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POSTAL NEWS July - December 2003

News Archives: Aug 2004 | July 2004 |June 2004| May 2004 | Apr. 2004| Mar. 2004| Feb. 2004 | Jan. 2004| Jan-June 2003

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Although Postal News in 2003 was dominated with the Postal Commission and Early Out Retirements for APWU, NAPS, Mail Handlers and Postal Reform-- other issues were also newsworthy.  note: Some of the links below may not be active.

• Jaffer’s wife works for stamp art company - "Azeezaly S. Jaffer, the top spokesman for the United States Postal Service, acknowledged to Linn’s on June 19 that his wife is employed by the Iowa-based company that has a potentially lucrative Postal Service contract to sell framed reproductions of U.S. stamp art.  But there’s no ethical conflict, according to other Postal Service spokesmen.  Members of Jaffer’s department of public affairs and communications began negotiating that agreement with Art Select Inc. ("ArtSelect") last fall shortly after Tammy Jaffer began working as the firm’s Washington-based representative, according to Jaffer.  Jaffer, who is well known to stamp collectors as the Postal Service’s former stamp czar, played a prominent role June 16 in announcing the three-year contract with Art Select of Fairfield, Iowa.  He was one of the speakers at a $9,700 Washington party the Postal Service hosted for Art Select to announce the agreement.  Federal government conflict of interest rules and the Postal Service ethical standards prohibit any postal employee from contracting with a company in which the employee or his immediate family have a financial interest. The rules also advise workers not to take any actions that might create the appearance of a conflict of interest."
• Postal Commission Release Final Report on USPS
• Unions react to Commission Recommendations APWU| NALC| NAPUS| LEAGUE of Postmasters
• Leaders of America's $900 Billion Mailing Industry Praise Presidential Postal Commission Report; Commission Sees Bright Future for the Postal Service and Mail Growth if Allowed to Operate Like a Business and Increase Reliance on the Private Sector.
• Repackaging the Post Office – Inc. Magazine - Will a shakeup at the Post Office be a special delivery for entrepreneurs?
• If only Armstrong delivered our mail – Tallahassee Democrat - Like the mythic postmen of yore who were delayed by "neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow nor gloom of night," Lance Armstrong couldn't be stopped from winning the Tour de France.  But while Lance may embody the spirit attributed to yesteryear's couriers, his competitive nature clashes sharply with that of his bloated, bureaucratic sponsor - the U.S. Postal Service.  Yet the U.S. Postal Service is touting Lance's image around as though he's the USPS incarnate.

• Time to Go Postal Over New Revenue Threat?- Editor & Publisher Online - Direct Mailers Could Get Big Break.  The D.C. power brokers are at work, and newspaper groups are uneasy. No, it's not another challenge to the FCC on cross-ownership. Trade groups are fretting over possible changes to the United States Postal Service that they believe could threaten a large revenue source for the industry.

• President’s Postal Reform Commission Report: An Incomplete Package

• Five of USPS' 85 district offices are being consolidated In the Northeast Area, the administrative functions of the Springfield, MA, District are being absorbed by the New Hampshire and Middlesex-Central (MA) Districts. In the Eastern Area, the administrative functions of Ohio's Akron District office will be absorbed by the Cincinnati and Cleveland Districts, and those of Pennsylvania's Lancaster District will be absorbed by the Philadelphia and Harrisburg Districts. There also will be a limited shift of some administrative functions of the Harrisburg District to the Philadelphia District.  The Pacific Area's Long Beach District functions will be absorbed by the Los Angeles and Santa Ana Districts, while San Jose District functions will be consolidated into those of the Oakland, Sacramento and Van Nuys Districts. The reporting relationship changes will take effect July 26. The five District offices will be closed Nov. 14, 2003.-- USPS

• Looking to lose some weight? Try delivering mail

• Editorial: : DOL's proposed changes in Union Financial Reporting (Association for Union Democracy)

