n/t

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

Answers

Yowza! Yowza!

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

I agree. Nice to be back here. BTW, what the hell happened?

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

Don't know what happened, but I'm glad it's over. Whew! EZboard was driving me nuts! Hello again, everyone.

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

Is the EZ board open to everyone or is it password protected and how ever do you get there???? I just went through SERIOUS WITHDRAWAL and got to wondering what ever was going on.

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

Tut, tut, there have been a couple of threads about the alternative ezboard forum--one a few threads below this one!

Yes, good to be back, I HATE ezboard too. But it's better than nothing. I think.

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

If everyone would cut and paste their WHOLE threads over here from ezboard, I think it would be A Good Thing. I'll do mine in the middle of the night if I can because I have so many and because I'm the Mother of All Despots and Don't Play Well With Others.

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

Sorry, right after I posted I saw the other thread and was able to visit the EZ board. So I have not been on line all that long and I am not terrible literate!!! ;>)

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

"If everyone would cut and paste their WHOLE threads over here from ezboard..."

Lessee, how does it go?

Oh, Yes...

BHWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAwawawawawawawawa....!

(sorry, maybe tomorrow I'll feel more cooperative)

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

Hey Brooks, maybe we should let Diane work off her guilt by letting her cut and paste. . .?

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

I didn't contribute anything worth cutting and pasting. I vote for carrying on as it goes. If anyone feels differently, s/he can transfer the thread(s) worth archiving over here.

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

I ain't cuttin' and pastin' nuttin.

We had the fire department to the facility twice and two people from our facility are in the hospital being checked.

Both times the fire department said it was not anthrax, and I doubt those two will be postive, but the stress has been unbelievable.

And to top it off, I had to walk to the hotel because a certain person didn't answer the phone that was ringing from 155 am to 245 am as I walked all the way here. I am soaked with sweat, mad as hell, stressed out from work, and the friggin safety lock is on the door so I had to get the manager to come open it.

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

Well, other than that, how did you enjoy the play?

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/local/dade/digdocs/005766.htm

Two Miami postal workers undergoing tests at hospital

Couple has flu-like symptoms; one-letter theory investigated

BY LUISA YANEZ, LISA ARTHUR AND AMY DRISCOLL

Two Miami postal workers were hospitalized Thursday with flu-like symptoms at Pan American Hospital, where doctors took blood and nasal swabs to culture for anthrax tests.

Husband and wife Lázaro and Latosha Armenteros of Opa-locka work at the Milam Dairy General Mail Facility, 2200 NW 72nd Ave., a large complex near Miami International Airport.

They first came to the emergency room at midday Thursday, complaining of symptoms that corresponded roughly to possible anthrax cases, hospital CEO Roberto Tejidor said.

``Since they are postal workers, we have to be on extra alert,'' he said.

The tests for the disease will take at least 48 hours and the couple will be placed in isolation until a diagnosis is made, Tejidor said.

The hospital did not notify public health officials, he said, because doctors do not yet know if they are dealing with anthrax, the flu or something else.

The two employees work in different sections of the mail complex, said Del Alvarez, a postal inspector with the U.S. Postal Service.

A statement from Judy Johnson, general president of the Miami chapter of the American Postal Workers Union, said the 28-year-old female mail processor sought medical treatment ``after coming in contact with an unknown substance and exhibiting flu-like symptoms for over one week'' along with ``a very low white-cell count.''

Her husband, a letter carrier, was also being treated for flu-like symptoms, the statement said.

Lázaro Armenteros' father, also named Lázaro, was baby-sitting the couple's children Thursday night at their Opa-locka home. ``We don't think it's anything serious. We think it's something like a virus,'' he said.

Postal investigators, meanwhile, continued trying to unravel the mysteries of the anthrax cases that began in a Boca Raton publisher's mailroom and led to spores being found in four Palm Beach County postal facilities.

Sun photo editor Bob Stevens died on Oct. 5 of inhalation anthrax. Health officials located anthrax spores in the mailroom of supermarket tabloid publisher American Media Inc. on Oct. 15. Investigators believe Stevens contracted the disease from a letter or package sent there.

ONE-LETTER THEORY

Joseph Breckenridge, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, said Thursday that a single anthrax-contaminated letter sent to AMI could have passed through all four mail facilities, depositing tiny amounts of spores along the way.

