Postal Service

Ryan Carter BURBANK -- A 55-year-old Burbank man has pleaded not guilty to allegations that he shot and killed his 34-year-old nephew, officials said. Phillip Norman Perry pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Burbank Superior Court to one count of murder, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office. Perry, a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier in Burbank, was arrested and charged with the alleged shooting death of his nephew, Phillip Andrew Perry, who suffered six shots to the head, chest and legs after an argument over the younger Perry's moving into his uncle's home in the 2200 block of North Keystone Street, police said.

Direct mail focus of lecture The United States Postal Service is having a seminar on direct mail and building and maintaining customer relationships. The seminar will be at 7:30 a.m. Thursday at the Burbank Hilton at 2500 Hollywood Way. "Advertising with Mail -- Made Easy" will show businesspeople how they can create successful direct-mail programs. The seminar will explain how to design a campaign, use the Internet to build a campaign, obtain mail lists, understand printing and lettershop operations and proper mail preparation.

BURBANK — Postal crates are about to get a little heavier, as a food drive benefiting the Burbank Temporary Aid Center is set for Saturday across the city. The 16th annual Stamp Out Hunger campaign, run by the National Assn. of Letter Carriers, is the nation’s largest single-day food drive and aims to collect more than 30,000 pounds of food for the aid center, officials said. The letter carriers, a branch of the United States Postal Service, ask that residents leave nonperishable food items next to mailboxes before mail is usually delivered.

American Airlines , which filed for bankruptcy protection in November, is closing its operations at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank and ending flights from Dallas-Fort Worth to New Delhi . In addition to closing operations at those two airports, the airline said it plans to cut 150 positions. "Our objective is to make our company competitive and more efficient in an increasingly challenging industry," the airline said in a statement Monday. The flights from Bob Hope Airport will end Feb.

Lolita Harper BURBANK -- Although Burbank residents use mail services every day, few people know how their local post office is run. Before mail ends up in one of the thousands of mailboxes that line the streets of Burbank, it has been through a processing plant in Santa Clarita, where most of it is sorted by route and delivered to the local office. Burbank carriers then sort the rest by hand and head out to their routes, said David Mazer, spokesman for the Southern California region of the U.S. Postal Service.

BURBANK — The United States Postal Service is studying the possibility of shuttering the Glenoaks Station Post Office at the end of the year and merging its operations with Burbank’s main postal station on Hollywood Way. The news comes less than one month after U.S. Postal Service officials announced plans to close the Magnolia Park Post Office at the end of the year. The decision to possibly halve the number of Burbank post offices, from four to two, is part of a cost-cutting measure, U.S. Postal Service spokesman Richard Maher said.

Ryan Carter BURBANK -- Burbank post office employees are reacting to cases of anthrax bioterrorism in the nation with daily briefs to rank-and-file workers and offers of free protective garb, officials said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed two deaths of United States Postal Service workers in Washington, D.C., were caused by inhalation of the bacteria and that three more postal workers have been hospitalized on the suspicion that they, too, have contracted the disease.

Molly Shore About 400 Burbank bulk-mail users will soon have to travel outside the city to send their letters, bills and periodicals. Bulk mail processed by the Burbank main post office will cease Aug. 15, necessitating a trip to North Hollywood or Glendale post offices, where new automated equipment to handle bulk mailing will be installed. The equipment will also be available in Van Nuys and Canoga Park. "New machines can't be installed in all offices because it's very expensive equipment," said Janie Isaguirre, business mail entry manager for the U.S. Postal Service in Santa Clarita.

If you are planning to purchase your stamps by mail from the post office and expect them to be delivered speedily, forget it. I ordered mine a week ago and still do not have them. After several calls to the local post offices and the mail person, I was told they did not handle this and that it was handled out of the Van Nuys Post Office. I proceeded to call the main Van Nuys Post Office, and I guess no one was home, because no one answered the phone. I then called the 800 number and told them this, and they said there was nothing they could do about connecting me, and I could register a complaint, which I did. They said they would notify the post office by the computer.