• Going Anti-Postal: When mail carriers go bad, it's not always in a hail of gunfire
• ID numbers to replace social security numbers for Postal employees
• Appeals court: Union cannot place political materials on boards
• Senators Carper & Biden : Hares Corner postal facility will keep handling Delaware state mail-
• Landmark Agreement Settles Disputes on 'Loaner Clerks
• Postal Commission Report Serves Advertising Mailers At Public’s Expense, APWU President Charges
• NALC: Letter Carriers at Risk By Recommendations Of Postal Commission- Employees Would Become Second-Class Citizens

• Citizens Against Government Waste: Postal Officials Continue To Waste Millions on Sports Sponsorships-CAGW criticized USPS for its abysmal track record of botched marketing initiatives and mismanaged sports sponsorship expenditures

• OIG Report: USPS Focuses on Improving Labor Relations in 21st Century

• Palmyra New York Postmaster sues USPS for Discrimination
• Hawaii Distribution/Window Clerk alleges he was fired due to HIV-A 13-year employee with the U.S. Postal Service alleges he was fired in January because he disclosed to his supervisors that he is HIV-positive-Ex-postal worker cites HIV in suit Honolulu Bulletin Advertiser
• Company Prepares Minivans for Postal Service use-The vans will be used for mail delivery in 169 postal agencies across the U.S. Box-shaped mail trucks will be replaced with the sleek-looking 2003 Chrysler minivan, possibly for the next six or seven years
• Kiosk Information Systems Wins USPS Human Resources Contract
• Changes Could Be Coming To U.S. Mail System-Union Officials Fear Jobs, Pay Could Be In Jeopardy
• USPS stops witholding carrier vacancies in Texas-35 clerks in Dallas could be placed in carrier positions
• Postal Pinch: The future of some small post offices is hanging in the balance

• Workforce Issues Loom In Postal Service's Future-About one of every three civilian employees of the government works for the U.S. Postal Service. We're talking big here. With 843,000 employees, the Postal Service is bigger than General Motors, IBM, Home Depot or Verizon. Only Wal-Mart employs more people.It's no surprise then that the postal workforce emerged as a primary concern of the President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service, which issued its report last week. The commission's 208-page report basically says that the post office faces a bleak financial outlook and must reinvent itself to remain a player in the nation's economy.

• Nearly 2-year-old Arkansas Letter Contains Mild Traces of Anthrax-On August 8, 2003 the Arkansas Dept. of Health was asked by the local office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to evaluate a letter. Tests conducted by ADH and confirmed on August 14 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were positive for minute traces of anthrax. On that same day, the ADH and CDC spoke with the FBI agent who recovered the letter and family members who received the letter nearly two years ago (postmarked October 9, 2001). All are in good health and there is no record of related illness. The concern of the ADH, CDC and the FBI extends to Arkansas Postal Service employees who may have handled the letter in October 2001. Friday, those parties, accompanied by local Postal Service management, are met with postal employees to explain the situation and discuss their concerns. Preliminary, though incomplete analysis, shows no illness related to this event

• Senator Harry Reid files bill to prevent Post Office closings-In an effort to help protect the economic well-being of rural towns, Nevada Senator Harry Reid introduced legislation that would prohibit the Postal Service from closing post offices in our nation’s small rural communities. There the Postal Service has closed a rural post office, this legislation would direct the Postal Service to provide a plan for the rehabilitation and economic development of closed offices in consultation with the affected community. It also authorizes $10 million in grants to local communities to assist in the rehabilitation. Finally, it provides that the Postal Service transfer the closed post office in Ely, Nevada to White Pine County to use for economic development.
• Commentary: Thinking Outside The Mailbox Washington Post
• Mail Handlers: Commission Recommendations Present Attacks on Collective Bargaining

• Postal Service has Senator Tom Carper's attention-(Delaware Online) U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, the Delaware Democrat, has been bird-dogging postal reform for a couple years now and in June put forward legislation to modernize the postal service as a "business with a public purpose," as he puts it

• NAPS: Human Resources will be 're-engineered and automated'-'It is anticipated that each district HR office will, as a consequence, experience bargaining and non-bargaining unit staff reductions.'

