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CRS Report: Common Questions About Post Office Closures

This report addresses common questions about the closure of post offices. |

First Village Post Office Debuts in Washington State

Marketplace: The U.S. Postal Service launches the first of its money-saving village post offices in a tiny town in Washington State. Red's Hop N' Market is Malone's one-stop shop for coffee, cigarettes, beer, socks and pickled sausages. DailyKos: They're Coming for Your Post Office |

Editorial: Postal Service Keeps Employees Disciplinary Records Forever

USPS Labor Relations keeps a reference copy of an employee’s disciplinary action for the employee’s entire career. Don’t believe it? THEY DO. See the USPS Privacy Act Notice of June 17, 2011. Labor Relation’s reference copies are never purged regardless of the disposition of the discipline. |

Goldway: USPS May Be Closing Post Offices Without Notifying PRC As Law Requires |

USPS Settles Class Action Discrimination Lawsuit Filed For Disabled Veterans - USPS settled the case by agreeing to pay over $11 million to class members and other administrative costs. |

GOP 2012 Presidential hopeful Pawlenty calls for privatizing USPS

Pawlenty suggested we apply what he called "The 'Google' Test." Pawlenty believes private companies UPS and Fedex offer same services as USPS. Courier Express & Postal Observer |

Goldway: USPS May Be Closing Post Offices Without Notifying PRC As Law Requires |

IRS Identifies Postal Employee Organizations that have lost Tax-Exempt Status

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Five Postal Supervisors Indicted For Taking Bribes and Lap dances

One supervisor "accepted thousands of dollars in drinks and lap dances at a local strip club, over $8,000 in free work done on a truck belonging to Plumb’s grandson, and a $3,000 paver patio installed in Plumb’s backyard. In addition, on a weekly basis, Plumb used the services of a prostitute paid for by the private contractor. Plumb also accepted Levitra pills supplied by the contractor." |

USPS To Record Daily Activities Of Carriers For Use In Upcoming NALC Contract Talks - USPS notified NALC that it will use cameras to record time spent on office tasks starting today. |

USPS Proposed Rule To Amend Regulations for Post Office Closing-Consolidating Process - This proposed rule would amend postal regulations to improve the administration of the Post Office closing and consolidation process. PRC Releases List Of Suspended U.S. Post Offices |

PMG Announces Seven USPS Districts Eliminated, Executive Ranks Reduced - About 7,500 positions will be eliminated across the organization through the redesign that also includes the closing of seven district offices and offers limited financial incentives to those who meet specific qualifications. VER Offering for 2011 Organizational Redesign | $20,000 Special Incentive Offer FAQs |

PRC Issues Advisory Opinion On Ending Saturday Delivery

The Commission stands ready to provide further assistance as the deliberations progress. Senator Carper Reacts to PRC Opinion | Senator Susan Collins Statement | PMG Reacts To PRC Decision On Five-Day Mail Delivery | |

Call For Action: Urge President Obama To Appoint Democrat To PRC |

Oversight Hearing To Scrutinize APWU Tentative Contract

PMG Expresses Regret For Comparing Postmasters To Maytag Repair Man |

Postal Service Eyes Closing Thousands of Post Offices

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. I Ruling on Shuttered Post Offices Expected Soon | APWU Denounces Post Office Closure Plans |

PMG Plans To Streamline Management, Match Workforce To Workload |

USPS To Cut 7,500 Positions, 10 Districts, 2,000 Postmasters

The Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe reports on Twitter that Postmaster General Pat Donahoe plans to cut about 7,500 jobs and about 2,000 postmasters, or the people responsible for running post offices. Incoming postmaster general promises cuts |

Senator Susan Collins Seeks Reforms To Federal Workers Comp Program |

Some Postal Managers Refusing To Accept USPS, APWU Freeze On Excessing Agreement

- "USPS Management Message Confirms Excessing Moratorium" |

USPS VP Position Downgraded, New COO Gets $25,000 Relocation Pay

Stephen M. Kearney, Senior Vice President, Customer Relations, has retained his position, but by virtue of a realignment of his duties effective December 8, 2010, he is no longer an executive officer. New COO Megan Brennan will receive a payment of $25,000 to help cover relocation costs. |


