Free Republic

WASHINGTON - If the nation ever faces a large-scale attack by a biological weapon like anthrax, the U.S. Postal Service will be in charge of delivering whatever drugs and other medical aid Americans would need to survive. In an executive order released Wednesday, President Barack Obama put the Postal Service in charge of dispensing "medical countermeasures" to biological weapons because of its "capacity for rapid residential delivery." While most likely unrelated, the release of the executive order comes less than a week after a man with alleged ties to al-Qaida tried to bring down a Detroit-bound U.S. airliner. In recent...

<p>The man entered the Wytheville, Virginia, post office about 2:30 p.m. and fired a shot, Mayor Trent Crewe said. No one has been hurt, but three postal workers and two customers are being held hostage, he said.</p> <p>There also are reports that the man has a "device" and it appears the man's car, parked outside the office, is equipped with some type of device, Crewe said. He did not elaborate on what the device could be.</p>

The U.S. Postal Service has more tax delinquents in its ranks than any other federal agency or department, according to Internal Revenue Service data. Maybe their tax payments got lost in the mail. The U.S. Postal Service turns out to have more tax delinquents in its ranks than any other federal agency or department, according to the Internal Revenue Service. IRS statistics from 2008 detailing the amount of money federal workers failed to pay the government in taxes showed postal service employees owed $297.93 million -- nearly 10 percent of the $3.04 billion owed by federal employees and retirees from...

After losing more than $11 billion over the past three years, the U.S. Postal Service may eliminate Saturday delivery. The growth of alternative delivery services, particularly Email, and the recession that began last year have cut into the quasi-governmental agency’s revenue. It delivered 13 percent less mail -- 26 billion fewer pieces – in the year ended Sept. 30 than in the previous year. The Postal Service can’t take tax dollars, but it can borrow from the Treasury and now owes the government $10.2 billion. By law that debt can’t exceed $15 billion. Without major changes, the Postal Service figures...

The nation’s oldest taxpayer group slammed the Senate for moving forward with debate on Majority Leader Harry Reid’s enormous health care “reform” legislation. Packed to the gills with tax hikes, more government spending, and damaging regulations, this bill would add tremendous burdens to taxpayers while ignoring some of the fundamental problems with America’s health care system. Andrew Moylan, Director of Government Affairs for the 362,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU) provided the following the statement on behalf of his organization:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season likely won't get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers. The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks. Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender.

The Postal Service reported a loss of $3.8 billion last year, despite a reduction of 40,000 full-time positions and other cost-cutting measures. The loss was $1 billion more than the year before despite job cuts and other efforts designed to save billions of dollars, postal officials said Monday. "Our 2009 fiscal year proved to be one of the most challenging in the history of the Postal Service," Chief Financial Officer Joseph Corbett said. "The deep economic recession, and to a lesser extent the ongoing migration of mail to electronic alternatives, significantly affected all mail products, creating a large imbalance between...

USPS spokesperson Joanne Vito told the Examiner.com that 39 CFR 232.1(l) “applies to anyone coming into a Post Office or a Postal facility. The regulation prohibiting the possession of firearms or other weapons applies to all real property under the charge and control of the Postal Service. . . . Both open and concealed possession are prohibited, so storage of a weapon on a car parked in a lot that is under the charge and control of the Postal Service would be prohibited.” . . . Philip Van Cleave, President of the Virginia Citizens Defense League . . . said...

Mr Clarke said the company needed private capital and private management to bring it up to date and change it from being "old-fashioned". The shadow minister told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the Royal Mail was "broke" and its future had to involve a change of culture to stop business "draining away". "We propose to bring in private capital, assuming it is not in too disastrous a state by next May." Mr Clarke said the Royal Mail was becoming a "total disaster", attacking the Prime Minister for "changing his mind" over the stalled part-privatisation plans. "The Government has done...

