Stories

Do It Now: A Timeline of the Postal Service’s Work Hour Reduction Plan

SteveOctober 1, 2020Blog, Slideshow, Story

The timeline shows how the plan was shared inside the Postal Service while it was kept secret from everyone else.

Voting by mail and the next election meltdown

SteveSeptember 30, 2020Slideshow, Story

With control of the House and Senate at stake in next week’s midterms, any election that is close is likely to be contested.  Arcane postal matters, like USPS postmark policies and service standards, could take center stage in a bitter fight to the finish.

Historic New Deal Post Office in Roseville, CA may be torn down by hotel developers

SteveOctober 4, 2019Slideshow, Story

The city purchased the property nine years ago to revitalize the downtown district. Now developers want to tear down the current building, which was built in 1935, and construct a new six-story luxury hotel

New book shows & tells the story of Wisconsin’s New Deal murals

SteveSeptember 21, 2019Story

During the 1930s and 40s, under the New Deal, the United States Government commissioned over 1,100 murals for the embellishment of post offices nationwide. Wisconsin received 35 of these murals. A new book, Wisconsin Post Office Murals, by David W. Gates Jr., shows and tells the elusive and often overlooked story of their existence.  The book follows on Gates’ earlier guidebook … Read More

DC Circuit grants postal watchdog’s challenge to PRC’s approval of rate hike on Forever stamps

SteveSeptember 13, 2019Slideshow, Story

“Although the five-cent stamp price hike may have gone unnoticed by many, the American Revolution was fomented in part by ordinary people who objected to taxation through stamps.”

Community and Postal Workers United Summer 2019 newsletter

SteveAugust 5, 2019Story

The Community and Postal Workers United (CPWU) Summer 2019 newsletter has articles about the successful effort to save the Seattle Central District Post Office, a rally tisane the West Linn, OR Post Office, and the fight against the Postal Service’s shift to cluster boxes.  Read the newsletter here.

Renowned architect César Pelli dies at 92; one of his first buildings was a post office

SteveJuly 21, 2019Slideshow, Story

Worldway Postal Center in Los Angeles won an architecture award soon after its completion in 1967.

DC Circuit to hear oral arguments in watchdog’s appeal of PRC approval of 5-cent increase on Forever stamps

SteveMay 2, 2019Slideshow, Story

You can listen to a live stream of the arguments and find an archived version of the recording here.

In bid to drive up postal rates, UPS takes the PRC to the Supreme Court

SteveApril 5, 2019Slideshow, Story

UPS wants SCOTUS to revisit its historic Chevron decision.

Postal watchdog appeals PRC decision approving five-cent increase in Forever stamps

SteveJanuary 27, 2019Story

The five-cent increase will be the largest in history for a First Class stamp, and in percentage terms, it’s the largest since 1991 and about four times the average increase since 2006.

Adapting Postal Facilities to Support Community Resilience

SteveJanuary 15, 2019Slideshow, Story

Carnegie Mellon researchers ask, How can underutilized postal facilities be envisioned as civic community hubs?

USPS announces new stamp series on Depression-era post office murals

SteveNovember 23, 2018Slideshow, Story

Back in July 2016, “Save the Post Office” suggested that the Postal Service should put out a stamp series celebrating post office murals from the New Deal. Now the Postal Service is doing just that.

The UPU’s Extraordinary Congress: Much Ado about Terminal Dues

SteveSeptember 11, 2018Slideshow, Story

A Presidential Memo turns attention to international mail

USPS parcel growth slows as Amazon self-delivers more

SteveAugust 19, 2018Slideshow, Story

“The years of double-digit growth are going to be difficult to get back to, given the level of competition.” — Joe Corbett, USPS CFO

Postal Service updates the status of post offices under emergency suspension

SteveAugust 9, 2018Slideshow, Story

At the start of FY 2017, 662 post offices were stuck in the limbo of suspension. Since then, more than half have been formally discontinued. A few have reopened. 253 remain under suspension.

D.C. Circuit Court rejects UPS request for a rehearing on USPS costing case

SteveAugust 8, 2018Story

In May a three-member panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied an appeal by the United Parcel Service challenging a ruling by the Postal Regulatory Commission concerning how the Postal Service determines the costs of its products.  On July 6, UPS requested a rehearing en banc, meaning that it asked the full D.C. Circuit, which currently has eleven active judges, to … Read More