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POSTAL NEWS January- June 2003

2005: Jan| Feb| Mar| May| Jun| July| Aug| Sept.| Oct| Nov| Dec 

2004: Jan| Feb| Mar| Apr May| Jun| Jul | Aug | Sept.| Oct| Dec 

2003:  July-Dec. 2003

• As Automation Eliminates Jobs, Postal Service Wants to Offer Early Retirements – The U.S. Postal Service is seeking permission to offer early retirement to mail clerks, mail sorters and other workers who are no longer needed because of automation.  The Postal Service projects that automation will eliminate 16,000 jobs by September, the end of the fiscal year.  Most of the jobs will be abolished as people quit or retire, but the Postal Service expects that early-outs will be needed to reach its job reduction target.   (Washington Post)
• Postal Service Concedes Errors in Handling Suspicious Letter at Hartford Facility
• High-tech postal probe is detailed - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - They had teams of five agents following her around in separate cars.  They had a time-lapse camera hidden 15 feet up in a tree behind her Verona house.  They had a global positioning satellite tracking device attached to the bottom of her Chevy conversion van.  For years, U.S. Postal Inspectors spied on Elaine Borghini,, because they suspected her of faking a wrist injury to collect workers' compensation benefits she didn't deserve.  For some six years, the government says, Borghini has collected about $30,000 a year in workers' comp checks while secretly working as a housecleaner.
• Postal Service Records a $1B Profit – The Postal Service recorded a $1 billion profit in the first quarter of the fiscal year, topping expectations by $200 million
• Miami Gunman Surrenders After Hijacking -  A gunman seized a mail truck Friday and forced the postal carrier to lead police on a 90-minute low-speed chase through the streets of Miami before he finally released his hostage and surrendered.
• Postal officials want carriers off street before dark -Postal officials in the Kansas City area are allowing some carriers with heavier routes to start their shifts earlier so they’ll be off the streets before dark. Carriers may wear reflective vests at night.
• Letter Carriers on Front Lines in Drive forParcel Business-
  
  
• Lengthy Agenda for Postal Reform Panel-More mailboxes and fewer letters are spelling trouble for the U.S. Postal Service, officials told the first meeting of a presidential commission that will recommend ways to improve the agency.  Postmaster General John Potter said about 1.7 million new addresses are added each year.  “As new homes, towns and cities are built, the Postal Service must grow with them,” Potter said.  While the Postal Service must pay the cost of expanding its mailing network, its revenue is slumping.  The volume of first-class mail is dropping as more people pay bills and correspond over the Internet.; These problems are among the issues that will be considered by the commission appointed Dec. 11 by President Bush.
• USPS decides to sell popular postal tubs (white bins
• Postal worker files lawsuit against PMG Potter over Brentwood contamination-One of the two postal workers who survived inhalation anthrax after being exposed to the deadly bacteria has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit. Leroy Richmond, said the postmaster general waited too long to shut down the Brentwood postal facility, which was contaminated with anthrax.
  
• GAO: Labor needs to improve tracking of injury claims for injured federal/postal workers |see pdf report
• Virginia Postal Worker played critical role in Brentwood cleanup
• New Division To Help USPS Simplify Tracking Mail-Standardizing bar codes on envelopes and improving mail tracking will be the biggest job of the U.S. Postal Service’s new Intelligent Mail and Address Quality division.  Charles Bravo is senior vice president of the new division, which was announced by Postmaster General John Potter Jan. 7
• Pittsburgh Local APWU files federal suit against USPS, claiming the agency has refused to abide by arbitration decisions in grievance cases. According to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court, the Postal Service has "wantonly" and "willfully" violated the collective bargaining agreement between the parties by refusing to implement arbitration awards stemming from a series of 1997 labor disputes in the "small parcel bundle service" operation. The union, which represents about 2,700 postal employees, said it won binding arbitration awards in all of the cases.
• Postal center likely doomed - Flint Journal - The U.S. Postal Service's Flint processing and distribution center almost surely will close, in six months in the worst case and four years in the best, a top postal official said Wednesday.  The closing would displace about 300 workers, a huge loss of income tax for the city.  The employees could be allowed to transfer to a planned new Royal Oak-area sorting center that could take over the Flint operations.  While local mail would be sorted in the Royal Oak, Lansing or Saginaw areas, residents won't see any change in mail service, postal authorities say.  Union and political leaders learned of the center's status during a 90-minute meeting with Peter Allen, manager of operations support for the Postal Service's Great Lakes region.  Flint Journal
• USPS Web Site Redesign Debuts Today
• MIAMI  APWU President sued -Top officials of the local American Postal Workers' Union suspected something was wrong when they started getting foreclosure notices on their west Miami-Dade County headquarters building last year. Then came the avalanche of overdue bills and court judgments.  Now Local 172 leaders say their longtime president, Judy Johnson, has ''wrongfully taken'' at least $8,811. They claim in a Miami-Dade Circuit Court lawsuit that she wrote at least 12 unauthorized checks to herself from the union's nonprofit business, One Seven Two Holding Association, Inc.

