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The head of the U.S. Postal Service said in an interview that the organization will default -- perhaps as early as this winter -- unless Congress intervenes. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe's comments reflect a well-known reality that the Postal Service is in dire financial straits. The rise of email and online bill-paying has steadily eroded its profits over the years while labor costs soar. Donahoe is calling for a host of changes, including the elimination of Saturday delivery, to close a deficit projected to top $9 billion this year. But he said Congress needs to step in to help keep...

“Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds.” But unless Congress steps in, bankruptcy will. The New York Times reports that unless the House and Senate take drastic action in the next few months, one of the nation's oldest institutions — which employs 574,000 Americans — may be forced to shut down. A combination of labor costs and a declining number of packages and letters has the United States Postal Service running short on cash. The independent government agency will be unable to make a $5.5 billion payment to its employee healthcare...

The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances. “Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.” In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful...

The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances. “Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.” In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful...

In an attempt to stem its financial hemorrhaging, the U.S. Postal Service is seeking to reduce its workforce by 20 percent, including through layoffs now prohibited by union contracts. USPS also wants to withdraw its employees from the health and retirement plans that cover federal staffers and create its own benefit programs for postal employees. This major restructuring of the Postal Service’s relationship with its workforce would need congressional approval and would face fierce opposition from postal unions. But if approved, eliminating contract provisions that prevent layoffs and quitting the federal employee health and retirement programs could have ramifications for...

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Eager to prevent the threatened closure of Cleveland’s downtown post office, Mayor Tom Rowland appealed Monday to U.S. Sen. Bob Corker to spare the Broad Street office. “We sure could use your help,” Rowland told Corker during a meeting with more than two dozen Cleveland business leaders. Corker listened politely but offered little encouragement about removing the post office from a list of 3,700 possible closings. “Every time a tough decision has to be made, I can’t be calling up and asking that the decision be reversed,” he said. With the Postal Service running an $8 billion...

The U.S. Postal Service lost $3.1 billion in the third quarter and warns it will default on payments to the federal government if Congress does not step in with help. [snip] Total mail volume for the quarter that ended June 30 fell to 39.8 million pieces, a 2.6 percent drop from the same period the previous year. [snip]Also, it is required to make an annual payment to the federal government of $5.5 billion. The postal service says high payroll and retiree costs and declining volume has put it in a severe bind. [snip] The postal service says it lost $5.7...

The problem with bloated central planning is that when austerity hits, the bloat goes away, and millions of government employees suddenly find themselves trying to enter the private sector, realizing they have absolutely no real competitive and marketable skills (more or less like investment bankers and hedge fund managers). And while America has yet to even remotely sniff austerity, the unemployment rate is already set to spike, after the USPS just announced it was preparing to close 3,653 out of its 32,000 total post office sites. Per UPI: "The U.S. Postal Service is expected to announce a plan to close...

Per records, powerful congressman offered to quit, then fought allegations ### Mayor Richard M. Daley, right, and U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski attend a news conference together in 1993. Daley praised the longtime congressman after his death last August. ************* The theft of just $7,000 by a stamp clerk in the U.S. House Post Office mushroomed into a federal investigation that brought down one of the most powerful congressmen in the country, the late Daniel Rostenkowski of Chicago, according to records released Thursday by the FBI. The documents reveal that the FBI in 1992 was told by a "reliable source" that...

When Canadian letter carriers went on strike three weeks ago they hoped to force the national postal service, Canada Post, to back down from a cost-cutting proposal to dramatically reduce wages. Three weeks later, lawmakers are preparing to legislate them back to work, but Canadians are asking just how much a modern cyber-connected society needs the post office anyway. “If I get my mail, I get my mail, but if I really have to do something I go on the Internet,” says Janina, a bank teller. True, some businesses say they have had to scramble to try to fill orders...

