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Hub post office hit with $357g in safety fines
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has levied a $357,000 fine against the U.S. Postal Service after finding what it has called nine “willful and serious” violations of federal workplace safety laws at the bustling South Boston mail distribution center on Summer Street. [Read more]

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USPS Said No To White House on 5-Day Test
The U.S. Postal Service declined The White House’s suggestion that it conduct a pilot test of five-day delivery, according to a document made public this week. [Read more]

Potter tells White House USPS can't do a pilot test of 5 day delivery
[PRC filing (.pdf file)]

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Postal Customers Tweet About Post Office Lines
Customers standing in lines at post offices are using Twitter to comment (tweet) about their waits.
Click here for Realtime Tweets results for post office lines.

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Lance Armstrong's Mail Fraud
"...More than a decade ago, some Postal Service whiz decided our stamp money would be better put to use sponsoring a fabulous cycling team..." [Read more]

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Postal Service worksharing outgrows its intention
For more than 30 years, the Postal Service has offered worksharing to its customers. It's a form of outsourcing where mailers perform specific activities in exchange for reduced postage prices. [Read more]

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Six-Day Delivery Supporters Finally Speak Up To PRC
What a difference a month makes! More than 92% of the comments submitted to the Postal Regulatory Commission in June regarding the number of mail delivery days favored six-day delivery. [Read more]

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Top USPS Attorney Says They Are Two sets of rules at USPS, one for hourly employees and one for executives?
"...During the investigation into the activities of Robert F. Bernstock, former president of shipping and mailing for the U.S. Postal Service, attorney Mary Anne Gibbons told investigators she thought there were two sets of rules governing the so-called de minimus policies on the use of postal equipment for outside activities ("Postal boss was not sent packing," Web, News, Thursday)..." [Read more]

Replace a broken USPS

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A chance for Congress to acknowledge its role in postal crisis
"...It's easy -- and accurate -- to blame the ailing condition of the U.S. Postal Service on the nation's sick economy. And the rapid movement toward electronic communications certainly has dealt the service a serious blow.

But as Congress looks for ways to pull the USPS from its financial sinkhole, lawmakers also should look in the mirror..." [Read more]

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CVS, Medco Oppose Postal Cuts, Citing Drug Delays, Higher Costs

"...CVS Caremark Corp. and Medco Health Solutions Inc. are opposing the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to end Saturday delivery, saying the move would delay needed medicines and may boost mail-order drug prices..." [Read more]

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Locals protest postal cutbacks in Winsted, CT
"...Ben Drendel, Project Organizer for the Trust, said he is worried about the possibility of privatizing and/or corporatizing the post office. “The post office is an equalizer,” he said. “If you start running it like a business, you’re going to lose that important part.”

Alan Dicara, a protestor, said he does not believe post office customers want cuts to service. “They want more service, and they want better service,” he said..."
[Read more]

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Going Postal in the Digital Era
"...we must recognize that the Postal Service can and must remain public if we are to maintain the essential infrastructures of democracy. Americans do not often talk about the Postal Service as a crucial underpinning of the democratic infrastructure, but we should..." [Read more]

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Déjà vu: The Postal Service’s Economic Troubles
Weekly column by Senator Susan Collins
"...Approximately every three years – in 2003, 2006, and again last year, the Postal Service has come to Congress seeking relief from its financial obligations in exchange for promises of future profitability. Now, among other things, the Postmaster General is asking Congress to allow it to reduce delivery services from six to five days a week..." [Read more]

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Senators challenge Postal Service's 10-year rescue plan

"...Serious questions need to be asked and answered before Congress simply changes the course and embraces major change in mail delivery," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government..." [Read more]

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USPS official (VP Bernstock) directs sole-source $4.5M contract to former colleague
"This sounds like another example from the top to steer a contract to the friends of senior government officials which isn't appropriate,.." [Read more]

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APWU Local President: USPS HQ Staff Has Increased 38% Since 2000
The facts are simply INCREDIBLE! [Read more]

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An agency going down in a blaze of optimism
"...It is beginning to appear as though the U.S. Postal Service has a death wish. Judging from the customer service policies we've seen in the Florida Keys recently -- or, more accurately, customer service reductions -- the agency seems hellbent on self-destruction. And, increasingly, it is a perception shared by other communities throughout the nation..." [Read more]