• Postal Governor Lends Voice for Reform-David Fineman has been outspoken on the need for postal reform in his eight years on the U.S. Postal Service’s Board of Governors. Fineman was elected chairman of the Board of Governors in January and, last week he testified before President Bush’s Commission on the Postal Service.  Fineman believes some radical changes are needed to keep the Postal Service functioning
• Comments to Presidential Postal Commission Received from postal workers- How about early buyouts? That would lower the labor costs.” “There way too many chiefs ( that do nothing to move the mail! ) and not enough Indians ( that do move the mail! "I work for the postal service as an RCA which means I have no benefits. Let me make a suggestion: TURN THE HEAT DOWN IN ALL OF YOUR OFFICES." I have been a Letter Carrier for almost 25 years. It is my belief, after these many years, that reform of the Postal Service is badly needed."
• USPS under fire for office supply deal>--Committee Chairman Don Manzullo, R-Ill., and the panel's ranking Democrat, New York Rep. Nydia Velazquez, asked the U.S. Postal Service to rescind its national office supply contract with Boise Office Solutions after the General Accounting Office found the Postal Service saved only $1 million through the deal.
• SmartBox Survey: 53% Favor Eliminating Saturday Delivery
• House Post Offices' Ex-Supervisor Says He Stole $200,000– Terrence J. McAndrew was nearing retirement from the U.S. Postal Service in May when he walked into the office of a Montgomery County defense lawyer and made a startling confession.  Over the last seven years, McAndrew told the lawyer, he had embezzled at least $150,000 from the five House of Representatives post offices he managed
• UPS CEO Mike Eskew Seeks Viable, Focused USPS in the 21st Century
• NALC President Young Tells Presidential Postal Commission- 6-day Universal Mail Service Must Continue; Supports Work Share Discounts for Mail Processing Aid
• Accused Postmaster Makes Bail – Charles Allen Bailey bonds out of the Dade County Justice Center Thursday afternoon after a judge grants a 50 thousand dollar bond for the aggravated sodomy charge Bailey faces.  The U.S. Postmaster accused of sodomizing a female employee he supervised bailed himself out of the Dade County Jail late Thursday afternoon.  Bailey was arrested at his Rising Fawn, Georgia post office Wednesday morning, after a joint investigation by U.S. Postal Inspectors and the Dade County Sheriff' s Department. 
• Post office monitors are swiftly removed – The baby monitors are gone. Post offices in Everett and Marysville decided Wednesday to pull the plugs after installing the devices to listen in as window clerks talked with customers.  The idea was bashed as an invasion of privacy by clerks and customers after The Herald revealed Tuesday that the post offices were using the devices in an attempt to improve customer service.  There also were lingering questions of whether the practice was legal or ethical.  Customers were never told they were being listened to by post office supervisors when they approached a postal service window. No signs were posted, and the monitors were hidden on clerks' desks.  Postmasters said the intent was for supervisors to ensure clerks asked the proper questions of customers mailing packages, not to eavesdrop on conversations.  But postal authorities now say the listening devices likely violated the U.S. Postal Service's code of conduct, which plainly prohibits post office employees from monitoring or recording oral communications of any person without the consent of all parties. -Everett Daily Herald -(dead link)
• Post offices listen in on clerks – Everett Daily Herald - Watch what you say at the post office.  Listening devices recently were installed in the service windows at three post offices in Snohomish County, becoming the only ones in the Northwest and perhaps the nation taking such measures.  Postal supervisors say the devices -- off-the-shelf baby monitors -- are intended to ensure that clerks ask the proper security questions of customers mailing packages.  Managers can listen in using a receiver in a back office.  But the microphones also pick up conversations between clerks and unknowing customers.  The monitors are set off to the side, hidden in the mix of stamps, scales and registers near the clerk's desks.  No warnings are posted notifying customers that their conversations may be monitored.  Postal supervisors insist the conversations, while being listened to, are not being recorded.  They say their interest is only in improving customer service.  But the postal clerks union says workers feel demeaned by the practice (dead link)
• Invasion of privacy A Postal Service supervisor violated an employee’s privacy rights by telling his co-workers that the employee was HIV-positive, according to a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
• Postal officials drop idea of halting some deliveries to dangerous areas

