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BREAKING NEWS: Two postal inspectors at JFK Airport sickened by nerve gas after opening package

The email service reportedly used by surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden abruptly shut down on Thursday after its owner cryptically announced his refusal to become "complicit in crimes against the American people."Lavabit, an email service that boasted of its security features and claimed 350,000 customers, is no more, apparently after rejecting a court order for cooperation with the US government to participate in surveillance on its customers. It is the first such company known to have shuttered rather than comply with government surveillance."I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or...

The United States Postal Service is operating according to a paradigm set up 100 years ago. In spite of protected monopolies and immunity from paying taxes or even parking tickets, the USPS is losing business and losing money. The problem is that the paradigm is technologically obsolete and has lost its usefulness. I gave up receiving bills in the mail years ago. I pay all my bills by credit card or automatic bank withdrawal. Most of my service providers don't even send me bills in the mail. So far this year I've written only 3 checks to providers of goods...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Postal Service takes pictures of every piece of mail processed in the United States - 160 billion last year - and keeps them on hand for up to a month. In an interview with The Associated Press, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the photos of the exterior of mail pieces are used primarily for the sorting process, but they are available for law enforcement, if requested. The photos have been used "a couple of times" by to trace letters in criminal cases, Donahoe told the AP on Thursday, most recently involving ricin-laced letters sent to President...

Mail delivery to the doorstep may be a thing of the past as lawmakers consider ways to cut costs to save the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service, which lost $16 billion in 2012. According to CNN Money, the agency is working toward a more "centralized delivery" approach in which residents pick up their mail from a mailbox at the curb or at clusters of mailboxes within their neighborhoods. The practice already is being adopted for new houses and developments, and some House Republicans want it rolled out universally. "A balanced approach to saving the Postal Service means allowing USPS to adapt...

DENVER, CO.  A Colorado federal district court ruled today in favor of a Colorado man and a national gun rights group holding that a U.S. Postal Service regulation barring firearms in its parking lots violates their right to keep and bear arms under the Constitution.  The district court ruled, “openly carrying a firearm outside the home is a liberty protected by the Second Amendment [and the] parking lot adjacent to [Avon’s Post Office Building] is not a sensitive place [such that] an absolute ban on firearms is substantially related to [Defendants’] important public safety objective.”  Tab Bonidy, who is licensed...

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is reaching out across the aisle for suggestions on his new discussion draft to revamp the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Issa released the discussion draft last week, in an attempt to broaden the support for his efforts at postal reform. And in a "Dear Colleague" letter aimed at Democrats, the California Republican says that “while the challenges are great, I strongly believe that the Postal Service is a government institution worth saving.” “While we may not agree on every issue in how to save the Postal Service, I do believe that we all...

This scan of a completely blank signature card is what the USPS offered up as proof that the customer’s package had been delivered. A woman in California recently sold a laptop computer of hers on eBay for $1,300, but it never arrived at the buyer’s house. The seller had paid the U.S. Postal Service for insurance and delivery confirmation on the package, so she should be able to get her money back and see who signed for the package. Not quite. She tells CBS Sacramento’s Kurtis Ming that USPS denied her insurance claim because the package was delivered and signed...

Post office a preview of Obamacare hell to come... (video)

A high-tech computer system that captures images of “every mail piece that is processed” by the United State Postal Service was critical in helping federal agents track the Texas woman arrested today for allegedly sending ricin-tainted letters to President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In a U.S. District Court complaint filed today against Shannon Guess Richardson, an FBI agent details how investigators traced the ricin letters back to New Boston, Texas, where the 35-year-old Richardson (seen below) lives with her husband.

"A powerful United States Senator’s husband is standing by, all ready to make millions from a U.S. taxpayer funded enterprise."

The Department of Justice said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that cyclist Lance Armstrong was "unjustly enriched" while he used steroids to win multiple Tour de France titles. In the formal complaint, the Justice Department said they would seek triple damages against Armstrong, who admitted earlier this year that he doped to win his seven straight titles. The U.S. Postal Service paid some $40 million to appear as the title sponsor of Armstrong's team during six of those seven races. "Defendants were unjustly enriched to the extent of the payments and other benefits they received from the USPS, either directly...

