Posted 12:32 PM by brad
USPS NEEDS MORE FLEXIBILITY, PRIVATE EXECS SAY. GovExec and DMNews report that representatives of the mailing community yesterday urged the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee to give USPS more flexibility to function better in the marketplace. They said postal reform legislation also must include a solution to the pension obligations facing USPS. Mailers believe responsibility for military pension benefits should be transferred to the Treasury and the CSRS escrow provision repealed. FedEx CEO Fred Smith also testified and is quoted as saying, "The Postal Service must be transformed into a fundamentally more flexible and responsive organization if it is to survive and prosper."

Posted 11:24 AM by brad
20,000 POWDER INCIDENTS SINCE 9/11. Associated Press, The Washington Post, USA Today, Charlotte Observer and other outlets report that work at the nation’s Post Offices has been disrupted by more than 20,000 suspicious powder incidents since the anthrax attacks in 2001. All but a few have turned out to be soap, dust, talc or other non-lethal substances that leaked from envelopes and packages. A spokesman for the Inspection Service said all have been false alarms other than the ricin and anthrax cases, but responding to the false alarms does drain resources.