• Nebraska Postmaster Bans Book, Then Suspends and Fires Union Representative
• GAO revisits postal IT center closing
• USPS Gathers Bids To Automate Sorting of Magazines -The U.S. Postal Service hopes to save up to $3 billion a year by automating the sorting of periodicals moving through the mail.  In December, the Postal Service solicited proposals for systems that could sort the 50 billion periodicals, catalogs and other pieces of so-called flat mail that the Postal Service delivers each year.  Proposals were due Feb. 28. The Postal Service hopes to begin installing the new sorting equipment as early as 2006.  The system is intended to simplify delivery for mail carriers and follows a successful automation of letter sorting
• Senate panel votes to let Postal Service keep retirement plan surplus
• APWU Preparing to Implement Voluntary Early Retirements – The union and management are discussing procedures for offering voluntary early retirement to APWU-represented employees, despite the fact that Office of Personnel Management has not yet responded to management’s request for authority to do so.  A favorable decision from OPM is expected within several weeks.  When approval is confirmed, notice will be provided to employees immediately. In the interim, it would be helpful to have an estimate of the number of employees who are considering voluntary early retirement, and the installations that would be affected.  Notwithstanding statements made by local or regional postal officials to the contrary, unless OPM disapproves the Postal Service request, the early outs will be offered to all APWU-represented employees nationwide (APWU)
• Union, Congressional Rep Intercede on Postal Plant Closing-
• U.S. Attorney investigating mail dumping in Bluffton SC –The U.S. Attorney's Office is reviewing an investigative report about mail dumped at the old Bluffton post office and will decide whether any criminal charges should be filed
• Postal worker sues co-worker after being forced to walk away nude
• Postal worker accused of stealing $100,000– A longtime U.S. Postal Service employee was arrested yesterday on charges he stole mail and dozens of U.S. Treasury checks valued at more than $100,000 while working at the Honolulu airport post office last summer.
• Bizarre Postal Bonding by Inspector General Staffers cost millions
• Postal Service Defends Non-Postal Offerings – prc.gov
• Postal Service Operators Receive Free Tax Advice, Preparation – Come April 15, top officers at the U.S. Postal Service have another reason to smile.  Thanks to a little-known perk, postal ratepayers have been picking up the tab for officers' tax preparation since 1998.  The federal agency has also provided its top brass with individual financial counseling, including retirement and estate planning.  No other federal agency offers such benefits.  The postal perk, which less than a dozen of the top 42 officers have been using, came to light recently when the Postal Service advertised for a new firm to handle the service.  Arthur Andersen's accounting firm, which had the contract, is defunct.  Gerry McKiernan, a postal spokesman, said the agency is authorized to compensate its officers "on a standard of comparability" to that of private business (Knight-Ridder)

