US Postal Service

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When USPS Defaults, Blame Congress

 When USPS 
 Defaults, Blame 
 Congress 
Joe Nocera
Jul 31, 2012 12:49 PM CDT

When USPS Defaults, Blame Congress

Joe Nocera says the pending crisis was totally avoidable

(Newser) - This is the week the US Postal Service defaults on a major obligation—in this case, a legally mandated $5.5 billion payment to "prefund" its health benefits. What brought the post office to this sorry state? Of course, part of the problem is we're sending less mail....

Post Office Days Away From 1st Default

USPS warns it will default on retiree payment

(Newser) - If Congress doesn't do something, the US Postal Service will default for the first time ever on Aug. 1. That's the day a $5.5 billion payment is supposed to be made into a benefits fund for future retirees; another legally-required payment of the same amount is due...

Postal Workers Go on Hunger Strike

With special guest Dennis Kucinich

(Newser) - Postal workers, activists, and even Dennis Kucinich took to Capitol Hill today to announce a four-day hunger strike on behalf of the beleaguered US Postal Service. Kucinich himself won't be joining the strike, which will include 10 postal workers, union activists, and supporters, but he was there for moral...

USPS Halts 600 Urban Closings
 USPS Halts 600 Urban Closings 
May 14, 2012 2:39 PM CDT

USPS Halts 600 Urban Closings

On heels of announcement staving off rural closures

(Newser) - The USPS is going to halt a plan to close some 600 urban and suburban postal branches, a spokesman announced today. The facilities in many cities serve as neighborhood post offices. The Postal Service announced last year that it was looking at closing up to 252 mail-processing centers and 3,...

Rural Post Offices to Stay Open: USPS

But they'll have shorter operating hours

(Newser) - Good news for those living in Very, Very Small Town, USA. Hundreds of rural post offices will indeed remain open, the USPS announced today, albeit with shorter hours. The new plan will save the mail agency half a billion dollars each year while addressing concerns of rural residents most opposed...

How a 1909 Law Is Holding Back the Post Office

Senate moves to OK booze-by-mail 103 years later

(Newser) - The Senate has an idea to help save the Postal Service: Let people mail alcohol. After all, FedEx and UPS carry the stuff all the time. But a law from 1909—established 10 years before Prohibition came into effect—bars the Postal Service from shipping "all spirituous, vinous, malted,...

Senate Passes Plan to Save Postal Service

Overhaul would cut costs, prevent closures

(Newser) - A plan to save the US Postal Service from financial collapse has passed the Senate with unusual speed. The Senate plan calls for a major overhaul of the service, which is losing $36 million a day. The bill would allow the service to cut its pension and retiree benefit costs,...

Post Office Closing 223 Processing Centers

35K jobs at stake, delivery will slow

(Newser) - The US Postal Service is closing or consolidating almost half of its mail processing centers nationwide as part of a $15 billion cost-cutting plan. Some 223 centers will go, in a move that puts 35,000 jobs at risk and will slow down first-class delivery, AP reports. The agency, which...

Stamps Might Hit 50 Cents
 Stamps Might Hit 50 Cents 
Feb 16, 2012 6:58 PM CST

Stamps Might Hit 50 Cents

Postal Service cites need for quick action from Congress

(Newser) - 50-cent stamps, anyone? That's one of the changes the postmaster-general wants Congress to act on quickly if the service is to survive, reports the Wall Street Journal . That increase of a nickel for a first-class stamp is actually one of the minor proposals from Patrick Donahoe. He also laid...

USPS Has Dismal Holiday, Loses $3.3B in Quarter

Decline in regular mail more than offsets gift shipping bump

(Newser) - The US Postal Service had a jaw-droppingly ugly holiday quarter, losing $3.3 billion despite a better-than-expected surge in gift shipments, the agency announced today. That's $3 billion worse than its figure for the same period in 2010, the AP reports, and at this rate the agency expects to...

10 Careers That Are Dwindling Away

Farmers, postal processors, switchboard operators face job loss

(Newser) - Unemployment may be easing , but certain jobs seem to be sliding into the dustbin of history. The Huffington Post lists 10 on the skids, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
  1. Farmers and ranchers: expected to lose 96,100 jobs by 2020. Mechanized farming is taking over.

'Postman Santa' Wins Standoff With US Mail

Letter carrier who threatened to 'go rogue' allowed to don red suit

(Newser) - After getting some bad publicity, the US Postal Service has decided not to prevent a kindly, bearded man from wearing a red hat and jacket as he makes his mail deliveries. For the last decade, letter carrier Bob McLean had worn a Santa hat and jacket during the holiday season,...

Report Finds Theft, Fraud Among Mail Carriers

But also some heroism ...

(Newser) - The Washington Post checks out a watchdog report about the nation's 574,000 mail carriers and finds some doozies:
  • A Maryland carrier admitted to burning piles of mail in an abandoned lot and was sentenced to six months in jail.
  • A carrier in Cincinnati stole $10,000 in cash
...

Post Office to Slow Mail, Kill Next-Day Letter Delivery

Half of USPS mail processing centers to shut down this spring

(Newser) - Get ready to wait an extra day for the next DVD of The Wire: The mail is going to slow down. As part of its plan to save $3 billion, the cash-challenged US Postal Service will be closing roughly half of its 500 mail processing centers as soon as next...

CBS/Vanity Fair Poll: 'Jumped the Shark,' Hillary Clinton for VP, and More

 83% Don't Know 
 What 'Jumped the 
 Shark' Means 
CBS/vanity fair poll
Oct 31, 2011 2:39 PM CDT

83% Don't Know What 'Jumped the Shark' Means

And 43% want Hillary for VP

(Newser) - The latest 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll offers readers a new batch of quirky questions, including whether they’re familiar with the Happy Days-inspired phrase “jumped the shark.” Some 83% of respondents didn’t know it meant a show was past its prime. Among other interesting stats:
  • If Joe
...

Post Office's Salvation: Junk Mail?

Er, 'advertising mail,' that is

(Newser) - Heroically riding in to save the US Postal Service, it's ... junk mail? Yes, the USPS is focusing on advertising mail—"we don't call it junk mail," notes Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe—to boost its business, reaching out to businesses to send more of their "pitches"...

Capitol Hill Buried in Avalanche of Angry Mail

One office seeing 1,422% more mail than in 2002

(Newser) - Could the USPS' last great hope be angry Americans? An avalanche of letters and emails are pouring into Congress, with offices reporting that they're dealing with, in one case, as much as 1,422% more constituent-penned correspondence than they did in 2002. Politico reports that House offices are seeing...

Obama Moves to Save USPS From Default

He wants to delay a pension payment mandated in 2006 law

(Newser) - President Obama intends to swoop to the rescue of the ailing US Postal Service —or at least try, reports the New York Times. The White House yesterday announced that it would push for legislation giving the USPS a three-month reprieve on the $5.5 billion it’s supposed to...

USPS Teeters on Brink of Default

Huge labor costs, declining usage have deficit at $9.2 billion this year

(Newser) - With a $5.5 billion payment due Sept. 30, the US Postal Service's longstanding financial woes are about to come to a head—in fact, if Congress doesn't do something soon, the agency might have to shut down entirely this winter, reports the New York Times . The USPS...

How to Save the Post Office Big Bucks? Slower Mail

Study says move would save $1.5B per year

(Newser) - Postal service may be enshrined in the US Constitution, but the clause doesn't say anything about how fast that service needs to be. Now, with revenues plummeting, US Postal Service officials are thinking about slowing delivery speeds for first-class and Priority Mail, a move that a new study says...

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