European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 11, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday August 11, 1988 the stars and stripes Page 3 it s not the size of the Solute that really counts Retreat time at Ledward Barracks Schweinfurt West Germany finds two military figures stopping to Salute the lowering colors. Sgt. 1st class Danny Hall of he Btry 1st in 10th Field arty is up staged by his 4-year-old son Danny Lee who likes nothing better than attending a Retreat ceremony. The pint sized Patriot s Mother made his uniform. Is Lynda w. Sparks social Security accused of cruel hoax on retirees Washington a up to one third of All recent retirees May be getting substantially shortchanged on their so Cial Security checks because of discrepancies in government records a Union representing Federal workers said tues Day. A recently announced plan by the so Cial Security administration and the internal Revenue service to Correct the re cords is a cruel hoax and a charade Kenneth l. Blaylock president of the american federation of government employees told two House ways and Means subcommittees. The Union represents 700,000 work ers including 60,000 at the social Secu Rity administration. Government auditors agreed that the chances of Clearing up discrepancies of past years look Bleak. However the irs social Security agreement should result in More employees social Security covered earnings being properly reported to and recorded by sea said Joseph f. Delfico senior associate director of the general accounting office. Blaylock s account of the extent of the records problem was considerably worse than estimates by Gao auditors. The Gao the investigative  of Congress estimated that the problem could Cost about 10 million beneficiaries an average of $17 a month. The Union put the number of affected retirees As High As 40 million and estimated the loss at up to $50 a month. The problem grows out of the dual reporting of employee earnings by employers once a year to the social Security administration and once a Quarter to the  a variety of reasons those reports do not always match. Between 1978 and 1984, employers reported $58.8 billion less to social Security than they did to the  a result the irs has turned Over to social Security Trust funds More than $7.7 billion in payroll taxes that Are not credited to the account of any worker and thus cannot be paid in benefits. The irs and social Security head quarters announced a plan last month for preventing such discrepancies in the future and for attempting to Clear up the 10-year backlog of errors. The Gao surveyed what the sea had done to Correct 3.5 million employer re ports that make up the 1978-83 backlog and found that As of june 10, most of the differences in employer reports to the two agencies have not been resolved and Likely will not  employers sea contacted either have not responded Are no longer in business or no longer have the necessary records the Gao s Delfico told the  2.1 million employer reports for 1984 through 1986 Are being checked As  Goldstein chief financial officer of the sea urged workers to use a new government form Ssa-7004, to make sure that their own social Security earnings records Are Correct. South is top area in drinking of alcohol Survey indicates san Francisco a southerners drank More alcoholic beverages than residents of any other . Region last year and households with incomes above $35,000 drank More than any other income group a study found. The study released tuesday by the alcoholic Bever age research publication Impact was based on diaries kept by 12,000 people during 1987. The Survey com piled by no research inc. Of Toledo Ojito covered beverage consumption by location time of Day sex age geographic Region and household income. The South when considered As one of four . Regions drank the most alcoholic beverages 32.3 percent of All consumed followed by the Northeast at 24.8 percent the North Central Region at 24.1 per cent and the West at 18.8 percent. But the West led the nation in wine consumption at 31.3 percent of All wine drunk. Southerners drank 39.2 percent of All wine coolers and 33.8 percent of Beer leading in those categories. Consumption of distilled spirits or hard liquor was almost evenly divided among the four regions. Households with incomes of $35,000 and above drank the most of every Type of alcoholic beverage 35.2 percent. People in that category consumed 42.7 percent of All distilled spirits twice the level of the $15,000-$24,000 group. The next highest group in Overall alcohol consumption was households with incomes under $ 15,000, accounting for 22.7 percent of All alcohol consumed. Households with incomes from $15,000 to $24,000 consumed 18.5 percent the $25,000 to $29,000 group consumed 12.7 percent and the $30,000 to $34,000 group drank 10.9 percent. In the under 24,000 groups Beer and wine coolers were the favorite beverages at 42.7 percent and 37.6 percent respectively. The $25,000-to-$29,000 House holds drank the least wine and spirits 11 percent and 10 percent respectively. Men consumed 75.2 percent of All alcohol last year. Men drank 81.8 percent of All Beer 59.3 per cent of hard liquor and 47.4 percent of wine while females drank 61.7 percent of coolers and 52.6 percent of wine. Drinkers under 20 years old accounted for Only 0.5 percent of All alcohol consumed. The report noted that every state has adopted the 21-year-old minimum drinking age. The 30-to-39-year-old age group consumed 46.2 per cent of All coolers 34 percent of Beer and 29.7 percent of wine while in the Over-60 age group distilled spirits were the favorite. The older folks least favored Beer and coolers. The study found 34.7 percent of hard liquor and 32.5 percent of Beer was consumed away from Home while 81.7 percent of wine coolers and 76.9 percent of wine was drunk at Home. Most consumption of alcoholic drinks occurred to Ward the later part of the Day though 2.3 percent of alcohol was consumed at breakfast. 8-8-88 Charm works in lottery a Day Lote Albany . A thousands of new yorkers who took a Cue from the Date and bet the lottery number 8-8-8 on monday weren t wrong. They were just Early. Eight eight eight was drawn tuesday and paid out a total of $6,065,100 to thousands of people a record payout for any three digit or four digit number in the lottery s history said lottery spokesman George j. Yamin. On monday the much awaited 8-8-88, the winning number was an unremarkable 2-1-8. Enough people carried Over their 8-8-8 from monday to break the previous record payout of $5,125,000 for the numbers 7-7-7-7, drawn in the last week of August 1987 in the lottery s daily win four game Yamin said. Officials were unsure How Many individual 8 8-8 tickets were sold Yamin said. Demand for 8-8-8 in the numbers game was so great that the lottery stopped accepting bets on that number at 11 45 . Tuesday he said. On monday bets on 8-8-8 were halted at 9 ., he said. The lottery limits the total amount that can be bet on any one combination of numbers to $10,000, capping the maximum total payout at $5 million normally Yamin said. But a special promotion this week boosted the prize for a win Ning $1 bet to $600 from the usual $500, in creasing the total payout to $6 million he said