Update: Fifteen embassies have received envelopes containing white powder, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said in a press briefing this morning in Washington. The embassies are: Berlin; Bern, Switzerland; Brussels, Belgium; Bucharest, Romania; Copenhagen, Denmark; Dublin, Ireland; Luxembourg; Madrid, Spain; Oslo, Norway; Paris; Riga, Latvia; Rome; Stockholm, Sweden; Tallinn, Estonia; and The Hague, Netherlands. Tests have come back negative in all cases save for The Hague, where results are still pending. Wood said the department has no information on a possible motive for the mailings.  Looks like the U.S. Postal Service is busy sending more than just Christmas cards…
Browsing: Postal Service
I’ve received a lot of feedback today on one of this week’s front-page stories, about the U.S. Postal Service’s dire financial condition. Most commenters seem in favor of ending Saturday delivery, which experts say could happen in the next few years. A rural letter carrier who works six days a week wrote: It’s time to bite the bullet and change the old ways of 6-day delivery. I know that 4-10 hour days can never happen, but I would like maybe 5-8 hour day weeks. Having no family time by working 6 days is not fun. Another commenter suggested even more…
I usually delete most of the press releases that come into my inbox — sorry, PR folks — but this one from the Postal Service caught my eye. It’s about recycling boxes being installed in post offices, near the P.O. boxes: The PO Box Lobby Recycling program places secure recycling bins in Post Office lobbies. All bins are locked with a key and the opening is slim — about the width of a news magazine. PO Box customers are encouraged to remove and open their mail (read), take whatever action is necessary (respond) and simply place the rest of their…
“Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night” is supposed to keep the U.S. Postal Service from delivering mail door-to-door across the country. But apparently, it draws the line at hail …. a hail of bullets, that is. According to a Chicago television news report, postal carriers in the Windy City stopped delivering mail to dozens of homes in a particularly dangerous south suburban neighborhood nearly two weeks ago after a morning shooting occurred yards away from a mail carrier. Residents’ mail is being held at the local post office while officials discuss possible solutions, such as putting…