• Postmaster General Issues Call for New Postal Service

• Comarow: Put an End to Binding Arbitration - - In a response to the statements of Anthony J. Vegliante of the U.S. Postal Service, William Burrus of the American Postal Workers Union and William F. Young of the National Association of Letter Carriers former executive director of President Johnson's Commission on Postal Organization Murray Comarow says “Most studies reveal that postal workers arc paid at least 30 percent more than comparable workers in industry: $54,000 a year for letter carriers; $52,000 for clerks (including retirement and health benefits).  There is no sound public policy, which supports the view that only one federal agency's employees should have their wages set by arbitrators (Postcom.org)
• USPS Moves Forward with Intelligent Mail & Address Quality Initiative- At the National Postal Forum   Charles Bravo, Senior Vice President of the newly formed Intelligent Mail and Address Quality group, informed an audience of attendees of the significant progress that has been made in the 100 days since Postmaster General John E. Potter created his position in early January.  In support of its Intelligent Mail strategy, the Postal Service is initiating a study designed to improve its understanding of the printing, barcoding and mail preparation technology used by the mailing industry. This study will support the Postal Service in determining its strategy for future intelligent mail codes that would be used for individual mail pieces.  The study is intended to provide an overview of currently installed technologies for commercial mail preparation and their capacity to print advanced barcodes and to identify barriers that might prevent mailer adoption of these codes
• Postal pension payment bill signed into law -- President Bush signed legislation Wednesday that would keep postal rates at the current level until 2006 and limit the amount of money the Postal Service puts into the Civil Service Retirement System  (Govexec.com)
• USPS and the National Postal Mail Handlers Union reach a tentative two-year contract extension
• SuperLetter system delivers -- on the double – Orlando Sentinel - Eager to show the Pentagon how his hybrid mail system could benefit U.S. forces, Chris Schultheiss sent a letter from his New Smyrna Beach home to Gen. Tommy Franks on March 20.  Four minutes later, a British soldier in Qatar hand-delivered the sealed letter to Franks, commander of the war effort in Iraq.  "He was shocked, by all accounts," Schultheiss said
• CAGW Asks Government to Investigate Misleading Postal Service Ad Campaign – cagw.org - The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate whether the regulatory body can penalize the United States Postal Service (USPS) for violating the nation's "truth-in-advertising" laws. Taxpayer Group Disputes Post Office’s “Easy-Going” Ad Claims
• Postal Service rejects ‘right to strike’ proposal for unions
• Postal Service in the Black for Half Year – abc.com - The Postal Service finished the first half of its fiscal year its highest revenue period $1.65 billion in the black, the agency reported Tuesday.  Chief Financial Officer Richard Strasser reported that while mail volume is still down because of the uncertain economy, the Postal Service has been able to cut costs and increase productivity.  For the fiscal year that started in September, revenue so far is $32.8 billion and expenses have totaled $31.1 billion, leaving a net income of $1.65 billion, Strasser told the agency's board of governors.
• Testimony of Thelma Dowies Before the President’s Commission –My name is Thelma A. Dowies.  I do not represent any organization or business.  I am a concerned citizen who has been investigating many vistas of the U. S. Postal Service's relationship with its workforce
• Postal Service may face tough times-
• Postal security plan would evacuate employees, close mail facilities
• Issue Brief-The Compelling Case for Postal Privatization
• New Merit-Based Bonus Program for USPS Managers in Plans
• Trade Deals and Postal Workers: How would GATS and FTAA affect postal workers?
• Postal workers cry foul on ribbon policy-Yellow ribbons forbidden on trucks, uniforms
• Lockheed Martin Wins $2.8 Million Contract from USPS to Build 20 Automatic Mail Tray Lidding Systems
• US Postal Officials in New Orleans are investigating allegations of discrimination made by employees at the Lake Charles Post Office against Post Master Carol Landry. A dozen or so employees complain of unfair treatment such as being denied promotions and pay raises. A postal spokesman says some workers may feel threatened by efforts to improve efficiency at the post office. However, officials say Landry is being relocated to the Westlake Post Office until allegations are resolved. --end of story (KPLCTV)
• The National Center for Employee Development (NCED) for the U.S. Postal Service has announced it has purchased 50,000 passwords to offer Learn.com e-learning courses (the Learn2 brand) to postal employees. About 180,000 postal employees have direct access to desktop or laptop computers and thousands more can complete courses on local training center computers. NCED is a corporate business management (PRNewswire)
• USPS To Test Biohazard Detection Systems For Anthrax -USPS said it will test a Biohazard Detection System to detect anthrax in 14 postal facilities across the country. Mail processing and distribution centers in Dulles, Va.; southern Maryland; Albany, N.Y.; Kilmer, N.J.; Manasota, Fla.; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Tampa, Fla.; Midland, Texas; Los Angeles; Tacoma, Wash.; Rockford, Ill.; Lancaster, Pa.; Pittsburgh; and Cleveland will test the device for 30 days. Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Security Systems LLC unit will provide the Biohazard Detection Systems for the 30-day tests. The systems is designed to detect anthrax spores and other biological agents by collecting and analyzing air samples from mail-sorters. Cepheid Inc. , Smiths Detection, a unit of Smiths Group PLC , and Sceptor Industries worked with Northrop on the project. Goal: to have these machines in 282 mail processing plants by December 2004. A Stand-up Talk will be sent to the field for dissemination.