Even parts of government that look like a business never get run with the efficiency of a business. Just look at the post office. They buy commercials and tout their services the way private businesses do. They offer a service that customers want. But a real business can't get away with losing billions every year. (I guess in the era of bailouts, I should say shouldn't get away with it.) The post office lost $16 billion last year, despite having all sorts of advantages that most private businesses don't have. They have a near monopoly on first-class mail delivery. You...

The United States Postal Service said Wednesday that it would delay its plan to cease delivery of first-class mail on Saturdays, rescuing for now a service that it says is costly but that many Americans rely on. The USPS said in a statement that restrictive language in Congress' continuing resolution to fund government operations has forced it to postpone the move until "legislation is passed that provides the Postal Service with the authority to implement a financially appropriate and responsible delivery schedule." The USPS said that while it is disappointed, it will follow the law but will continue to support...

Lazy postal worker burns, buries undelivered mail BELFAIR, WA (KOMO/CNN) - A disgraced mailman is in trouble again after admitting to burying thousands of pieces of mail in his backyard. Postal investigators state mailman Richard Farrell is accused of using a backhoe and burying the undelivered mail in a deep trench. "Just because I was lazy, and I became a not very good employee," said Farrell. "I just wanted to get out of their as soon as possible." According to court documents, in 2010, fellow coworkers discovered Farrell dumping mail in a recycling bin. Those actions prompted investigators to follow...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The financially beleaguered Postal Service suffered a setback in its plan to end Saturday delivery of first-class mail as Congress on Thursday passed legislation requiring six-day delivery. The Postal Service, which lost $16 billion last year, had announced last month its plan to switch to five-day mail service to save $2 billion annually. No law requires the Postal Service to deliver mail six days a week, but Congress has traditionally included a provision in legislation to fund the federal government each year that has prevented the Postal Service from reducing delivery service. The House of Representatives on...

Earlier this week, readers reacted with skepticism after Berkeley City Councilman Gordon Wozniak suggested that taxing email might be one way to raise money for the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service. … But there’s a history to this idea, however outlandish as it might sound to some. The United Nations Development Program examined such a tax in its 1999 Human Development Report, Globalization With a Human Face, as a way to fund “the global communications revolution.” UNDP calculated that in 1996, such a tax would have raised $70 billion globally. The New York Times took a brief look at the concept...

The Justice Department will notify a federal court Friday that it is joining one of his former racing teammates in suing him for using performance-enhancing drugs during the Tour de France, legal sources told NBC News. The government is signing on to a lawsuit filed two years ago by Floyd Landis, one of Armstrong's former Tour de France teammates who has already admitted cheating. Among its claims: Landis saw Armstrong store and then re-inject his own blood to boost his performance, and Armstrong twice gave Landis banned hormones before races.

It's Saturday, and I went out on the front porch this morning after shoveling out from Nemo and got the mail as usual. There was an advertisement trying to get me to switch homeowner's insurance and a coupon flyer for the local grocery store. That sort of surprise waiting in the mailbox doesn't exactly get me all up in arms over the Post Office's idea to cancel Saturday mail delivery. Up until now, I’ve been assuming that the Post Office is simply an unprofitable enterprise and they may have to put trucks out on the road less often to reduce...

You know that feeling of pleasure you get when you see someone stand up to a bullying, incompetent boss? It’s viscerally satisfying, isn’t it? That’s the way I felt this morning when I heard Postmaster General Patrick Donahue announce that the U.S. Postal Service intended to move forward with a plan to stop Saturday delivery of mail, effective sometime in August. In doing so, Donahue stuck his thumb in the eye of the U.S. Congress, the mail agency’s ultimate boss. Bravo, Mr. Donahue. You may think I have incorrectly identified the incompetent party here. After all, it’s a deeply ingrained...

Apparently trying an end-run around an unaccommodating Congress, the financially struggling U.S. Postal Service says it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to disburse packages six days a week. In an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday, the service is expected to say the Saturday mail cutback would begin in August and could save $2 billion annually. The move accentuates one of the agency's strong points — package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and other Internet services. Under...