			November 4, 2011 NAPUS President asks Senate to include a moratorium on post office closings in Postal Reform Bill - NAPUS urges the Committee to include in the legislation the imposition of a moratorium on post office closings and consolidations, until such time as the retail service standards specified in section 204 can be fully implemented. \| USPS far from dead letter, its PMG says Washington Times - We’re in the process right now where we’re hiring noncareer postal employees into clerical positions — I mean, thousands if not tens of thousands of applications out there,” U.S. Postmaster Patrick Donahoe said in an interview with editors and reporters at The Washington Times on Thursday “It’s still, in my opinion, for a blue-collar job, if you’re a letter carrier or a clerk, the best job in America.” Meanwhile, morale among the more than half-million current postal employees, who hear a daily drumbeat of discouraging news about declining mail, deficits and downsizing, is split. \| US Postal Service - Things to do NOW Guy Nohrenberg - There are 6 things that can be done from within the USPS that can save a projected $12.4 Billion Dollars the very first year WITHOUT need for politicians running about causing trouble by cutting service, service days, or denying services to rural or unprofitable areas. Thereafter projected savings are $11.2 Billion Dollars per year as compared to a 6 year annualized SPLY. To put it clearly, it weeds out the lazy and any drug or alcohol addicted from the USPS and the streets of our community. \| It ain't over til the fat lady sings... - Gene Del Polito commentary for Postcom Postal Reform Bill Bodes Well For Periodicals Industry - Publishing Executive Always prepared: Mailman helps save his former scoutmaster -Saginaw News November 3, 2011 Colby postmaster, postal supervisor suspended with pay the Salina Journal - the Office of Inspector General indicated that the suspension involved a violation of the External First Class Measurement System, which the postal service uses to monitor delivery times for first-class mail. That system involves mailings to pre-arranged “reporters” at homes, businesses and post office boxes. The “reporters” then report to the postal service when the test piece of mail was received. \| Postal worker who struck Dershowitz sis-in-law with truck charged Postal officials confirm Utica Distribution Center closing in 2012 Poor Penmanship Spells Job Security for Post Office's Scribble Specialists Postal Worker Charged With Animal Cruelty
			November 2, 2011 Senators: Cut 100,000 postal workers - Politico -Carper said the Postmaster General anticipates using about $2 billion to provide retirement incentives — and if 100,000 employees accept a buyout, it would save the USPS $8 billion per year. Senate Bill: Indications of the Scale of Early Retirements Expected - Courier Express and Postal Observer- Getting 68,000 Postal Service employees to retire early is a challenge. Clarifying retirement incentives \| Senators Introduce 21st Century Postal Service Act A bipartisan group of senators announce plans to reform and bring savings to the United States Postal Service. "With the right tools and quick action from Congress and the Administration, the Postal Service can reform, right-size and modernize" The bill would give the Postmaster General access to the money the United States Postal Service (the Postal Service or USPS) has overpaid into one of its pension funds (FERS) and use it to offer buyouts or retirement incentives to reduce the active postal workforce by 100,000 or more employees over the next several years. The bill would require that arbitrators deciding a contract dispute between the Postal Service and labor organizations take into consideration the following factors when rendering a binding decision 2) the requirement in law that USPS consider comparability of wages and benefits to those offered in the private sector \| Statements: USPS \| Catalog Group \| Video: Senator Collins \| Oakland: USPS Changes to Positions Held by Postal Employees Over 40 May Be Age Discrimination - Oakland APWU - It appears that the October 26, 2011, reposting of the manual units’ traditional duty assignments as non-traditional full-time (NTFT) duty assignments is a ploy by management to frighten , intimidate, harass and coerce the senior employees who presently hold bid assignments in the manual units into bidding on the NTFT assignments to avoid being assigned. \| NALC opposes end of Saturday and door-to-door mail delivery In Postal Reform Bill - While NALC fully supports comprehensive postal reform and is working on practical alternatives, the Senate bill could end Saturday delivery in two years and would phase out most door-to-door delivery by 2015. This would negatively affect tens of millions of Americans – particularly senior citizens, rural residents and small-business owners – who depend on the Postal Service’s commitment to high-quality service. . \| USPS revising plan for "Village Post Offices" The Postal Service still plans to establish new Village Post Offices, but the lack of potential retail partners could allow some post offices to remain open. "In practice, they haven't been able to sign up that many Village Post Offices, and they are discovering that in these rural areas they've identified there aren't necessarily other businesses that would take on the rural post office," said Ruth Goldway, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission." It's not going to be their great solution to the problem." \| November 1, 2011 Senators to Announce Bipartisan Agreement to Save the U.S. Postal Service A bipartisan group of senators will announce plans to reform and bring savings