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WYTHEVILLE, Va., Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A gunman with explosives who had held hostages for about eight hours at the Wytheville, Va., Post Office apparently has surrendered, police said. The man rolled himself onto the street in a wheelchair and was lying on the ground on his stomach as about 20 officers wearing shields approached him, WSLS-TV, Roanoke, Va., reported Wednesday night. State Police Sgt. Mike Conroy said three hostages have emerged from the building and officers were checking to make sure nobody else was inside. Police exercised caution because "we don't know what he had," Conroy said, The Wytheville...

A man suspected of taking hostages in a post office in the US state of Virginia has been arrested after a stand-off lasting several hours, police say. Authorities in Wytheville persuaded Warren Taylor to give himself up and release three people he was holding. Mr Taylor was reported to have entered the post office pushing a wheelchair and claiming to be carrying explosives. He initially fired shots from the building but no-one was reported to have been injured.

WYTHEVILLE, Va. - Authorities in Wytheville are dealing with a hostage situation at the town's post office. Mayor Trent Crewe says five hostages are inside the building, including three employees and two customers. Shots have been fired, but Crewe says no injuries have been reported. The situation began at about 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The suspect has not been identified.

You've Got Mail, But the Mailman Hid It By YVONNE NAVA Updated 1:53 PM EST, Mon, Dec 14, 2009 If your mother-in-law's mail goes through the Waterbury or Wallingford post offices, she might not have received the birthday card you sent in time. Apparently managers at the post office have been hiding mail, Ray Arcovio, president of the Waterbury area postal worker’s union, told the Waterbury Republican-American. And he wants to sincerely apologize. Workers have been stuffing mail into closets and unused rooms at mail facilities in Waterbury and Wallingford because they don’t know how to keep up with such...

I’m sure you’ve heard our un-documented President talk about the healthcare bill he and his love slaves are trying to force down the throats of people who don’t want it. One of his more interesting rebuttals to the criticism that the bill will a) increase taxes on, and the cost of, medical devices and prescription drugs, b) criminalize choices we now make freely, and c) force everyone over 50 to have a “death” consultation with their doctor or unnamed government appointed medical “professional” is that government healthcare will be just like going to the Post Office. Gee … isn’t that...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Wide-eyed children around the world will be hearing from Santa's "elves" at the North Pole after all. During Christmas seasons for decades, these dedicated elves responded to thousands of letters addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole." All that was ending with a U.S. Postal Service decision to discontinue the program based in the small Alaskan town amid privacy concerns. The elves from Santa's Mailbag vowed to fight the decision, while North Pole residents voiced outrage. A reversal of the Postal Service move was announced Friday. "We never wanted to spoil people's Christmas," said agency spokesman Ernie...

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 mayor of North Pole, Alaska is calling a recent postal service decision an assault on Christmas. For years, the U.S. Postal Service has delivered thousands of letters to Santa Claus in North Pole, Alaska. Now, in the interest of efficiency and security, the post office has changed its policy. It will no longer deliver letters to Santa here, and requests for a North Pole postmark will be filled through its Anchorage office. The decision has angered many residents, most notably the owner of the area’s primary attraction, the Santa Claus house.

With Losses Mounting, Postal Service Seeks Autonomy, Pushes to Cut Saturday Service; Rep. Danny Davis Calls for a Bailout It's been an ugly few years for the United States Postal Service. The quasi-government agency announced this week that it lost $3.8 billion in the most recent fiscal year, which ended September 30th. It also delivered less mail - 26 billion fewer pieces less, a nearly 13 percent drop from the previous year. The bad news follows losses totaling $7.8 billion in 2007 and 2008. The Postal Service, as it is quick to point out, is legally prohibited from taking tax...

Starry eyed children around the world are writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole, but this holiday season they'll not likely to get a response from Santa or his helpers. The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular effort begun in 1954 in the small town of North Pole, in Alaska's interior, where volunteers tackle up to 150,000 letters addressed to Santa. Postal Service officials cite privacy concerns loomed last winter when a postal worker in Maryland recognized a volunteer in the agency's Operation Santa program as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the...

