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TOP NEWS STORIES |
PRC Holding Public Hearings on
Universal Service Obligation
"The St. Paul hearing is the second of three public hearings
held outside of Washington, D.C. The first hearing took place
on May 21, 2008 in Flagstaff, Arizona. A third hearing will be
held on June 19, 2008, at City Hall in Portsmouth, New
Hampshire. The Commission will also hold a public workshop on
June 12, 2008, at 10:00 a.m., in Washington, D.C. "Congress
tasked the Commission with providing a comprehensive review of
the universal service obligation and the postal monopoly. Our
hearings will elicit views of the public's expectations for
the American postal system," said Dan G. Blair, chairman of
the Commission." - St. Paul Field
Hearing Release (PDF) - Federal Register (PDF) -
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Two Accused of Defrauding Postal Service
"Bobbie Sinko and Matthew English are jointly named in 25
separate counts of defrauding the postal service in a series
of mailings between 2005 and the fall of 2007. Sinko, who was
fired when the alleged fraud was discovered, is also named
individually in 12 additional counts of defrauding the Postal
Service by manipulating internal records "in such a way that
bulk mailings presented to the Postal Service by Central
Michigan University were mailed for free." -
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Postal Worker Time-Off Scam
"A Queens postal worker was charged with scamming Uncle
Sam to get a few days off, authorities said. Police said
Arlene Moscat, 30, told her bosses at the Jackson Heights Post
Office on Northern Boulevard that her mother had been
hospitalized at a Bronx hospital and she needed a few days off
to take care of her... Law enforcement sources said Moscat
admitted she pulled the scam to get a few days off. Moscat was
charged with petit larceny and falsifying business records."
(scroll down for story) -
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Fundraising by Mail - Good Luck
"First Class mail is hemorrhaging cash for the United
States Postal Service, Do Not Mail legislation is on the rise
around the country, and universal and six-day delivery could
look a lot different in a few years. There's no shortage of
issues for those in the mail industry to worry about, and they
were all on the table at a conference sponsored recently by
the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, a Washington, D.C.-based
coalition of more than 300 nonprofits and commercial service
providers." -
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High Gas Prices Affecting U.S. Postal Service
"U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman Kim Yates says there are
about 800 mail vehicles used in Indianapolis, and all of them
are necessary to get out our mail. She says we can expect
slight increases in postage rates if gas prices keep rising.
Yates also says she expects folks who hand-deliver payments
for their monthly bills to starting mailing them more to save
gas. Yates says mail trucks use a consistent amount of fuel
each day. She says there has been discussion on the federal
level to eliminate Saturday mail delivery to save fuel." -
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USPS Deploys 10,000 BlackBerrys
"USPS recently deployed about 10,000 BlackBerry handhelds
running commercial and homegrown applications. Operations
employees and information technology staff are using most of
them, said Rick Zambrano, sales center vice president at AT&T
Government Solutions. "The reason they started to deploy with
their operations and IT teams is because it's all about trying
to get more productivity and to be quicker to respond,"
Zambrano said." -
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Boulder postal worker wins $200K in discrimination case
"An employee at the Valmont Butte branch of the U.S.
Postal Service says he feels vindicated following a jury's
decision this week to award him $200,000 in damages because he
was harassed and discriminated against for being
African-American. Raymond Jackson, an Aurora man who has
worked at the post office since 1994, said his superior moved
his desk to a windowless office in 2004 in retaliation for
filing a physical disability complaint." -
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One Person's Junk Mail Is the Postal Service's Treasure
"TELLURIDE - A grassroots effort to help community members
take charge of the amount of junk mail they receive was
briefly thwarted on Tuesday when the United States Postal
Service forced organizers enrolling people in a catalog
reduction service to leave its premises." -
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Ethanol Vehicles for Post Office Burn More Gas, Get Fewer
Miles
"The U.S. Postal Service purchased more than 30,000
ethanol-capable trucks and minivans from 1999 to 2005, making
it the biggest American buyer of alternative-fuel vehicles.
Gasoline consumption jumped by more than 1.5 million gallons
as a result." - WSJ: Going Postal: With
Flex-Fuel Trucks, Postal Service Burns MORE Gas -
UPS Orders 200 Hybrid and 300 CNG Vehicles
From Daimler -
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National Postal Forum: Postmaster General Embraces Change
"Potter spoke about new technologies that are providing
these solutions - Intelligent Mail Barcode and the Flat
Sequencing System (FSS). FSS is new technology that will speed
the sorting and delivery of large envelopes, catalogs and
magazines, quadrupling productivity. FSS machines also will be
able to read the Intelligent Mail Barcode, allowing mailers
and the Postal Service to track mail throughout the sortation
process, improving service and reducing costs to mailers and
consumers." - National
Postal Forum -
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Ex-postal worker gets prison for disability benefits fraud
"A former U.S. Postal Service employee who was convicted
of lying about a back problem to get disability benefits will
spend a year in federal prison. Chief U.S. District Judge
Richard Cebull on Monday sentenced Karis Anne Blank to one
year and a day in prison and ordered her to pay $37,462
restitution. The term allows Blank to qualify for a shorter
term for good behavior. The sentence was at the low end of the
guideline range of a year to 18 months." -
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NALC Bulletin: Young Urges Congress to Bolster Financial
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