Posted at 9:21 AM CST
Hurricane Sandy: postal facility service disruptions
Hurricane Sandy: Preparation for Hurricane Sandy has resulted in cancelation of FedEx transportation to the following locations on Monday Oct. 29:
Baltimore, MD
Boston, MA
Bradley, CT
Dulles, VA
Harrisburg, PA
Lehigh Valley, PA
Philadelphia, PA
Providence, RI
Newark, NJ
New York, NY
Stewart Airport, NY
Washington, DC 
Source: US Postal Service
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Opinion may favor Stewart mail plant
"... One assumption the PRC challenged was that larger plants are more efficient than smaller ones, such as the Stewart plant. The Postal Service used work hours per square foot as a measure of productivity, the PRC said, whereas comparing work hours with the volume of mail processed is a better measure of productivity...."
Source: www.recordonline.com
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Buyout Considerations
"...Many federal employees are being offered early retirement this year – and many more wish they were. Often, the offers come with a Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment, otherwise known as a buyout. ..."
Source: www.govexec.com
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Regulator: No imminent cash crunch at Postal Service
"... Despite maxing out a $15 billion line of credit with the U.S. Treasury last month, the U.S. Postal Service can scrape by at least through March. That’s according to Ruth Goldway..."
Source: federaltimes.com
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Lance Armstrong items on eBay
"... Get your Lance Armstrong items on eBay. There are plenty of eBay items to be found on eBay at the moment, but they are going fast. Get your Lance Armstrong postal logo jersey for work or get a signed jersey to collect. ..."
Source: www.ebay.com
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PRC Urges USPS To Preserve Overnight Delivery
"... In an advisory opinion on the Postal Service’s “Network Rationalization” plan [PDF] issued Sept. 28, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) urged the Postal Service to preserve overnight mail delivery and concluded that ”there is a point in the Postal Service’s cost curve beyond which the additional savings captured are too small to justify the additional reduction of service that would result.” The advisory opinion is the commission’s response to the Postal Service’s plan to close or consolidate half of the nation’s mail processing plants and to reduce delivery service standards for first-class mail, standard mail, periodicals and package services...."
Source: www.apwu.org
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USPS recycling policies hypocritical says one big-time shipper
"... Representatives from the USPS refused to discuss the matter on-camera, but referred 10 News to federal laws that said, "United States Postal Service shipping supplies...(are) the property of the (USPS) and...any matter mailed in these free boxes is charged the appropriate Express Mail or Priority Mail price, regardless of how the packaging is reconfigured."..."
Source: www.wtsp.com
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Postal Service Begs Floridians To ‘Please Stop Crashing Into Post Offices’
"... Even the U.S. Postal Service thinks Floridians are bonkers. This year alone, there have been eight completely unrelated incidents where someone crashed a car into a post office. But that statistic only covers Central Florida. The rest of the state is another story...."
Source: jalopnik.com
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Consternation and confusion: Putting POStPlan in place
"...The Postal Service began implementing POStPlan a couple of weeks ago, and in a post last week we reported on problems that had already begun to emerge: surveys sent only to box holders, meetings scheduled during the workday, using the post office lobby as the meeting place. A few more news reports have come out, and several people wrote in about problems they've observed. Here are more some stories about how POStPlan is being put into action. ..."
Source: www.savethepostoffice.com
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Cleveland postal carrier discovers smoking package
"... A postal employee working his regular route came across something unusual Thursday. What had been left inside the mail drop box was smoking...."
Source: www.wkyc.com
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Junk mail boon: Postal Service giveaway hammers newspapers
"...newspapers around the country are informing their readers about a rate cut granted last week by the U.S. Postal Service to Valassis Communications, which will enable the direct-marketing company to mail certain types of national retail preprints for 42 percent less than newspapers are required to pay for the same service. The Newspaper Association of America says the Valassis deal could divert no less than $1 billion in advertising revenues from newspapers to the direct-mail company ..."
Source: www.lvrj.com
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"... John Warr began his art career in 1980 concentrating mainly on wildlife. Over the next ten years Warr worked with many wildlife organizations along with winning many awards including the 1988-1989 Alabama Duck Stamp competition. Warr grew up surrounded by the beauty of his beloved Guntersville Lake area of rural Northeastern Alabama...."
Source: www.civilwarrart.com
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Audit: Major waste of resources at Atlanta postal distribution center
"... efficiently moving the trailers. According to investigators, "drivers performed more truck moves and expended more driver work hours than necessary."..."