• Senate passes bill that warns of health emergencies-State lawmakers say it was wrong that workers at a Wallingford postal sorting facility didn't know the full extent of anthrax contamination at their workplace almost two years ago. The Senate has passed a bill requiring employers to immediately notify workers, as well as state health officials, of the potential risks from such health emergencies. A General Accounting Office report found that state health and postal officials didn't tell mail workers in Wallingford about the seriousness of the anthrax contamination believed to have killed a 94-year-old Oxford woman in November 2001.

• Supreme Court to Hear Postal Antitrust Case – The Supreme Court said it will decide next year whether the U.S. Postal Service can be sued for antitrust violations over the way it handled contracts for mail sacks. Flamingo Industries Ltd. claims the Postal Service is trying to create a monopoly in the mail sack business, driving U.S. companies out of business by transferring work to foreign manufacturers.  An appeals court ruled that the Postal Service is a "person" and can be sued under federal antitrust laws.  Flamingo's attorney, Harold Krent, said Congress intended for the Postal Service to be run like a business.  "Preventing the Postal Service from anticompetitive behavior would further, not hinder, Congress' intent that the Postal Service compete on an equal footing with entities such as Federal Express and UPS," Kent told justices in a filing.  The case is U.S. Postal Service v. Flamingo Industries, Ltd.
• Stamps.com Introduces Hidden Postage - Stamps.com offers a new shipping capability called Hidden Postage that lets its PC Postage customers print a shipping label that does not contain the cost of the postage . It is designed to reduce complaints from customers who might object to shipping and handling charges after seeing the postage.USPS permit holders can also send mail without revealing postage costs. WindowBook offers postal productivity software to work with permit holder accounts
• The Ghosts of Brentwood- Despite anthrax tests, workers debate returning.  The toxic gas turned the dark blue carpet in the upstairs offices a light brown.  It blurred family photos people were forced to abandon on their desks, rendering the faces ghostlike
• If you don't think privatized mail works, ask Sweden, Germany and Australia- Jewish World Review –Lexington Institute adjunct fellow Max Pappas comments,  “As the President's Commission on the U.S. Postal Service desperately seeks a way to stop the agency's financial nosedive, it ought to reach out and grab the hand brake of privatization.  If it foregoes the privatization solution, the commission is left only with firebreak reforms that won't cause the necessary long-term changes that powerful market forces will bring
• APWU Critical of Postal Commission Survey of Workers – apwu.org - Commission Hires Consultants To Query Workers About Pay Survey on Bargaining Issues ‘Totally Inappropriate’
• Postal Service IG Defends Tactics, Costs - Washington Post - Corcoran: 'I'm Being Tried in the Media'.  One way or another, Karla W. Corcoran, the U.S. Postal Service inspector general, is going to be out of her job next year.  The question is whether she will leave on her own terms or be sent packing following allegations of mismanagement at her 750-person agency
• Should the U.S. Postal Service be privatized to help finances?
  CON: Privatizers would put end to universal service
• Watching the Watchdog – ABC News - Person Responsible for Rooting Out Waste at Postal Service Accused of Excesses.  The job of the inspector general at the U.S. Postal Service is to root out waste, but the management practices of Inspector General Karla Corcoran have been wasteful and frequently just plain odd, a number of past and present employees, two U.S. senators and a citizen taxpayers' group say.
• Mailhandler Secretary-Treasurer Mark A. Gardner's Report:To the Postal Commission and to Congress: We Need Changes; Make Them the Right Changes.
• Can the U.S. Postal Service be sued for antitrust violations
• Mailer Groups Back Potter's USPS Recommendations – Direct Newsline - Mailer groups for the most part supported Postmaster General Jack Potter's latest recommendations for maintaining the U.S. Postal Service, which he made before the President's Commission on the USPS
• Deaf Employees File Lawsuit Against USPS for Civil Rights Violations -
• USPS makes deal with Hallmark Gold Crown stores - USPS and Hallmark Gold Crown stores are bringing the Post Office to greeting card shoppers in a new partnership that lets greeting card customers shop and ship in the same convenient location.  The agreement allows participating Hallmark Gold Crown stores to sell official USPS products and services at Post Office prices — Priority Mail up to 20 lbs, First-Class Mail and selected special services like Delivery Confirmation, Signature Confirmation, Insurance, Certified Mail and Return Receipt.  The driving principle behind the partnership — provide better service to our non-business customers by giving them alternate service options with extended times and locations, without building new Post Offices.  By improving ease of use for customers through Hallmark's shopping mall presence, USPS can improve brand value and raise revenue, key objectives of the Transformation Plan usps.com
• Senators Seek Ouster of Postal Chief - Washington Post - Charging that the post office's inspector general is responsible for more wasteful spending than she prevents, two Senate Democrats are calling for her to be fired. 
• Timid Steps Won’t Stop Postal Service From Hurting Economy
• GAO: Retest Postal Facilities for AnthraxThe U.S. Postal Service should retest as many as 261 facilities nationwide to guarantee they were not contaminated by anthrax, the General Accounting Office’s chief technologist told a House subcommittee May 19
• Bringing Automation Full Circle -Technology in the USPS
• Supporting Postal Workers in Turbulent Times
• Senators call for firing of postal inspector general
• Issue Brief: The Postal Service’s Dangerous Game
• Going Postal" and Beyond: Dynamics Triggering Workplace Violence -a psychotherapist reflects on his experience as a stress and violence prevention consultant as it pertains to the postal workforce.
• Citizens Against  Government Waste Calls for Postal Inspector's Removal-CAGW today called on USPS Board of Governors to remove USPS Inspector General (IG) Karla Corcoran from her position due to extensive, ongoing mismanagement   • Senator probes 50+ complaints about Postal Inspector General-Wash Times

