Postal Service

About 100 people and several dogs gathered at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown yesterday for a ceremony to introduce a recently released series of stamps honoring service dogs. The 65-cent stamps were released Jan. 20 and feature four dogs - a guide dog assisting a blind owner, a military dog that does scouting and tracking, a therapy dog, and a search and rescue dog. "These are actual dogs in service, not just models," Postal Service spokeswoman Maureen Marion said.

About 100 people and several dogs gathered at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown yesterday for a ceremony to introduce a recently released series of stamps honoring service dogs. The 65-cent stamps were released Jan. 20 and feature four dogs - a guide dog assisting a blind owner, a military dog that does scouting and tracking, a therapy dog, and a search and rescue dog. "These are actual dogs in service, not just models," Postal Service spokeswoman Maureen Marion said.

WASHINGTON - The Postal Service agreed yesterday to delay the closing of 252 mail processing centers and 3,700 local post offices until mid-May. The cash-strapped agency said it would hold off to give Congress more time to pass legislation that would give it more authority and liquidity to stave off bankruptcy. The Postal Service, which is expected to default Friday on a $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury, is forecast to lose a record $14.1 billion next year. Last week, the Postal Service said it was moving forward on cutbacks.

U.S. Postal Service officials in Miami say an employee died when he tumbled into a storm drain while searching for his cell phone. Postal Service spokeswoman Debbie Fetterly says the accident happened early Tuesday at the Miami Processing and Distribution Center in Miami. Police identified the man as 70-year-old Shelby Wing of Miami. Authorities say it appears Wing drowned after falling into the drain. The Miami Herald (http://bit.ly/w3Or6i ) reports he had worked for the postal service for more than 25 years.

The financially strained US Postal Service said yesterday that it may permanently close its Boston processing facility and abandon plans to replace it with a new plant nearby, potentially resulting in the loss of more than 1,300 jobs in the city. The announcement, part of a nationwide plan to save $3 billion a year by closing more than half the Postal Service's processing plants, carries broad implications for a large section of the city from South Station to the Seaport District.

I DISAGREE with Jeff Jacoby's Dec. 11 op-ed column "E-mail isn't killing the Postal Service," in which he argues that a lack of competition is hurting the post office. He is correct, in part. While electronic diversion certainly has had a detrimental impact on first-class mail, it isn't killing the Postal Service. Jacoby failed to address the 800-pound gorilla on the post office's back, courtesy of Congress. Jacoby asserts that "not many institutions enjoy the benefits that federal law confers on the Postal Service.

WASHINGTON - The Government Accountability Office on yesterday added the Postal Service to its list of high-risk federal agencies in need of change. The post office has been struggling with a sharp decline in mail volume as people and businesses switch to e-mail both for personal contact and paying bills. The agency faces a nearly $7 billion potential loss this fiscal year despite a 2-cent increase in the price of stamps in May and cuts in staff. “There are serious and significant structural financial challenges currently facing the Postal Service,’’ the GAO said.

The postmaster general is going to Congress to discuss the Postal Service's mounting debt. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe is among the witnesses scheduled to appear Tuesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The Postal Service is facing a second straight year of losses of $8 billion or more. A decline in mail because of the Internet and the loss of revenue from advertising amid the economic downturn have taken a toll on the agency. Postal officials say they will be unable to make this month's...

WASHINGTON — The US Postal Service, which projects it will reach its $15 billion borrowing cap by the end of September, wants to make it easier to close some of its 31,871 post offices for economic reasons. A change proposed by the agency, which has lost money for five consecutive quarters, would allow post offices to be considered for closing for reasons including “insufficient customer demand’’ demonstrated by declining mail volume, revenue, or local population trends, according to a notice published yesterday in the Federal Register.

The cash-strapped Postal Service is suspending performance awards for managers and executives. The post office, which made the announcement Friday, is facing financial losses that could reach $8 billion for the year because of the weak economy and movement of communications to the Internet. Earlier, the agency suspended contributions to its employee pension fund. Over the last four years the Postal Service has cut its staff by 110,000 and reduced costs by $12 billion.

