All posts tagged: postal

Postal Service seeks mail-in ballot voter lists after Trump order

Postal Service seeks mail-in ballot voter lists after Trump order

Published by Sam Flores

A mail-in ballot featuring California’s Proposition 50 is seen in this illustration taken in Encinitas, California, U.S., October 21, 2025.  Mike Blake | Reuters The U.S. Postal Service proposed new rules Friday that would require states to provide voter-level data on mail-in ballots in federal elections, one day after a federal judge declined to immediately block President Donald Trump’s executive order tightening mail-in voting rules. The proposal would require states to submit to the Postal Service the names and addresses of voters receiving mail-in or absentee ballots, along with unique barcodes tied to each voter’s outbound and return ballot envelopes. USPS said the rule would help determine how many ballots were mailed and allow officials to compare that figure with the number of ballots returned to detect potential issues for further investigation. The rule would apply to general, special and runoff federal elections, but not primaries or ballots sent to military and overseas voters. The proposal shifts USPS from recommending ballot-mail practices to mandating them for federal elections. The rule would require official logos, tracking …

Postal Service mulls allowing handguns to be shipped through mail

Postal Service mulls allowing handguns to be shipped through mail

Published by Sam Flores

The United States Postal Service could begin mailing handguns if a proposed rule from the Trump administration receives approval. Filed last month, the proposed rule would allow Americans to mail concealable guns, like pistols and revolvers, to anyone in the country. Protections similar to those for mailing long-barreled rifles and shotguns, which require them to… Source link

Postal Service seeks first-class mail stamp price hike to 82 cents

Postal Service seeks first-class mail stamp price hike to 82 cents

Published by Sam Flores

A US Postal Service (USPS) post office is near Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in Los Angeles, California, on Feb. 5, 2025. Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images The U.S. Postal Service, citing what it called a “severe financial crisis,” on Thursday announced a proposed set of price hikes across its mail products, which would include a four-cent increase on First-Class Mail Forever stamps. The increases, if approved, would lead to a first-class stamp costing 82 cents, effective July 12. The agency’s proposal to the Postal Regulatory Commission would increase costs to mail letters and postcards by 4.8% if approved. The proposal comes weeks after the Postal Service proposed instituting an 8% fuel surcharge for package and express mail deliveries to help offset rising fuel costs amid the Iran war on top of its dire financial situation. USPS said Thursday that there is a “severe financial crisis facing the Postal Service and continued rising operational costs.” “The Postal Service is using all available tools, including available regulatory pricing authority, to ensure we can …

Cash-Strapped US Postal Service Suspends Contributions to Pension Plan

Cash-Strapped US Postal Service Suspends Contributions to Pension Plan

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. ⁠Postal ⁠Service said Thursday it ⁠will temporarily suspend employer payments for a federal pension program ​to conserve cash amid a severe financial crisis. USPS told the White House Office ‌of Personnel Management that effective ‌Friday it will stop making $200 million payments every other week for ⁠its employer ⁠contributions for the defined benefit portion of the Federal Employees Retirement ​System. USPS warned Thursday that without reforms it could run out of cash as soon as February. USPS estimated it will save $2.5 billion with the action through September ​30 and said there would not be any immediate detrimental impact on ⁠current ⁠or future retirees if ⁠the payments ​are temporarily withheld. The service has reported net losses of $118 billion since 2007 as ​first-class mail, its ⁠most profitable product, has fallen to its lowest volume since the late 1960s. USPS in February reported a quarterly loss of $1.25 billion. “The risk to the Postal Service and the American public from insufficient liquidity for postal operations dramatically ⁠outweighs any longer-term …

Postal Service secures billion-package lifeline from Amazon

Postal Service secures billion-package lifeline from Amazon

Published by Sam Flores

Amazon.com Inc. has reached a new agreement with the U.S. Postal Service, providing a lifeline to the beleaguered government agency and securing delivery for customers in rural America. Under the deal, Amazon will retain about 80% of its existing deliveries with the Postal Service, or more than ‌1 ⁠billion packages per year, according to a person familiar with the matter. “We’re pleased to have reached a new agreement with USPS that ⁠furthers our longstanding partnership and will let us continue supporting ⁠our customers and communities together,” Amazon spokesperson Terrence Clark said in a statement. The Postal Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Securing a deal with Amazon ensures that the Postal Service maintains most of the business from its largest customer, a safety net for the agency as it seeks to stem heavy financial losses year after year. Financial terms of the agreement, which was earlier reported by Reuters, were not immediately available. Shoring up the mail carrier’s finances is a critical priority for Postmaster General David Steiner, who has warned …

