Tag: USPS

Georgia House Republicans ‘Take Postmaster General DeJoy to Task’ for State’s ‘Mail Service Delivery Breakdowns’ in Joint Letter

Debra McClure
Louis Dejoy

Georgia House Republicans criticized Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of the United States Postal Service (USPS) for “mail service delivery breakdowns” in the Peach State, demanding answers in a joint letter on Monday.

A press release on Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s  (R-GA-11)website says that in the letter, Georgia lawmakers “take Postmaster General DeJoy to task and describe the many frustrations constituents are facing with the delays in delivery and receipt of their mail…” and want “answers to several questions regarding the mail service delivery breakdowns.”

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Democrats, Media Starting to Admit Some Mail-In Voting Problems Ahead of 2024 Presidential Election

Just the News

Amid delivery delays by the United States Postal Service and mail-in ballot fraud, Democrats and the media are finally acknowledging there are some issues with mail-in voting ahead of the 2024 presidential election. 

As mail-in voting has increased since the 2020 presidential election during the COVID-19 lockdowns, Democrats have advocated for it as an easier method of voting. However, as USPS has experienced delivery issues and ballot harvesting has led to at least one “redo” election, some Democrats and media are noting the issues with the voting method. 

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Richmond Prosecutor Encourages Voters to Return Mail-in Ballots in Person amid Postal Service Failures

Tom Pappert
Richmond Commonwealth Atty Collette McEachin

Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette McEachin reportedly encouraged voters on Wednesday to consider delivering their 2024 mail-in ballots directly to a post office as the United States Postal Service (USPS) continues to suffer unexplained delays and disappearances of mail.

McEachin made the remarks to 6 News Richmond when discussing a new investigation into the USPS issues in Richmond. She was asked about the mail-in ballots after suggesting the problems with mail delivery could be placed highly within the postal service.

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Former Richmond Postal Carrier Pleads Guilty to Stealing Mail After Virginia USPS Prompt Bipartisan Response

Tom Pappert
USPS VAns

A former postal carrier for the United States Postal Service (USPS) pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing hundreds of pieces of mail in an episode that may explain part of the delivery issues that prompted a bipartisan response from Virginia’s federal representatives.

Former USPS postal carrier Wendy Lawrence of Richmond, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), stole hundreds of pieces of mail from “over 180 victims.” She then removed “gift cards, checks, and other items of value” and used the information to engage in other criminal activity.

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Black Market Cigarette Shipments Seized in Connecticut

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Connecticut and other states have seized shipments of illegal cigarettes from China and other countries under a settlement with the U.S. Postal Service to resolve claims it wasn’t doing enough to crack down on tobacco smuggling. 

A new report by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said between January and March the Postal Service seized 3,000 packages containing a total of 10,000 cartons of cigarettes shipped from overseas in violation of federal laws. Most of the illegal shipments were mailed from China, Israel and Russia, the AG’s office said. 

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Commentary: The U.S. Postal Service’s Religious Liberty Fiasco

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The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has been hauled into court plenty of times, having experienced its fair share of administrative and election law cases. But now, America’s mail carrier faces fundamental questions over religious tolerance at the post office.

USA Today Supreme Court correspondent John Fritze reports: “Gerald Groff, a former mail carrier in Pennsylvania, sued the U.S. Postal Service after it required him to work Sunday shifts delivering packages. Groff, who resigned in 2019, is a Christian and believes Sundays should be dedicated to worship, court records show.” The Supreme Court has chosen to take up the case, and the holding could expand employees’ rights to obtain religious accommodations.

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Philadelphia Man Charged with Impersonating Postal Worker, Mail Theft, also Found with Stolen Ballots

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Philadelphia man who was charged with impersonating a postal worker and mail theft was also found to be in possession of over a dozen stolen mail-in ballots, officials says.

While pretending to be a USPS Mail Carrier, Zachkey James, 27, stole undelivered mail from a collection box near the Kingsessing Post Office, in Pennsylvania, in July, the Justice Department said last week.

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Elise Stefanik Alleges USPS Workers Stole Her Campaign Mail, up to $20,000 in Donations

Just the News

New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik on Friday alleged that United States Postal Service workers stole up to $20,000 in campaign contributions and illegally opened her mail to do so.