Democrats moved Thursday to give special relief to the financially strapped Postal Service, which would be allowed to defer $4 billion in payments due at the end of this month to cover retirement benefits for its employees. Republicans protested the bailout but made no significant effort to block the provision, which has now been attached to a stop-gap spending bill slated to come before the House and Senate in the next week.

Democrats moved Thursday to give special relief to the financially strapped Postal Service, which would be allowed to defer $4 billion in payments due at the end of this month to cover retirement benefits for its employees. Republicans protested the bailout but made no significant effort to block the provision, which has now been attached to a stop-gap spending bill slated to come before the House and Senate in the next week. Proponents of the language argued that the House has previously endorsed equivalent relief for the Postal Service, which faces a $5.4 billion payment to the retirement fund at...

(SPRINGFIELD, Mass.) — A former postal service employee has pleaded guilty to stealing more than 30,000 DVDs that moved through a western Massachusetts post office... Federal prosecutors say the movie rental company alerted Springfield post office officials that a suspiciously high number of DVDs were disappearing. As many as 100 movies a week were disappearing. Weathers was arrested in February 2008 after investigators filmed him taking DVDs from packages and slipping them into his backpack. He faces 10 months to 16 months in prison and restitution costs of about $38,000 at his Dec. 23 sentencing....

A former Austin woman convicted of threatening to shoot local officials pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to making bomb threats against eight U.S. post offices in southern Minnesota.

This article from Federal Times is linked at The Eye: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/09/eye_opener_federal_hiring_sala.html ___________________________________________________ The U.S. Postal Service, struggling with a massive deficit caused by plummeting mail volume, spends more than a million dollars each week to pay thousands of employees to sit in empty rooms and do nothing. It’s a practice called “standby time,” and it has existed for years — but postal employees say it was rarely used until this year. Now, postal officials say, the agency is averaging about 45,000 hours of standby time every week — the equivalent of having 1,125 full-time employees sitting idle, at a cost...

"Some Boulder County residents said their afternoon at the Louisville Labor Day Parade turned sour Monday when a Regional Transportation District bus and a U.S. Postal Service mail truck crawled along the route bearing posters supporting President Barack Obama's health-care plan and labor unions. “They were basically supporting ‘ObamaCare,'” Ted Hine said afterward. “That's not what public funds should be used for.”

Yet another giant company has plunging sales, soaring debt, and is weighed down by massive labor costs. Will taxpayers have to pay for another federal bailout? Alas, it's already in the cards because this company is the U.S. Postal Service, which has estimated losses of $7 billion this year. With email grabbing ever more market share from snail mail, USPS's finances are steadily deteriorating. What should federal policymakers do? They can't give USPS the General Motors treatment and nationalize it, because it's already government-owned. And they can't reform postal markets with a "public option" because that's what the USPS already...

U.S. Postal Service Offering 30,000 Workers Buyout SAN FRANCISCO -- The U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday that it will offer buyouts to 30,000 workers, or about 4.5% of its workforce, in an effort to cut costs. The one-time offer is expected to save USPS as much as $500 million next year. The agency said the buyouts are part of an effort to cut $6 billion in annual costs.

They are icons of the American mail service, but they may be about to go the way of the Pony Express. In villages, towns and cities across America, residents are waking up to find the familiar blue mailbox at the end of the road is gone. In the past 20 years, more than half of America's mailboxes have been taken out of service, leaving just 175,000 nationwide. It may make commercial sense, but it has dismayed letter-writing aficionados. "Mailboxes are like phone booths, that part of the scenery that you take for granted until one day you need one and...

Whatever possessed President Obama to mention the travails of the post office while discussing health care the other day, his timing was certainly apt. The Postal Service is headed toward a loss of $7 billion this year and another $7 billion in 2010. Naturally, Congress is planning another bailout rather than the kind of reform that would recognize how technology has transformed modern communications. Most mail today is delivered electronically via email. Traditional postal mail volume has fallen by nearly 20% since 2000, and the average household gets one-third fewer letters than a decade ago. But this is only the...

