Napa developer purchases downtown post office

SteveBlog

The North Bay Business Journal: A buyer has come forward for Downtown Napa’s historic Franklin Station post office, which suffered extensive damage in the August 2014 earthquake, and has sat vacant since. The buyer is Jim Keller, a Napa real estate agent and developer, who has tentative plans for a mixed-use development for the ½-acre property.“We’re going to re-purpose and … Read More

The Postal Service plans to end COD home delivery

SteveBlog, Story

The Postal Service is planning to end COD mail to home addresses. Under current policy, COD — officially “Collect on Delivery,” aka “cash on delivery” — can be delivered by the carrier to an address (COD per se) or it can be picked up by the customer at the post office, which is officially “Hold For Pick Up” (HFPU). The home delivery … Read More

Communities and Postal Workers United calls for protests on Inauguration Weekend

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All Out for Massive Labor-Community Protests – Inauguration Weekend Jan. 20-22 Call to Action – Let’s build a nationwide United Front against Trump by Communities and Postal Workers United & Community-Labor United for Postal Jobs and Services The election of Donald Trump is dangerous for all working people, including and especially immigrants, people of color, women, LGBTQ people and the disabled.  … Read More

Producer Joel Silver’s Venice Post Office becomes “Eyesore” and Activists Cry Foul

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Hollywood Reporter: When Joel Silver purchased the iconic Venice Post Office building in 2012, the producer of The Matrix and Lethal Weapon films told elected officials that converting the 1939 building into the headquarters of Silver Pictures would result in jobs, free arts-related programs and the preservation of historical features — including the famous Story of Venice mural that adorned … Read More

Rumors fly about losing downtown post office in Bowling Green, KY

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WBKO: Customers at the downtown post office in Bowling Green, Kentucky, have been told that branch may not be an option sometime in the near future. Former mayor of Bowling Green, Elaine walker posted on Facebook that she was told that location would be shutting down.  She says closing down that location could be catastrophic.  Walker is worried that removing … Read More

OIG says Postal Service outsources billions on contractor studies, with no process to store or share results

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USPS OIG: The U.S. Postal Service paid over $5.6 billion for contracts under the commercial products and services portfolio between fiscal years (FY) 2009 and 2015. This portfolio purchases a range of goods and services, including strategic consulting, logistics and fulfillment, market research and brand management, and financial and accounting services. The OIG found that the Postal Service did not … Read More

Berkeley mail delivery prompts tidal wave of complaints

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Berkeleyside: It’s definitely not just you. Late-night and skipped mail deliveries, suspect delivery “attempts,” slow service and mis-delivered mail: Berkeleyside has received complaints about the U.S. Postal Service from more than 80 Berkeley residents in the past week who detailed a range of problems throughout October. And some say there has been trouble for much longer. “USPS has been horrible lately – either very late … Read More

The bar in Trump’s new DC hotel honors postal history (sort of)

SteveBlog

The grand opening of the Trump Hotel at the Old Post Office Pavilion in Washington, DC, has been getting a lot of attention this week.  Several news items focus on the hotel’s cocktail lounge.  See, for example, the Daily Beast, Huffington Post, and the Washingtonian, as well as an earlier piece from September in the Washington DC Eater. The Trump Hotel … Read More

Finksburg MD post office will move

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Carroll County Times: The Finksburg, Maryland, post office will move, but its new home hasn’t been decided upon.  In a news release distributed this week, the U.S. Postal Service announced its decision to relocate the Finksburg post office, but said a new site has not yet been determined.At an August community meeting on a possible relocation of the office, Richard … Read More

GAO – USPS: Information on How Broadband Affects Postal Use and the Communications Options for Rural Residents

SteveBlog

US GAO: Broadband use has in recent years been associated with reduced use of First-Class Mail. Continued declines as a result of broadband, however, are uncertain. Broadband access to various Internet services, especially online bill paying, is associated with reduced use of transaction mail, a subset of First-Class Mail. GAO analysis of the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) Household Diary Survey … Read More

Phil Rubio: Organizing a wildcat: the United States postal strike of 1970

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Labor History Journal: This scholarly article, part of a larger work in progress, uses archives, key secondary sources, and oral histories from participants in the 1970 United States postal wildcat strike for better pay and working conditions to argue that this was a monumental event both unique and representative of the times. It was a rank-and-file effort that began in … Read More

Why the post office stopped mailing children

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RetroIndy: The idea of mailing babies and children wouldn’t cross most peoples’ minds. But after the parcel post law went into effect in 1913, children were routinely weighed, stamped and “mailed” with postal workers on mail service trains. As a bachelor, U.S. Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock decided to call in experts after receiving a rather pathetic plea from a man in … Read More

Bringing Government Secrets to Light

SteveBlog

The American Conservative: It was late February 1970, and the federal government was concerned that bad things were afoot in New York City. The past decade had been a series of headaches for the feds—civil rights protests; bombings by the Weather Underground and other radicals; riots in slums, on college campuses, and at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Two … Read More