Source: www.wsbtv.com
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10 things the post office won’t tell you
"...some in the postal industry say that declining mail is just an excuse: “There is red ink, but the overwhelming share has nothing to do with mail volume, the Internet, or other factors related to the mail,” says Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. The retiree health payments account for nearly 80%, or $9.2 billion, of the first three quarters’ losses, and they “not only have exhausted the Postal Service’s profits, savings and borrowing authority, they also have distracted the USPS from addressing the structural issues that do indeed exist as society changes,” says Rolando, ..."
Source: marketwatch.com
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Prime Time for Paul Ryan’s Guru
"...Hayek also believed that the government should not have a monopoly on any service it provides; instead, private companies should compete by offering an alternative Postal Service, road system, even, perhaps, a private fire department. ..."
Source: www.nytimes.comVisit Our Homepage
Postal Worker’s Vacation Causes Halt In Mail Delivery For Some In Jersey City
"...what happens when a mail carrier goes on vacation. Residents of a Jersey City apartment building said when their letter carrier took a week off, so did their mail delivery. ..."
Source: cbslocal.com
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Janna Ryan, Paul Ryan's Wife, Lobbied For Cigar, Nuclear, Pharmaceutical Industries
"... Ryan and her then-boyfriend's work appear to have overlapped. In February 2000 while Janna Ryan still was working on behalf of UPS, Paul Ryan made one of only two corporate-funded trips he took that year, from Milwaukee to Atlanta, where UPS is headquartered. The trip was paid for by UPS, which also flew the congressman back to Washington, according to his financial disclosure reports. ..."
Source: www.huffingtonpost.com
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Top 13 must-see US post offices
"... From a boat that delivers mail along the docks of a 29-mile stretch of river, to aircraft that fly directly the coldest regions of Alaska, the country's post offices have been set up to meet the changes to the mail delivery system --and the people it serves...."
Source: www.foxnews.com
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Have you seen this post office mural?
"...In 1936 Richard Haines completed an oil-on-canvas mural for the Cresco Post Office and it was brought in and glued to the wall in 1937. He called the painting “Iowa Farming” and he was paid $510, according to the State Historical Society of Iowa. ..."
Source: www.crescotimes.com
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Arbitrator Rules on Protection Against Layoffs
"...Arbitrator Stephen B. Goldberg ruled on Aug. 1 that employees represented by the APWU who transfer to or are excessed into non-APWU crafts may not carry the protection against layoffs they have earned under the APWU Collective Bargaining Agreement to their new crafts. ..."
Source: www.apwu.org
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Why FedEx and UPS Want the Postal Service to Survive
"...For starters, FedEx earned $1.495 billion from the Postal Service last year as the agency’s number one supplier. UPS, the Postal Service’s 11th largest supplier, earned $102 million from the Postal Service, a $7 million increase from the year before...."
Source: www.minyanville.com
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"A half-vast plan": A postmaster comments on POStPlan
"... The cumulative effect of the changes the Postal Service has offered, stepping back to see the forest broadly, is nothing less than a complete redefinition of universal service so as to make that term meaningless. By any measure POStPlan is a fraud being perpetrated not only on rural America but on all America. It is another step in an effort to break the bonds people have with their post offices. This plan and the plans offered by the management of the Postal Service in general are designed to undue the process of binding the Nation together...."
Source: www.savethepostoffice.com
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Browns Mills woman, 76, charged with murder in husband's death
"...Valpa Rosa was an Air Force veteran and a retired postal worker, according to online reports. He and his wife had lived in the Margaret Street home for about 40 years. ..."
Source: www.courierpostonline.com
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Post office closing appeals skyrocket
"... From 2007 to 2009, there were exactly two such appeals. As of mid-May, the year-to-date total for fiscal 2012 was 126, or well above the 103 appeals filed in all of 2011, according to a new joint report from the inspectors general for the Postal Service and Postal Regulatory Commission...."
Source: federaltimes.com
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FedEx Fights UPS to Keep $1 Billion Postal Service Deal
"...FedEx warned in a regulatory filing this week that it may lose the contract or be able to negotiate less favorable terms for renewing it. Postal Service work generated about $1.4 billion for the Memphis, Tennessee-based company in its fiscal year through May 2012 ..."
Source: www.bloomberg.com
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USPS default on Aug. 1 appears likely
"... The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service is within weeks of defaulting on a legally required $5.5 billion payment into a health benefits fund for future retirees...."
Source: www.federaltimes.com
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Arbitrator Das Sustains APWU Grievance on Denial of Retreat Rights
"...Arbitrator Das determined that the Postal Service’s unilateral determination to disallow the exercise of retreat right under these circumstances violated the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The issue of remedy was remanded to the parties and the arbitrator retained jurisdiction to resolve any remedial disputes.
The issue in the second case (Case #Q11C-4Q-C11322481) was the USPS conversion of PTRs and PTFs in August 2011 to unassigned regular status with temporary NTFT schedules. ..."