When a US postal inspector came to the Watertown Square post office one day back in the 1950s, he found branch supervisor George K. Walker out front washing windows and wondered aloud what a boss was doing outside with a squeegee. Mr. Walker had a simple explanation: All the work inside was finished. "That was my dad," said Mr. Walker's youngest son, Neal, recounting a story Mr. Walker liked to tell his sons. "He was always taking on more. " Mr. Walker, a career postal employee who worked his way up to become postmaster of Boston and district manager of...

The US Postal Service is hosting two public meetings to discuss the possibility of closing mail-processing plants in Shrewsbury and Waltham. The session on the future of the Shrewsbury mail facility will be held today at 6 p.m. at the Holiday Inn on Route 20 in Marlborough, while the discussion on the Waltham plant is slated for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Waltham High School, 617 Lexington St. Postal officials are considering moving the operations to...

The US Postal Service will host two public meetings this week to discuss the possibility of closing mail-processing plants in Brockton and Wareham. Postal officials are considering moving those mail operations to Providence, in an effort to cut costs. According to the preliminary results of a Postal Service feasibility study, as much as $27 million could be saved by consolidating those locations. But local officials worry about the potential loss of hundreds of jobs. "Of course this is a big deal to us," said Ross Baker, president of the South Shore...

WASHINGTON - The US Postal Service relied on questionable data to identify more than 3,600 post offices and other retail operations to study for closure, an oversight panel has found. In many cases the selection process ignored whether an alternate post office was nearby and which closures would reduce costs the most, and it lacked sufficient data and analysis to make the best decisions, the Postal Regulatory Commission said. "We certainly challenge their methodology," the commission's chairwoman, Ruth Goldway, said this week.

I DISAGREE with Jeff Jacoby's Dec. 11 op-ed column "E-mail isn't killing the Postal Service," in which he argues that a lack of competition is hurting the post office. He is correct, in part. While electronic diversion certainly has had a detrimental impact on first-class mail, it isn't killing the Postal Service. Jacoby failed to address the 800-pound gorilla on the post office's back, courtesy of Congress. Jacoby asserts that "not many institutions enjoy the benefits that federal law confers on the Postal Service.

WASHINGTON - The Postal Service agreed yesterday to delay the closing of 252 mail processing centers and 3,700 local post offices until mid-May. The cash-strapped agency said it would hold off to give Congress more time to pass legislation that would give it more authority and liquidity to stave off bankruptcy. The Postal Service, which is expected to default Friday on a $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury, is forecast to lose a record $14.1 billion next year. Last week, the Postal Service said it was moving forward on cutbacks.

WASHINGTON — The US Postal Service is trying again to get a rate increase next year. The agency said yesterday it is appealing the Postal Regulatory Commission’s rejection of its requested increase. The agency had asked for a 2-cent increase in the current 44-cent price for first-class stamps, beginning in January. Officials said the increase would help compensate for increasing losses caused by a drop in mail volume as a result of the weak economy, and a shift in communications and bill-paying to the Internet.

‘I AM become death, the destroyer of worlds…" As his famous words suggest, Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project, had apocalyptic visions as he watched the first atomic bomb light the skies over Alamogordo, N.M. Part physicist, part philosopher, Oppenheimer had a flair for the dramatic. His quotation referred to Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction; it could just as easily have come from Vint Cerf, the soft-spoken inventor of the Internet's communication protocol some 30 years later.

IT'S GROUNDHOG Day at the US Postal Service: time once again for the familiar laments about how the agency's financial losses are surging, how demand for its services is plummeting, and how officials have no choice but to close local facilities, raise the price of stamps, and reduce delivery standards. Last week the Postal Service announced plans to cut $3 billion in costs by slowing down first-class mail and eliminating about half of the country's 461 mail-processing centers. That would mean an end to next-day delivery of first-class mail.

Last week, Tasha Bracken mailed out 140 invitations to a wedding planned for January. That's typical for Bracken, owner of Simple Details Events, a party planning company based in West Newton. But Bracken sends invitations through the mail. If the US Postal Service goes through with proposed cuts, it will take longer to get them into the right hands, and her business could become more complicated. Guests will be slower to respond, and events will become tougher to plan. Without knowing just how long mail delays might be, Bracken figures she will...