It is not a stretch to see that 2009 has been a trying year for the United States Postal Service (USPS). That has been reflected in its financials for all of this year, most recently with its recent release of fiscal year-end 2009 earnings, which revealed the USPS had a $3.8 billion net loss for the fiscal year. This loss exceeds 2008's fiscal year loss of $2.8 billion by 26.3 percent.

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...

Agency continues to lose money despite $6 billion in cost-cutting measures, and proposes that it drop Saturday delivery. The U.S. Postal Service reported a $3.8 billion loss in the 2009 fiscal year, and plans to propose to Congress in 2010 that it drop Saturday delivery. The agency already reduced expenses by $6 billion during the year ended Sept. 30. Those measures included eliminating 40,000 jobs, however the cash-strapped agency still employs over 712,000 people. The Postal Service also reduced overtime hours and lowered transportation-related costs. Additionally, the USPS lowered the payments it made for retiree health benefits by $4 billion...

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...

In a case where a firearm was locked in the glove box of a postal employee, the strong central government once again stuck it's chest out and scoffed at the Second Amendment. From an appeals case in U.S. District Five: “the Postal Service owned the parking lot...and its restrictions on guns stemmed from its constitutional authority as the property owner” How arrogant of the Judges to rule that someone other than “we the people” own the postal property. Finally there is no constitutional authority granting them any right to restrict firearms, they do so only by a string of rulings...

Last week, Democrats on Capitol Hill pushed forward with a $4 billion bailout of the US Postal Service, which continues to lose money while business declines. One reason that the Post Office has such a large deficit may be their labor practices. The Federal Times reported earlier this month that the USPS pays out an average of 45,000 hours per week of “standby time,” where literally postal employees sit around and do nothing: 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...

A budget analyst is critical of Congress' decision to bail out the government-run company that President Obama has held up as the model of the "public option" -- the United States Postal Service. House and Senate Appropriations Committee negotiators approved legislation last week that allows the United States Postal Service to pay only $1.4 billion of its $5.4 billion annual payment to cover retirement health benefits for its employees. Under current law, the Postal Service is required to transfer $5.4 billion to the Retiree Health Benefits Fund by Wednesday, but Postal officials say they do not have enough money to...

Link to the image since the port office pulled it from their website. Remember, the president had to approve this.

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.

(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.

"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.

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...

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...

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...

<p>Or maybe you've left it on top of the wooden table in your front hallway.</p> <p>Or tossed it onto the chair next to the couch in your living room.</p> <p>The Saturday mail -- the bills, magazines, promotional fliers, and maybe a few actual letters that showed up in your mailbox as always this weekend, and that you haven't quite gotten around to dealing with yet.</p>

USPS Threatens Health Pension Default Now this is interesting.... Anyone remember my commentary about a year ago regarding pension plans - including public pensions - being in serious trouble and ultimately being at risk of insolvency? Weeeeeelllllll? What happens when you have no money coming in but still have obligations going out? Specifically in this case, pension obligations regarding health care benefits for retired Postal Workers? Gee, I wonder if the Obama Administration's push to put everyone into a situation where they can obtain Medicare might be related to this? Perhaps - just perhaps - this is one way they...

President Obama recently drew an analogy between the proposed, government funded, health care option and the United States Postal Service. He reasoned: a government funded postal service hasn't put private parcel carriers out of business; therefore a government funded insurer will not put private insurers out of business. His logic is sound and his facts are truthful, but only in a very technical sense. H.R. 3200 follows this pattern: it appears to be one thing on the surface, but in practical application it is the opposite. It's titled "America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009" and the operative section for...

President Obama made what his advisers believe were his first public comments on the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday, basically knocking its performance during his health-care-themed town hall in New Hampshire. He said an audience member raised a "legitimate concern" about how a government-run health-care program might affect private insurers. "My answer is that if the private insurance companies are providing a good bargain, and if the public option has to be self-sustaining -- meaning taxpayers aren't subsidizing it, but it has to run on charging premiums and providing good services and a good network of doctors, just like any...

