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 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.

A recent Tank McNamara comic strip featured two former Transportation Security Administration screeners working security at a major league baseball stadium. "I miss pawing ladies' underwear like I could when I was screenin' for the TSA," one says to the other. It was hardly the first time someone took a comic shot at the agency hastily created to take over airport security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

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.

Investigators in New Mexico have found evidence indicating that the woman responsible for this week's deadly rampage in Goleta believed that the U.S. Postal Service, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department and a local hospital had conspired against her, authorities disclosed Friday. Searching the rural home of Jennifer Sanmarco, postal inspectors and Santa Barbara sheriff's detectives discovered writings "that may shed light on an apparent motive," said Sgt.

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.

Across Santa Barbara County on Tuesday, the shock of a woman's homicidal rampage through a Goleta postal facility reverberated through neighborhoods of tidy tract houses, mobile homes and apartment buildings. The somber toll of deaths -- five plus that of 44-year-old shooter Jennifer Sanmarco, who committed suicide -- included a basketball-playing mom, a gardening grandfather and a widow just emerging from years-long grief.

A letter carrier was released from a hospital Wednesday after being mauled by two loose dogs the day before. The 35-year-old Anaheim man's name was not released. The carrier was delivering mail in the 600 block of Linwood Avenue about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said, when a pit bull and Rottweiler jumped him from behind and bit him severely on both hands, the right leg from ankle to thigh and the right arm. A resident came to his aid with a shovel, authorities said.

Earl Lazenby had delivered mail for years to the aging brown home with overgrown plants in the yard and a National Rifle Assn. sticker on the front door. The home's owner was always friendly, sometimes chatting with Lazenby at the grocery store in this Atlanta suburb. But what Lazenby didn't know was that William Crutchfield was deep in debt and looking for a way out.

Sixteen employees at a Los Alamitos post office complained of headaches and lightheadedness Saturday after a package began emitting a foul odor during processing. All of the workers were decontaminated, said Capt. Steve Miller of the Orange County Fire Authority, but none required medical assistance. The odor at the Reagan Street facility was identified as coming from "a beauty supply product used for acrylic nails," Miller said.