The financially struggling U.S. Postal Service announced Wednesday that it plans to stop delivering mail on Saturdays starting Aug. 1 — but will continue delivering packages. Unless forbidden to do so by Congress, which has moved in the past to prohibit five-day-a-week delivery, the agency for the first time will delivery mail only Monday through Friday. The move will save about $2 billion a year for the Postal Service, which has suffered tens of billions of dollars in losses in recent years with the advent of the Internet and e-commerce, officials said. “The American public understands the financial challenges of...

The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion annually, the financially struggling agency says. In an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday, the service is expected to say the Saturday mail cutback would begin in August. The move accentuates one of the agency's strong points - package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and other Internet services. Under the new plan,...

The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion, the financially struggling agency says. In an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday, the service is expected to say the Saturday mail cutback would begin in August. The move accentuates one of the agency's strong points -- package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and other Internet use.

The bankrupt USPS's business plan includes making business more difficult. ================================================== So today I went to my local post office to buy stamps. I gave the clerk my credit card, which I have “signed” with “See Picture ID.” No doing. You see, the Postal Service has decided that they will not accept credit cards asking for your driver’s license or Military ID or Police ID. No. The Postmaster has decided that this is “too risky.” Rather, your credit card has to be signed with your name for them to accept it. Because you may be using the photo ID of...

It’s a brand new year but already the cash-strained United States Postal Service is showing that it’s feeling the financial heat that kept zapping it in 2012. Starting on Sunday, the price of a first-class stamp will go from $0.45 to $0.46 as we were warned last year. Post card stamps will also rise a penny to $0.33. Sure, it’s only a penny, but it’s a penny you don’t have to pay on Saturday that you do on Sunday. Of course, we’re fans of Forever Stamps, which you can buy now and use no matter how much a regular postage...

After 63 years, U.S. Postal Service delivers calendar The 1950 Pennsylvania Railroad calendar never made it to James W. Flanagan, general manager of The Scranton Times. He would never need it: he died in December 1949. But on Friday, 63 years after his death, the U.S. Postal Service made a delivery. A mail carrier, with no explanation of where the package had been the last 63 years, handed it to Chris O'Hora at The Times-Tribune's front desk. The calendar, rolled in a long tube, soon made its way to the office of Bobby Lynett, a publisher of The Times-Tribune and...

Despite most of Congress leaving town for the holidays, postal workers are continuing a hunger strike protesting legislation to save the United States Postal Service (USPS) through budget cuts. The hunger strike began Tuesday and is expected to end late Saturday, according to The Washington Post. Six former and current postal workers, part of a group called Communities and Postal Workers United, are calling the strike “six days starving to save six-day delivery.” Their goal is to stop Congress from reducing postal delivery to five days a week. “We have to be on guard, to raise awareness and pressure the...

And the Georgia workers aren't alone. Between April and September of this year, 171 Postal Service employees were arrested for theft, willful delay or destruction of mail, according to a new report by the USPS inspector general. The Service has about 546,000 employees. "We have taken two corrupt postal workers, including a supervisor, off the streets who were responsible for stealing thousands of checks worth over $3 million," U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates in Atlanta said. "We will continue to target these theft rings, both those on the inside and their network of check cashers, to address this serious problem.”...

Thousands of area children might go without toys this holiday season thanks to a Grinch-like move from the Postal Service. Normally this time of year, boxes of gifts pack the Toys for Tots warehouses. But not this season. Toy donations are so low, Toys for Tots officials worry they won't have enough gifts for the estimated 40,000 boys and girls on their lists. 'I'm losing sleep,' said Herb Donica, chairman of the committee that supports the Toys for Tots campaign in Hillsborough County. 'All of our core people are pulling their hair out wondering what we are going to do.''...

The head of the financially struggling U.S. Postal Service said the agency must be allowed to ease the terms of prepayments into a retiree health-care fund and eliminate general mail delivery on Saturday. Patrick Donahoe told "CBS This Morning" the agency isn't asking Congress for money. He said, "I think most people don't realize, we're 100 percent self-sufficient. We pay our own way." But the postal chief notes the agency is losing $15.9 billion this year. Donahoe says the post office needs to refinance retirement health fund payments to $1 billion a year instead of $5 billion. He said the...

I visited the post office after voting this morning. I asked the clerk at the counter if he had already voted. He told me that he had and that the lines were long. Then he said that he voted for Obama because Romney will shut down his post office if he gets elected! The height of Obama's false propaganda seems to have no limit.

