By Jim Fitzgerald
Associated Press Writer
Monday, Oct. 22, 2001; 6:41 p.m. EDT

NEW YORK –– Small traces of anthrax were found Monday in CBS anchorman Dan Rather's office, buttressing what had been an assumption: that the assistant who opens his mail encountered the spores at the network.

CBS News spokeswoman Sandra Genelius said Rather and his staff, including the assistant who has contracted skin anthrax, are still working in the office because the amount of bacteria found wasn't considered "dangerous."

Claire Fletcher, 27, whose work included handling Rather's mail, tested positive last week for cutaneous anthrax. She is doing well, Genelius said.

The source is still not known. Fletcher has said she did not remember any suspicious letter.

Earlier Monday, Gov. George Pataki's Manhattan office reopened. It had been evacuated Wednesday after a sample of suspected anthrax was found and initially tested positive. Another 140 samples were collected later in the week, and all of those tested negative, said John Signor, a spokesman for the state Department of Health.

"The building is safe. We're back in the office and that's the way it should be," Pataki said Monday.

Pataki, who was not tested for anthrax, was given the antibiotic Cipro as a precaution, but he said Monday, "I'm actually off Cipro now."

A culture of the sample that tested positive was still being observed for a final result, Signor said. Authorities have suggested that the anthrax, if that's what it is confirmed to be, might have been brought in by officers who worked on anthrax cases elsewhere in the city.

The number of anthrax cases in New York remained at four, with one case each at NBC, CBS, ABC and the New York Post. Anthrax-contaminated letters were found at NBC and the Post.

Several other news outlets have been tested. The Associated Press announced Monday that samples taken from its Rockefeller Center mailroom were conclusively found to be negative for anthrax. The AP said it had been told that no further testing was necessary.