America is getting older. Fast. Baby boomers -- the 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964 -- are rapidly hitting retirement age. The oldest boomers turned 65 last year, and for the next two decades, Americans will hit that age at a rate of 8,000 a day. By the time you finish reading this paragraph, another five boomers will have reached 65.

Governing's multiple-part series on aging in America continues this month with new magazine features (below) on senior health as well as additional stories, data and interactive content at governing.com/generations.

 

States Seek to Keep Seniors Out of Nursing Homes
States are searching for affordable ways to allow seniors in need of long-term care to remain in their homes.

Boomers Want Control of Their End-of-Life Care
A state-level movement has evolved to give patients more say in what medicine and medical procedures they want or don’t want during their final days.

Telehealth's Chance to Revolutionize Health Care
If states can get out of the way, advances in telehealth could lead to savings of 20 to 40 percent by reducing unnecessary hospitalizations and catching chronic problems early.

How More Access to Data Can Transform Health Care
Under the Affordable Care Act, states are gaining access to Medicare data for the first time and using it to target high-risk populations in an effort to lower health-care costs.

 

FEATURES

• Can You Separate Federal Issues from State Elections?
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• Many state candidates are asked less about their stance on issues affecting the state and more about federal matters they can do little about.

• Milwaukee Police Give 911 a Facelift
• By: John Buntin
• Milwaukee has overhauled how it responds to serious crimes -- but not without criticism. Are the risks of challenging policing's status quo worth the rewards?

• What Will Government Look Like in 2037?
• By: Ryan Holeywell
• This month marks Governing’s 25th anniversary, so we asked leaders for their predictions on how government will have changed 25 years from now.

• Cyberattack Could Leave States in the Dark
• By: David Hatch
• A cyberattack could leave whole regions with no Internet, phone service or electricity. State cybersecurity officers must plan for the unthinkable.

POLITICS + POLICY

• Felons' Voting Rights Could Impact 2012 Election
• By: Lauren Henry
• States have wildly different policies when it comes to voting rights for convicted felons. Some say those discrepancies may impact the outcome of elections.

• Public Workers Bid for Their Jobs
• By: Ryan Holeywell
• As cities seek new ways to save money, more and more are requiring their employees to bid against the private sector for work in a process known as “managed competition.”

• Sports Leagues Sue New Jersey over Betting
• By: Ryan Holeywell
• According to the four major sports leagues and the NCAA, the state violated a 1992 federal law that prohibited sports gambling and is ruining the fun for fans.

• Ranking the Nation’s Worst Friday Afternoon Commutes
• By: Mike Maciag

• Social Impact Bonds: Finding Funding for an Ounce of Prevention
• By: Ryan Holeywell
• Social impact bonds are a relatively new financial instrument that promises to earn returns for investors while giving state and local governments the upfront capital they need to pursue money-saving programs.

• Electric Vehicles’ Role in Meeting New Efficiency Rules
• By: Paul W. Taylor
• One man’s test of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure along the West Coast highlights the hurdles ahead for states and localities in meeting the Obama administration’s new fuel efficiency rules.

• Global Libor Scandal Cost States and Localities Millions
• By: Donald F. Kettl
• State and local governments have sued banks, claiming that they cheated them out of enormous investment returns at a time when their budgets were already badly damaged from the recession.

• Alaska Sues Feds Over Voting Rights Act
• By: Ryan Holeywell

• As Health Exchange Deadline Looms, States Race Against the Clock
• By: David Levine
• The more than 30 states that are scrambling to set up health insurance exchanges as mandated by the federal health-care law have several options for meeting a Nov. 16 deadline.

• Can Credit-Exchange Programs Clean Up Lakes?
• By: Elizabeth Daigneau
• The concept has been used for the past 40 years as a means of restoring the health of rivers, streams, lakes and oceans -- but it's getting new attention.

• How Private Services Became Public
• By: Alex Marshall
• Things we take for granted today -- public police, roads and libraries -- were only achieved through long, hard political battles that lasted decades and sometimes centuries.

• DIY Urbanism Makes Creative Use of Public Spaces
• By: Tod Newcombe
• As the economy continues to take big bites out of arts and city planning budgets, this bottom-up approach is changing the look of some cities. Are governments ready to embrace these grassroots ideas?

PROBLEM SOLVER

• Parents Owing Child Support Avoid Jail (Not For Free)
• By: Caroline Cournoyer
• In Virginia, where parents owe more than $2 billion, a program keeps parents out of jail and solves the underlying issues that keep them from paying up.

• What Killed Alabama’s Performance Measurement Plan?
• By: Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene
• Less than a decade after the state enacted its first real performance measurement plan, it -- like a number of other similar programs in the states -- has fallen on hard times.

• Washington State Offers Voter Registration on Facebook
• By: Brian Peteritas
• Partnering with the social media site and Microsoft, the state has created an application that it hopes will boost voter registration.

• Kansas Pays Schools to Boost Skilled Labor
• By: Brian Peteritas
• The state is going to pay school districts $1,000 for every student that graduates with credentials in high-need jobs.

• What Makes the Best Government Website?
• By: Steve Towns
• The ‘Best of the Web’ winners showcase must-have features for effective public-sector sites.

• Cities, Counties and the Urge to Merge
• By: Mark Funkhouser
• Consolidating governments is hard to do, but the idea keeps coming up.

Training Opportunities

• Accelerating Economic Growth and Vitality
• This white paper describes how developing competencies in five key area can help public safety agencies more effectively do their jobs in the face of extremely important and difficult sets of issues.
• Crime Prediction and Prevention


• FutureStructure: A New Framework