Postal Workers

The annual mail-carrier food drive will be held Saturday. Letter carriers across the country will collect nonperishable food items such as canned goods left by customers along their routes. The food will be donated to local charities.

A popular 60-year-old mail carrier remained in intensive care Wednesday, two days after he was attacked by a pit bull on his route in Torrance, police said. The mail carrier, a Cerritos resident and 25-year employee of the U.S. Postal Service, was walking by a house in the 700 block of Amapola Avenue on Monday.

Pity the poor Costa Rican postman. Sure, he doesn't have to deal with sleet or snow. But consider what passes for an address here: From the Tibas cemetery, 200 meters south, 300 meters west, cross the train tracks, white two-story house. That's actually a pretty easy one. Making his rounds on the outskirts of this capital city one recent morning, carrier Roberto Montero Reyes pulled envelopes from his canvas sack whose addresses read like treasure-hunt clues or lines of haiku.

The owner of a pit bull faces the possibility of three years in prison after her dog attacked a letter carrier, Orange County prosecutors said Monday. Sheri Moody's dog allegedly jumped into a neighbor's yard on Sept. 4 and knocked the mailman to the ground, causing a large cut to his face and an injury to his left eye, which might require reconstructive surgery. Moody, 54, was charged Monday with one felony count of allowing a vicious animal at large to cause serious bodily injury.

Beverly Graham's condo lay across a curving garden path from Jennifer Sanmarco's back patio -- a proximity that was too close for Graham's comfort. From time to time, Graham thought about calling the police on her unruly neighbor, but her boyfriend advised against it. "She's just nuts," he'd say.

With hundreds of mourners gathered Sunday in the Thunderdome at UC Santa Barbara, families of the six postal workers slain by a rampaging former colleague last month received the U.S. Postal Service's highest honor on behalf of the fallen employees.

A letter carrier was released from the hospital Friday, a day after she was shot twice in a drive-by attack in South Los Angeles shortly after getting off work. About 7 p.m. Thursday, Teresa Minor, 23, walked to the parking lot next to the post office in the 8500 block of South Broadway and discovered that her car had a flat tire, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.