to the United States Postal Service tomorrow, November 2 at 11:30am. Update from Postcom.org: Returning the FERS overpayment to USPS; although the bill will set no numbers around how much of it has to be used for buyouts, that will be one of the goals to help incent, through added service credits or up to the federal limit of $25K per worker, 100,000 workers to retire over the next three years; Postal Service Compromise in the Works? \| Grassroots effort saves Melbourne post office - Miami Herald Feds flee costliest health plans - Federal Times Gulfport postal employees fighting to save jobs - WLOX-TV Arkansas Update: Post Offices Off the Closing Lists - Save The Post Office Memo From Germany: Reinventing Post Offices in a Digital World - NY Times Philistines at the Gate: The Venice Post Office on the Chopping Block - Save The Post Office Congressman launches petition urging Postal Service to stop closures of Iowa post offices - Community Newspaper Group
			October 31, 2011 Battle Over USPS Future Enters Critical Period Union Petition Drive to Protect Post Offices, Processing Centers, Service Standards -The battle over the future of the Postal Service — and our jobs — has reached a critical stage: Key senators are meeting behind closed doors in an effort to produce a compromise bill to address the USPS financial crisis. It is likely that any proposals they develop will be submitted to the congressional “super-committee” to be incorporated into the committee’s plan to reduce the nation’s deficit. \| NPMHU Contract Update: USPS Suggests Sweeping Operational Changes Are Necessary - In short, the USPS goal is to create a 20- hour daily operating window, with all of the processing work being accomplished during these hours, leaving only 4 hours of downtime for maintenance of the machinery and similar functions. In order to implement this plan after the facilities have been consolidated, the Service Standards for most First-Class Mail and Periodicals would need to be adjusted from overnight or one-day delivery to two-day delivery. Another way that the Postal Service will attempt to cut costs is by scrapping any plans in the near future for technological innovation. Instead, management will be seeking to maintain, sustain, and prolong the life of current equipment and technology. \|
			October 30, 2011 Alaska Lawmakers Question USPS On Possible Closures of Fairbanks POs - Press Release Letter carriers are committed to serving - Mount Pleasant MI Morning Sun Police find 6,000 stolen plastic pallets belonging to USPS - San Gabriel Valley Tribune
			October 29, 2011 California Postal Worker Convicted Of Paying For Money Orders With Counterfeit Bills - Evidence at trial showed that the postal worker, issued himself $13,800 worth of U.S. postal money orders and purported to pay for those money orders with counterfeit $100 bills. The postal worker knew these bills were counterfeit and had passed similar counterfeit bills at his credit union in Hayward in November 2010. \| Military Post Offices in Iraq to Close Nov. 17 - Press Release Burrus: Q & A Defining the 2011 USPS-APWU National Agreement - Burrus Journal In time of need, mailman delivers - Shamokin PA News Item Postal Worker gets 2-week sentence for opening package, flipping thru book - Bangor Daily News A Not-so Universal Postal Service - Big Fat Marketing Blog Texas Postal Worker Sentenced For Mail Theft -KWTX TV Waco eBay: Support online business by providing relief to the USPS Postal retiree will now wait for the mail - Alvin Sun Pasco postal carrier plucked gift cards from mail, feds say - St. Petersburg Times USPS processing facility in Mansfield OH to close -Mansfield News Journal Mail carrier fights back against would-be robber - WSVN-TV
			October 28, 2011 Union Launches Petition Drive To Save America’s Postal Service President Guffey is asking APWU members to collect signatures on a petition [PDF] to Congress urging senators and representatives to oppose plans to close post offices, shutter mail processing facilities, and drastically degrade service to the American people. NALC, NRLCA: Click here to download a petition Completed petitions should be mailed to your union's headquarters to arrive by Nov. 14:" \| Watchdog Issa seeks new role other than hounding Obama Rep. Darrell Issa is forging a new role on Capitol Hill a year before the 2012 presidential election, which could bring a Republican into the White House and lessen the California Republican’s clout.To help clear his bill through committee this month, Issa softened the five-day delivery provision somewhat. Issa likely recognized the need to move his bill out of committee quickly, understanding that the meat of the bipartisan work would come when it was handled in conference, Davis said. \| Customer: Mail slow ahead of facility's closure PR Reader: "USPS has ordered closing of the Frederick Processing and Distribution Facility and consolidation of operations into the Baltimore P&DC, some 50 miles away. The transfer has already begun--with predictable results. Frederick is Maryland's second largest city and, as far as mail service is concerned, will now become a "second-class" city as well." Frederick News Post: "According to the editor and owner of The Brunswick Citizen and The Valley Citizen, some newspapers printed on Oct. 12 didn't reach subscribers until Oct. 20. Usually, customers receive papers the day after the edition goes to press ."This is pretty hair-raising if you're having to rely on the mail," Julie Maynard said Tuesday. "I'm very concerned." \| Robber costs postal worker his job? Clean cut postal employee Gregory Johnson was robbed at gunpoint while delivering mail in mid-August. Nearly a month later he was fired for what a postal inspector said was for other reasons. \| Camden letter carrier retires after 50 years
