Mail

www.usps.com When you have a letter or a bill to mail, sometimes all you need is a U.S. Postal Service mailbox. But the familiar blue boxes are getting harder to find. The Postal Service has removed thousands of them nationwide in recent years to cut costs. The Postal Service website offers a search tool for locating mailboxes, but it's not easy to find, in part because the agency doesn't call them mailboxes. No, they're "collection boxes." From www.usps.com "> www.usps.

The post office doesn't deliver mail to Steven Stark's Santa Maria home anymore. It's not that Stark, the 36-year-old owner of an Internet company, is unpopular. He just decided that he'd rather deal with all of his correspondence online. Millions of Americans receive online versions of their bills and bank statements. But Stark is one of tens of thousands who have decided they don't need any physical mail, be it love letters or advertising come-ons.

New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton criticizes rival Barack Obama's record on abortion rights in a mailing sent to New Hampshire voters -- her first direct attack on the Illinois senator since his Democratic victory in Iowa. The mailer says that seven times during his tenure in the Illinois state Senate, Obama declined to take a position on abortion bills, whereas Clinton has been a defender of abortion rights.

Marty Sellers used to need about 100 postage stamps every three months. These days, he can stretch that supply to last a year. Sellers, 40, pays most bills online and receives financial statements electronically. The owner of Sellers Photo in Huntsville, Ala., also has cut down on mailing clients CDs by transferring images over the Internet instead. "Even things like a birthday card, I will just send a happy-birthday e-mail," he said.

The check will be in the mail -- and billboard queen Angelyne knows exactly where to find it. Even though her Hollywood office was demolished to make way for a new luxury hotel, the busty blond and mail-order entrepreneur will get to use her old Selma Avenue address anyway.

Sometimes it doesn't absolutely, positively have to be there overnight. Budget-conscious shippers are deciding their packages and envelopes can take a slower path to their destinations, going by second-day air or, even slower, by truck. Some businesses are just plain sending less. The shift, propelled by the declining economy and record fuel prices, was reflected in FedEx Corp.'s dismal earnings report Wednesday.

Death, it seemed, was coming through the mail. It arrived in a plain white prepaid-postage envelope, one that looked normal except for the eccentric lettering -- a block letter "R" that looked like an "A" -- and the cellophane tape that sealed it. Inside were deadly spores that drifted into the air as soon as the envelope was opened.

Earlier this year, Ohio election officials sent notices marked "Do not forward" to the state's registered voters, alerting them to the March primary. To the surprise of voting rights activists, 573,444 notices were returned as undeliverable in five counties alone, including the urban areas of Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. The heavy return rate alarmed liberal activists.

The clash between letter carriers and man's best friend is the butt of many jokes. But for one block in Hawthorne, it is no laughing matter. The U.S. Postal Service is refusing to deliver mail to residents' front doors in a cul-de-sac on 134th Place at Doty Avenue, where it says aggressive dogs, including a boxer mix and a Chihuahua, are putting its employees at risk. "This is the biggest threat they face out there," said Larry Dozier, a postal service spokesman for the Los Angeles area.