post office

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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....

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,...

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...

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...

How the USPS Deals With Your Awful Penmanship

Neither rain nor sleet nor ... bad handwriting

(Newser) - The United States Postal Service has no shortage of public headaches —but the Wall Street Journal takes a look at a quirky problem that's a little more under-the-radar: your bad handwriting. The USPS employs 1,900 clerks who show up for work at one of two "Remote...

On Chopping Block: 3,700 Post Offices

Struggling USPS plans downsizing

(Newser) - The struggling US Postal Service could close 3,700 post offices starting in January, a full 11% of its retail operations and the largest downsizing in the agency's history. The targeted offices span 49 states. The exception: Delaware, which has only one post office for every 12,000 people....

Stamp Honors Lady Liberty ...Using Vegas Replica

Photo of casino replica used to mark statue's 125th anniversary

(Newser) - A sharp-eyed collector spotted a small problem with the US Post Office's new stamp celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty: Officials used a picture of the wrong statue. The Lady Liberty that graces the stamp is actually that of the replica that stands outside the New...

US May Close Thousands of Post Offices

More than half of the existing US branches will be reviewed

(Newser) - After deciding to close 491 post offices last year, the struggling US Postal Service will add as many as 2,000 additional branches to that tally beginning in March. Another 16,000 unprofitable ones will also be reviewed, as the USPS pushes Congress to allow them to close the worst...

God Is Getting More Snail Mail This Year

People send requests to heaven, notes to lost friends

(Newser) - Letters to the North Pole are common, but this year has seen notable quantities of letters to a different address: Heaven. “In the 10 years I've been doing this, I've seen maybe two or three letters addressed to heaven," one Florida postal worker tell the St. Petersburg Times...

Postman Busted for Delivering Mail Naked

David Goodman says he was just trying to cheer up a woman on his route

(Newser) - Neither snow, nor rain, nor lack of clothing: A 52-year-old postal carrier was arrested after attempting to raise the spirits of a "stressed out" woman by delivering her mail nude. Making his buff move even bolder: His Milwaukee-area route took him not to the 21-year-old woman's house, but to...

Post Office Wants to Drop Saturday Delivery

'Neither snow, nor rain, nor gloom of night... but screw weekends'

(Newser) - Soon, you may not have to check your mail on Saturday. The Postal Service wants to switch to delivering mail just five days a week, in an effort to rein in its runaway debt, USA Today reports. Postmaster General John Potter says he’ll submit a formal request for the...

Va. Standoff Suspect Angry at Gov't

Warren Taylor sorry about causing holiday trouble

(Newser) - Though the man accused of taking three hostages at a Virginia post office yesterday has no ill will toward the USPS specifically, an official says he is quite angry with the federal government in general. Warren Taylor, 53, of Sullivan County, Tenn., told authorities he had planned the event for...

Suspect, 3 Hostages Leave Va. Post Office
 Suspect, 3 Hostages 
 Leave Va. Post Office 
UPDATED
Dec 23, 2009 10:32 PM CST

Suspect, 3 Hostages Leave Va. Post Office

Suspect may have explosives taped to body

(Newser) - The suspect in today’s hostage situation at a western Virginia post office looks to have surrendered to authorities, leaving the Wytheville building along with three of his apparent captives. The hostages came out with hands raised, WSLS-TV reports, followed by a man in a wheelchair, whom police with shields...

Post Office Drops North Pole Letter Program

Cancellation infuriates Santa's helpers in Alaska town

(Newser) - Furious North Pole residents are accusing the Postal Service of playing Grinch by ending its letters to Santa program—because it attracted a sex offender. Since 1954, the Postal Service has happily sent letters to Santa to North Pole, Alaska, where volunteers respond and mail them back with a North...

Post Office Weighs Hundreds of Branch Closings

(Newser) - The US Postal Service is considering closing or consolidating hundreds of stations and branches across the country as mail volumes continue to plummet, AP reports. Managers have been told to review the activities of over 3,000 postal outlets nationwide and consider factors like customer service, real estate values, and...

Post Office Begs for Congress' Help

We can't pay all the bills this year: chief

(Newser) - The Postal Service can’t pay all of this year’s bills, the postmaster general warned Congress today as he proposed shedding $6 billion in costs and Saturday service. He clarified that the agency—which doesn’t get taxpayer subsidies—wants Washington’s help, not a bailout. Due to declining...

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