			October 27, 2011 Postal Workers Fire Back on Pensions CNBC - The battle over the U.S. Postal Service's "pre-funding" of future retiree health care benefits shows no signs of weakening. Earlier this week, C-Suite Insider obtained a memorandum between the CRS and House Oversight Chairman Darryl Issa (R-CA) which said the USPS was not obligated to pay for retiree health care benefits of future workers, even though it could be interpreted that way. But the memorandum is not changing the opinion of the National Association of Letter Carriers. \| PMG To Customers: “We’re Here To Stay” PMG Pat Donahoe today is sending a message of reassurance to USPS customers, telling them the Postal Service is “here to stay” and that he has a plan to lead USPS to profitability and long-term growth. In a video Donahoe brings customers up-to-date on steps the Postal Service is taking on the legislative, network optimization and wages and benefits fronts. The PMG notes Congress must resolve issues associated with pre-funding of the Retiree Health Benefits Trust Fund. He also continues to urge Congress to allow USPS to move from a six-day delivery schedule to five days per week. \| USPS to Sell 2011 White House Ornament Colorado Congressmen meet with PMG to discuss impact of post office closures Tree planting to observe 1991 Royal Oak Post Office shooting - MaComb Daily NY postal worker admits stealing mail -Buffalo News NY contractor pleads guilty to embezzling postal service funds -Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Pennsylvania Rural Carrier Killed In Crash With Truck -WTAE -TV Manasota mail processing center to remain open - Sarasota Herald Tribune Obama-Appointed Judge Rejects City’s Suit Against Postal Service Three Teens Arrested in Robbery and Beatings of Mail Carriers APWU: Creating Desirable Duty Assignments - APWU Former Postal Carrier Admits Mail Thefts = WGRZ-TV Military Post Offices in Iraq to Close Nov. 17 Join the Fight to Keep Six-Day Mail Delivery - AFL-CIO NOW BLOG
			October 26, 2011 The Twisted Logic of the Postal Service: Fewer post offices, and more post offices without a postmaster - Save The Post Office - Today the Postal Service published its “Final Rule” on “amending its regulations to improve the administration of the Post Office closing and consolidation process.” The new rules change the definition of ‘‘consolidation’’ and the policy on staffing post offices. The result will be that thousands of post offices now managed by postmasters will be run instead by an officer-in-charge or other postal workers with less expertise and training than a postmaster. The goal, as usual, is cost-savings, and the result, as usual, will be to diminish the quality of service offered by the Postal Service and to send it deeper into its downward spiral. League Of Postmasters - USPS Files Final Rule On Changes To Regulations For Post Office Closings And Staffing \| Postmasters to Consult with Attorneys Over USPS’ Final Rule on PO Closures \| Junk Mailers Get a Postage Price Break. You Don't - AOL Daily Finance - In this month's edition, we learn that over at the USPS, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has announced his latest initiative to save the post office from bankruptcy. (Hint: Improving customer service to attract more business isn't a part of it.) As you may recall, in recent months the good Postmaster has suggested everything from postponing prepayments for worker health benefits, to closing hundreds of mail processing centers, to shutting down thousands of post offices ......Evidently, that's still not enough. So recognizing the need to raise revenue as well as control costs, Donahoe is going back to the default business plan at USPS, and hiking the cost of mailing a letter. At the same time as Donahoe raises the price that ordinary postal customers like you and I must pay, advertisers and other business customers (commonly known as "junk mailers") are getting a price break. \| USPS Reminder To Employees About the Hatch Act - USPS News Link Thieves target mail drops - Las Cruces Sun-News Judge: No Individual Mail Delivery for SRO Residents -The Bay Citizen
			October 25, 2011 Where's the outrage against the Issa Postal Bill? The deafening silence of a $1.3 trillion industry on the Issa bill - On Oct. 13, the Committee passed a bill that creates two new unelected and unaccountable government boards made up of people with no knowledge of our industry to dictate a top-down dismantling of an invaluable part of the nation’s economic and financial infrastructure. Not a peep is heard. A group of largely junior legislators who have no expertise in our industry follow the lead of some auditors on loan from the Government Accountability Office to radically restructure an enormous American industry from the clueless comfort of Washington, DC, and the business community goes mute. Astounding. A chaotic mark-up results in the adoption of one irrational amendment after another and the mailing industry yawns. Mind boggling. \| Unconscious Woman Rescued From Home With Help Of Postal Worker WPXI-TV Police said a neighbor along Locust Street in Etna called police after a postal worker noticed days worth of newspapers and mail stacked up outside the woman's door. \| Netflix stock sinks as 800,000 or 36% of its subscribers quit - Money CNN Postal Service Mixes Up Its Fruits in promoting new iPhone app - Dead Tree Edition The Incredible Shrinking Postal Service The Truth About the Post Office's Financial Mess - CNBC
