Laura Polacheck

As America celebrates the 50 th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act (VRA), millions of eyes are on the hard-fought battle that was finally won in 1965.

To coincide with Tax Identity Theft Awareness Week, the AARP Fraud Watch Network is launching an education effort to help people protect themselves from tax scams, releasing a new video, a tip sheet and encouraging people to take advantage of AARP’s free tax preparation services.

(Midvale, UT) To recognize their work to support family caregivers in Utah, AARP named Representative Rebecca Chavez-Houck and Senator Brian Shiozawa as 2014 “Capitol Caregivers,” a bipartisan group of 46 state legislators and 3 governors from 19 states. These elected officials have advanced policies to help family caregivers who are making it possible for older Utahns to live independently at home—where they want to be. Representative Chavez-Houck and Senator Shiozawa will be formally recognized for this honor today at the meeting of the Utah Coalition for Caregiving Support at the Department of Human Services.

Back in the 1940s AARP's founder, retired educator Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, found a former teacher living in a chicken coop because she could afford nothing else. Dr. Andrus couldn’t ignore the need for health and financial security in America and set the wheels in motion for what would become AARP. She also pioneered the idea of insuring teachers as a group to make coverage accessible and affordable, approaching 50 different insurance companies before she found one that would go along with this concept. The belief that access to affordable, quality health care insurance is an American ideal drives AARP to continue this fight today.

by Lee Benson of the Deseret News

by Sid Kirchheimer

Utah is known for its fabulous skiing, beautiful national parks (five of them, the most in the country) and clean living, but it's also recognized as one of the best states for successful aging according to an index released by the Milken Institute on November 18. Provo was ranked third and Salt Lake City was ranked fifth of 352 U.S. cities in their index, which realizes that most Americans want to age at home and in place as opposed to moving somewhere else to retire.

Family caregivers in the U.S. spend an estimated 30 billion hours per year caring for older family and friends. That’s about $522 billion in care, according to a new Rand Corp. study, as measured by valuing the time caregivers have sacrificed in order to be able to provide care.

AARP Utah is proud to sponsor the Huntsman World Senior Games--the largest sports event for those 50+ in the world with athletes competing from all 50 states and 21 nations. This year, 10,745 competitors gathered in St. George, Utah where the Games are held to compete in dozens of sports from archery to volleyball. There are 2500 volunteers who make the Games run smoothly in what is now the 28th year of the Games. The Games opened on October 5 and will close on October 18.

In its "50 Heroes, 50 States" list, MONEY magazine selected AARP Utah Area Coordinator Art Sutherland to be Utah's representative as a person doing creative and extraordinary work to help the finances of others in their state. Art was nominated by Coalition of Religious Communities Director Linda Hilton and AARP Utah Communications Director Laura Polacheck for his outstanding work on predatory lending issues in the state.