U.S. Postal Service seeks 8% fuel surcharge for package deliveries

U.S. Postal Service seeks 8% fuel surcharge for package deliveries

Published by Sam Flores

Postal carrier Marc Jacques delivers the mail in a neighborhood on March 19, 2026 in Miami, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday said it is seeking to impose a temporary 8% fuel surcharge for package and express mail deliveries to deal with rising transportation costs, which include higher oil prices as a result of the Iran war. If approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, the surcharge would take effect April 26 and remain in place until Jan. 17, 2027, the Postal Service said in a notice on its website. The 8% surcharge would apply to postage on Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, USPS Ground Advantage, and Parcel Select products. First-class stamps and other mail services would not be affected. Oil prices have jumped more than 40% since Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel attacked Iran. Read more U.S.-Iran war news FedEx and UPS, two major package shippers, for years have imposed fuel surcharges on deliveries. Those surcharges have sharply increased since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran …

U.S. Postal Service honors lowrider community in new forever stamp collection

U.S. Postal Service honors lowrider community in new forever stamp collection

Published by Sam Flores

The United States Postal Service will issue commemorative postage stamps celebrating lowriders. The new set, out Friday, celebrates a counterculture movement rooted in the 1940s working-class Mexican American/Chicano communities of the American Southwest. Featured in the collection are five models: a blue 1958 Chevrolet Impala named “Eight Figures;” an orange 1964 Chevrolet Impala named “the Golden Rose”; a green 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme named “Pocket Change”; a blue 1946 Chevrolet Fleetline named “Let the Good Times Roll/Soy Como Soy”; and a red 1963 Chevrolet Impala named “El Rey.” Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS, designed the stamps using existing photographs by Humberto “Beto” Mendoza — editor in chief of Centerfoldz Magazine — and Philip Gordon. Danny Alvarado added the pinstripes to the stamps. “ I’m gonna buy my stamps, but I’m never giving ‘em away,” said Jovita Arellano, president of the United Lowrider Coalition. “ I wanna keep ‘em, they’re forever for me.” Each individual lowrider vehicle showcases its own unique art, meant to be displayed in public spaces or cruising low and slow down the …

Gen Z Has Gone Postal: The Most Online Generation Are Ditching DMs For Stamps

Gen Z Has Gone Postal: The Most Online Generation Are Ditching DMs For Stamps

Published by Sam Flores

It is 2026. Artificial intelligence can write your dissertation, generate your face, and compose a symphony in the style of Beethoven if Beethoven had grown up on SoundCloud. The metaverse exists. (Nobody’s in it, but it exists.) And Gen Z – digital natives, chronically online, the generation that essentially grew up inside a WiFi router – has decided that its preferred form of communication is to write something on paper, lick an envelope, and hand it to a stranger in a red van. The stamp. The address. The three-week wait. The prayer. Welcome to the most unexpected cultural trend of the decade: Gen Z has gone postal. The data is, frankly, deranged. Pinterest – which correctly predicted 88% of its 2026 trends and has half a billion monthly users, so we can’t just dismiss this as vibes – has reported searches for “penpal letters” up 35%, “handwritten letters” up 45%, and most importantly, “cute stamps” up a deeply unhinged 105%. A quarter of Gen Z and millennial users say they are actively rediscovering letter-writing. One …

2026 census test cut back with new role for postal workers : NPR

2026 census test cut back with new role for postal workers : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

The U.S. Census Bureau’s logo is featured on a black bag carried by a census worker knocking on doors in 2020 in Winter Park, Florida. John Raoux/AP hide caption toggle caption John Raoux/AP The Trump administration is scaling back plans for this year’s field test of the 2030 census, raising concerns about the Census Bureau’s ability to produce a reliable population tally for redistributing political representation and federal funding in the next decade. The 2026 test was designed to help the bureau improve the accuracy of the United States’ upcoming once-a-decade head count. A mix of communities in six states, as well as a national sample of households, was expected to take part in the experiment. But the agency is now set to reduce the number of test sites to two — Huntsville, Ala., and Spartanburg, S.C. — while adding plans to try replacing temporary census workers with U.S. Postal Service staff, according to a Federal Register notice that was made available for public inspection Monday before its official publication. The bureau is also cutting …