			October 24, 2011 Postal Service to Announce FY 2011 Financial Results on Nov. 15 Press Release - The Postal Service will release its FY 2011 financial results on Nov. 15 during an open session meeting of the Board of Governors. Following the meeting, Chief Financial Officer Joe Corbett will host a telephone/web conference call to discuss the results. \| USPS Seeks Contractor To Manage Fitness Center For HQ Employees FedBIZOPP - The objective of this project is to provide a comprehensive health promotion program for USPS HQ employees as described in the requirements section of this document. The program components shall be afforded to all members and are demonstrated, in part, through the fitness and health assessments, individual programming, lifestyle counseling and educational program. \| Residents say closing post office would kill small Nevada town
			October 23, 2011 Fox News Panel Pushes for Privatizing the USPS Crooks and Liars - From this Saturday's Forbes on Fox, more attacks on labor unions and calls to privatize the United States Postal Service. Host David Asman opened the segment talking about the postal union's decision to hire Ron Bloom, one of the advisers that helped steer the auto industry out of bankruptcy. That was followed by a call from panel member Dennis Kneale to just shut down the whole Post Office and allow FexEx and UPS to buy it and in his words to “chop it up. Fox Pundit To Rural America: If Privatized Postal Service Doesn’t Work For You, You Can Always Move! \| $641 million: The price of disgruntled employees Federal Times - Besides paying tens of billions of dollars each year in compensation, operations and overhead costs, the financially strapped U.S. Postal Service has another huge annual expense: hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements to disgruntled employees and former employees. This year, the Postal Service more than doubled its projections of "probable" liabilities related to employee grievances and lawsuits: $641 million, according to the agency's latest quarterly financial report. The mail carrier booked another $88 million for possible payouts stemming from environmental, contract and tort claims. \| Poster Boys For Lean Accounting & Strategic Pricing: Evolving Excellence- The Post Office cost structure is pretty much all fixed. Buildings, labor, trucks with steering wheels on the wrong side, fuel, and maintaining bulletin boards with many of my friends and family members pictures on them costs the same thing whether they bring me 1 piece of mail, or 20. In fact, the cost doesn't change on a day when they bring me nothing at all. \| Proposal to end FERS is dishonest Federal Times - One of the most draconian proposals now before Congress' deficit-cutting supercommittee calls for ending FERS pension program. It would immediately be killed for new and current employees with fewer than five years of service. Pensions for FERS employees with more than five years' service would be recalculated to be "proportional" to their existing time in service. The recommendation's author — Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. — would move new and current employees with less than five years of service to a proposed "defined contribution plan," for which he provides no details. This new plan would be "payable at Social Security age to supplement the Thrift Savings Plan" — which is, itself, a defined-contribution plan." \| The Postal Service Runs Amok: How Not to Close a Post Office Save The Post Office - In the classic guidebook for lawyers, The Art of Cross-Examination, Francis Wellman advises, “A lawyer should never ask a witness in cross-examination a question unless in the first place the lawyer knows what the answer would be or in the second place didn’t care.” This week lawyers for the Postal Service cross-examined Mark Strong, president of the National League of Postmasters, about his testimony before the PRC concerning the Retail Access Optimization Initiative . In response to questions posed by the Postal Service, the League prepared a “Notice of Additional Material”... The material paints a picture of the public meetings that is anything but flattering to the Postal Service, and it cites practices that seem in direct violation of the USPS Discontinuance Guide (Handbook PO-101). \| The Postal Workers Strike of 1970: ‘Our Backs Were Against the Wall" The Indypendent - There was no way that Congress was going to pass a pay raise for us at that time. We had the Vietnam War and the failed War on Poverty, and we had massive budget deficits. It was almost like the situation today–not as bad economically, but where we were trying to have an austerity budget, , cut federal spending, do away with the “waste” from the War on Poverty, get rid of all those programs that were helping people because we were wasting too much money in Vietnam. I guess over the last 40 years, this country hasn’t learned anything either. Well, not the country, but the people in charge of it. We’ve learned something–that’s why we’re here. \| NY group pledges to "take the lead" in saving 17 Bronx Post Offices from closing Postal Service trapped on a route to failure - Times Union
			October 22, 2011 West Valley man fights USPS over missing gold coins Detroit postal contractor paid bribes for 8 years before helping feds Mail frauders headed to federal prison - Your Houston News