Source: www.apwu.org
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Postal Workers Start Third Day of Hunger Strike to Save USPS
"... “Corporate America is trying to steal your postal service,” said Jamie Partridge of Community & Postal Workers United, as the hunger strikers chanted, “We demand a refund, we demand repeal” of the congressional mandate forcing the USPS to prefund retiree health benefits 75 years in advance...."
Source: www.care2.com
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Turning up the heat: The DC Hunger Strike
"... On June 25th, a band of protestors will travel to Washington DC to stage a four-day hunger strike calling attention to the Postal Service’s plans to reduce service and cut jobs. That’s just days before the Postal Service implements the change in service standards that will end overnight delivery for about 20 percent of First Class mail, a prelude to further service reductions..."
Source: www.savethepostoffice.com
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U.S. Senate bill could save Quincy postal processing site
"... U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., inserted a provision into an appropriations bill that would require the U.S. Postal Service to conduct an audit that shows cost savings before closure or consolidation at the 11 postal processing centers. All of them were found to be efficient operations in recent years. Quincy and Rockford facilities are among those affected by the proposed rule. ..."
Source: www.whig.com
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Historic Post Offices: An Inventory of the Legacy
"... Among the Trust's main concerns is the way the Postal Service has been handling the sell-off. "The lack of a transparent and uniform national process from the Postal Service — one that follows federal preservation laws when considering disposal of these buildings — is needlessly placing the future of many historic post office buildings in doubt," says the Trust. Stephanie Meeks, president of the National Trust, says she hopes to work with the Postal Service to develop a process for adapting and reusing the historic buildings...."
Source: www.savethepostoffice.com
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Hunger strikers protest end of first class overnight mail delivery
"... “The Postmaster General is sending the service into a death spiral,” said Matt McAulifee, a postal mailhandler and hunger striker from Denver. “By slowing the mail, one to two days, the postal service will drive away customers. Businesses will switch to online billing and patrons will switch to online payment. Those most dependent on the mail - the elderly, the poor and rural communities - will be hit the hardest.” ..."
Source: www.lakestevensjournal.com
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The PRC wants your opinion on POStPlan, but does the Postal Service want the PRC's?
"... You can send your comments to the Postal Regulatory Commission, 901 New York Avenue NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC, 20268-0001. Mention the docket number, N2012-2. You can also submit comments online using the customer service form, here. If you want to suggest questions that might be put to the Postal Service about the plan, you could probably also contact the Public Representative assigned to the case, Emmett Rand Costich, at costicher@prc.gov...."
Source: www.savethepostoffice.com
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POStPlan: New lists, maps, financials, and more
"... Why 4,600 post offices needed to be upgraded — and their postmasters given at least a 2% raise — is not clear. ..."
Source:
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Mail Handlers to be offered retirement incentive
"... Mail Handlers who are eligible should be receiving a package in the mail from the Postal Service (these retirement documents will be mailed to the employee's address that USPS has on file; an employee can confirm or change his/her mailing address online by logging on to www.liteblue.usps.gov), but in general terms VERA offers apply to employees covered under both the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). ..."
Source: Mail Handler Union
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Social Security Benefits & Taxes
"... So after years of paying income taxes on your “contributions” you are ready to retire and collect the benefits—only to find out that they may be taxable..."
Source: socialsecuritynewsgroup.blogspot.com
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USPS Announces ‘Modified Consolidation Plan’
"... “The Postal Service is working with its unions regarding an employee incentive offer and will announce details when final decisions are made,” but the USPS and APWU have not been negotiating about incentives, Guffey said.
The talk for employees who interact with customers says, “Some consolidation activities will begin this summer, but there will be no facilities closures this summer.” The other talks do not include this language, nor does the letter to the APWU. (In fact, the stand-up talks for other employees refer to “closing facility.”)..."
Source: www.apwu.org
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USPS to offer buyouts to 21,000 postmasters
"... Postmasters that accept the buyout will receive $20,000, split equally between two payments. Exiting postmasters will receive the first $10,000 payment in December 2012 and the second payment in December 2013. Splitting the incentive payment in two will allow the agency to "better manage its cash flow..." 
Source: www.federalnewsradio.com
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Fox News, Wrong Again!
"... The piece is clearly designed to drum up support for a discredited House bill (H.R. 2309) sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL), and to undermine support for a bill approved by the Senate on April 25...."
Source: www.apwu.org
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Rockefeller, Manchin ask USPS to hold off on closures
"... "Despite our concerns about the legislation, we do believe that extending the existing moratorium while Congress continues to work on postal reform legislation will at least preserve services and jobs..."
Source: www.statejournal.com
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