Junk Mail

"Have you seen me?" asks the little card in the mailbox, soliciting my help in locating a child, duly pictured, who is reported to have disappeared long ago. On the back there is a discount coupon for a carpet cleaning service. Every week or so I receive such a card and there's a good chance you do too. Throwing it away used to cause a twinge of guilt, even though I realized the child, if missing at all, was more likely the subject of a custody dispute than something more sinister.

The state's campaign watchdog commission on Wednesday created a loophole in a voter-approved ban on mass mailings at public expense by allowing elected officials to mail unlimited numbers of "meeting notices" right up to election day. In reaching its decision, the Fair Political Practices Commission unanimously overruled its own staff, which in a memo to commissioners complained that the new regulation "contains very broad language . . . which could lead to abuse."

Responding to public protest over high tech "junk mail," the House on Monday approved a bill to allow telephone customers to block unsolicited computer-generated sales pitches and to keep advertising off their fax machines. The measure, passed by voice vote, was sent to the Senate, where similar legislation may be passed before Congress adjourns this fall.

Looking for some cheap Thai food? A full year at a health club for $175? A bargain pizza from Lulu's or Hank's or Neno's? Ask Louise Fleming, who has bags full of such deals. A Redondo Beach resident, Fleming has been collecting--for the past six months--the doorknob hangers, flyers and other advertisements that appear at her door day after day. Forget about the deals--Fleming says she is sick of being bombarded with unwelcome solicitations. "It's a damn nuisance," she said.

Question: I understand there is a service called Telephone Preference Service in which you can sign up to not receive (as many) telephone solicitations. Who offers this service and how do you get it? Why aren't consumers made aware of this service? Enclosed is an article that talks a little about it. I think it would be great if your column could tell consumers how to register for TPS, because most consumers hate telemarketing.--G.S. Answer: What's to hate?

Think you're tired of receiving junk mail? Ram Avrahami, who lives in Arlington, Va., is really tired of it. In fact, he's so fed up with junk mail that he's striking back by trying to turn a clause in the Virginia code into a weapon against companies that sell their mailing lists to others. According to Section 8.01-40 of the Virginia code, no one is allowed to use another person's name, portrait or picture "for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade" without written consent.

In an effort to reduce the amount of paper going to landfills from Thousand Oaks, the city has expanded its recycling services to include a program that helps eliminate junk mail. City residents are being offered postcards and information on how to contact regional and national companies that rent or sell mailing lists. The postcards request that the sender's name be removed from the mailing lists and that unsolicited correspondence be discontinued.

The 94-year-old Connecticut woman who died of inhalation anthrax last fall may have been infected by ripping her junk mail in half, releasing deadly spores into the air, health officials said. Investigators have never given a conclusive explanation for Ottilie Lundgren's death Nov. 21, one of five after anthrax-laden letters were mailed to media and political offices in the fall. But they have long suspected mail cross-contamination.

Dear Steven B. Chawkins: We are pleased to inform you that you have been pre-approved for our new, low-interest, Obscenely Acquisitive Fat Cat Titanium Visa . . . Dear Mr. Chawkins: Even though it apparently slipped your mind to renew your subscription to "Dairy Goat Journal," you may already have won the Publishers' Clearinghouse $100 BILLION JACKPOT!!! . . .