			October 21, 2011 Editorial: FERS & CSRS Disability Retirement – Defending a Necessary Benefit - by Attorney Robert R. McGill - As a Constitutional entity, it is absolutely proper that U.S. Postal workers should enjoy the benefits of Federal sector employees. ... they also enjoy the benefit of Federal Disability Retirement. Federal Disability Retirement is especially a needed benefit when one considers the type of arduous physical requirements which craft employees, supervisors and postmaster must endure in the daily course of their working lives. Perhaps the everyday American is not aware of the extent of repetitive use of one’s neck, shoulders, back, knees, wrists, etc., that the Postal Clerk, Letter Carrier, Mail Handler or Mail Processing Clerk, among many other craft employees, must engage in on a daily basis. \| Video: Ross Goes Hollywood And Talks USPS Bailout On Fox News Congressman Dennis Ross it seems has been working overtime the last few days trying to convince the American people his views are correct on what ails USPS.. A few days ago Ross tweeted me this message, "@postalreporter prefunding is not the cause of the USPS problems." which was in reply to my tweet that GAO may be part of the problems USPS is facing today. \| Out of Thin Air: New Numbers on Declining Mail Volumes Save The Post Office - : "Someone please give Phil Herr at the GAO a Xanax. The guy has been focused on USPS doomsday scenarios for so long, it’s apparently making him depressed and clouding his vision. His new GAO report paints a dire picture of the Postal Service’s future, but it’s based on numbers that seem to be pulled out of thin air" GAO: Restructuring USPS Business Model Could Eliminate Prefunding for Retirees Health Benefits \| PMG Video To Employees discusses proposal to move away from current Health Care Plan - In his latest “State of the Business” video to employees, PMG Pat Donahoe says the proposal to move away from the current Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP) to a USPS-sponsored benefit is a vital element of a more sustainable business model. GAO wrote in 2002: (prior to PAEA) ".. an attempt by the USPS to terminate its participation in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP) would be subject to statutory constraints . \| USPS Issues New Policy For Postal Employees On Use Of Social Media Effective October 20, 2011, the Postal Service™ is revising the Administrative Support Manual (ASM), by adding new Part 363 which delineates the Postal Service policy concerning social media.The web is not anonymous. Generally, everything that you post is accessible to anyone with a browser. Assume that everything you post can be traced back to the Postal Service and to you personally. \| Letter: Mail Carriers Overworked Redondo Beach, CA Patch: If you live in Redondo Beach, have you noticed over the past two-and-a-half weeks that your mail delivery might be arriving at midnight, 10 p.m. or 8 p.m.—or not at all? We have. I found out that Redondo Beach, until 2 1/2 weeks ago, had 50 delivery areas. Now there are 35 areas. Because the postal service has reduced the number of areas, mail carriers are forced to work until 10 p.m. or midnight. We have gone without mail a couple of times. \| Postal Service proposes closing Gaylord mail processing center Postal workers mark 10 years since anthrax attacks = Washington Post Merchants Say 2012 Postal Rate Increase Means Less Catalogs Mailed - Multichannel Merchant Ex-Postal Employee Charged With Postmaster Attack No Windfall Possible for UPS and FedEx from USPS Problems
			October 20, 2011 APWU, USPS Questions and Answers On The Contract The APWU and the USPS have agreed to a set of Questions and Answers regarding the 2010-2015 Collective Bargaining Agreement, Director of Industrial Relations Mike Morris has announced. \| Burrus: Pick Your Fight One of the web sites that focuses on postal issues recently suggests that I favor "throwing in the towel" on 5 day delivery by supporting the Obama plan for postal reform. This analysis misinterprets my suggested course for addressing the USPS’ dilemma. Burrus: What’s Next for the Issa-Ross Bill \| Throwing in the Towel on 5-Day Delivery? \| The Postal Service’s Radical Downsizing Plan: Be Careful What You Wish For -Publishing Executive USPS Deficit Puts NY City Post Offices On The Chopping Block - NY1 News Nebraska postal worker indicted for misuse of Voyager card -Omaha World Herald Mailers Getting Cold Feet About Postal Service Cuts - Dead Tree Edition Analysis: UPS, FedEx poised to gain from USPS pain - Reuters October 2001 Anthrax Attacks: Remembering Postal Heroes - APWU
			October 19, 2011 Flashback: Congress Says 2006 Postal Reform Bill Will Make USPS Viable for 21st Century - Are we in the 22nd Century yet? On December 20, 2006, the "Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006" was passed in both House and Senate (Darrell Issa was there at the time). This legislation was supposed to "modernize the United States Postal Service and make it viable for the 21st century. The legislation, the first major overhaul of the USPS since 1970, will help stabilize mail volume and stamp prices." So what has happened in FIVE years? Postal workers should be allowed to tell what is going on inside the Post Office. We will tell a much different story than postal pundits., starting with the rate changes. \| Why Mailers Support Radical Downsizing of the Postal Service -Dead Tree Edition... mailers think the Postal Service is ripe for some serious downsizing. (But they had better be careful what they wish for, as Dead Tree Edition will explain tomorrow in “Mailers Getting Cold Feet About Postal Service Cuts”.) \| Is it time to update the Hatch Act? - Washington Post Postal Worker Reunites Owner with Dog after Crash Caused by Suspected Drunk Driver - KSPR Postal workers fired up about changes in Dayton - WDTN TV USPS, Help! Send Trays!!! (or at least have a Plan B) - Postal Affairs Blog
