European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 25, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 stars and stripes wednesday april 25 2007 report better care needed for by Randolph e Schmid the associated press Washington the aging baby Boom generation is Likely to increase the nations disabled population and a study says the United states needs a better system to provide care for them More than 40 minion Ameri cans currently have some sort of disability the Institute of medi Cine reported tuesday and a decline in physical activity and increase in obesity and Dia betes in younger generations raises concerns that As the nation Ages an increasing share of the population will experience Dis ability the Institute said the number of americans who have disabilities will grow significantly in the next 30 years As the baby Boom generation enters late life said Alan m Jette director of the health and disability re search Institute at the Boston University school of Public health if one considers people who now Are disabled those Likely to develop a future disability and people who Are or will be affected by the disabilities of family Mem Bers or others close to them it be comes Clear that disability will eventually affect the lives of most americans said Jette chairman of the committee that prepared the report he added the sobering reality however is that Over the past two decades far too Little Progress has been made in adopt ing major Public policy and prac Tice advances to reduce disability in America the Institute of Medicine is a Branch of the National Academy of sciences which is an Independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the govern ment on scientific matters in a previous report in 1997 com said the Federal research into disability was inadequate and called for More nonetheless the new report says Federal spending on this re search remains minuscule in rela Tion to current and future needs the study concluded that action taken sooner rather than later is essential for the nation to avoid a future of harm and inequity and instead to improve the lives of people with disabilities among the recommendations the report called on the Congress and Federal agencies to increase funding for re search into clinical health services social behavioural and other disability problems strengthen provisions of the americans with disabilities act to ensure that health care faculties Are accessible to the disabled eliminate the two year wait ing period for medicare eligibility for those who Are receiving so Cial Security disability insurance prizewinning author killed in car Accident coast guard seizes about 20 tons of cocaine Alameda Calif the coast guard on monday brought Home More than 20 tons of cocaine with a Street value in excess of Mil lion that it took from a panamanian freighter at sea March 17 about Halfway through counting the bags we knew we must be close to the record in terms of seizures said Boatswain mate 1st class Michael Aguilera he led the heavily armed coast guard Board ing party from the Cutter Sherman to the drug carrying Gatun the cocaine was in two of 12 cargo containers lashed to the ships deck Aguilera said the coast guard Crew also took into custody 14 panamanian and mexican Crew members who Are now awaiting us prosecution investigators said they believed the cocaine was destined for the United states via Mexico now it will go to Miami for destruction from wire services the associated press san Francisco journalist David Halberstam who produced a steady Stream of Weller Garden books on topics As diverse As Vietnam civil rights and the 1949 american league Pennant race died As he lived on Bis Way to an interview the 73yearold writer was killed in a car crash monday while working on a Book about the legendary 1958 nil Champion ship game Between the Baltimore Colts and the new York giants Halberstam was Riding in a car that was broadside by another vehicle in Menlo Park he was pronounced dead at the scene and the cause appeared to be internal injuries Accord ing to san Mateo county Coroner Robert Foucrault the world has lost one of our great est journalists said Arthur Sulzberger or publisher of the new York times where Halberstam won a pulitzer prize in 1964 covering Vietnam Halber stands 1972 bestseller the Best and the brightest a Crit ical account of us involvement in Halberstam Southeast Asia and especially de sense Secretary Robert Mcnamara established him As one of the most committed journalists of his generation Halberstam other books included the Powers that be a 1979 undressing of the titans of the news Media the fifties his 1993 chronicle of that decades upheavals summer of 49 his account of that years Yankees red sox rivalry and the children a 1999 narrative about the civil rights movement his 2002 bestseller War in a time of peace an Examina Tion of How the lessons of Viet Nam have influenced american foreign policy in the Post cold War Era was a runner up for the pulitzer prize in nonfiction it features hundreds of rays to play and win Over Worth of incredible prizes