• Panel slams USPS initiatives

• U.S. Postal Service eyeing technology for 'smarter' mail

• How to modernize the USPS- Vince Palladino interview

• USPS completes installation of new pay system
• Postal Service advances pay-for-performance program
• USPS Managers’ Raises To Be Tied to Performance in 2005
• Commentary: Postal Commission’s Proposals Would Cheat Consumers
• USPS achieves record overnight service score
• USPS slams AOL for ad-USPS 'Setting the Record Straight' web site
• OIG staffers accuse Corcoran of misconduct Associated Press
  Postal Official Quits amid charges Washington Times,
• Postal IG retires amid charges of fraud and abuse  Government Executive

• USPS to Set Up $40 Billion+ Health Benefit Account-USPS intends to use $10 billion in retirement fund overpayments to set up a health benefit account for its more than 800,000 employees, the Postal Service's chief financial officer said Tuesday. Richard Strasser said the money would lay the foundation for a health benefit retirement program estimated to cost more than $40 billion.

  USPS file Proposals with Committee on Government Reform:

  (1) regarding use of CSRS savings after fiscal year 2005

  (2) concerning military retirement payments

• USPS: No Postage Rate Increase Request in 2004

• National League Of Postmasters and Association of United States Postal Lessors Join Forces to Fight Closure of Rural Post Offices

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• USPS awards contract for $167 million Philadelphia postal center-Kansas City-based JE Dunn Construction has won a contract from the US Postal Service to be the general contractor for a new $167 million distribution center in Philadelphia. (Kansas City Biz Journal)

• Senator Lieberman's Statement at hearing on USPS Future- "I urge my colleagues on this Committee and in the full Senate to recognize the importance of maintaining our commitment to a professional and fairly compensated postal workforce, and to oppose these and other proposals that try to fix the Postal Service’s problems on the backs of a workforce that delivers for each and every one of us every day." Press Release

   

• Alert Mail Carrier Busts Identity Theft Ring (WPCO TV)

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• Anthrax survivors find life a struggle -(Baltimore Sun)

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• CDC investigation of  Ricin Envelope at South Carolina Postal Facility  (CDC.gov)

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• USPS and APWU Q & A on Window Clerk Exams 

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• Report to Congress on the Financing of Benefits Attributable to the Military Service of Current and Former Employees of the Postal Service

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• USPS Board of Governors Chairman Opposes Proposal To End Collective Bargaining

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• NY District Court dismisses claims Against Potter -arising out of the clean-up of  anthrax contamination by USPS at Morgan P& DC

• USPS Five-Year Labor Force Trends and Diversity Profile-"The Postal Service will continue to shrink administrative positions through the use of redesigned work processes using Web-based technology. The decrease in headquarters staff complement and related increase in area staff complement are the result of a restructuring of sales and retail staff. Further reductions can be expected in clerk and mail handler positions. ." excerpt  from USPS 5-Year Strategic Plan 2004-2008
• USPS offers free postmarking app for Word (Government Computer News)
• Final guidelines released for Postmaster's Pay for Performance

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• Ghost of former letter carrier Haunts Alabama Post Office-The ghost of former letter carrier Carl Traskoma has frequently been seen at Sheffield Post Office. Supervisors and a former employee also have reported seeing Carl, workers at the post office say. Another worker, Marnie Willingham, said two custodians refuse to go in the basement because they are afraid of seeing Carl. The ghost often makes noises and even flushes the toilet, workers say. Carl has reached national fame throughout the postal service. His story is featured this month on the U.S. Postal Service's official calendar (Times Daily)

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• USPS Introduces Bargaining Unit Reassignment web site

•  USPS could become the first federal agency to fully fund retiree health benefits(Govexec)

• USPS Responds to APWU Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) Suit

• USPS Five-Year Strategic Plan, covering FY 2004 thru 2008
• South Carolina Postal Facility Open Seven Days After Poison Found-Since ricin is a chemical and not a bacteria, it cannot be detected by bio-detection devices planned for postal facilities.<(Federal Times)
• Sen. Joe Lieberman calls for GAO to investigate handling of Ricin incident

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• Eleven Former BRAC Commissioners Endorse Plan to Close Unneeded Postal Facilities

• Part-Time Flexible Clerks Working in Other Installations Questions & Answers-APWU and USPS signed an agreement concerning part-time flexible clerk craft employees who are required to work outside their home office.