			October 18, 2011 USPS To Raise First Class Postage By a Penny Starting in January 2012 Beginning early next year, it will cost just a penny more to mail letters to any location in the United States, the first price change for First-Class Mail stamps (Forever stamps) in more than two and a half years. The new 45-cent price for Forever stamps is among price changes filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission today. \| A Conflict of Visions: The Pension Dispute, Periodicals Mail, and the Great Postal Debate - Save The Post Office - The management of the Postal Service, along with the mainstream media and many stakeholders in the mail industry, are advancing a narrative that blames the Internet and postal workers for the “crisis” in the postal system. The Internet is making the post office “irrelevant,” and workers’ wages and benefits are egregiously out of line with the private sector and other federal workers. The solution? Optimize the system by closing post offices and cutting the workforce and benefits. \| Ex-postal worker accused of assaulting Hartford Postmaster NBC News - The former employee, who was recently let go, stormed into the postmaster's office, pushed her to the ground and left, officials said. \| Postal Worker Pleads Guilty to Mail and Worker's Comp Fraud Mayor: City not told about post office hearing - Lawrence MA Eagle Tribune Post office closings could put an end to some Kansas towns -Salina Journal News Chicago's Chinatown Residents Worried Post Office Might Close - My Fox Chicago A Decade Later: USPS Remembers Anthrax Crisis - USPS News Link USPS Announces Recommended Holiday Mailing Dates for Military Mail - USPS Press Release
			October 17, 2011 Postal Reform After the House Committee Markup Courier Express and Postal Observer - As it will likely pass the House of Representatives, H.R.2309, does not generate enough immediate cost savings or revenue increases to allow the Postal Service to stay within a $25 billion debt ceiling in the next three fiscal years. Congress has two choices if it wants to use H.R. 2309 as the basis for final legislation. NALC: How the GAO report supports H.R. 1351 \| APWU Video: Fighting for Our Lives A video of the union’s fight to save America’s Postal Service can be viewed online. Fighting for Our Lives was first shown at the APWU All-Craft Conference. . \| Privateers' prepare to plunder post office Ithaca Journal - Republican members of Congress, is alive and well today in the United States. Far from being lawless, its practioneers are lawmakers themselves. John Boehner, Darrel Issa and a host of other pols make Captain Kidd, an honest pirate, look like Tiny Tim. The mission of the new privateers is simple: privatization of public service agencies. \| Ohio Lawmakers Express Concern Over USPS Lack Of Transparency in Toledo Mail Processing Plant Study - Press Release - Regrettably, neither the process nor clear guidelines seem to be in place for the evaluation of the Toledo Mail Processing Plant. It has been brought to our attention that the study has been expedited and that community members have not been consulted. We ask that the USPS clarify its process for studying consolidation in Toledo. USPS has reduced its Ohio workforce by over 3000 jobs since March 2010. We are concerned that that further reductions, at a time when Ohio’s unemployment rate is at 9 percent, are counterproductive and will undermine USPS efficiency. Kucinich Issues Statement and Video of Support for Postal Employees \| Lawmakers inch closer to compromise over Postal Service rescue plan The Hill - Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), signaled this week that one possible area of consensus was a $6.9 billion overpayment that USPS is generally believed to have overpaid into a federal retirement program. Officials have discussed possibly using those funds to entice fully vested Postal Service employees into their retirement, which would help the agency downsize its labor costs. Legislation could allow Postal Service to use its own money \| For 3rd time in two weeks Postal Worker robbed in North Miami WSVN TV - Late Monday morning, a postal worker was robbed at gunpoint. That worker was not injured. Friday, in the same city, a female postal worker was robbed and beaten, and the thieves responsible stole her master key. Several days earlier a third worker was robbed and beat up. \| There's light at end of the USPS budget tunnel - Federal News Radio Commission begins review of USPS closures - Federal News Radio New AmazonLocker Service Offers Postal Delivery Options - Tech Daily News USPS faces $642m shortfall in print media mail services - Post and Parcel What should the Postal Service do to become more profitable? Wall Street Journal Memphis truck company admits taking postal service for $100,000 ride - Memphis Commercial Appeal
			October 16, 2011 Letter Carriers Bring in Top Financial and Policy Experts to Advise upon Postal Reforms - Fredric V. Rolando, President of the NALC, announced the retention of its advisors to 1,500 regional and local NALC leaders gathered in a national conference to consider the current USPS financial crisis and the long-term strategic, structural and business challenges facing the USPS. NALC Brings in the Big Guns \| Postal Union Turns to Wall Street for Advice \|
