spamassassin local.cf whitelist_from does not work

I have tried everything I can find on the net but cannot get the following options in ‘local.cf’ to work:

# Add scores to tests
add_header all Status _YESNO_, score=_SCORE_ required=_REQD_ tests=_TESTSSCORES(,)_

# whilelists
whitelist_from *@mydomain.com

In the first case ‘tests’ seems to do nothing as does my attempt to whitelist anything within my own domain. Does anyone see what I am doing wrong? It almost seems like spamassassin is simply not using ‘local.cf’. TIA.