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The U.S. Postal Service posted a $2.2 billion net loss in its second quarter and said it might be unable to pay its debts by September. The agency, which has been battling falling mail volumes and competition from FedEx (FDX.N) and United Parcel Service (UPS.N), said it expects to hit its borrowing limit by the September 30 end of the fiscal year, and will have to default on payments to the federal government unless Congress intervenes. "The Postal Service continues to seek changes in the law to enable a more flexible and sustainable business model," said Chief Executive Patrick Donahoe...

U.S. Postal Service to cut 7,500 jobs, close offices 31 mins ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Postal Service said on Thursday it would cut 7,500 jobs and close seven district offices and 2,000 post offices as it handles less mail and faces greater staff costs and competition from FedEx and United Parcel Service. "It's critical that we adjust our work force to match America's changing communications trends as mail volumes continue to decline," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in a statement. In November, the Postal Service reported a net loss of $8.5 billion for fiscal year 2010, its fourth...

The Postal Service is offering a $20,000 buyout to thousands of veteran workers as part of its bid to eliminate 7,500 administrative jobs, the agency announced Thursday. The struggling agency also announced plans to shutter seven district offices. The seven offices that are closing are Columbus, South East Michigan, Northern Illinois, South East New England, South Georgia, Big Sky and Albuquerque. There are 421 jobs spread across the seven offices, a postal service spokeswoman said. Eligible administrative employees will be offered the buyout package -- letter carriers and other union workers are not eligible. The postmaster first announced plans to...

The American Postal Workers Union and the U.S. Postal Service have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, union President Cliff Guffey announced today. “Despite the fact that the Postal Service is on the edge of insolvency, the union and management have reached an agreement that is a ‘win-win,’ proposition,” he said.“Throughout the bargaining process, the union has sought to negotiate a contract that would be fair to our members and that would enable the USPS to succeed in the future,” he said.  “The tentative agreement accomplishes those goals. “The new contract will safeguard jobs, protect retirement and healthcare...

The U.S. Postal Service plays two roles in America: an agency that keeps rural areas linked to the rest of the nation, and one that loses a lot of money. Now, with the red ink showing no sign of stopping, the postal service is hoping to ramp up a cost-cutting program that is already eliciting yelps of pain around the country. Beginning in March, the agency will start the process of closing as many as 2,000 post offices, on top of the 491 it said it would close starting at the end of last year. In addition, it is reviewing...

More than 800 U.S. Postal Service executives receive health insurance coverage at no cost, in just one example of the excess and mismanagement that's costing the agency $800 million annually, according to a Republican lawmaker. A USPS inspector general report released last week in response to requests from Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, found the Postal Service pays the full health insurance premiums for 835 Postal Career Executive Service employees, OIG directors and Senior Executive Service members, a perk not available to other federal workers. Fifteen members of the Postal Regulatory Commission receive this benefit, according to PRC spokesman Norman Scherstrom....

Postal Service Thanked for Mother Teresa Stamp, Ceremony Honors Her Washington, DC -- The pro-life Catholic group that organized the petition in favor of the Postal Service issuing a stamp honoring pro-life luminary Mother Teresa is thankful to see the stamp issued. Meanwhile, those gathered for a special service in Washington, D.C., remembered her pro-life outreach. http://LifeNews.com/nat6680.html

When the U.S. Postal Service's top marketing officer agreed to hire Goldman Sachs nearly two years ago without a written contract, top executives inside postal headquarters scrambled to make the unauthorized deal square with postal procurement rules. But the no-bid contract they eventually awarded to Goldman Sachs was backdated and was for the wrong kinds of services: The company was hired under a banking services agreement, but Goldman Sachs' postal work didn't have anything to do with banking, records show. And the idea to hire the banking giant came from a top former postal executive who also served on the...

Let's imagine you and I have an extremely poorly managed lemonade stand. Sales over the years have been protected from competition by a government-mandated monopoly in the lemonade market...

