • Cusp Generation

OPINION

In Your Late 40s? You Are
the Dumbest Generation

President-Elect is smart, but his early-60s birth cohort isn't

Dec 6, 08 11:42 AM CST
(Newser) - Barack Obama is a pretty smart guy, but his generation—the strange, in-between group born from the late 1950s to mid-1960s—is, quantitatively, the dumbest on record, writes Neil Howe of the Washington Post. Sometimes called “Generation Jones” or “early Xers,” this group nabbed the fewest... More »

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baby boomer • generation gap • Generation X

 Nuke Tests 
 Left Mark on 
 Trees, People 

Scientists can date humans and trees by the extra carbon in their systems

Nov 16, 08 4:04 PM CST
(Newser) - Scientists can now carbon-date baby boomers by detecting atomic bomb residue in their DNA, NPR reports. Turns out that carbon-14 released during above-ground nuclear tests in the 1950s and '60s hung around, then was absorbed into living tissue, experts say. Evidence, in the form of extra carbon neutrons, has been... More »

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baby boomer • trees • carbon • atomic bomb • radiocarbon dating • carbon date

OPINION

Gen X to Boomers:
We Get It Now

With Obam's election, Gen X sees the political light

Nov 9, 08 5:09 AM CST
(Newser) - Sorry, boomers, for taking so long to drop the cynicism and eye-rolling, writes Heather Havrilesky in Salon. But to those who "became rational adults at the exact moment a reckless frat boy boomer became president," your generation's idealism and tales of '60s radicalism fell flat, she spills. Barack... More »

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Barack Obama • baby boomer • Generation X • salon • Barack Obama supporters • Election 2008

OPINION

Unprepared Next Gen Faces 'Stone-Cold Scarcity'

Can young people used to prosperity handle scarcity?

Nov 4, 08 11:14 AM CST
(Newser) - Today marks a national sea change, the “end of an economic era, a political era, and a generational era,” writes David Brooks in the New York Times. “The baby boomers have been a politically undistinguished generation,” he writes, and now, “change is demanded." If... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Barack Obama • baby boomer • transition • weakening economy • David Brooks • Election 2008 • financial crisis

Suicide Rate Soars for Middle-Aged

Scientists baffled
by 16% spike
for Boomers

Oct 21, 08 5:02 AM CDT
(Newser) - A sharp rise in the number of middle-aged white people taking their own lives has driven up the US suicide rate by nearly 5% since 1999, the Los Angeles Times reports. Experts are baffled by the nearly 16% hike in this group, but speculate that prescription drug abuse, a drop... More »

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suicide • baby boomer • depression • middle age • suicide rate

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