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Valentine’s
pour into small town post office for stamp
VALENTINE
— The crush always starts around early February, when the envelopes
begin pouring into this tiny West Texas town seeking the “Valentine”
postal cancellation that will make the heartfelt missives complete.
From
as far away as Australia and Thailand the envelopes come, and Postmaster
Maria E. Carrasco delivers. In her nearly 15 years here, she lovingly
has stamped more than 200,000 valentines and moved them on their
way to lovers, mothers and others dear to the senders.
“A
lot of people think we charge for the postmark, but it’s free,”
Carrasco said.
There
are other cities named Valentine in this country, but Feb. 14 is
special in Valentine,
Texas, which apart from the work of its postmaster would be a dot
some 140 miles southeast of El Paso.
Valentine
used to have a bar, dance hall, 24-hour cafe, grocery store and
a roundhouse where trains swung around on a giant lazy Susan to
reverse direction. In those days, residents enjoyed a Valentine’s
Day dance and a parade with floats and a queen. But when the train
operations were automated by the early 1990s, the depot shut down
and the only jobs left were at the school or on the local ranches.
“All
you can do here is teach and the postmaster job is taken,”
Brown jokes.
The
formal stamp program started in 1983 with a simple heart design
created in El Paso.
Locals
would head to the post office to get the cancellation stamp “and
then they would just hand it to their special person,” Carrasco
said.
After postal officials told Carrasco that the town needed to create
a local postmark, residents began submitting designs, and a new
one is chosen each year. The first year, 1994, Carrasco’s daughter
sketched the honored design — an elegant double heart with
a sash — that was stamped on 39,022 letters.
Today,
the town’s schoolchildren vie for the winning concept, which
this year is a heart wrapped with a sash and the words “Love
Station” across the top, “Valentine, TX, 79854” through
the middle, and “February 14, 2002” along the bottom.
Since
1983, about 240,000 cards have passed through the simple, whitewashed
adobe building standing nearly alone on Texas 90, about 25 miles
from the Mexico border.
Another
15,000 are expected to be stamped this year.
To
obtain the stamp, senders put their stamped valentine inside another
envelope addressed to the Valentine post office. Then Carrasco pulls
them out, cancels them and sends them along.
Sometimes,
Carrasco pitches in her own money when people forget to include
postage or use foreign stamps. She sends the forgetful ones letters
noting the charges. Most, grateful that their heartfelt sentiments
didn’t hit a dead end, mail a payment, she said.
“These
valentines are special,” Carrasco said. “The fact that
they take the trouble to address these cards and send them here,
(that means) a lot to me.”
Former
Enron chairman Lay sells Aspen house
ASPEN,
Colo. (AP) — Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay and his wife
have sold their Aspen house for $10 million, fetching the highest
price per square foot that real estate agents can remember in this
haven for the rich and famous.
The
Lays, who also sold a vacant lot and have two other Aspen properties
for sale, paid $1.9 million in 1991 for the 3,015-square-foot cottage
on a three-acre lot, part of which fronts the Roaring Fork River.
The
43-year-old, three-bedroom house was extensively renovated in 1993
and is located near downtown with views of Aspen Mountain. It appears
modest from the outside, but Saslove said he was not surprised by
the sale price because of its location.
A
limited liability company, Roaring Fork I LLC, paid Lay and his
wife, Linda, the equivalent of $3,330 a square foot, according to
the warranty deed made public Tuesday.
The
Lays have said they are struggling financially after the collapse
of Houston-based Enron, embroiled in the country’s largest
ever bankruptcy. Congress and federal officials are investigating
the company’s collapse amid questions about its accounting
practices.
The
Lays also sold an undeveloped lot at the foot of Red Mountain for
$2.1 million. The property, which sits on a bluff above the Aspen
Art Museum, had been listed for $2.95 million.
Student
charged with 28 counts of kidnapping
FAIRFIELD,
Conn. (AP) — A legally blind college graduate, described by
a former roommate as a paranoid “hermit,” was in police
custody Wednesday after allegedly taking 28 people hostage in a
university classroom and claiming to have a bomb.
Patrick
Arbelo, 24, of nearby Bridgeport was charged early Wednesday with
28 counts of first-degree kidnapping. Authorities said additional
charges were pending.
The
hostages, including an associate professor and students, were released
gradually — some by faking illness — during the seven-hour
standoff at Fairfield University. No one was injured.
Arbelo,
a 2001 graduate of the Roman Catholic university, remained in the
classroom for about an hour after he released the last hostage,
Fairfield First Selectman Kenneth Flatto said. He later “came
out and gave himself up peacefully,” university spokeswoman
Nancy Habetz said.
At
his arraignment Wednesday, bail was set at $1 million and Arbelo
was ordered to undergo psychiatric and medical exams. Authorities
said he is blind in one eye, three-quarters blind in another and
partially deaf. Another hearing was set for Feb. 26.
The
school, which has about 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students,
is in southwestern Connecticut about 50 miles from New York City.
Stanford
University Band on alcohol probation
STANFORD,
Calif. (U-WIRE) — In response to reports of incidents involving
alcohol consumption, the Office of Student Activities placed the
Stanford University Band on alcohol probation last week.
Associate
Dean of Students Morris Graves explained that probation was selected
as a suitable measure by a group of administrators.
Dean
of Students Marc Wais and representatives from the Athletics Department
were also involved in the decision-making process.
Wais
explained that issues that had come to the University’s attention
suggested a need for a formal investigation of the Band.
According
to him, the nature of the issues at hand suggested that alcohol
probation was appropriate for the situation.
The
administration did not specify the duration of the alcohol probation.
“The length of the suspension will be determined by how long
it takes for the University and the Band to agree on solutions and
put them into place,” Wais said.
Ashcroft
says information is key to national security
(U-WIRE)
AUSTIN - Information availability is the government's best weapon
against terrorism, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday
at a national infrastructure conference in Austin, Texas.
Ashcroft
said the government should protect infrastructure such as nuclear
power plants and public water supplies because they are potential
targets for future attacks.
To
protect the facilities, he said, the private sector should find
better ways to share and update information with each other and
the government.
“The
key to preventing critical infrastructure attacks and responding
effectively, if they do occur, is the availability of information,”
he said. “In the modern world, information is the best
friend we have.”
He
said the Sept. 11 attacks were meant to cripple the nation's spirit,
but instead brought citizens together. Since the attacks, he added,
the country has disrupted terrorist activity by tightening security
around landmarks and arresting suspected terrorists.
But
he said vulnerabilities in infrastructure, such as telecommunications,
should be identified and fixed. He offered a scenario of a chemical
spill caused by computer hacking as an example of cyber-terrorism.
“Attacks on these critical systems could come against both
physical and cyber resources, and while the form of these two attacks
could not be more different, the goal of each kind of attack is
the same — to disrupt and destroy Americans' lives.”
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