Steve Mencher

Biography: Steve writes about culture, politics, the news, and other subjects for AARP. He's also a jazz musician with the Willis Gidney Quintet. He has worked for Carnegie Hall, NPR and the Library of Congress as an audio, video and multimedia producer.

Subscribe to this topic via: RSS Email

Steve Mencher 'sPosts

5 Ways to Deal With Surging Boomer Suicides

Posted on 05/6/2013 by Steve Mencher | News, Culture, Sights and Sounds | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal Health | Your LifeThe image would be comic if it wasn’t so sad. Feeling hopeless and alone years ago, I remember holding a belt and looking at my shower curtain rod, wondering if it would hold my weight. I couldn’t have been too serious about harming myself with such a flimsy plan. That picture popped into my head last week when I heard the news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that more people now die by suicide than in …

Have Athletes Found a New Fountain of Youth? Should You Try It?

Posted on 05/1/2013 by Steve Mencher | News, Culture, Sights and Sounds | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthGolfer Vijay Singh withdrew from the Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, N.C., May 1, one day after the PGA Tour said it wouldn’t punish him for using deer antler spray, a nutritional supplement that includes small amounts of a banned hormone. Singh blamed his departure on a sore back. Tough luck. The spray is supposed to cure that. After deer antler spray debuted in the popular press in January, when owners of a Florida lab claimed they had supplied it …

How Far Will Protection From Discrimination Slip?

Posted on 04/29/2013 by Steve Mencher | News, Culture, Sights and Sounds | Comments

Bulletin Today | Politics | WorkA case argued this month before the U.S. Supreme Court could make it more difficult to win discrimination suits, four years after another decision greatly weakened the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The current case is about national origin, not age, but groups, including AARP, have filed “friend of the court” briefs because they see important civil rights issues in play. Related: Age Discrimination Fact Sheet In University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW) v. Nassar, Dr. Naiel …

Boston Blast Knocks Down Runner, 78, But He Finishes Race

Posted on 04/16/2013 by Steve Mencher | News, Culture, Sights and Sounds | Comments

Bulletin Today | News RoundupsBill Iffrig was a few yards short of the finish line at the Boston Marathon when the 78-year-old runner was knocked to the ground by the first of two blasts. A Boston Globe photographer shot several pictures of the fallen Iffrig with police and race assistants nearby, and the images soon appeared around the world. Astonishingly, Iffrig was helped to his feet, apparently uninjured, and finished the race. “I was heading for the finish line,” he told ESPN’s Steve Levy. …

Can a Company Patent Your Genes (and Make a Boatload)?

Posted on 04/16/2013 by Steve Mencher | News, Culture, Sights and Sounds | Comments

Bulletin Today | PoliticsIf there’s a medical test that could save your life, should one company have the power to set its cost so high that few people could afford it? And what if the thing that makes the company’s test exclusive is a government-issued patent on a part of the human body? That’s what is at stake in a case the U.S. Supreme Court heard April 15 that could determine whether some biotech companies, by patenting particular human genes, can completely control …

Computer Geeks Make Money. Literally. What You Need to Know

Posted on 04/11/2013 by Steve Mencher | News, Culture, Sights and Sounds | Comments

Bulletin Today | Money & Savings | TechnologyNobody knows exactly who they are. But a group of computer geeks have created a virtual currency called “Bitcoins” that’s got everybody from the FBI to international bankers to the news media talking. Bitcoins are money that flows on the Internet — money that’s not backed by gold or governments. But it does buy things — like cars, pizza and guns. Starting from zero about four years ago, the Bitcoin economy was said to be worth about $2 billion earlier …