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• MSPB Reinstates Postmaster Removed from the Postal Service By Arbitrator-On September 12, 2003, MSPB Administrative Judy Edward F. Manning issued a decision reinstating Postmaster Derek Hatten, who had been ordered terminated by a labor arbitrator in an arbitration award between the U.S. Postal Service and NALC. The Administrative Judge found that Postmaster Hatten was not part of the arbitration proceeding, and a decision ordering his termination, when implemented by the U.S. Postal Service, was not in conformity with federal law protecting the due process rights of Postmasters, and therefore was essentially null and void. The decision to discharge Postmaster Hatten was reversed. He is to be reinstated with full back pay and benefits.

• APWU President Burrus, National Officers Attend "Save the US Mail & Our Unions" Rally-

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• USPS Announce Plans to Deploy Flat Mail Identification Code System (FICS) The flat ID code sort is a small (16-inch) module that will add ID tags to non-barcoded flat mail. The benefits include a reduction of images sent to the remote encoding centers by 43%, which reduces work-hours by 1.4 million per year - Federal Register 10/27

  -Additional Info on Flats ID Code Sort enhancement to AFSM100 8/26/03

   Implementing Intelligent Mail in the United States Postal Service,  by Charles Bravo, Senior Vice President, Intelligent Mail and Address Quality, USPS was presented at POST-EXPO 2003, Brussels, Belgium

   -Post office proposes requiring ID on mail: CNN

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• Anthrax Fallout Hits Postal Service-Management of the USPS Brentwood processing and distribution center  which serves the nation's capital, not only ignored its own policies by failing to shut down operations immediately upon learning that the building tested positive for anthrax, but Insight has learned that managers also secretly sent postal volunteers into the facility on Oct. 22, 2001, to retrieve several tons of mail even though two workers at the facility had died from inhalation of anthrax spores.

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• USPS MEMO: Postal Employees Allowed to Wear Nitrile Gloves when operating nationally deployed automated equipment -"OSHA determined the use of Nitrile gloves does not contribute to an increase in the number of potential hand injuries." APWU & USPS letters 10/6

• U.S. Says New York Postal Workers Faked Express Delivery Times-Postal workers in New York City falsified delivery dates for express mail to give the appearance the mail was delivered on time, according to a study by the United States Postal Service's Inspector General (NY Times)

  Senator  asks USPS for more trucks, more mail carriers

  Congressman Protests USPS Plans to Reduce Service in Two Key Locations

• PARS for the course-New redirection system gets in a practice round-When it's fully operational, PARS is expected to intercept and automatically apply the new address label on the majority of forwardable mail

• New Jersey postal workers plan to sue USPS over anthrax exposure-A group of Washington-area Postal Service employees who claim they were deliberately left in harm's way during the 2001 anthrax attacks plan to file a class action suit Wednesday against the agency.

• USPS Automated sick call system to be tested-NAPS has posted a letter from USPS Labor Relations Manager Doug Tulino confirming that a new automated version of the postal service's RMD call-in program will be pilot tested in January, with national roll-out scheduled for February. The system will use voice recognition or touch tone entry to record requests for unscheduled leave. Calls will be recorded during the test phase for the purpose of improving the system. Over time, the percentage of calls being recorded will decrease. However, it may be necessary to record some calls from time to time to monitor the ongoing effectiveness of the system. Employees will be told at the beginning of the call whenever it may be recorded for quality purposes.  (source: Naps.org via PostalNews.com)

• Flock of Turkeys Chase Letter Carrier Back to Delivery Vehicle (Times Record)

• USPS Automated sick call system to be tested

• USPS to install New Air System in postal facilities

• PMG Questions Some Commission Proposals Before Panel-(DIRECT)

• Department of Labor Issues Final Rule on Labor Organizations Reports

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• GAO calls for more streamlined, transparent Postal Service-Govexec

• After ricin scare, FBI polygraphs postal workers (Greenville News)

• Members Call for End to New Postal Rule which Opens the Door to Abusive Mailing Practices

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• Senator Collins to Introduce Legislation to Reform USPS -Examines Impact on Postal Workers, Future of Agency During Hearing

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• USPS to install New Air System in postal facilities -The new equipment, Ventilation and Filtration Systems is designed to protect health and safety of postal employees - and to reduce their exposure to biological threats in the -Deployment begins next in mail processing and distribution centers across the country.