President Obama couldn't have been more right: The post office is struggling, and for good reason. While defending his government-funded health insurance option a week ago - a controversial idea that, at this writing, he appears to be willing to ditch - he said private insurers shouldn't worry about competing with the government. He said it is the U.S. Postal Service, not FedEx and UPS, that is struggling. To be sure, our quasi-government postal operation is on track to lose $7 billion this year. Why? In the Internet era, fewer people are mailing things. They're mailing even less during a...

Speaking to a town hall of mostly ObamaCare supporters on August 11, 2009, the President compared the money-losing U.S. Post Office as an example of how a government-run program can compete with private enterprise. Oops!

Gulp: And Postal Office is facing a nearly $7 billion potential loss. And this is what Obama is envisioning the Healthcare reform? Post officials sent a list of nearly 700 potential candidates for closing or consolidation to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission for review. PS: Notice how Obama was lost for words numerous times. Is it because he does not even know what the health care reform is all about?

Video Obama makes the point that the Government can't run anything.

A double-digit drop in mail volume helped pushed down third-quarter earnings at the U.S. Postal Service, which posted a loss of $2.4 billion for the quarter ended June 30. The service, which has lost $4.7 billion so far this year, compared to a loss in the same period last year of $1.1 billion, said it expects to lose more than $7 billion by fiscal year’s end on Sept. 30.

The U.S. Postal Service is having major financial problems, and could shut down as many as 1,000 branches, and possibly cutting back on home delivery. The Post Office is heading toward a $7 Billion loss this fiscal year. Competition from the internet and other delivery companies are being blamed for the problem, along with the recession. . . . . . (Watch Video)

As the use of first-class mail plunges, the U.S. Postal Service has a huge overcapacity, but it needs Congressional approval to cut back. NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The U.S. Postal Service is losing money so quickly you'd think it somehow got mixed up in the subprime mortgage business. It's on track this year for an operating loss of between $6 billion and $12 billion, debt surpassing $10 billion, and a $1 billion cash shortfall. For any business, those are some ugly numbers. And yet the USPS is not quite a typical business, and therein lies the problem... But many experts...

Local post offices closing? Post office looking at closing up to 1,000 offices Updated: Monday, 03 Aug 2009, 4:57 PM EDT Published : Monday, 03 Aug 2009, 4:28 PM EDT SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - The postal service is considering closing as many as 1,000 local offices nationwide, including 31 offices in the Suncoast district, as it battles staggering financial problems. The post office has been struggling with a sharp decline in mail volume as people and businesses switch to e-mail both for personal contact and bill paying. The agency is facing a nearly $7 billion potential loss...

Bedroom communities across the country have been reading and hearing similar headlines in the last few weeks: Leawood post office will close in September -- Kansas City Star USPS moving operations out of Winchester -- WHSV in Winchester, VA Univ. of Oregon could lose post office branch -- KVAL in Eugene, OR Black Eagle residents upset over post office plans -- KXMB in Bismarck, ND USPS will shutter Freehold Borough facility -- Colts Neck News in Freehold, NJ The news of U.S. Postal Service (USPS) closures has been trickling out in local communities. But a closer examination behind the reports...

Four unions representing the nation's postal workers are pleading for a meeting with the White House to address possible funding shortfalls for workers' payroll and retiree health benefits, according to a letter obtained by CongressDaily. The letter alleges that USPS "may not be able to make payroll in October and will be forced to issue IOUs instead." Yvonne Yoerger, a spokeswoman for USPS, confirmed that the unions wrote the letter but disputed the claim that payroll deadlines will be missed.

INDIANAPOLIS -- A postal worker who was shot in the face after encountering a bank robber Thursday spoke Saturday about the harrowing ordeal. Robert Norman, 54, has worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 30 years, but he will spend the next six to eight weeks recovering from the wound, 6News' Sarah Cornell reported. Norman and his doctors said he is very fortunate that the bullet struck right below his right eye. "God protected me. I could have died," Norman said. Norman was inside a Wanamaker Chase Bank, in the 8800 block of Southeastern Avenue, to get some spending money...