“On four separate occasions between June 2022 and November 2022, packages sent by Elise for Congress containing campaign contributions were ripped open and the contents stolen while in the custody of USPS or its contractors,” her lawyers wrote to Postmaster General Louis Dejoy in a letter the Daily Wire obtained. “Three of these incidents occurred in a single week.”

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Ohio Senator Brown Asks Postal Service to Address Armed Robberies

Bradley Vasoli

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) on Thursday announced he sent the United States Postal Service (USPS) the second of two letters asking for stronger measures against postal robberies. 

Brown originally wrote to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Inspector General Whitcomb Hull a month ago asking them to redeploy Postal Police Officers to patrol along mail-carrier routes and at USPS collection sites. He said he received no response and therefore wrote to the USPS Board of Governors this week urging them to reinstitute the patrols. 

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Chattanooga Post Office Closed, Reopened After Employee-Related Shooting

Peter D'Abrosca

Chattanooga’a main post office was closed down for a day earlier this week after an argument between employees turned violent. 

“Effective immediately, all operations at the Chattanooga, TN, Main Post Office, Chattanooga Finance Station and Chattanooga P&DC are temporarily suspended until further notice,” said a United States Postal Service (USPS) press release from Monday. 

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Dickson County Sheriff’s Office Warns Residents of Suspicious Mail as Unknown Powder Is Tested

Kaitlyn Osteen

The Dickson County Sheriff’s Office issued a warning to the public Thursday to be aware of packages containing an unknown white powder sent by mail.

In a social media post, the Sheriff’s office said, “Many of you have seen this post being shared on Facebook, and we wanted to confirm that it is legit. If you receive a package like this, do not open and please contact us.

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First Liberty Institute Appeals Postman’s Religious Rights Case to Supreme Court

Peter D'Abrosca

After years of a lengthy legal battle, the case of a postman who says the United States Postal Service (USPS) must provide him with a religious accommodation is taking his case to the Supreme Court. 

“Today, First Liberty Institute, Baker Botts LLP, the Church State Council, and the Independence Law Center filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of former mailman Gerald Groff,” the First Liberty Institute said earlier this week. “The petition asks the Court to reverse a Third Circuit Court of Appeals decision finding that the United States Postal Service (“USPS”) is not required to provide religious accommodation allowing Groff to observe the Sunday Sabbath.”

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White House Unveils Nancy Reagan Stamp, ‘Important Part of One of the Most Pivotal Presidencies’

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Acommemorative postage stamp of former first lady Nancy Reagan was unveiled Monday in a White House ceremony attended by surviving family, historians and first lady Jill Biden who remarked of the portrait-size image on display, “Isn’t this stamp just beautiful.”

When the stamp officially goes on sale next month, Reagan becomes the sixth first lady to have one created in her likeness, following Eleanor Roosevelt, Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison and Lady Bird Johnson.

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Man Pleads Guilty to Two Columbus-Area Armed Robberies of Postal Workers

Peter D'Abrosca

As postal crimes skyrocket and the United State Postal Service (USPS) conducts an audit on policies and procedures for keeping postal workers safe in Ohio, one man has pleaded guilty to two armed robberies against mail carriers. 

According to several reports, 20-year-old Brandon Campbell of Columbus “admitted to using violence and a weapon to endanger the mail carriers’ lives and steal property from them.”

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Postal Service Legislative ‘Fix’ Will Dump Workers on Medicare

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A bill to “fix” the troubled United States Post Office (USPS) is on the verge of passage in the Senate but does it solve more problems than it creates? The Postal Service Reform Act of 2021, H.R. 3076 was scheduled for a vote earlier this month but was blocked by Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) on a procedural technicality.  “We can’t afford to add stress on our already enormous national debt with poor financial planning, which I think this bill absolutely does,” Scott said of the bill.

Now it’s back and on track for a vote in the Senate.

The biggest financial liability facing the USPS is the legal requirement to fund 75 years of retirement health benefits in advance for its workers. Congress has found a way around that by dumping the future postal workers on to Medicare.

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USPS Will Conduct Audit Amid Mail Theft Uptick in Ohio

Peter D'Abrosca

According to a U.S. congresswoman from Ohio, the United States Postal Service (USPS) will conduct audits of its policies and procedures after a massive uptick in mail theft and violence against mail carriers has the public up in arms. 