• USPS adds online service for businesses – The Postal Service this week announced a new online service aimed at simplifying transactions for business customers. USPS' Online Payment Services Business Edition enables users to make bill payments electronically rather than mailing checks

• An interview with PMG Potter – Federal Times - In the last two years, the U.S. Postal Service has been at the center of a lot of news. The mail system was used to deliver biological weapons for the first time.  The organization’s future financial prospects have taken a turn for the worse amid widespread use of the Internet and dropping mail volume.  And President Bush has appointed a commission to consider whether the organization is in need of its biggest overhaul since it was created in 1971.  As postmaster general since June 2001, John Potter has been overseeing the agency through these tumultuous times.
• The Douglas Factors: Disciplining employees is a fact of life-Disciplining employees is a fact of life for federal managers. In this time of enhanced missions and smaller staffs, agencies can ill afford to carry employees whose unacceptable behavior eats up their bosses’ time, distracts their co-workers and hinders accomplishment of the agency’s goals. In a recent case, aPostal Service employee during an argument with her boss, threw a can of soda, which hit the wall a foot away from him. Although the woman had 20 years of service and an impeccable conduct and performance record, she was fired. On appeal, the MSPB said it “will modify an agency-imposed penalty only when it finds the agency failed to weigh the relevant factors [i.e., the Douglas Factors] or the agency’s judgment clearly exceeded the bounds of reasonableness.” The deciding official told the board he interpreted the Postal Service’s zero tolerance policy on “violence, threats, harassment, intimidation or bullying” to mean automatic dismissal. For this sin against Douglas, the board changed the removal to a 45-day suspension.
• McHugh: This may be the year for postal reform
• First-Class Mail Volume Continues to Decline – usps.com - Revenues in Quarter III continued to fall below plan due to stagnant mail volumes, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Richard Strasser told the Postal Service Board of Governors today at its regular monthly meeting.  Revenue for Quarter III was $483 million below plan at $16.048 billion.  Expenses were $15.824 billion, $370 million under plan. Net income for the quarter was $224 million, $112 million under plan
• Senator Carper Introduces Postal Reform Bill – senate.gov - Madam President, I rise today to introduce the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2003, legislation that makes the reforms necessary for the Postal Service to thrive in the 21st Century and to better serve the American people
• Insurance Firm Facing $2.4 Million Bill From Post Office - Pueblo Chieftain - Pueblo Chieftain -> A $2.4 million out-of-court settlement has been proposed that would end a civil case claiming John Hightower, owner of Consumer Insurance Group Inc., underpaid postage on bulk mailings. Hightower's Consumer Insurance Group,sells insurance for Federal Kemper Life Assurance Co. and Fidelity Life Association, according to court records. In 2000, Hightower told The Pueblo Chieftain that he uses four insurance carriers regularly and obtains customers through the Internet.  The 1999 civil case came to light when Mary L. Holmes, Poncha Springs postmaster, reported the alleged underpayment of postage for certain bulk mailings made by CIG from September 1994 through October 1997 at the U.S. post office in Howard.  Hightower said he has established a Web site, www.postalserviceabuse.com , in which he says, "The USPS is not properly training their rural postmasters, yet when their employees make mistakes in the postal rates or regulations, the USPS is using extreme measures to force their customers to retroactively pay for the USPS mistakes."
• Postal Service testing system that could train its employees