A rallying cry can be heard across the country, from the swanky streets of New York's SoHo to the tiny town of Randolph, Kan.: "Save our post office!" As the United States Postal Service, weighed down by a crippling multibillion-dollar deficit, shrinks its operations, post offices across the country are on the chopping block. Each year, hundreds of postal operations shutter, but this coming fall could be the single biggest consolidation in Postal Service history. Over the next three months, more than 3,200 post offices and retail outlets -- out of 34,000 -- will be reviewed for possible closure or...

A member of Congress suggests U.S. Postal Service carriers could conduct next year's Census, since they already visit everyone almost daily. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, plans to introduce a bill that would temporarily add the Census to postal responsibilities, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Thursday. The bill would declare a "postal holiday" for the count. "They really have the workforce in place to do this," Chaffetz said. "They already go to everybody's door." Chaffetz said the numbers show is idea is a good one. There are about 760,000 postal workers, and the Census plans to hire 750,000 temporary workers, while...

SAN DIEGO (Army News Service, May 29, 2009) -- Aboard the USS Midway Friday the U.S. Postal Service released the 44-cent Bob Hope commemorative stamp on what would have been the world-renowned entertainer and philanthropist's 106th birthday. Although Hope never officially served in the military, he dedicated a significant part of his life to entertaining the country's men and women in uniform starting in 1941 and continuing through Operation Desert Storm 50 years later. After giving hundreds of performances overseas he earned the nickname "G.I. Bob" and in 1997 he became the first person ever recognized by Congress as an...

he financially strapped U.S. Postal Service will run out of money this year without help from Congress, Postmaster General John Potter warned on Wednesday. "We are facing losses of historic proportion. Our situation is critical," Potter told a House subcommittee. The agency lost $2.8 billion last year and is looking at much larger losses this year said Potter, who is seeking congressional permission to reduce mail delivery from six days to five days a week. Potter also urged changes in how it pre-pays for retiree health care to cut its annual costs by $2 billion. If the Postal Service does...

At a time when the U.S. Postal Service says it is experiencing a financial crisis, it purchased a $1.2 million home from an employee so he could relocate, a CNN investigation has found. The Postal Service bought this 8,400-square-foot South Carolina home so an employee could relocate. Postal Service spokesman Greg Frey said the home will be resold, as others have been. "It's not like we threw away a million dollars," Frey told CNN. "We are hoping it's going to go for the appraised value." But a real estate agent in the area said the home could be a tough...

WASHINGTON – Postmaster General John Potter says that without help, the U.S. Postal Service will run out of money this year. Potter told a House subcommittee Wednesday the lingering question is: Which bills will get paid and which will not. He said he will make sure that salaries are paid, but also said other bills might have to wait. Potter is seeking permission to reduce mail delivery to five days a week and wants to reduce other costs. He said the post office is "facing losses of historic proportion. Our situation is critical." The post office was $2.8 billion in...

The U.S. Postal Service said Friday it will cut jobs, offer early retirement to tens of thousands of employees and close administrative offices, the latest round of cutbacks in the last year. The Postal Service plans to close six of its 80 district offices this year, and reduce administrative staff positions at the district level by 15 percent, including 1,400 mail processing supervisor and management positions at nearly 400 facilities around the country.

The U.S. Postal Service will be cutting more than 3,000 jobs and offering nearly a quarter of its work force early retirement as part of its efforts to streamline operations amid the worsening economy, the agency said Friday.

Posted on Sat, Mar. 07, 2009 Post office bought S.C. mansion so postmaster could transfer By ADAM BEAM abeam@thestate.com The U.S. Postal Service is helping a former Lexington postmaster sell his $1.1 million home on Lake Wateree. Ronald Hopson was transferred from Lexington to Carollton, Texas, last year — just before the Postal Service instituted a hiring and promotion freeze. As part of the Postal Service’s employee relocation program, a relocation company paid Hopson for the appraised value of his home, which sits on five acres on Lake Wateree near Winnsboro in Fairfield County. That company, Cartus, will then sell...