Here's how, according to Breckenridge:

If a letter from outside Palm Beach County was sent to The National Enquirer at its old address in Lantana, it would first go to the main county post office on Summit Boulevard in West Palm Beach.

That letter would then travel to the Greenacres postal facility in Lake Worth, then to the Lake Worth Road post office, where it would be marked as a ``wrong address/forward.''

The Enquirer's address changed from Lantana to the AMI Boca Raton headquarters within the past 12 months, Breckenridge said.

The letter would then reverse its path: back to Greenacres, then back to the county's main post office on Summit Boulevard.

Then it would be sent to the new Enquirer address, going first to the Blue Lakes mail-sorting facility in Boca Raton before landing at the main Boca Raton post office on Military Trail, where AMI employees retrieved mail.

Anthrax spores were found at the Greenacres, Lake Worth Road, Blue Lakes and Military Trail sites in concentrations of 100 spores or fewer, Breckenridge said.

Initial tests for the main county post office on Summit Boulevard came back negative, but more testing will be done, said Palm Beach County Health Department spokesman Tim O'Connor.

Scientists believe a person has to inhale about 8,000 spores to develop the more serious inhalation anthrax.

Postal union leaders have disputed the ``bouncing letter'' theory, saying the trail of anthrax spores were likely caused by more than one letter.

Though union officials would not return calls Thursday, the 3,300-member group plans to file a lawsuit charging the Postal Service with providing inadequate safety measures for employees.

The union, which represents mail distribution clerks, wants the Postal Service to provide anthrax-exposure tests, antibiotics, latex gloves and other immediate safeguards against the bacterial disease.

Postal officials announced Wednesday that they will supply gas masks with special particle filters to workers sorting mail behind the scenes.

NO OTHER EVIDENCE

Breckenridge maintained Thursday that the union has no evidence of more than one anthrax-laced letter. He said the Postal Service hypothesis -- that the letter could have been misdirected and gone through all four facilities -- is ``reasonable.''

``We are now 30 days away from the presumed exposure and no postal workers in Palm Beach County have gotten sick,'' he said. ``That's the best evidence we have that it came from one letter, the letter that presumbly killed Mr. Stevens.

``I wish that letter hadn't been destroyed because it would give us much information. But we don't have the physical evidence,'' said Breckenridge, referring to AMI's policy of incinerating all its waste mail.

One thing anthrax experts agreed on Thursday: It would be nearly impossible for the Boca Raton cases to have been caused by an envelope accidentally dropped in soil with naturally occurring anthrax spores in it.

Said Frederick Southwick, chief of infectious diseases at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville: ``It would be highly unlikely for an envelope to pick up thousands and thousands of spores by itself.''

U.S. authorities Thursday also awaited results of new tests ordered by a judge in Argentina on alleged anthrax found on an envelope mailed from South Florida, part of a mailing of vacation brochures.

In Argentina, federal judge Rodolfo Canicoba Corral said the tests likely will not be completed until next week.

Judy Orihuela, an FBI spokeswoman in South Florida, said Argentine authorities also are expected to send a sample of the suspected anthrax to the United States for further tests.

Herald staff writers Alfonso Chardy, Andrea Elliott, Jay Weaver and Herald special correspondent Jorge San Pedro in Buenos Aires contributed to this report.

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

Doesn't get any better, does it? I know you have gloves but did the USPS issue you any kind of mask as well?

-- Anonymous, October 25, 2001

masks are available, but they do nothing to prevent inhalation of the spores.

-- Anonymous, October 26, 2001

((((((((((Barefoot!!!!!!))))))))))))))

-- Anonymous, October 26, 2001

Well, Jeeze, you might as well paint animal mouths and noses on 'em for Halloween.

-- Anonymous, October 26, 2001

Sure would be nice if there were a way to immediately cut out all unwanted junk mail. Anything to significantly reduce the volume that must be dealt with.

-- Anonymous, October 26, 2001

well, since junk mail is what pays our salary, that isn't an option.

But, the mailers may cut back on their volume. Management is claiming a large drop in the mail, but that hasn't been confirmed by the union. Management is using that as an excuse for some shenanigans that they have been pulling.

-- Anonymous, October 26, 2001