Post Offices

Los Angeles area residents intending to go to the post office today may be in for a surprise as postal officials, seeking to cut $160 million from this year's operating budget, have closed down 21 offices on Saturdays and shortened weekday hours at more than 110 others. Mail delivery will still continue on Saturdays. However, there will no longer be Sunday pickup or processing, adding a one-day delay to mail delivery during the week.

It's tax day, and for those scrambling to get their forms postmarked in time, the U.S. Postal Service is making things a little easier. Some post offices will have extended hours to help last-minute filers make the midnight deadline. Federal tax returns must be postmarked by April 15 to be considered filed on time by the Internal Revenue Service. Tax Day quiz: Honest Abe? Tricky Dick? Machine Gun Kelly? Three postal centers will be staying open until midnight to collect mail: Los Angeles main office: 7001 S. Central Ave. Santa Ana: 3101 W. Sunflower Ave Santa Clarita: 28201 Franklin Parkway Last-minute mailers should note that the Los Angeles location will only have retail service available until 10 p.m. Retail sales will stop at the Santa Ana location at 7 p.m., and at 5 p.m. in Santa Clarita.

WASHINGTON -- The United States Postal Service stayed the sword hanging over thousands of rural post offices, opting instead to cut opening hours in a bid to stem devastating financial losses. The USPS estimates that the plan will save $500 million a year once it is fully implemented in 2014. A previous proposal to close down more than 3,000 rural post offices completely would have saved $200 million a year. Under the proposal outlined Wednesday, 13,167 post offices will open for between two and six hours a day. A spokeswoman for the USPS said no post offices will be forced to close, although communities could choose closure and switch to home delivery.

Steve Carell left “The Office” for the same reason most actors do: to concentrate on a film career. In theory it should be a straightforward path: An actor, having both cut his teeth on a role and built a fan base, can devote the time to exploring all the avenues he couldn't explore when he was shooting a few dozen episodes each year. In reality, of course, it's not an easy transition. Episodic television allows for, and rewards, the ability to develop a single persona over time.

The U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday released a list of 3,700 post offices it is considering closing as the federal agency revamps the way it does business. Of the post offices being studied for closure, more than 100 are in California — from Honeydew in Northern California to an office at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, according to a Postal Service statement. The list includes several post offices in Los Angeles, as well as offices in Long Beach, Beverly Hills, South Gate, Bell, Cudahy, La Puente, Inglewood, Compton, San Bernardino, Ontario, Orange, Huntington Beach, Laguna Woods and Santa Barbara, among others.

Twice a week, Deborah Gonzales drives to the post office on Lennox Boulevard in Inglewood to mail bills and packages and to buy stamps. The nondescript building is conveniently located a short distance from her home and she relies on it for all her postal needs. But if the U.S.

Your article concerning the building freeze on new post offices (April 10), which Sen. Barbara Boxer says we need and the post office says we can't afford, was timely. That same day I received a letter advising me that P.O. box rents were being aligned with actual costs. The resulting "modest increase" for my box location was over 31%. Perhaps the answer is to simply staff more of the service windows in current post offices. G.R. WILLIAMS Westlake Village

Re "Small post offices may close," Aug. 24 I wish your article had said what it would cost to keep open each office slated for closure. If the office is that important to those cities and their citizens, perhaps they need to come up with the money to keep it open? Unfortunately, like most other things when it comes to government, everyone wants the services, but they don't want to pay the price. Bob Thomas Los Angeles The Postal Service has no one to blame but itself.

In this season of heavy mailing, you are probably dreading a trip to the post office, where the lines are sure to be longer than those for fresh vegetables in Moscow. An alternative might be to try one of the more than 50 small, contract postal stations scattered throughout the county. (Unless noted, these stations are closed on Sundays.) ANAHEIM Anaheim Wine & Spirits 6501 E. Serrano Ave. (714) 637-9463 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday Centurion Custom Cleaners 5679 E.

The U.S. Postal Service, struggling under a financial load and facing tough competition, will stop delivering mail on Saturdays beginning this summer, officials announced. The announcement, which had been expected, is seen as an attempt to force Congress to deal with the Postal Service's increasing financial woes. Congress has tried to reorganize the agency, but efforts have been derailed because of politics. Material prepared for a Wednesday news conference by Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe says that Postal Service market research and other research has indicated that nearly 7 in 10 Americans support the switch to five-day delivery as a way for the agency to reduce costs.

Monday is the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 6 election. Citizens 18 or older who are not registered or who have moved can pick up applications at many places, including post offices, public libraries, Department of Motor Vehicle offices and county election headquarters. For the first time this year, signing up to vote may be done online at http://www.RegisterToVote.ca.gov . Mail ballots may be requested through Oct. 30.

Movie producer Joel Silver brought his Hollywood panache to Venice on Wednesday, unveiling plans for revamping the former Venice Post Office as the new headquarters of his Silver Pictures. With Tom Hanks putting in a cameo appearance, Silver and his design and construction team spoke to dozens of invited guests amid the exposed concrete and wires of the 1939 Works Progress Administration building that the producer of "The Matrix" and "Lethal Weapon" franchises recently bought from the downsizing U.S. Postal Service.

If there's a place in this immigrant hub where all lives intersect, it's the Little Saigon post office. The regulars, grandmothers and mothers who write letters to loved ones week after week greet one another as if at a reunion. The folks who don't earn enough to even have bank accounts wait next to patrons carrying $2,000 purses. Elders are allowed to go to the head of the line out of respect for their age. And single guys check P.O. boxes as regularly as soccer scores, because they don't get mail at their boardinghouses.

Joel Silver, producer of movie franchises "The Matrix," "Lethal Weapon" and "Sherlock Holmes," has bought the former U.S. post office in Venice and plans to refashion it as the new home of his Silver Pictures. The red-tile-roofed 1939 Works Progress Administration building on Windward Circle has been a beloved fixture in Venice. The interior features a mural painted by Edward Biberman in 1941 with the coastal community's visionary developer Abbot Kinney at its center, surrounded by beachgoers in old-fashioned bathing suits, men in overalls and once-ubiquitous oil derricks.

The U.S. Postal Serviceis in trouble, and there's no telling whether it will survive. It's been battered by the Internet and a dragging economy, besieged by commercial competitors and stymied in its efforts to trim a costly web of post offices and delivery routes. On Aug. 1, it defaulted on a $5.5-billion payment to the U.S. Treasury for future retiree health benefits. Some think that it's time to privatize the service, bringing an end to one of our oldest federal institutions. The outlook is grim, though the crisis is not unprecedented.

While thumbing through the household mail one recent day - a bill from the vet, a statement from the bank, 47 come-ons for low-interest credit cards and a birthday card from Grandma - I pondered the following riddle: Why is it that the same conservatives who harped on how an obscure provision of the U.S. Constitution should have invalidated the healthcare reform act never talk about the provision that gives the federal government responsibility for...