European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 18, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 6 a the stars and stripes tuesday june 18, 1991elderly payment of $29.90 Washington apr More than 2 million poor Ekl Erly americans Are needlessly paying $29.90 a month for government health benefits they re entitled to get for free an advocacy group said monday. A the problem is that you done to get the Benefit if you done to apply for it Quot said Ron Pollack executive director of families Usa foundation. A the government has neglected to notify people of their new  the non profit group said that under the congressional budget agreement approved last fall older americans living below the poverty level no longer Are required to pay out of pocket costs for medicare coverage. A a about 4.2 million senior citizens qualify for the so called medicare buy in but More than half Arentt receiving it according to a study by the foundation. Therefore it said monthly medicare premiums of $29.90 a month or $358.80 a year Are being needlessly deducted from 2.2 million to 2.3 million social Security checks. These poor elderly people also May be needlessly paying $728 a year for medicare deductibles and the first 20 percent of doctor Bills the foundation said. In California for example 89 percent of those who Are eligible or 225,000 people Arentt receiving the Benefit the foundation said. A we Call upon health and human services Secretary Louis Sullivan to ensure that the elderly poor get the Protection they deserve from fast rising unaffordable medicare costs a Pollack said. Families Usa is an advocacy group that works on behalf of senior citizens and their families. Gail Wilensky director of the Federal a health care financing administration said some findings in the families Usa report did not seem reasonable although the Agency had not had a Chance to evaluate it in detail. A we think that we have in fact responded to the legislation in a reasonable Way a she said. Hyfa budget conscious California Senate passes welfare cuts tax increase Sacramento Calif apr a package of welfare cuts and a sales tax increase went to the state Assembly for approval monday after the Senate reluctantly approved the measures to help close a $14.3 billion budget Gap. The welfare measure would Cut welfare Grants by 4.4 percent a a decrease from $691 to $661 a month for a. Mother with two children a and repeal automatic Cost of living increases. The Senate approved it sunday 27-8. A this is a tragic piece of work. Its going to Hurt the people we have the greatest obligation to protect a said sen. Diane Watson a los Angeles Democrat. The Senate approved 28-10 a 1 a cent increase in the sales tax to a minimum of 7>a cents per Dollar. The measure would also extend the sales tax to items such As Candy and other snacks newspapers magazines and a a a a v. A. V a bottled water. The tax increase would raise $4 billion a . A a. \ a a a a a legislators worked through the weekend trying to balance gov. Pete Wilson a proposed $55 billion budget. Under the state Constitution a budget must be sent to the governor by Midnight june 15. But the deadline has Seldom been met in recent years and there is no penalty. The Senate on saturday approved the Gist of the $55 billion budget which Wilson wants to balance with new taxes wage freezes and welfare cuts. But it failed in the Assembly because tax shy republicans said it did no Cut enough. It was not immediately Clear whether the Senate approved welfare and tax measures would break the Assembly deadlock on raising taxes. Chinese facing form of slavery after illegal Entrance into . By Allamen the Washington Post Washington a the chartered Boeing 707 from Peru its Tail numbers and other identification covered by White paint rolled to a Stop at the Belize Airport in Central America. The passengers 173 Young men from fijian province in China each carried a single Small suitcase As they moved quickly to waiting vans cars and a yellow school bus to continue their journey on through Mexico to their ultimate destination a new Yorkus Chinatown. The plane called the a ghost planet by the us. Officials who tracked it is one of the dozens of ways Teris of thousands of chinese enter the United states illegally each year in what immigration officials say is an increasing and seemingly unstoppable flow. They typically pay from $35,000 to $50,000 to chinese smugglers Many with connections to chinese organized crime. They have illegal documents and move Over an array of circuitous routes via land sea and air in making their Way to this country. They will become essentially indentured servants working in sweatshops in the garment District and in restaurants laundries and other businesses. They will work As Long As five years a often seven Days a week Day and night for minimum wage or less a living in squalor to pay off Loans that got them to the . Some Are lured to the quicker Money to be made by smuggling drugs becoming enforcers or engaging in prostitution for the chinese gangs that Lent them Money. One Man who refused to pay the smugglers was badly beaten by a gang of 23 other chinese after the 23 were arrested immigration and naturalization service officials discovered that All of them were recently arrived illegal aliens. It is that aspect of the new wave of illegal immigration that worries . Officials. V a this is a whole new ballgame a said Michael t. Lempres ins operations director. A a the patterns have changed and the Type of people have changed. Anyone who scrapes together $50,000 a about 100 years salaj7 Lor the average chinese a is compromised on arrival in the .