  -USPS Awards $89.9M Contract to Siemens Dematic VFS Systems (press release) 

  -Donaldson Company Announces $14 Million Air Handler Contract (press release)

  -USPS Awards Northrop Grumman $130 Million Repair and Inventory Contract

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• Post Office Gets Pressured to Pry Showing your ID to buy stamps? Debate has begun about "intelligent mail", that is, mail that can easily be tracked and recorded. Right now, "intelligent mail" is used by many businesses to track time-sensitive mail. In the future however, the identities of all senders (and therefore all receivers) of mail could be required before the mail would be sent out. This would mean showing your ID before you can buy stamps, and probably having particular stamps tied to your identity. Whether it would be illegal to share stamps with a friend is anybody's guess

   

• USPS response to DC Anthrax scare called OK-Tammy Thompson, president of the Montgomery County APWU, said the union is pleased with the Postal Service's response to last week's scare. "We're giving the Postal Service very high marks," she said. "We felt that the Postal Service acted promptly. But we were also relieved that anthrax wasn't found in a post office. (Gazette.net)

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• Tennessee Carrier Back on Job after Losing Leg -An Oak Ridge Tennessee is back on the job 10 months after losing his left leg.Back in January of this year a woman drove into Terry Wallick while he was on his mail route. Since then, he's been determined to return to work. He did so last week. (WBIR-TV)

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• 'Blockbuster' Neuter/Spay Stamps Sell Out-This is a notable accomplishment given the extraordinary 250 million print run. The average issue for a social awareness stamp is 150 million. Only The "Elvis" stamp can claim a higher print run for a commemoratives with 517 million in 1993 (PRNewsire )

  -USPS 2004 Commemorative Stamp Program (images)

  American Partnership for Pets seeking reprint of stamp

   

• Postal Service adds 6,240 Minivans to replace LLVs-Now its carriers are keeping that tradition alive in some stylish new wheels. The Postal Service recently added 6,240 Daimler/Chrysler Caravans to its nationwide fleet of vehicles, with 138 of them being used in the central Pennsylvania and eight of them by carriers at the Shamokin Post Office.
  Leon Brosky, Shamokin’s postmaster, said the Postal Service’s plan throughout the country is to replace mail trucks known as long-life vehicles, or LLVs, with the new minivans.“The object is to pull long-life vehicles with right-side steering for use on rural routes,” Brosky explained. “The United States Postal Service is making an effort to provide postal-owned vehicles to rural carriers, making them part of our fleet.(The News-Item)

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• Picking a president for your postal future-White House hopefuls reveal postal position in answer to questions posed by NALC (pdf)

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• Post Office Gets Pressured to Pry --"under political pressure to increase profitability and security, the United States Postal Service is introducing new technology that can trace the progress of mail from sender to recipient and record the identity of both parties. Bulk mailers -- such as mail-order services, credit-card companies and online DVD rental services -- already use an 'intelligent mail' offering to confirm the check really is in the mail and to speed up outgoing shipments of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Critics, however, say new tracking technology could spell the death of anonymous love letters and anonymous documents mailed off in plain wrappers by whistleblowers. Intelligent mail also would create a massive data trail documenting intimate details of Americans' everyday lives, a rich vein that law enforcement would certainly want to mine." (Wired)

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• USPS to Drop E-Pay Service With CheckFree
  The decision also dooms two other services now provided as part of the Postal Service's contract with CheckFree. USPS Send Money, an electronic money-transfer service, and USPS Pay@Delivery, which lets customers combine money transfers with delivery confirmation, also will be dropped in April. (Dow Jones)