SNIPPET: "KEY PENINSULA, Wash. -- A man who was fatally shot by Tacoma police during a traffic stop early Wednesday morning pointed a gun loaded with armor-piercing bullets at the officer who stopped him and was carrying a large amount of ammunition in his truck, the Tacoma Police Department said. Wednesday afternoon, the Medical Examiner's Office identified the man as Brooks Papineau of Gig Harbor." SNIPPET: "When police searched Papineau's truck, they found a large amount of ammunition and additional ammunition magazines.They also said they found a Koran and several books on converting to Islam. Police said Papineau went home...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - The financially troubled Postal Service is suspending its employer contribution to the federal employee retirement system.</p> <p>The agency said Wednesday it was acting to conserve cash as it continues to lose money. It was $8 billion in the red last year because of the combined effects of the recession and the switch of much mail to the Internet. It faces the possibility of running short of money by the end of this fiscal year in September.</p>

The Bloomberg Businessweek cover story on the U.S. Postal Service a couple weeks ago was a real stunner - filled with so many juicy tidbits that it took a while to digest.  It is just phenomenal that a handful of ingnoramuses (ignorami?) are doing this to a once proud example of American ingenuity. We've heard the story over the past several years - the rise of email has demolished traditional first class mail.  Free markets created the likes of UPS and FedEx, and thanks to better and more reliable service customers willingly paid substantially more for those products.  So what...

Calgary and Edmonton are the latest targets in the revolving postal strike as union representatives consider their next moves, including a full-blown national walkout. The Alberta walkouts began at 10 p.m MT in Edmonton and 9 p.m MT in Calgary Tuesday night. "The reason why Alberta was chosen is because in the past years we've had serious issues dealing with the employer with respect to staffing here and the level of forced overtime that letter carriers have been having to work," said Bev Ray, Edmonton Canadian Union of Postal Workers local president. "Alberta has been one of the hardest hit...

The Postal Service doesn't exist to deliver mail. 80 percent of its budget goes to the salaries and benefits of its 500,000+ union members. The most pervasive myth of the welfare state is the altruism of the public sector. In this mythology, the private sector is run by a bunch of greedy businessmen who get rich by making money off people's misery. While the public sector is run by altruists who want nothing except to help those left behind by the private sector. Capitalists meet the Anti-Capitalists. But actually it's the public sector that does a much better job of...

He is struck by how many USPS executives started out as letter carriers or clerks. He finds them so consumed with delivering mail that they have been slow to grasp how swiftly the service's financial condition is deteriorating. "We said, 'What's your 10-year plan?' " Herr recalls. "They didn't have one."

The U.S. Postal Service posted a $2.2 billion net loss in its second quarter and said it might be unable to pay its debts by September. The agency, which has been battling falling mail volumes and competition from FedEx (FDX.N) and United Parcel Service (UPS.N), said it expects to hit its borrowing limit by the September 30 end of the fiscal year, and will have to default on payments to the federal government unless Congress intervenes. "The Postal Service continues to seek changes in the law to enable a more flexible and sustainable business model," said Chief Executive Patrick Donahoe...

U.S. Postal Service to cut 7,500 jobs, close offices 31 mins ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Postal Service said on Thursday it would cut 7,500 jobs and close seven district offices and 2,000 post offices as it handles less mail and faces greater staff costs and competition from FedEx and United Parcel Service. "It's critical that we adjust our work force to match America's changing communications trends as mail volumes continue to decline," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in a statement. In November, the Postal Service reported a net loss of $8.5 billion for fiscal year 2010, its fourth...

First exploded a car at the busy shopping street Drottninggatan in central Stockholm. Then came another explosion some distance away and one man died. According to news agency TT, the man had blown himself to death. There was a bag on the ground filled with nails, according to newspaper Expressen. Alarm calls poured in to the Emergency Services from concerned residents about the explosions in central Stockholm on Saturday afternoon. But the initial info from the police was extremely unclear. First there was talk of two cars that exploded, later it proved to be just one... At Bryggargatan a man...

The American Postal Workers Union and the U.S. Postal Service have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, union President Cliff Guffey announced today. “Despite the fact that the Postal Service is on the edge of insolvency, the union and management have reached an agreement that is a ‘win-win,’ proposition,” he said.“Throughout the bargaining process, the union has sought to negotiate a contract that would be fair to our members and that would enable the USPS to succeed in the future,” he said.  “The tentative agreement accomplishes those goals. “The new contract will safeguard jobs, protect retirement and healthcare...