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Many consumers are irked by the catalogs, credit-card pitches and other "junk mail" they receive. But the U.S. Postal Service loves it—and wants to deliver more. The agency, beset by historic losses and a plummet in first-class mail, is running promotions, easing rules and planning television and radio ads to encourage more businesses to send pitches by standard mail, the official term for bulk mailings used by marketers to prospect for customers. "What we want to do is to make standard mail more interesting for customers so we can grow the total volume," Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in an...

"A refrigerator has never been hacked. An on-line virus has never attacked a cork board." -- from United States Postal Service TV commercial urging people to use mail. Right. And a buggy whip has never had a broken transmission--so why don't we junk our cars? Really, that was the kind of pathetic logic on display in the USPS TV commercial that aired during today's Fox News Sunday. View the video here.

There are few formal street names or house numbers in Kabul - so just how does a postman deliver the mail? For the postmen of Kabul, navigating the maze of the city is a daunting task. It is a city of more than four million people and one in which hundreds of homes and streets are being developed every year. There are few street names and house numbers, and the Central Post Office has yet to introduce a full postal code system. There is often little information to work with So how does a letter find its way to the...

WASHINGTON — Who would you put on a stamp? Charlie Sheen? Lady Gaga? Yourself? Hoping to boost sagging revenue, the U.S. Postal Service on Monday abandoned its longstanding rule that stamps cannot feature people who are still alive and is asking the public for suggestions.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa - Some workers at a Sioux City mail processing center could be paid even if they don't work after the facility closes. The U.S. Postal Service is closing the center on Friday and transferring the work to Sioux Falls, S.D. Spokesman Richard Watkins said that about 100 workers have taken other mail jobs and 40 others are on standby status. Those standby workers will have to take other postal service jobs before their contract expires in 2015. In the meantime, Watkins said, they could be asked to report to the Sioux City post office and sit in...

Obama's Postal Service plan would cut Saturday mail By Emily Stephenson 15 mins ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration's plan to rescue the U.S. Postal Service would allow the agency to end Saturday mail delivery and sell non-postal products, according to documents released on Monday. The plan, introduced alongside a deficit-reduction package, also would restructure a massive annual payment to prefund retiree health benefits and refund $6.9 billion the mail carrier says it overpaid into a federal retirement fund. The White House says its plan would save the Postal Service more than $20 billion in the next few years....

The US Postal Service unveiled Thursday a drastic downsizing scheme for the embattled public company, including cutting 35,000 jobs, as it seeks to avoid collapse amid a "new reality" in the economy. "Faced with a massive nationwide infrastructure that is no longer financially sustainable," the USPS said it was proposing sweeping changes aimed at saving the organization up to $3 billion a year. Among the proposals being studied were cutting more than half of its processing facilities, limiting service, and eliminating as many as 35,000 jobs, the company said in a statement.

The Obama administration said on Tuesday that it would seek to save the deficit-plagued Postal Service from an embarrassing default by proposing to give it an extra three months to make a $5.5 billion payment due on Sept. 30 to finance retirees’ future health coverage. Speaking at a Senate hearing, John Berry, director of the federal Office of Personnel Management, also said the administration would soon put forward a plan to stabilize the postal service, which faces a deficit of nearly $10 billion this fiscal year and had warned that it could run out of money entirely this winter. “We...

The US Postal Service could fully meet its financial obligations, extinguish debt and have substantial cash flow if Congress rectifies the organization's possible overfunding of its pension and retiree healthcare funds, the USPS' Office of Inspector General (OIG) said in a summary report. The OIG has issued four reports in the past year on the Postal Service's possible overfunding of its pension funds and retiree healthcare fund. One report found that the USPS has overpaid the Civil Service Retirement System by about $75 billion since 1972 because of an outdated calculation method. Another report found that if the Postal Service...

WGN Postal service may shut down for winter WGN News 3:03 PM CDT, September 5, 2011 Without emergency funding the postal service may have to shut down for the winter. The U.S Postal Service faces a $9 billion dollar deficit. The New York Times reports the agency doesn't have enough money to pay its bills and a $5.5 billion dollar payment is due this month. Possible cost cutting measures include eliminating Saturday delivery, closing up to 3700 post offices and laying off 120,000 workers. A congressional hearing on the matter is set for Tuesday.

The postal service says it's running out of cash and may not be able to make a $5.5 billion pension payment this month. In fact, the postmaster general says things are so tight, the postal service may have to shut down this winter unless congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.

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...