To the Point
A Medical Miracle with Conflicting Consequences
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A Medical Miracle with Conflicting Consequences

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Some 80 million baby boomers are reaching their late 50's. Will an aging population burden the young or use the wisdom that comes from experience to create a better society? Also, the Big Three automakers are tottering, and crickets are about to swarm by the hundreds of millions on small towns in Northern Nevada.  One town plans to turn up the volume of hard rock.

Banner image: Thomas Cain/Getty Images

Making News

Big Three Automakers Tottering ()

The Ford Motor Company, trying to avoid a federal bailout, announced losses of $1.8 billion today. GM is going to get more federal loans. Meantime, the Treasury Department set a deadline of next Thursday for Chrysler to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Daniel Howes is a business columnist with the Detroit News.

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Main Topic

A Medical Miracle with Conflicting Consequences ()

The post-war promise of paid leisure during the Golden Years may not be an option as the baby-boom generation reaches retirement age. Boomers will live almost twice as long as previous generations, and older Americans are going to outnumber the young. There's already competition for jobs, and young people who find work will pay for the rising costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. On the bright side is a new force of reliable workers with experience as well as good health and the wisdom to find fulfillment in social improvement. We look at the pros and cons of an aging America.

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Reporter's Notebook

March of the Mormon Cricket ()

mormon_crickets-sm.jpgArmies of blood-red crickets -- two miles long and a mile across -- are about to march through northern Nevada, destroying crops, causing accidents on highways, even crawling into people's homes. The two-inch long, so-called “Mormon Crickets,” can't fly but are a fearsome sight when they're on the march by the millions. One town has a novel method for fighting the infestation: turning up the volume of hard rock music.  Jeff Knight is the Nevada State Entomologist.

(Photo: Katie Madonia, taken in Nevada in 2006. Click to enlarge.)

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