EXCLUSIVE: Postmaster got $800,000 in pay, perks Raise came amid calls for cuts in delivery Jim McElhatton Tuesday, February 17, 2009. Postmaster General John E. Potter recently warned that economic times are so dire that the U.S. Postal Service may end mail delivery one day a week and freeze executive salaries. But his personal fortunes are nonetheless rising thanks to 40 percent in pay raises since 2006, a $135,000 bonus last year and several perks usually reserved for corporate CEOs. The changes, approved by the Postal Board of Governors and contained in a little-noticed regulatory filing in December, brought Mr....

I had to mail out a couple of CDs today. I put them in a 6x9 manila envelope along with a stiffener, sealed the thing up, addressed it and brought it to the Post Office. I passed it though the small slot in the bullet proof glass to the clerk who told me it would cost $1.51 to send it. This seemed a bit high to me so I asked the clerk how she arrived at the $1.51 amount. "It's a parcel. You can't fold it," she told me. "The rates went up three weeks ago." "Yeah, okay, but how...

Stamp Prices to Go Up 2 Cents in May By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID The Associated Press Tuesday, February 10, 2009 WASHINGTON -- The post office will get an extra 2-cents worth when you mail a letter starting in May. The U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday that the price of a first-class stamp will rise to 44 cents on May 11.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Massive deficits could force the post office to cut out one day of mail delivery, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday, in asking lawmakers to lift the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week. If the change happens, that doesn't necessarily mean an end to Saturday mail delivery. Previous post office studies have looked at the possibility of skipping some other day when mail flow is light, such as Tuesday. Faced with dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year. "If current trends continue,...

Postmaster General John Potter says the massive deficits facing the post office could force the agency to cut out one day of mail delivery per week. Potter asked for an end to the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week. Faced with dwindling mail volume and rising costs, the post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year.

Competition: For the first time in its history, the U.S. Postal Service is considering layoffs. Imagine that — a unionized work force passing into obsolescence.After 233 years of managing a government-protected monopoly, reality has struck the post office. The Federal Times is reporting that "Postmaster General John Potter told union leaders that as many as 16,000 employees" could be laid off. A Postal Service spokesperson said layoffs are not imminent. But that's only because the union contract makes layoffs difficult. An absence of urgency should not be taken as a sign of health. "We lost $2 billion and, like any...

WASHINGTON -- The Postal Service had a net loss of more than a billion dollars in the third quarter of the fiscal year, the agency said Wednesday.

National on-time performance scores for the delivery of First-Class Mail set another new record for highest level of service during the third quarter of fiscal year 2008. "These record delivery levels are the direct result of employees all across the country working as a team to provide excellent service to our customers," said Delores Killette, Postal Service vice president and consumer advocate.

A cube drone loses it and goes nuts destroying the office. At least 5 or 6 guys are there along with an several women and the guys just stand around holding their hands over their faces. What a wussed out society!

Remember the old Saturday Night Live skit about the First CitiWide “change bank” that does nothing but make change? Our customers ask us how we make a profit, quips the bank’s spokesman. “The answer is simple – volume.” As laughable as this dubious business plan sounds, it bears many similarities to the business plan the management of the U.S. Postal Service has been practicing for much of the past decade. And, as might be expected, the model isn’t doing much to help the Post Office – which lost $5 billion last year – cover its costs. This week, the Service...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2008 – Military families have long used the U.S. Postal Service’s flat-rate shipping boxes to send care packages around the globe. Beginning March 3, they’ll get a price break. The discount applies only to the new “Priority Mail Large Flat-Rate Box,” which normally carries a $12.95 price tag for shipping. However, when the 12-by-12-by-5.5-inch box is sent to an AFO or FPO address, a $2 discount applies, dropping the cost to $10.95. “This is the first time the Postal Service has offered a special price for our armed forces serving overseas,” said Postmaster General John Potter....