“For years now, Central Ohioans have struggled with slow and unreliable USPS deliveries, particularly in the Northland area serviced by the Innis Road branch and Southeast Columbus,” Representative Joyce Beatty (D-OH-03) reportedly said. “These audits are the first step to restoring the rapid, reliable deliveries Americans should expect from their Postal Service. We expect to receive full reports from the USPS following the completion of the audits in the coming weeks, and I will work with local officials to ensure the necessary investments and solutions are put in place.”

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Cleveland Post Offices Taping Mailboxes Shut as Thefts Continue

Peter D'Abrosca

Ohio’s issues with mail theft and violence against postal workers do not appear to be slowing, as postal workers in Cleveland are taking extraordinary measures to keep thieves from stealing mail. 

 Just a week after The Ohio Star reported on a string of robberies of postal workers in the Columbus area, Cleveland’s United State Postal Service (USPS) employees have been forced to tape shut their ubiquitous blue mailboxes to prevent thieves from breaking in and stealing mail, according to reports. 

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Postal Police Officers Association Chief: Government Defunded Postal Officers While Mail Crimes Soared

Peter D'Abrosca

“The Postal Inspection Service data revealed that mail theft reports soared by 600% over three years, from about 25,000 in 2017 to roughly 177,000 through August of 2020,” Frank Albergo said. “But when asked to explain the apparent explosion in mail theft, the Inspection Service backtracked and said the figures might be inaccurate.”

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U.S. Postal Service Workers Are Having a Lot of Vehicle Accidents, but Not Reporting Them: Report

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Shot of USPS vehicles

The U.S. Postal Service had more than 144,000 vehicle crashes and more than 300,000 industrial accidents over the last five years, but most were not properly reported in the required tracking systems, according to a new investigative report by the service’s internal watchdog.

The report last week by the inspector general laid bare the extent of accidents — there were nearly $130 million in repairs since 2016 — as well as a laissez faire culture inside the Postal Service for ensuring required documentation for crashes and workplace accidents in the Employee Health and Safety and Solution for Enterprise Asset Management (SEAM) systems.

“Of the 147,192 nationwide accident repair-related work orders completed in SEAM, 108,126 (73 percent) did not have corresponding accident reports in EHS,” the report said. “Also, there were 23,301 (14 percent) accidents not reported in EHS within 24 hours of notification of the accident/injury.”

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USPS Monitoring Americans’ Social Media Accounts in ‘Covert’ Operation

Admin

The U.S. Postal Service’s law enforcement division is running a covert operation tracking and collecting Americans’ social media posts, Yahoo News reported.

The postal service’s Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) monitored social media accounts for “inflammatory” posts and protest plans, according to an internal document obtained by Yahoo News. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) investigated Parler and Telegram accounts that referenced protests that were supposed to occur on March 20 for the so-called International Day of Protests, the document showed.

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California Senators Call on Biden to Ban the Sale of Gasoline-Powered Cars in the U.S.

The Center Square

California’s two U.S. Senators, both Democrats, are calling on President Joe Biden to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars in the United States.

Sens. Diane Feinstein and Alex Padilla sent a letter to Biden urging him to “follow California’s lead and set a date by which all new cars and passenger trucks sold be zero-emission vehicles.”

Last September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who now faces a potential recall election, signed an executive order banning the sale of gasoline-powered cars in California by requiring all new cars and trucks being sold in the state to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. Currently, electric vehicles account for less than 3 percent of all vehicle sales in the U.S.

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Pennsylvania Postal Worker Denies Recanting Claims of Mail-in Voter Fraud

Admin

A postal service worker in Pennsylvania is disputing House Democrats’ claims that he recanted allegations that his supervisors ordered employees to back-date mail-in voting ballots after Election Day.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said in a statement on Tuesday that Richard Hopkins, a postal worker in Erie, Pa., retracted his story during interviews with investigators from the U.S. Postal Service’s office of the inspector general.