In light of several instances of voting 'irregularities' already sited in some of the states, maybe we should consider one that could be critical. We all know that millions of voters have opted to vote by absentee ballot in battle ground states but the system relies on the American Postal Workers Union to deliver those ballots. WHAT IF certain zip codes are targeted by the Unionized Postal Workers and they never arrive to their destination? Think that is paranoia thinking? Just revisit past elections where ballots were found in dumpsters. Fortunately, many of these battle ground states have links where...

So, I’m taking a quick flip through my Facebook timeline and I see that Patrick Madrid has posted this image.It stopped me in my tracks.The stamp had blipped through my awareness earlier this week when both Kathy Schiffer and our human news aggregator, Deacon Greg had mentioned it, but this morning the simple silhouettes against the fiery sky, and the inviting brilliance of the Light, just seemed to pull me in, and it brought on a renewed bout of astonished appreciation for the workings of the Holy Spirit, who often uses the most confounding means and methods — this time...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The dramatic story of the flight of the Holy Family into Egypt has been depicted in art and music for centuries. Today, the story travels on millions of Forever stamps with the U.S. Postal Service's issuance of the Holy Family stamp as the nation prepares for the holiday mailing season. The stamp goes on sale today at Post Offices nationwide and can be purchased online at usps.com/shop or by phone at 800-Stamp24 (800-782-6724). The stamp was unveiled at Bethlehem Chapel, the earliest completed portion of Washington National Cathedral. The center panel of the limestone...

The money-losing U.S. Postal Service guessed that TV cartoon character Homer Simpson and his family were twice as popular as Elvis Presley when it came to sales of commemorative stamps. As Homer would say, “D’oh!” In a move that wasted $1.2 million in printing costs, the service produced 1 billion of “The Simpsons” stamps and sold 318 million.

August 14, 2012 Exclusive Breaking: 1,100 Florida Voters Disenfranchised Today Christian Adams Election Law Center has learned that 1,100 Florida voters will not be able to participate in today's state primary because of snafus by the government. 300 absentee voters in Martin County (FL) and 800 in Indian River County (FL) did not receive their requested absentee ballots in time to participate in today's important primary election because the United States Post Office treated the bulk absentee ballot mailings as third class mail. The ballots were deposited by Martin and Indian River County election officials with the United States Post...

The U.S. Postal Service has been losing an average of $42,335,766 per day in fiscal 2012. On Thursday, the service reported a third quarter (April 1-June 30) net loss of $5.2 billion, bringing its fiscal year-to-date net loss to $11.6 billion. There were 274 days in the first three quarters of fiscal 2012. Thus the Postal Service has lost, on average, $42,335,766 per day in this fiscal year...

The epic collapse of one of the most bloated government institutions continues at a ridiculous pace. From Bloomberg: U.S. POSTAL SERVICE LOST $5.2 BILLION IN THIRD QUARTERPOSTAL SERVICE LOSS Q3 COMPARES WITH $3.1 BILLION LOSS YEAR AGOPOSTAL SERVICE 3Q REVENUE FALLS TO $15.6 BILLION FROM $15.8B POSTAL SERVICE `LIQUIDITY CHALLENGES' REMAIN IN 2013POSTAL SERVICE MAIL VOLUME FALLS 3.5 PERCENT IN THIRD QUARTER POSTAL SERVICE WILL CONTINUE TO PAY EMPLPOYEES, SUPPLIERS And it gets better: POSTAL SERVICE LOSS INCLUDES SKIPPED PAYMENT TO TREASURY - in other words the taxpayer bailouts of the USPS have begun... and the loss would have been...

The ailing U.S. Postal Service is reporting quarterly losses of $5.2 billion. From April to June, losses were $2.1 billion more than during the same period in 2011. The mail agency said it is being hurt significantly by mounting costs for future retiree health benefits. Those expenses made up $3.1 billion of the post office's quarterly loss. Declining first-class mail volume also contributed to losses. The Postal Service for months has been urging Congress to pass legislation that would allow it to eliminate Saturday mail delivery and reduce the annual health payment of $5 billion. The post office defaulted on...