It's hard to know why President Obama said what he said at Tuesday's health-care town hall in New Hampshire. He actually stated, "If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It's the Post Office that's always having problems." Oops. Freudian slip? Subliminally speaking, was the president inferring that private health insurers are doing just fine? Government insurance is what's in trouble today. Medicare is in the hole by about $40 trillion on a discounted present-value basis over the next 40 or 50 years. And if we're going to equate government care to government mail, according to...

With a few hours' reflection, it's become clear that Barack Obama's reference to the U.S. Postal Service at yesterday's health care town hall was the most revealing, and damaging, thing the president has said in the entire health care debate. Explaining why he believes a public option would not crowd out and ultimately eliminate private insurance, Obama said, "My answer is that if the private insurance companies are providing a good bargain, and if the public option has to be self-sustaining…then I think private insurers should be able to compete. They do it all the time. I mean, if you...

United States Postal Service Photo--Copyright United States Postal Service. (CNSNews.com) - The U.S Postal Service faces a net loss of $7 billion in fiscal year 2009 even if it succeeds in cutting its costs by $6 billion, according to testimony provided to a Senate subcommittee last week by the Government Accountability Office. The Postal Service is expected to end the year with $10.2 billion in outstanding debt. Meanwhile, USPS faces continuing high overhead in the form of employee wages and benefits fixed by collective bargaining agreements, as well as declining use of the service by its customers. “It is safer...

Obama's Hoof-In-Mouth Disease Larry Kudlow Wednesday, August 12, 2009 It’s hard to know why President Obama said what he said at Tuesday’s health-care town hall in New Hampshire. He actually stated, “If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.” Oops. Freudian slip? Subliminally speaking, was the president inferring that private health insurers are doing just fine? Government insurance is what’s in trouble today. Medicare is in the hole by about $40 trillion on a discounted present-value basis over the next 40 or 50 years. And if we’re going...

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- The most devastating at tack on President Oba ma's Big Government health-care plan yesterday came not from any of the famously independent voters here but in a wildly off-message comment from Obama himself. A man in the audience expressed his widely held concern about the federal government getting into the business of providing health insurance for all. With limitless reserves of your money to throw around, won't the government eventually just snuff out all the competition, he asked. This would leave you, your children and everybody you know relying on the big, fat, slow federal government for...

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)

The agency is facing a nearly $7 billion potential loss this fiscal year, despite a 2-cent increase in the price of stamps in May, cuts in staff and removal of collection boxes.

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...

GAO lists Postal Service as a troubled agency in need of immediate action WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Government Accountability Office on Tuesday added the Postal Service to its list of high-risk federal agencies in need of change. 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 this fiscal year despite a 2-cent increase in the price of stamps in May, and cuts in staff.

The Postal Services created a stamp with a picture of President Obama. - The stamp was not sticking to envelopes. .

U.S. Postal Service officials are considering closing 33 post office branches in the Columbus area in an effort to control costs. Nationwide, more than 3,000 branches in 396 cities -- including Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland -- are on the list. The Postal Service is bleeding $20 million a day. "That's unprecedented; that's almost unheard of," said Kathy Lucas, spokeswoman for the Postal Service's Columbus district. "We have not had to do any layoffs, and that's why we are taking every possible step we can." Postal Service officials say nothing is etched in stone. "Everything is preliminary now," Lucas said. In...

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...

FedEx Express is learning what could be the Democrats' economic motto -- "Never Let Success Go Unpunished." Led by Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minnesota), the House on May 21 passed legislation that contains a hidden provision -- a mere 230 words -- that would hobble FedEx Express by completely changing the labor laws under which the company operates. Unless the Senate removes the language from the bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, a mere dozen or so workers in just one city could hamstring much of the nation's overnight delivery service. Americans take for granted that things can "absolutely, positively ......

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...