European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 05, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 a the stars and stripes j . Friday february a 1993 senators Call for curbs on drug Industry greed by the los Angeles times Washington leaders of a Senate panel arguing wednesday that Many drug manufacturers had Bro Ken a pledge to bring costs under control demanded More Federal regulation of their prices. Greed has become excessive said sen. David Pryor d-Ark., chairman of the Senate special commit tee on aging. It s unadulterated and there s a lot of it.". The demand was prompted by a report by a univer sity of Minnesota professor that said the pharmaceutical Industry increased prices for the most frequently used prescription drugs last year by As much As five times the rate of inflation. Citing the report Pryor and sen. William s. Cohen a Maine the committee s ranking Republican pro posed stripping manufacturers of tax Breaks and taking other Steps if that fails to restrain prices. The senators noted that while the Sqq profit level of the average Fortune 500 company was 3.2 percent the average profit level of the makers of the top 20 pre scribed drugs in the United states was 15.1 percent a rate that has made them highly attractive to investors. Gao advises irs to boost audit rates Washington a the internal Revenue service must conduct More audits to reduce the $114 billion a year Gap Between what . Taxpayers should pay and what they actually do pay congressional investigators said wednesday. Over the last few years the irs had audited just 1 percent of the 100 million returns filed annually by individuals Jen Nie s. Stathis of the general accounting office told  told the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees the irs that in the 1960s about 5 percent of taxpayers were audited. We do not know what the right level of audit coverage is but i percent appears so Low As to encourage what some researchers have called the audit lot Tery she said. She defined the audit lottery As the custom of filing an erroneous return on the Assumption that there was Little Hance of being audited and caught. Irs acting commissioner Michael p. Dolan told the lawmakers that while the number of audits has dropped sharply the Agency now can detect exaggerated deductions and under reported income in millions of cases without a traditional  Agency does this by using computers to match returns against w-2 another information reporting forms from our perspective audit coverage should include these information report ing contacts Dolan said. When included last year s audit coverage rate is 5.26 percent compared to the less than 1 per cent rate for traditional  Pryor noted however that some drug manufacturers fulfilled their pledges to keep Price increases near the rate of inflation and said "1 want to applaud that. Drug company officials immediately disputed the findings alleging that the report s figures were faulty. Pryor has questioned the integrity of major .companies in America s most technologically advanced Industry and he has failed to Back up his charges said Gerald j. Mossinghoff president of the pharmaceutical manufacturers association. Industry officials argued that the report failed to take into account the Many discounts and rebates that pharmaceutical makers give such health care providers a hospitals and health maintenance organizations. Additionally they said while the prices of some drugs did Rise above Ine Bureau of labor statistics 1.5 percent rate of inflation last year the Cost of others Rose at a much slower rate. The study which covered the top 200 prescription drugs found that prices Rose 6.4 percent Overall last year. Pryor and Cohen said the most disturbing element of their findings is that drugs whose prices Rose fastest Are those most commonly used by the elderly. Planning for Mars scientist Carol Stoker of Nasa s Ames research Center holds up a full scale russian built prototype of a Mars Rover that was on display wednesday at Stanford University in California russians and Macri cans Are working together to build robots that can operate on Mars guard 3 others held in $8.2 million heist new York a a guard who had told the Fri that he was tied up by gunmen in an $8.2 million hold up has been arrested in the heist along with three other  All the Cash was recovered still in its wrap  Fri knew the dec. 27 heist at an armoured car warehouse was an inside Job because the robbers got uneasily bypassed alarms and got out smoothly said James m. Fox head of the Bureau s new York  robbers had been unable to dispose of most of the Cash because the Bills were sequentially numbered and could easily be traced Fox said  theft at the Hudson armoured car co. On the Brooklyn waterfront was the second largest Cash heist in new York City history. Among those arrested wednesday was the Lon guard on duty the night of the heist Juan Jose Serrano 34, of Brooklyn. Also arrested were Serrano s brother Robert 28, also of Brooklyn. The alleged Driver of the getaway car Joseph James Santiago 24, of Bethpage . And Raymond Malave 20, of Kissimmee Fla. Hews arrested in Florida. The five unopened packages of loot were found in a nearly empty Brooklyn apartment a few blocks away from where Robert Serrano lives the Fri said. Gunman kills fellow worker wounds 7 others at factory from wire reports Al Dorado Ark. A factory worker returned from lunch with a pistol in each hand and shot eight co work eff killing one of them before a wounded Man clubbed him in the head with a pipe authorities said. Michael Wayne Burns 37, indicated in a note that others had been harassing him at pre Colite inc., an Industrial lighting Plant where he worked for 16 years sheriff s officials said. Burns was listed in critical condition thursday with a head injury. Three of the seven wounded men also were in critical condition. Fellow employees said Burns ate lunch in his truck wednesday then returned through a Back Entrance and began shooting. A sheriffs investigator Lold the Al Dorado news times that Burns used three handguns. The shooting spree ended when Darryl Mccurdy who had been shot in the Side and wrist hit the gunman with a pipe the newspaper said. Mccurdy 39, was in stable condition. Easy vote registration works Washington figures from last fall s elections show that voter registration tied to state motor vehicle bureaus had the intended effect More people voted. And democrats who made increased voter turnout especially among the Young and minorities a major part of their Campaign Are moving swiftly to make easy registration a National policy. The House was expected thursday to approve such legislation Only its second major Bill of the year. Republicans who did poorly in the easy registration states said it s an invitation to fraud and abuse. President Clinton has said he would sign the legislation. More than half the states already have some form of motor voter program already. Ten plus the District of Columbia have plans similar to what the Federal Law envisions a Driver s License with voter registration application forms attached. Purple heart 75 years late Philadelphia a 100-year-old world War i Veteran had a purple heart pinned to his Chest wednesday 75 years after he was wounded in the mountains of France. David e. Amey who turned 100 on Jan. 19, smiled for cameras but said Little at the veterans administration medical Center nursing Home As the purple heart and a Wei Victory medal were pinned to the Lapel of his dark Blue suit. Amey one of the first Black real estate agents in Philadelphia was hit in the shoulder by shrapnel in the Vosges mountains while fighting with an All Black unit. When nursing Home officials organized his birthday party it was discovered that he had no medals. It was unclear whether Amey never received the medals or whether they were lost Over the years said Don gee a spokesman for the medical Center. Bronx zoo changes name new York the storied Bronx zoo has a new zoo logically Correct name the International wildlife conservation Park. What used to be the new York zoological society is now calling itself the n yes the wildlife conservation society to draw attention to its International efforts to preserve wildlife said society president William Conway. Unfortunately the name zoo now connotes activities less far reaching than ours said Conway adding that the society has 158 wildlife conservation Field projects in 41 countries. The new names More accurately describe what we re All  officially Central Park zoo now is the Central Park wildlife conservation Center the new York aquarium is the aquarium for wildlife conservation and the Queens zoo is the Queens wildlife conservation Center