, bills and even a college acceptance letter from 2007 were among 20,000 letters found inside the garage of a Philadelphia postal carrier. When the mailman missed several days of work in April, postal officials went to his Port Richmond home and found tubs and tubs of undelivered and unopened mail. The postal worker, who has yet to be identified, worked out of the Bustleton station in Northeast Philadelphia. The neighborhood most impacted is located near Castor Avenue and Benton Street. One of those affected was desperate to receive a $900 check in December 2007. The letter just arrived on...

We have a new postal carrier who started a few weeks ago delivering mail. I have seen her park in a neighbors driveway several times and wondered why she was doing that. Today as I was working from home I saw her park in the driveway, open the gate to the yard, walk in and come back out with some sort of light -- like a torchier. (That was her second trip. I didn't have a good vantage point for the first trip.) So what!? you may ask -- the house is up for sale and has sat empty for...

Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Bill Mauldin today received one of the nation's highest honors in being featured on a U.S. postage stamp.

Everyone knows that the quasi-governmental US Postal Service (USPS) is a model of efficiency. Unlike companies such as FedEx, which need to deliver six days a week, the USPS is so efficient that they will soon be able to accomplish their week's work in only five days per week! At least, that is the logical conclusion from their recent request to cut back delivery days, and close thousands of post office locations. Sure, FedEx had gross profits last year of $25 billion, and profit margins of around 71%, but they also have been given certain monopolies, like the monopoly for...

“Because the mail never stops. It just keeps coming and coming and coming. There's never a letup, it's relentless. Every day it piles up more and more, but the more you get out, the more it keeps coming. And then the bar code reader breaks. And then it's Publisher's Clearinghouse day!” -- Newman, on Seinfeld --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The mail never stops? With an estimated 10 billion “piece” volume decrease for the United States Postal Service expected in 2010, Newman may have to start applying for a new gig. Faced by overpowering competition in the private sector and feverishly amassing debt, the...

Last year the U.S. Postal Service lost 3.8 billion dollars. This year they will report a 7 billion dollar loss. Postmaster General John Potter said that they are struggling financially and that they are trying to find ways to get out of the red without resorting to using taxpayer dollars. In 2 years 11 billion in taxpayer dollars was lost. Potter is expected to announce the possibility of stopping Saturday service and the raising of postal rates to help correct the problem. He did not say how many BILLIONS would be saved. This provides an open window with a perfect...

For some atheists, a person should not be honored for decades of humanitarian work if she also happens to be a professing Christian. That’s the only conclusion one can draw from the recent uproar of the Freedom From Religion Foundation over the U.S. Postal Service’s commemorative stamp featuring 1979 Nobel Prize winner Mother Teresa. “There’s this knee jerk response that everything she did was humanitarian,” griped FFRF spokeswoman Annie Laurie Gaylor, according to a Jan. 28 Fox News article. “And I think many people would differ that what she doing was to promote religion, and what she wanted to do...

[linkshotleft=http://www.uspsoig.gov/][b][url=http://www.uspsoig.gov/]Office of inspector General[/url]:[/b] [center][img]http://www.uspsoig.gov/images/Special-Report.jpg[/img][/center] Special Report New OIG Study Estimates USPS Has Been Overcharged for the CSRS Pension Fund by $75 Billion A study just released by the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) shows that the current system of funding the Postal Service’s Civil Service Retirement System pension responsibility is inequitable and has resulted in the Postal Service overpaying $75 billion to the pension fund. The OIG estimates that if the overcharge was used to prepay the Postal Service’s health benefits fund, it would fully meet all of the Postal Service’s accrued retiree health care liabilities...

Though the always-transparent (NOT!) White House web site contains no news of it, President Barack Obama has reportedly signed an executive order -- yes, another one. This time, he's tasked the United States Postal Service to help distribute countermeasures in the event of a biological weapons attack within the United States.

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...

By Edward Hudgins President Obama stumbled onto the analogy which perfectly points out the dangers of the very government-run health care system that he advocates. In a recent public appearance Obama tried to assure concerned citizens that a government-option health insurer would not drive private insurers out of business. He said, “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the post office that’s always having problems.” Indeed, today the U.S. Postal Service faces a $6 billion deficit and possibly will need to cut services as well as secure a taxpayer bailout. Monopoly Mail Let’s run with Obama’s postal example. To...