			October 15, 2011 Burrus: What’s Next for the Issa-Ross Bill The Issa/Ross Bill has now been voted out of Committee but it is a long way from finalization. Obama's proposal includes 5 day delivery which is strongly opposed by the unions but the decision must be made on which fights to engage in and with whom. Do we fight the Republican efforts to destroy the Postal Service and the unions or do we fight the Obama inclusion of 5 day delivery. This is a legislative and executive decision but it is time to decide and serious consideration must be given to the results if you don't prevail. In American Politics you can be right and lose. Throwing in the Towel on 5-Day Delivery? \|Comments (202) U.S. still needs viable postal service Waterbury Republican-American - Corporations are encouraging the attacks on the USPS, for they welcome a lucrative future in privatizing a reliable public service. A focus on profits would mean discontinuing deliveries to the less profitable rural and low income areas, as well as the usual cuts in the work force, lower wages, and the elimination of benefits. Now we can't even afford the mail? Please - "The Postal Service is the richest broke company you'll ever see" \| Postmasters Say Issa Bill A Victory for Rural Post Offices? League Of Postmasters - in recognition of the importance of small rural post offices— would limit the closing of rural post offices to only 10% of all the post offices being closed. That means that, for every ten post offices that would be closed, only one of them would could be rural. But let us make several things clear. First, this bill is still not acceptable to the LEAGUE and would cause great harm to the Postal Service. \| NALC President Rolando’s seven-point proposal to the ‘super-committee’ - President Rolando has written a letter to the members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, better known as the "super committee." He outlines seven proposals the NALC urges the committee to consider. "Americans are begging you to act in a bipartisan manner to address the nation’s problems," he wrote. "Bolstering the Postal Service, a service mandated by the Constitution, is a good place to start. \| Issa Urges Super Committee not to include postal reform in its recommendations - Issa claims White House proposals will increase postage and end Saturday delivery. He also claims the proposals will only be a temporary fix for USPS. Issa also recommends : Changing the pension formula salary base to cover the highest five year's average salary; Increasing the employee FERS contribution by 6.2 percent; Increasing the employee Civil Service Retirement System contribution from 7 percent to 10 percent beginning in 2013; \| Revolt in Virginia Hollow Complicates Postal Service Survival - Businessweek 2 Teenagers Rob Postal Worker, Steal Box Key Postal pin-ups pose for a cause - KRQE TV
			October 14, 2011 House Panel Approves Postal Destruction Bill The APWU has denounced the bill, H.R. 2309, as a “reckless assault on postal services and postal employees.” The bill demands that the USPS implement $3 billion worth of cuts in post offices and mail processing facilities in a two-year period. It also would reduce “door delivery” by 75 percent. archive: Opinion: Congressmen Issa-Ross Ignores 226 of their colleagues on Postal Reform legislation \| Postal worker charged with stealing drugs from mail - NY Post
			October 13, 2011 Video: The GOP’s War on the Postal Service Rages On A Republican bill to kill the Postal service advances.” Video from MSNBC “The Ed Show” Oversight Committee Approves Issa-Ross Postal Reform Bill (\| USPS OIG Responds to GAO Report The current OPM methodology is neither fair nor modern nor does it comply with the 2003 law. We agree with you that action from Congress is necessary to settle this issue once and for all. We believe Congress did just that in 2003. If OPM cannot be convinced of the need to change its methodology, the only alternative is for Congress to compel OPM to act by adding even more explicit reform language to the legislation currently being prepared. GAO Rep ort On USPS Overpayment \| NALC President Rolando issues sta tement \| \| Summary from Issa committee meeting \| USPS not pleased with overpayment report \| Cummings: Save the Postal Service Through Innovation \| GAO Says Postal Service Isn't Owed A Big Refund GAO Supports Issa-Ross Arguments - Washington Post - Transferring tens of billions of dollars in federal worker retirement accounts back to the U.S. Postal Service would not address its long-term debt problems and would force unfunded liabilities on to taxpayers, according to a new government report. The conclusions set for release Thursday by the Government Accountability Office run counter to the opinions of postal regulators, the postal inspector general and congressional Democrats, who say Congress should refund as much as $75 billion to the Postal Service for improperly overpaying federal retirement accounts since the 1970s. GAO concluded otherwise, writing in its report that "We have not found evidence of error of these types. Any attempt to refund money to USPS "would be a significant change from a policy" in place since the 1970s, it said. Returning money to the Postal Service for past and future retirement payments would cause as much as $85 billion in losses for taxpayers "which must then be paid by the federal government through tax revenue or borrowing," GAO said. And any refund "would not be sufficient to repay all of USPS's debt and address current and future operating deficits." \| Family Personally Delivers Party Invitations, Gets Charged Postage Anyway - Time Michigan rural carrier suffers head injury in crash - Mt Pleasant Morning Sun Ex-postal worker admits illegally opening package, leafing through book at sorting facility Communities fight back against post office closings Empty Mailbox Blues Periodicals Mail Study, September 2011 (PDF) \| Postal study is bad news for publishers Postal Service worker suffers head injury in crash between mail truck, pickup -The Saginaw News Mailers Now Facing Large Rate Increase Idaho Letter Carrier Pleads Guilty to Mail Theft

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USPS To Raise First Class Postage By a Penny Starting in January 2012