  -USPS end three programs; eBillPay, Send Money and Pay@Delivery

  -FORD Bill to Modernize Financial System Signed into Law-The banking industry took another step in its evolution to paperless checking transactions, but it doesn't immediately spell the demise of sending checks by mail. The nation's banking system is gearing up for a huge retooling to take advantage of the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, also known as Check 21, federal legislation that the House and Senate approved in late October. The law will take effect next fall. Under the new law, as banks process checks to get the money from the check writer's account to the check depositor's account, electronic images of checks -- or processable printouts -- will be considered as good as the paper checks.

  -USPS end three programs; eBillPay, Send Money and Pay@Delivery

   

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• Watch out, U.S. Postal Service:  Multititle apparel and home goods mailer Brylane says it is shifting a substantial portion of its package delivery business to Basic, UPS’s new ground delivery service that began the week of Nov. 10. The $1.6 billion New York-based Brylane, which mails 10 catalogs, including apparel titles Chadwick’s of Boston, Lane Bryant, Lerner's and Roaman’s, is moving its services from USPS the the new UPS delivery service "Basic" because of the price.  Rather than publish a rate chart, UPS is setting rates on a case-by-case basis with individual shippers. According to recent news , the UPS service will soon be placing thousands of packages a day into the mail system for regular letter carriers to deliver. The new service is designed to attract some of the post office's biggest customers, especially mail-order merchants that often avoided UPS because of its comparatively steep rates. Because of the discount, customers pay UPS less for its new service than if they went straight to the post office. If the initial rollout of UPS Basic is successful, the company could increase to hundreds of thousands a day the number of its packages whose final delivery is made by the mailman. (Catalog Age)

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• Experts: Do-Not-Call-Registry and  USPS rule will increase Charitable Fraud -The Do-Not-Call registry, implemented this summer to help people avoid unwanted telemarketing calls, and U.S. Postal Service changes in bulk mail rates are to blame, according to some charitable professionals and consumer activists.

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• Videk to provide Northrop Grumman with on-line print verification. Verifier BX will be added onto the more than 500 mail sortation machines that Northrop Grumman supplies to the U.S. Postal Service. Northrop Grumman was awarded a $117,392,683 contract September 2, 2003 >to deliver Flats ID Coding System (FICS) program to the USPS, with the goal of improving the processing rate of bulk mail. As part of the program, a new ID code or tag will be added to bulk, "flats" type mail. Videk's Verifier BX is s compact, high-speed vision system that will decode the tag and look for bar height, bar spacing, skew, density, fill and quality to determine the overall readability of the mailing codes. (Frontline)

• GAO Reports: Postal Pension Funding Reform (GAO) -Issues Related to the Postal Service’s Proposed Use of Pension Savings - Review of Military Service unding Proposals-
• Broken Trust Still Haunts Brentwood-About 500 of the 2,646 Brentwood employees are believed either to have opted to retire early or walked away from their postal duties since the Washington distribution center became a target in the terrorism war. -Is There Still a Danger in Opening Your Mail? (Insight Magazine) 11/26

• Agony of anthrax lingers on for survivors (NY Daily News) 11/30

• NALC Seeks Increased Mail In Talks with DMA Officials

• NALC Millinocket Award: USPS Agrees to Double Penalties For Defiance of Arbitration Award -NALC and USPS reached agreement November 4 on a Memorandum of Understanding that set the penalties management must pay to letter carriers for illegally inspecting their routes on all six days of a count and inspection week and doubled the penalty in cases where managers continued the practice after an arbitration award was issued in October, 2002.

  more from the NALC Bulletin

• In the USPS we trust: USPS highest-ranked government entity in a privacy trust survey. Privacy Trust Survey (PDF)

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• Book Review: Before Conflict- Preventing Aggressive Behavior-Dr. John D. Byrnes, who coined the phrase "Aggression Management" has conducted Aggression Management Workshops for  the Postal Service.

  Read comments from postal employees on Aggression Management.