Without help from Congress, the Postal Service will not only default on payments for retiree health care benefits, but it could lack cash for operations by mid-October. As of midnight Wednesday, the Postal Service will be in default -- for the first time in its history -- on a $5.5 billion payment owed the federal government to prepay health care benefits for retirees. While the Postal Service is in big financial trouble due to fewer people sending mail and the mandate to prepay retiree benefits, the default is largely symbolic. The agency will skip that payment and another $5.6 billion...

Federal agents seized a large collection of firearms — including a fully automatic M-16A1 assault rifle — and 23,000 rounds of ammunition from the Kauai home of a U.S. Postal Service worker, who is accused of using someone else's address and firearms license to make unauthorized firearm purchases from out of state. Troy Haruki Hamura, 51, of Lihue also used his job as a letter carrier to intercept the packages, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Hino said in federal court Thursday.

48 hrs, 1 lb package $5 bucks. 9405509699938019982751 Priority Mail® Delivered July 19, 2012, 2:47 pm GLEN, NH 03838  Delivery Confirmation™ Accepted at USPS Origin Sort Facility July 17, 2012, 2:19 pm DAPHNE, AL 36526 

As Creeping Sharia asks, "Is this even legal?" How many post offices operate out of churches and synagogues? "New Islamic Community Center opens in Plymouth," by Renee Tessman for KARE11.com, July 8 (thanks to Creeping Sharia): PLYMOUTH, Minn. - Muslim families in the west metro suburbs now have a new place of worship. They celebrated the grand opening of the NorthWest Islamic Community Center in Plymouth on Saturday. Nausheena Hussain said, "It's really exciting to see the community come out and support it and it's not just for Muslims. There are a lot of neighbors here, a lot of our...

A female physician was named today in a felony complaint accusing her of assaulting a letter carrier who pepper-sprayed her pit bull when the dog attacked him as he delivered mail last month on a leafy Maryland street.

The U.S. Postal Service is offering buyouts to 45,000 mail handlers, part of the struggling agency's efforts to shed staff and cut costs. The $15,000 buyouts, pro-rated for part-time staff, are available to nearly all of the Postal Service's mail handlers, excluding around 2,000 who aren't career employees Mail handlers work at post offices and mail processing centers sorting mail, transporting it within their facility and loading and unloading trucks. "The Postal Service is adjusting the size of its network to adapt to America's changing mailing trends," USPS spokesman Mark Saunders said in an email Friday. The Postal Service wants...

DENVER -- A US Postal Service letter carrier was attacked by two dogs in a Denver neighborhood Monday afternoon. Denver police said the postal worker was delivering mail at West 34th Avenue and Utica Street when she was bit. The female employee suffered extensive injuries and was transported to the hospital to be treated, said David Rupert, a spokesman for the US Postal Service. A neighbor saw what was happening and came to the letter carrier's rescue, but was injured as well, Rupert said. The two dogs were eventually corralled and taken away. The dogs were described as a Malumute...

DETROIT (WJBK) -- Police say a man and his friend are in a lot of trouble for what they did to a Detroit postal worker. "Our postal carrier was in his vehicle, and two African-American males approached him. One had a gun," said Wiley Christopher with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The incident happened on May 1 around the same time you would expect to see a lot of government checks and food stamps in the mail. Police say the guys didn't get away with anything, but there is still an award for information leading to an arrest. "We find...

ORLANDO, Fla. — A postal worker says a mysterious leaking package from Yemen has left him seriously ill, but the U.S. Postal Service denies the package ever existed. The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, in a story printed in Sunday's Miami Herald and The Ledger of Lakeland, reported that Jeffrey A. Lill suffers from extreme fatigue, tremors, and liver and neurological problems. The symptoms are consistent with toxic exposure, problems that he said began after he handled the leaking package on Feb. 4, 2011. The center tracked down co-workers who said that they saw and smelled the package and that...

The U.S. Postal Service backed off from a proposal to close thousands of rural post offices, opting instead to cut opening hours in a bid to stem devastating financial losses. The postal service estimates that the new plan will save $500 million a year once it is fully implemented in 2014. The previous proposal would have closed more than 3,000 rural post offices to save $200 million a year. Under the plan outlined Wednesday, 13,167 post offices will open for two to six hours a day. A spokeswoman for the postal service said that no community would be required to...