• Capital-One Negotiated Service Agreement Approved - usps.com - In a precedent-setting move, the U.S. Postal Service Governors today approved the first Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA), a pricing strategy that gives business mailers a mechanism for customized rates and services that addresses their unique mailing needs and encourages cost-efficient behavior
• Postal Service and Microsoft Team-up on Electronic Postmark - AuthentiDate Holding Corp., the provider of the USPS Electronic Postmark service, today announced that the USPS EPM, which enables users to verify authenticity, provide tamper detection, and date and time stamp their electronic documents and files, will be integrated with Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
• The Postal Service’s Surplus Real Estate
• Postal revenue down as mail volume stagnates
• Body Found In Burned Car Identified; Investigation Continues – WLKW Louisville - A body found in the back seat of a burned car has been identified, but the investigation into his death is far from over.  State forensic anthropologist Emily Craig used dental records to identify the badly burned body as Scott May
• Marketers go postal with art, toys, furnishings - USA Today - Don't look for cappuccino- flavored stamps anytime soon.  But the financially struggling United States Postal Service is about to push the envelope on marketing — big time.  Even as it plans to cut nearly $3 billion in yearly costs from its $69 billion budget, the Postal Service expects to add tens of millions of dollars in licensing revenue by transforming the nation's seventh-most familiar brand and — as domestic diva Martha Stewart did — bringing it into people's homes.
• McHugh sees base closing commission as model for deciding Post Office cutbacks
• Presidential Commissioner discusses outsourcing workers comp program
  'Commissioner Carolyn Gallagher met with representatives from GAB Robins to discuss the benefits of the Postal Service using a third party administrator for their worker’s compensation program.'
• Mailman Dies In Shopping Plaza Shooting
• Kansas City Mail Carrier Says She Was Fired For Delivering Harry Potter Book Early
• General Time Line Set for Early Outs
• Inspector General work identifies $81.5 million in potential savings and benefits for USPS
• USPS settles Seattle casual grievances for $7.5 million?
• Postal Service to Eliminate Police in Six Cities
• Appeals Court upholds arbitration award that demoted manager
• Crime and punishment on the job: the Douglas Factors
• Postal worker fights 'disabled' label, loses
• Leading Postal Service Through Trying Times-Federal Times interview with PMG Jack Potter
• NALC: Carriers being denied penalty OT? NALC President William H. Young has directed all shop stewards to review the time cards of employees to make sure that all letter carriers are being paid properly. Stewards who find any problems or incorrect pay should contact their National Business Agent immediately. USPS headquarters has assured President Young that it will work with NALC to correct the situation.
• USPS training center in Oklahoma to add $8 million APPS facility-USPS has announced an $8 million maintenance training facility will be built on the campus of its National Center for Employee Development. The 60,000-square-foot addition will house three automated package processing system (APPS) machines, each occupying about 7,500 square feet. The building will include classrooms, labs and offices. It will be located on a 10-acre site east of the NEDC Housing Facility. NCED manager Steve Mosier said the postal service will provide maintenance training to support a 16-month deployment of 74 APPS machines throughout the country, and ongoing APPS training. Initially, 420 postal electronics technicians and 210 mail processing equipment mechanics will go through the new training program. Mosier said construction of the one-story training facility is expected to take about seven months, followed by six weeks’ installation time for the new equipment. “We plan to begin APPS training early next year,” he said.
• Letter Carriers Collect 61.7 Million Pounds of Food In Annual Drive to 'Stamp Out Hunger' in America
• Postal innovation zips toward 40th anniversary July 1