�?� w the newly arrived Are living a in a form of slavery a paying rent and buying food from the smugglers. The pressure to turn to crime can be overwhelming. This is a whole new ballgame it Michael t. Lempres operations director . Immigration and naturalization service some 54 ghost plane passengers were caught crossing the Border near Brownsville Texas and probably will apply for Asylum ins officials said. Because of a processing backlog of More than 111,000 cases the application alone guarantees years in the United states a with a work permit a while their cases Are pending. The other 119 passengers Likely will stay underground and blend into the 300,000-member chinese Community in new York City. Its numbers include an estimated 30,000 illegal workers. There Are two main groups of emigrants according to . Officials and immigration lawyers. Many of the new arrivals especially those going to new York come from fijian a coastal chinese province across from Taiwan Long associated with shipping and smuggling. But the bloody crackdown in Tiana men Square in 1989 and concern Over the 1997 Transfer of Hong Kong to Beijing a control have pushed people from other provinces especially the Canton area and from Hong Kong into the Stream leaving China. Many of these emigrants head for Canada and the . West coast. R the smugglers Send chinese emigres through a labyrinth of sophisticated travel routes according to Bruce j. Nicholi who Heads the ins chinese anti smuggling Effort code named operation Golden dragon. Quot ins officials have counted 51 countries that Are connected to the smuggling rings either As part of the transportation web or the manufacture of documents. Some emigrants arrive in new York via Bangkok Thailand Bucharest Romania Helsinki Finland and Toronto. Others have gone through Moscow Havana Cuba Managua Nicaragua and Mexico to get to Tucson and then new York. Which oversees medicare and medicaid has sent instructions to regional offices about How to phase in the new assistance she added. To be eligible for the medicare buy in senior citizens must have incomes below $6,620 a year and less than $4,000 in assets. Couples qualify with annual incomes below $8,880 and less than $6,000 in assets. The Protection will be extended to seniors with incomes up to 110 percent of poverty in 1993 and 120 percent in 1995. It the Cost of the medicare buy in is paid for by the medicaid program whose expenses Are split about evenly Between the Federal government and the stat. However in some higher poverty states the Federal governments share can run As High As,80 percent. The foundation suggested the government include a notice about the buy in Benefit in the next mailing of social Security checks and that state and Federal officials launch outreach efforts through senior citizen centers and radio and .  kills 3 children himself during visit from wire reports Beech Creek a. A a Man separated from his wife shot their three children during a fathers Day visit called authorities and then killed himself. The Man was identified As Jon Calvin Smith 28. _. State police dispatcher Evelyn Bowmaster said All four bodies were found in the master bedroom. All four were shot in the head she said. The children were identified As Jon c. Jr., 10 Jennifer l., 6 and Justin m., 4. The children smother Tammy Pringle Smith of lock Haven had custody of the children who were visiting Smith for the  held in shooting twin Falls Idaho a a suspect was arrested sunday in the shooting of an Idaho state trooper during a routine traffic Stop along the Utah Border. Authorities arrested the suspect without incident about three Miles from where trooper Steve Hobbs was shot saturday night state police dispatcher Gloria Hackworth said. No other details were immediately available. Hobbs remained in critical but stable condition at Mckay Dee Hospital in Ogden Utah. Hobbs was shot As he approached a vehicle just South of a rest Stop on interstate 84, said state police capt. Dave Neal. The wounded Hobbs climbed Back into his car and chased the vehicle until he lost control of the Cruiser and drove into a median Neal said.4 found dead in trailer bean Blossom ind. A four people were found dead of Carbon monoxide poisoning inside a motor Home at a Bluegrass festival sunday. A faulty Generator was suspected in the deaths of the two Middle aged couples front Grant county ind. The victims were found after most of the crowds had left the four Day Bill Monroe bean Blossom Bluegrass festival about.25 Miles South of Indianapolis. They May have been dead since thursday said sheriff Dave Anderson. The victims identities were not immediately released. A. Load of cocaine seized Boston a Federal officials squeezed into a room piled High with cocaine sunday to announce the largest Ever drug bust in new England a 3,300-Pound catch Worth $175 million on the Street. Authorities also seized $5004 00 in Cash and arrested four men saturday . Attorney Wayne Budd said. 1 women were arrested in Peabody and two men were arrested in Braintree. They were scheduled to appear monday in . District court. Last week $20 million in cocaine was seized in Middleboro. Budd said the two cases weren to connected