European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 18, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 6 the stars and stripes sunday december 18,1988 social Security chief has urgent plea Send a those retirement Benefit forms Washington a the social so curly commissioner said Friday tha she d like every worker to have a personalized statement of future retirement benefits but Many people have failed to provide information needed to make the estimates despite a clamor Tor the request forms last summer when the new service became available several million people who Gol the Fonro have not tilled them out Dorcas r. Hardy said. More than 6 million people have asked us for the statement. But Only 35 percent of them have sent it tack to us he commissioner told reporters. It s still hanging on their  the Agency was flooded with phone Calls when it began offering the personal earn Ings and Benefit estimate statement in a gust. Many people encountered Busy signals or lung wails when they did gel through. Hut Manly said those bottlenecks Are a thing of the past. She said anyone can Call a toll free number 1-800-234-5772 to request the form or make other social Secu Rity inquiries. There Are operators to answer the Calls at various social Security centers from 7 am. To 7 . Local time on weekdays. Those who was Afler working hours or on week ends will get a recording capable of taking messages. When a reporter expressed scepticism Hardy put the number to the test. When an aide dialled the number from Handy s office phone it was answered almost immediately by a recording. A social Security clerk came on after 28 seconds to take the caller s name and address and Promise All right i la gel this out  we re ready willing and Able to provide them now said Handy i would really like to have everybody have a Pubes in their  once inc form is mailed Back it takes the Agency three weeks to Crank out the Esti mates of future monthly retirement Bene fits As Well As How much the worker and his family would get now if he or she became disabled or died. The retirement benefits arc expressed in today s dollars. The Agency also provides a year by year list of Lio much people earned and How much they paid in social Security taxes. Hardy said the personalized Benefit statements Are clearly a major break through this year they help people detect whether their employers reported their earnings to social Security correctly. Social Security generally docs not Correct mistakes More than 3 / years old so the government recommends that All workers Check heir records every three years. ,. Hardy a so believes thai if workers get a better idea of what to expect from social Security they will Start saving More for their own retirement. Hardy said she would like to see people depend less on social Security and the government for retirement income. Currently More than half the elderly Ray on social Security As their main source of income. In other mailers. Hardy said she and the department of health and human services were unable to get a proposal to eliminate the social Security comings lest included in president Reagan s fiscal 1990 budget the coining test reduces benefits of beneficiaries under age 70 who earn More than certain amounts. The thresholds this year Are 58,400 for those Ages 65-69 and $6,120 for those under 65 in 1989, they Are $8,880 and 16,480, respectively. She also said i m hearing from seniors at town Hall meetings that they Are not pleased about the income lax surtax that s coming to pay for medicare s new catastrophic insurance Benefit. Hardy added that she would t be sur prised if Congress took another look about whether to Levy the is percent tax surcharge on the elderly to pay Tor the insurance which starts in january. Never too late Gertrude Palmer of Spring Valley Calif., is aware that the quest far knowledge should be a never ending one. At 105, she s recognized As the oldest registered student in the state. Palmer was bom Dee. 10,.1883, in Englund and she is she s lived this Long because she takes advantage of fresh or she exercise and she drink Battle of Stout ale each Day. Well placed drug Pusher gets 5 years Derby Conn. A a psychiatrist who illegally prescribed drugs to addicts has been sentenced to five years in prison by a judge who called him nothing Butr a highly educated Well placed drug Pusher or. Edward m. Keelan also was fined 125,000 on Friday Given a concurrent five year prison sentence for two counts of witness tampering and ordered to serve five years probation after his release. The Bottom line is he s just another drug Pusher in a tailored suit said Superior court judge Lander Gray. In defense of his prescription practices Keelan submitted a 2vi-Pagc poem titled Maverick in the  in it he expressed an anti lax philosophy and claimed the right to treat patients without state interference. Keelan 58, was arrested in december 1987 after an undercover agent from the state department of con Sumer Protection received prescriptions for narcotics from the doctor at his Milford office without any examination. In october Keelan entered a guilty plea to six counts of illegally prescribing narcotics and on Friday he submitted guilty pleas to the witness tampering charges. According to prosecutors Keelan would Sec a Stream of drug addicts and abusers at his office every saturday charging each visitor $20 to $30 apiece for writing a narcotics prescription. The visits would typically last about 10 minutes. Acc Lars attorney Raymond w. Ganim told the judge that the doctor deserved leniency because he is a manic depressive whose judgment was impaired by his failure to Lake proper dosages of his medication. Stateside Man faces up of 4-year sentence for fatal karate kick outside bar new York a a criminally negligent Homi. Cide conviction was returned Friday against a Man whose karate kick killed another Man outside a bar Robert Wallace 21, initially indicted on a murder charge in the death of Daniel of Klagsbrun 25, slumped in his seat when the verdict was announced after 13 hours of deliberations Over two Days. Slate supreme court Justice Rena Uviller released Wallace on bail until sentencing feb. 2, Wallace faces up to four years in prison. Wallace was accused of picking a fight with Klags Brun and his five companions outside & bar on Jan. 24 after one member of the group offended Wallace. When Klagsbrun told him that no one wanted to fight Wallace spun 360 degrees and delivered a booted kick to Klagsbrun s Throat knocking him Back onto the pavement according to testimony. Klagsbrun died a Short Lime later. Wallace was arrested two weeks later in san Francis  judge threw out the murder charge tuesday leaving the charges of first and second degree Man Slaughter and criminally negligent homicide As the jury Foreman announced the verdict both the victim s family and Wallace s family burst out crying and Wallace s Mother Pauline hugged her son. 1,000 meet to sing carols at official Christmas tree Kings Canyon National Park Calif. A More than 1,000 people Sang Christmas carols around the 267-foot general Grant Sequoia in the 63rd annual ceremony at the nation s Christmas tree. Services Are held each december at inc tree be cause it is the nation s official s Christmas tree having been proclaimed so by president Coolidge in 1926 and affirmed by Congress in 1956. Tho tree bore no decorations for the service in which people Sang and heard a Sermon in inc traditional Holiday spirit. John and Myrna Wesley travelled from Salem ore., to the event in Kings Canyon National Park 250 Miles Southeast of san Francisco after Reading about the service in modern maturity Magazine. It just seemed like a Chance to do something. Quiet and reverent for Christmas Wesley said. It was a Chance to get away from All the Skyes and the sales. Here in the Woods inc Christmas message Means More to us.". Brother of sex president of Lebanon arrested new York a the brother of a former lebanese president was arrested at Kennedy in ice National Airport of charges he tried to smug Gle almost five pounds of heroin into the coun try Federal authorities said. Gebryel Sarki 70, was arrested by agents of the . Customs service following a night from Switzerland said Ann Driscoll a spokeswoman for , attorney Andrew Paloncy. Driscoll said Sarkis was a brother of Ellas Sarkis who served As president of Lebanon from 1976 to 1982. Elias Sarkis died at the age of 60. Injune98s. ,. No further details about the arrest were immediately available. Saultis was to be arraigned before . Magistrate Allyne Ross of Brooklyn. Will leaves $30,707 for social Security fund Pensacola Fla. A a Sweet old lady who played the Stock Market with pension Money left the social Security administration More than $30,000 in her will a relative says. Ann Roselle Hundley Hync who was 87 when she died june 15, received a total of 145,000 in monthly social Security payments Dunn the last 20 years of her life. She believed to giving Back from whence it came said the relative Mariorie Hughey. A Check for 130,707 was forwarded to social Security Headquarters i a Baltimore and deposited in a general Trust fund said Joe Black assistant manager of the Pensacola office