09 July 2013 (23:37 UTC-07 Tango 08 July 2013)/01 Ramadan 1434/18 Tir 1391/02 Ji-Wie (6th month) 4711

“Whether that is due to health benefits or retirement funding or something that only Congress can control, the bottom line is we are losing $25 million a day.”-Ron Schaer, USPS marketing manager in Portland, Oregon

“There’s a lot of deception going on, it’s being driven by the private sector, which wants to profit off the movement of mail. Part of that profit will come from not having to deal with postal unions.”-John Schwiebert, 18th Avenue Peace House, Oregon

Fact: U.S. Postal Service officials are dictated to by the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission.  The commissioners are selected/appointed by the President of the U.S., and the U.S. Senate.  They are the ones who determine things such as the price of a postage stamp and layoffs.

Fact: The U.S. Postal Service is not funded with tax dollars (“The USPS has not directly received taxpayer-dollars since the early 1980s with the minor exception of subsidies for costs associated with the disabled and overseas voters.”).  The USPS is funded through postage stamps and other services they provide.  Many times the USPS has asked the PRC for increases in postal rates, because they were not covering operating expenses, but the PRC refused  (that’s right, even though there have been rate increases, they still don’t cover operating costs).  Also, in 2006 the U.S. Congress forced the USPS to pay $5.5 billion per year, for the next 75 years, into accounts controlled by Congress (this is the final straw that broke the financial back of the USPS).

For proof of main stream U.S. news media ignorance about the USPS, recently the Wall Street Journal stupidly stated that “If you’re an American taxpayer, you own it.”  How can that be if the USPS is an independent agency that is not funded with tax money?

In Alabama, a mail carrier was found guilty of stealing people’s identities, and other crimes.  But he was just a part of a larger ID theft ring: “…his criminal organization not only stole innocent people’s identities, filed fraudulent tax returns and received tax refunds not owed to them, but they used Harrison’s position as a mail carrier to steal these debit cards from the mail…”-George L. Beck, U.S. Attorney

According to the New York Times, the USPS has been acting as a domestic spy agency for the U.S. government.  It was revealed when a mail carrier ‘accidentally’ delivered the order to photocopy all letters to a postal customer: “Show all mail to supv for copying prior to going out on the street”

That order was specifically against the postal customer that accidentally received the order.  Independent investigations revealed the USPS is using a Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program to copy at least 160 billion pieces of mail every year.

Of interest is that the USPS has just placed an order for $450000 worth of computer systems from Kansas based company Commtech.  Commtech designs high speed data collections, I mean communications equipment.  The USPS says it could double the order.

In Oregon, a postal carrier was found guilty of stealing $135000 in cash and checks from customers’ mail.  He blamed it on a gambling addiction.

In Texas, a postal employee pled guilty to using postal computers to collect child porn.  And a resident of Coldspring has been charged with murdering a mail carrier.  The suspect complained of slow delivery of his mail.  The carrier was on her cell phone with her son when the suspect shot her.

In Florida, mail carriers report increases in assaults against them.

In Rhode Island, the USPS is investigating why mail for businesses in East Greenwhich has been dumped by the carriers.  A part time carrier has been arrested in connection with the dumping.  The investigation would not have happened if it weren’t for postal customers complaining.

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Here in southeastern Idaho, I’ve watched as the Chubbuck USPS postal station in the Pine Ridge Mall was closed down.   Then I watched as Chubbuck’s independently contracted post office was closed down.  Now I see the staffing at the Pocatello Clark Street post office being reduced, and full timers switched to part time.  This past Saturday I saw the local Postmaster stocking shipping supplies for postal customers.  One source told me that despite locals’ objections to the closing of the area’s only processing center, the Gateway Station in Pocatello will be closed within 18 months.  This means that if I send a letter to Idaho Falls, an hours drive from my location, it will be first sent to Salt Lake City, Utah, and then sent back into Idaho to it’s destination.  Not very efficient or cost saving is it?

Relatives in California have told me of local post offices now operating Saturday hours on Fridays (10:00 hours to 14:30 hours).  It was officially reported that the USPS cut operating hours at their Highland and Calimesa post offices.  Also, full time employees have been replaced with part timers.  In La Jolla the USPS is selling off the historic La Jolla Post Office (National Register of Historic Places), despite protests.  This is odd considering the USPS just held a job fair in San Jose, supposedly to fill 500 positions!

In Indiana, after 17 years of service the USPS will close the postal station in Evansville’s Eastland Mall.  Fordsville will lose its branch PO, meaning the nearest PO will be 10 miles away.

In Massachusetts, the West Lynn PO will probably be closed down, for real this time.

In Hawaii, the Kapolei Post Office will be closed in August.

In Illinois, USPS officials told the Collinsville City Council the 50 year lease on the Collinsville Post Office was up in September, and they were not going to renew.  They said the post office was too big.

In Ohio, the processing center in Toledo will be closed.   By the end of 2014 processing centers in Akron, Athens, Canton, Chillicothe, Dayton, Ironton, Steubenville and Youngstown will be closed.

In New York, the USPS opened a new mini post office (called a village post office), in a mini-mart in Limestone.   In Newburgh, plans to close the processing center in 2014 have been changed.  It’s being closed this year!  Hundreds of jobs affected.

In Kentucky, the USPS opened a village PO in the Harrodsburg Food Center.

In South Carolina, the Asheville processing center will cease outgoing mail handling on 13 July.  Nearly 200 jobs affected.

The USPS will pay millions of dollars to improve worker safety, after they were hit with accusations from the Postal Workers Union and the U.S. Department of Labor OSHA.  This after the USPS signed a contract with Adayana Government Group to provide training for newly appointed Safety Specialists, Managers, Supervisors, and Facility Safety Coordinators. (called operation Safety Boot Camp)

After 50 years of ignoring Cuba, the USPS says it will begin negotiating the possibility of delivering U.S. mail to the communist country.

Beware of the Change of Address scam.  Internet sites are charging people up to $24 to file fake change of address forms.  The USPS does it for free (if you fill out the forms at your local PO).

What about the plan to go to five day delivery week?  At the beginning of the year the USPS was approved to begin a six day package delivery, and five day mail delivery scheme.  In April that plan was put on hold, not “shelved” as so many main streamer news media sites reported.  President Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget proposal allows the USPS to go to a five day delivery schedule.  The U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors (part of the PRC) said “….Congress has left it with no choice but to delay this implementation at this time….The Board continues to support the transition to a new national delivery schedule….”  The Board also lied and stated that “…this new delivery schedule is widely supported by the American public.”

According to Federal News Radio, the USPS is being transformed into something that resembles privatized European postal services: “In regard to partnerships, other posts tend to be more aggressive in what they do with. I think it is something where the Postal Service can catch up by learning from the aggressive actions that some of the European posts are taking, and that might apply to other areas as well.”-Michael Kubayanda, USPS Office of the Inspector General