USPS

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Now Post Office Tests Same-Day Delivery

Service will roll out in San Francisco next month

(Newser) - First Amazon , then Walmart ... now the post office is trying out same-day delivery. The struggling USPS thinks it may be able to cash in on all those Internet shoppers desperate to get their holiday gifts delivered just as quickly as if they had gone to a store. It will begin...

USPS Worker Ignores Body on Porch, Delivers Mail
USPS Worker Ignores Body on Porch, Delivers Mail
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Nov 11, 2012 7:39 AM CST

USPS Worker Ignores Body on Porch, Delivers Mail

Says he thought it was leftover Halloween decor

(Newser) - Neither snow nor rain ... nor a lifeless body? A family in Denver is outraged after they say their mailman walked past a body to deliver the mail without stopping to help, reports ABC 7 News . Dale Porch was returning from a late-night shift last week when he collapsed on the...

Unsold Simpsons Stamps Cost USPS $1.2M

Yet another blow for the beleaguered USPS

(Newser) - Homer Simpson has managed to bungle things once again—this time for the USPS. Bloomberg reports that the agency's run of 1 billion Simpsons stamps turned out to be a money-losing proposition for the money-losing service. It sold only 318 million of them, washing some $1.2 million in...

Postal Service Racks Up $5.2B Loss
 USPS Racks Up $5.2B Loss 
Aug 10, 2012 7:33 AM CDT

USPS Racks Up $5.2B Loss

Service is rapidly running out of cash

(Newser) - The hole in the US Postal Service's finances in the second quarter of this year was so big that it would not have been filled if every American bought a first-class stamp every day for a month. The struggling service has reported a $5.2 billion quarterly loss, and...

When USPS Defaults, Blame Congress

 When USPS 
 Defaults, Blame 
 Congress 
Joe Nocera
Jul 31, 2012 12:49 PM CDT

When USPS Defaults, Blame Congress

Joe Nocera says the pending crisis was totally avoidable

(Newser) - This is the week the US Postal Service defaults on a major obligation—in this case, a legally mandated $5.5 billion payment to "prefund" its health benefits. What brought the post office to this sorry state? Of course, part of the problem is we're sending less mail....

Post Office Days Away From 1st Default

USPS warns it will default on retiree payment

(Newser) - If Congress doesn't do something, the US Postal Service will default for the first time ever on Aug. 1. That's the day a $5.5 billion payment is supposed to be made into a benefits fund for future retirees; another legally-required payment of the same amount is due...

USPS Halts 600 Urban Closings
 USPS Halts 600 Urban Closings 
May 14, 2012 2:39 PM CDT

USPS Halts 600 Urban Closings

On heels of announcement staving off rural closures

(Newser) - The USPS is going to halt a plan to close some 600 urban and suburban postal branches, a spokesman announced today. The facilities in many cities serve as neighborhood post offices. The Postal Service announced last year that it was looking at closing up to 252 mail-processing centers and 3,...

Rural Post Offices to Stay Open: USPS

But they'll have shorter operating hours

(Newser) - Good news for those living in Very, Very Small Town, USA. Hundreds of rural post offices will indeed remain open, the USPS announced today, albeit with shorter hours. The new plan will save the mail agency half a billion dollars each year while addressing concerns of rural residents most opposed...

Post Office Closing 223 Processing Centers

35K jobs at stake, delivery will slow

(Newser) - The US Postal Service is closing or consolidating almost half of its mail processing centers nationwide as part of a $15 billion cost-cutting plan. Some 223 centers will go, in a move that puts 35,000 jobs at risk and will slow down first-class delivery, AP reports. The agency, which...

Stamps Might Hit 50 Cents
 Stamps Might Hit 50 Cents 
Feb 16, 2012 6:58 PM CST

Stamps Might Hit 50 Cents

Postal Service cites need for quick action from Congress

(Newser) - 50-cent stamps, anyone? That's one of the changes the postmaster-general wants Congress to act on quickly if the service is to survive, reports the Wall Street Journal . That increase of a nickel for a first-class stamp is actually one of the minor proposals from Patrick Donahoe. He also laid...

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...

Report Finds Theft, Fraud Among Mail Carriers

But also some heroism ...

(Newser) - The Washington Post checks out a watchdog report about the nation's 574,000 mail carriers and finds some doozies:
  • A Maryland carrier admitted to burning piles of mail in an abandoned lot and was sentenced to six months in jail.
  • A carrier in Cincinnati stole $10,000 in cash
...

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...

How the USPS Deals With Your Awful Penmanship

Neither rain nor sleet nor ... bad handwriting

(Newser) - The United States Postal Service has no shortage of public headaches —but the Wall Street Journal takes a look at a quirky problem that's a little more under-the-radar: your bad handwriting. The USPS employs 1,900 clerks who show up for work at one of two "Remote...

Stamps Going Up a Penny
 Stamps Going Up a Penny 
Oct 18, 2011 3:33 PM CDT

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...

Post Office's Salvation: Junk Mail?

Er, 'advertising mail,' that is

(Newser) - Heroically riding in to save the US Postal Service, it's ... junk mail? Yes, the USPS is focusing on advertising mail—"we don't call it junk mail," notes Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe—to boost its business, reaching out to businesses to send more of their "pitches"...

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...

Obama Moves to Save USPS From Default

He wants to delay a pension payment mandated in 2006 law

(Newser) - President Obama intends to swoop to the rescue of the ailing US Postal Service —or at least try, reports the New York Times. The White House yesterday announced that it would push for legislation giving the USPS a three-month reprieve on the $5.5 billion it’s supposed to...

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...

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...

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