• USPS finishes 2003 with a $3.9 billion surplus, which will help keep postal rates steady  through 2006 (AP)

  USPS press release.

• Transformation Plan Progress Report- November 2003
• FOX getting earful about MadTV postal skit
• Mystery Shopper Results Are In: 'Questionable Retail Practices to Change-

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• Legislation seeks to include Postal Employees in transit subsidies program -Legislation to expand the number of government employees eligible for tax-free transit subsidies in Northern Capital Region-DC, Maryland & Virginia

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• Postal Workers Are Mad as Hell, And Not -Going to Take It Any More-This overreaction is nothing new. Whether it  was the video game “Going Postal” or any number of flippant editorial remarks, when unflattering pop culture references to mail handlers surface, the unions activate their letter-writing brigades. And they almost always end up looking silly. (DIRECT) Jaffer: Setting the record straight-A tremendous effort by USPS employees

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• Update: Cipro Law Suit-Lawyers may withdraw suit

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• Judge approves settlement of Re-Hab class-action suit against Postal Service

   
• McHugh has major role in postal service revision- Rep. John McHugh, R-Pierrepont Manor, heads the special panel on postal reform and oversight for the House Government Reform Committee. He met with colleagues this week to make plans to introduce a bill after Congress returns. (Syracuse Post Standard)

   DMA Thanks President  Bush for Postal Reform Efforts (DMA.org)

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• Closure of USPS Personnel Offices To Displace 1,300 Jobs-More than 1,300 personnel specialists and clerks will retire or move to other jobs by 2006 when USPS closes its 80 district personnel offices. NAPS President Vince Palladino questioned whether a single center will  be able to handle the personnel matters for all of the Postal Service’s 750,000 career postal employees, and thinks more will be needed. (Federal Times) USPS to close Human Resources offices
• Sceptor Awarded $15M USPS Contract for Biohazard Equipment

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• USPS Revises Accounting Procedures for Retirement Fund-The U.S. Postal Service removed its supplemental liability to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund from its 2003 third quarter balance sheet in a bookkeeping change that will not affect USPS income (DMNews) -GAO: USPS Rates Would Soar Under Escrow Rule (DMNews)

  -USPS Press Release| GAO Reports : Postal Pension Funding Reform

  - Mailers Support Some GAO Stands on CSRS Law

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• Workers to return to Brentwood postal facility

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• Postal worker charged for taping Co-Workers- The postal worker is facing a felony charge for allegedly tape-recording a conversation of co-workers while they were on their break at the New Castle Post Office. The Postal employee was charged Dec. 1 with illegal interception, disclosure or use of wire, electronic or oral communications, a felony offense. She was charged by New Castle police and released on her own recognizance

• Rural Carrier Allegedly Steals 400+DVDs From Mail-Postal inspectors set up secret cameras and watched as the carrier allegedly pulled out DVD after DVD and hid them in paper towels, then took them to his locker. (ClickonDetroit)
• USPS has agreement with Strayer University to provide higher education Online| Strayer University USPS website
• Postal Supervisor's Suit Against USPS Dismissed PDF)
• Editorial: Good news, bad news for Postal Service|| Postal employees bracing themselves for change
• Letter: USPS Policy on Retail Hours and Service Levels
• Bush Bypasses Senate to Put Casey on Board of Governors
• Legionnaire's disease bug found in South Boston postal facility
• Postal Service Offers More Early Retirements
• Early Retirement Agreement Settles Bitter Dispute
• APWU, USPS Reach Agreement on VER
• USPS, APWU settle national grievance on automation staffing levels
• Florida Postal Supervisor Sentenced In Thefts
• Six indicted in scheme involving postal stamps
• USPS pulls $200K in advertising, while employees urge FOX to do the right thing
• Postal Service Denounces Mad TV Sketch
• White House Lists Postal Overhaul Ideas
• Disability Settlement Could Cost USPS Millions
• Postal worker faces felony charge for recording co-workers conversations
• Postal Employees Get 5-Day Leave For Anti-Terrorism Military Call Up
• Senators question PMG on lack of information on transformation plan progress

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