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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... More »

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... More »

Stamps Going Up a Penny

It will cost 45 cents to mail a first-class letter in January

(Newser) - Given the dire financial straits of the Postal Service, this shouldn't be a huge surprise: The price of a stamp is going up a penny to 45 cents in January, reports the Washington Post . The first hike in more than two years is expected to pull in an extra... More »

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... More »

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... More »

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... More »

America's Future: Mail Delivery Just 3 Days a Week

At least, that's what the postmaster general predicts

(Newser) - We live in the age of instant communication, thanks to Skype, Twitter, smartphones, and three-day-a-week mail delivery? That could be our odd reality in as few as 15 years, according to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. In comments made to USA Today , Donahue explains that the Postal Service is anticipating an... More »

Man Busted After Cocaine Delivery—by Mail

Jersey City felon arrested minutes after opening package

(Newser) - Word to the wise: You'll probably want to set up a more sophisticated way to have your cocaine delivered than the US postal service. That's what a Jersey City man allegedly did—and was busted by police minutes after accepting a package containing 2 kilos of the drug, the Star-Ledger... More »

Why I'll Always Love Snail Mail

Meghan Daum: Email's great, but the real stuff can be 'magical'

(Newser) - News that the postal service has to cut back even further has Meghan Daum feeling a little glum about her beloved snail mail. "This love affair began decades ago, back when the 'snail' qualifier wasn't necessary," she writes in the Los Angeles Times . She'd sort the mail as... More »

Dive-Bombing Bird Stops Mail in Canadian Town

(Newser) - Residents of a Calgary suburb will have to pick up their own mail, since it seems that a hawk in the area has a personal grudge against the local mail carrier. The bird, identified as a Swainson's hawk, started terrorizing the post office worker in June, once diving with such... More »

Raising the Price of Stamps Is Smart

Businesses have to get smarter about snail mail

(Newser) - The Postal Service's proposal to raise the price of stamps to 46 cents has set off the usual complaints, but Daniel Gross at Slate thinks it's a smart move. The current system is way too bloated, and a price increase might once and for all force junk mailers and department... More »

20,000 Letters Found in Missing Mailman's Garage

Some of the undelivered mail dates back to 1997

(Newser) - When a Philadelphia mailman didn't show up for work several days in a row last month, postal officials got worried. So they paid a visit to his home, little suspecting what they'd find there: roughly 20,000 undelivered and unopened pieces of mail, some dating to 1997. Paychecks, bills, and... More »

What Happens When You Write to Obama

The president reads 10 letters a day; here's an inside look on how

(Newser) - When Jennifer Cline wrote her letter to Obama, she treated it like a diary entry. The 27-year-old Michigan mom had recently lost her job, gone bankrupt, and been diagnosed with cancer, but she told the president things would get better soon. She didn’t expect anyone to read it. But... More »

Pot Smugglers Prefer Postal Service

Shipments through the mail have shot up in recent years

(Newser) - Pot traffickers are increasingly realizing that there's no need to risk hauling their drugs across the country—they can just have the US Postal Service do it for them. Seizures of marijuana by postal inspectors have increased 400% since 2007. More than 3,600 packages with marijuana were found in... More »

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... More »

Champagne Arrives in Mail, 24 Years Late

Father's birthday gift comes a quarter-century after it's mailed

(Newser) - Frank Digoria thought his dad was "flipping out" when he received a bottle of champagne in the mail from him in January. Not only was his birthday a month past, but the card from Frank Sr. also mentioned a now-deceased wife. Turns out, Frank Sr. sent the bottle in... More »

Quaids: $10K Hotel Bill Got Lost in Mail

Couple didn't think they had to pay at checkout, moved before tab arrived: lawyer

(Newser) - Randy and Evi Quaid didn’t pay the $10,000 hotel bill they’re accused of skipping out because it got lost in the mail, their lawyer told a Santa Barbara, Calif., court today. The Quaids didn’t think they had to pay upon checkout, and changed addresses before the... More »

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... More »

Awash-in-Red USPS 'High-Risk': Fed Watchdog

(Newser) - The Government Accountability Office has put the struggling US Postal Service on its list of “high-risk” federal programs, the Hill reports. The federal watchdog says the USPS will lose $7 billion this year, and that even the end of the recession will not return business that has migrated to... More »

Stamps Go Up 2 Cents in May

(AP) - The price of a first-class stamp will rise 2 cents to 44 cents on May 11, the Postal Service said today. That leaves plenty of time to stock up on Forever Stamps, which will continue to sell at the current 42-cent rate until the increase occurs. They will remain valid... More »

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