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Big surprise: USPS lacks a plan
"...The response provided by the USPS was horrifying. It actually said that it had nothing more to add than what was in the FY2010 Integrated Financial Plan, its Form 10-K, as well as the Annual Report and Comprehensive Statement. If you have had a chance to read any of these documents, you would know that there is NO PLAN contained in these documents..." [Read more]

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Report finds 'imprudent spending' at Postal Service
The U.S. Postal Service spent more than $792,000 "without justification" on meals and events in one five-month period even as it reported losing $3.8 billion this year, the agency's inspector general says in a report. [Read more]

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APWU dissatisfied with BU Administration
The post office in the George Sherman Union is one of three in the Boston area recommended for closing after six others have been removed from the list of possible closings, officials said. [Read more]

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Get ready to wait at the Norwood post office
It’s shopping time, and what follows is shipping time. As those of us who frequent the post office on Central Street know, it’s a very long wait. The problem is obviously staffing.
[Read more]

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Ruth Goldway, Postal Regulatory Commission, Chairman
Ruth Goldway talked about the future of the U.S. Postal Service, as it considers cutting service days in this C-SPAN Washington Journal interview. [Watch this informative video]

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Cutting Hours or Cutting Post Offices
Those communities that found their Post Office on the original list but are no longer under consideration for closing are likely relieved that their Post Office will remain open. These communities will be less pleased when the hours that the Post Office is open shrink ...
[Read more]

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BC among nine profitable post offices considered for closure
The BC post office, which employs one full-time USPS employee, remains on the list of potential closures despite its profitability - walk-in revenues for the office amounted to $205,724 last year and expected to provide the USPS with $100,475 profit in the 2009 fiscal year. [Read more]

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Residents give possible Newton post office closing stamp of disapproval
More than 50 people turned out for a public meeting Tuesday night (9/29) to discuss the possible closing of the Nonantum Post Office. [Read more]

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Post Office wins and woes
So is our post office safe?
For now.
But it’s a situation worth keeping an eye on. [Read more]

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Campus post office branch in danger of closing
Despite turning over a $213,099 profit during Fiscal Year 2009, Tufts’ USPS branch, located beside the Brown and Brew café in Curtis Hall, is on a list of nine post offices in the Boston metropolitan area in imminent danger of being closed. [Read more]

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MIT’s Post Office May Be Closed; Final Decision Expected in October
The fate of the MIT post office will likely be determined next month, according to the United States Postal Service (USPS). The office, slated for closure along with eight other Boston-area post offices, has been on the chopping block since a July 30 USPS announcement. [Read more]

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B.U.'s GSU post office set to close
The GSU (Boston University’s George Sherman Union) branch is one of nine offices set to close in the Boston area. Branches at Boston College, Babson College, Faneuil Hall, Logan Airport, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nonantum Station, Soldiers Field and Tufts University will close, based on data provided by the Postal Service. [Read more]

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CBS 60 Minutes - Rooney On The Post Office
Andy Rooney has gotten wind of potential changes to the postal service and he's not a fan.
[Click here to watch the clip]

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New PRC Chairman hopes "to emphasize the needs of the average citizen mailer as opposed to the business mailers, who the postal service often considers its customers," [Read more]

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NJ Congressman blasts USPS for plans to close station
“The data is lacking and the timing suspect,” said Smith, who met with USPS officials in March. “It directly contradicts what they told a group of local leaders in a meeting we co-hosted in borough hall in March. Postal officials specifically promised that no decision would be made before they answered some basic inquiries about the costs of closure, and until they conducted a second meeting with community officials to discuss those costs. Those promises are being broken.” [Read more]

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Threat to shutter N.Y. post offices is pushing the envelope
There's no reason the United States Postal Service should be going broke - but it could end up that way if its managers, including politically motivated members of Congress, don't wise up. [Read more]

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Recession, U.S. Postal Service downsizing may force closure of twenty post office branches in NYC
Postal officials said there are no plans to shutter outlets "at this time," but they left the door open for closings down the road. [Read more]

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Postal Service Makes Strong Push for 5-Day Delivery
It remains a venerable institution, but it has been so severely handicapped by the recession that lawmakers are beginning to seriously consider cutting a day of delivery. [Read more]

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Irritation rises at old stamping grounds
By Lou Michel NEWS STAFF REPORTER