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USPS Sweeps Discover Thousands of Absentee Ballots in Pennsylvania and North Carolina

Corinne Murdock

  After conducting internal sweeps, the United States Postal Service (USPS) discovered over 2,000 more mail-in ballots for Pennsylvania and North Carolina on Thursday. D.C. Federal District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered twice-daily postal center sweeps after a reported 300,000 ballots were reported as undelivered. Workers accrued about 40,000 mail-in ballots altogether by Thursday – 150,000 were discovered Wednesday. Postal leaders confirmed that more mail-in ballots were processed on Wednesday than on Election Day. Workers discovered nearly 1,700 ballots for Pennsylvania, and about 500 for North Carolina. Friday’s final sweeps trickled in a handful more mail-in ballots. A week before the election, election experts warned voters to cease sending in mail-in ballots due to USPS delays. In September, the USPS sent out a recommendation to mail ballots at least one week prior to Election Day. It appears that a collective surge of voters mailing their ballots in last-minute caused the delay. Congressman Mike Kelly (R-PA-16), state Representative Joseph Hamm (R-Lycoming County), and four other plaintiffs sued Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar. During an address just before Halloween, Boockvar said they’d “cure” rejected mail-in ballots with provisional ballots. The Republican plaintiffs argued that voters with rejected mail-in ballots shouldn’t have received provisional ballots on…

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Michigan USPS Whistleblower: Late Mail-in-Ballots Are Being Stamped as Received on November 3

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A mail carrier who works for a post office in Traverse City, Michigan blew the whistle Wednesday on what he called a “sketchy” directive from his supervisor.

“We were issued a directive this morning to collect any ballots we find in mail boxes, collection boxes—just outgoing mail in general—separate them at the end of the day so they could hand stamp them with the previous day’s date,” the whistleblower told Project Veritas’ James O’Keefe.

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Election Experts Warn Voters to Stop Sending in Ballots, Vote in Person Amidst USPS Delays

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Election and postal experts have warned Americans to stop voting by mail as delays continue to hamper the postal system one week before the election.

With just seven days of voting left before the Nov. 3 election, sending a ballot through the United States Postal Service (USPS) system would risk a late delivery, election experts told the Washington Post. The week of Oct. 16 was the 14th straight week where more than 10% of first-class mail delivery was delayed.

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Florida USPS Worker Accused of Stealing Mail-in Ballots

Admin

A Florida US Postal Service worker is accused of stealing a mail-in ballot, dozens of political flyers and 4 prepaid debit cards in a scheme that may have started nearly two years ago, federal authorities said Monday, the The New York Post reports.

Crystal Nicole Myrie, “embezzled letters, postal cards, and mail which came into her possession intended to be carried or delivered by her,” according to a criminal complaint.

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Richmond City General Registrar Stresses Early Action from Voters as USPS Warns Mail-in Ballots may be Delayed

Jacob Taylor

In an effort to combat possible ballot delays from USPS, the Richmond City General Registrar J. Kirk Showalter is asking voters to apply for and submit mail-in voting forms sooner rather than later.

“If you are getting your ballot through the mail and you apply early on, there should be adequate time for you to get your ballot and return it,” Showalter said in an interview with The Virginia Star.

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Trump Administration Proposes Privatizing the Postal System

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postal worker

by Brittany Hunter   Last week, the Trump administration unveiled a proposal to privatize the United States Postal Service (USPS). The plan comes as part of a broader initiative to trim and reorganize the federal government. And given its track record of waste and inefficiency, the USPS is a great place to start cutting the fat. “USPS’s current model is unsustainable. Major changes are needed in how the Postal Service is financed and the level of service Americans should expect from their universal service operator,” the White House’s new proposal reads. The plan goes on to say that the administration plans to “fix” the post office before beginning the process of privatization. “USPS privatization through an initial public offering (IPO) or sale to another entity would require the implementation of significant reforms prior to sale to show a possible path to profitability.” In terms of “fixing” the post office before taking it out of the hands of the government, the Trump administration has proposed reassessing the USPS’s ties with labor unions. This would give the new owners of the post office more freedom to set wages and provide benefits that are economically realistic. The document reads: “Freeing USPS to more fully negotiate…

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U.S. Postal Service Broke Law Allowing Employees Leave to Support Clinton Campaign

Tennessee Star Staff

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) concluded that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) violated the Hatch Act by allowing its employees to receive union-funded compensation for leave to promote 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Fox News reported Wednesday. The OSC report revealed USPS exhibited an”institutional bias” in favor of Clinton’s campaign by allowing approximately…

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