In the news

Rural letter carriers in Florida no longer have to wear seat belts while working their routes, under a bill signed Friday by Gov. Rick Scott. The bill, sponsored by Greg Evers, R-Baker, took effect immediately. The bill adds an exemption to the state’s mandatory seat-belt law for rural letter carriers “performing duties in the course … Read more

Two people, including a mail carrier, were injured when a mail truck and an SUV collided in Washington County Monday, emergency officials said. Samantha Mueller, 30, of Canonsburg told police she was driving her mail truck along the shoulder of the 1800 block of Route 980 in Cecil around 1:20 p.m. when she started to … Read more

The NRLCA contends that former Postmaster General Pat Donahoe deliberately kept Postal Service employees in the dark about the cyber breach. The delayed notice, it said, made it impossible for employees to immediately safeguard their personal information. The Postal Service admitted in November that at least two months earlier, hackers had accessed more than 800,000 … Read more

JoAnn Lombardi, 81, stepped out of her white Subaru Outback one morning last week on Routt County Road 29 right next to a row of mailboxes right where Trout Creek tumbles out of the foothills of the Flat Tops mountain range. The longtime rural mail carrier handed rancher Bernard Knott an “If it fits, it … Read more

Lawyers for accused postal-worker killer James Wayne Ham say he will agree to “live in a box for the rest of his life” to avoid a death penalty trial, but Justice Department officials say they will continue to pursue a capital case against the San Jacinto County man. The 38-year-old has been awaiting trial for … Read more

Steamboat Springs — JoAnn Lombardi, 81, stepped out of her white Subaru Outback one morning last week on Routt County Road 29 right next to a row of mailboxes right where Trout Creek tumbles out of the foothills of the Flat Tops mountain range. The longtime rural mail carrier handed rancher Bernard Knott an “If … Read more

The NRLCA was notified by the Postal Service in a letter dated February 5, 2015 that was received February 9, 2015. The NRLCA requested a meeting with the Postal Service per the Collective Bargaining Agreement. A meeting was held and a site visit scheduled to observe this new functionality. The parties are still in discussion … Read more

What some might struggle to do with two legs, Anita Fee can do with one. Working with the U.S. Post Office in the north part of Okaloosa County for nearly 14 years, Fee has been stationed in various positions, but her favorite has been mail carrier. After years of filling in when called, she was … Read more

Early last fall, the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) filed a labor grievance against the Postal Service concerning who separates and sorts the mail brought back to the post office by rural carriers.  Now the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA) has filed a lawsuit against the Postal Service and the APWU over the issue. … Read more

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor a bear or other crazy experiences has kept Jesse Lee Hatfield from delivering the mail — they just motivated him to write a book. “I love being a rural mail carrier,” Hatfield said. The 55-year-old lives in Conway, but he has delivered mail for 23 years for the Greenbrier Post … Read more

Photo: Toby Holder laments the Killeen post office’s treatment of part-time rural carriers. For the last six years, Toby Holder has worked as a part-time, rural carrier for the U.S. Postal Service in Killeen. But the contract he signed with USPS turned out to be more than a part-time job, he said, as budget constraints … Read more

The Postal Service is paying significantly more in costs to supervise city mail carriers than it does for rural carriers, says a Dec. 2 USPS inspector general report. For every 100 employees, supervisory costs – including salary and benefits – for city carriers were about $440,000 on average in fiscal 2013, the report (pdf) says. The supervisory costs of … Read more

HOUSTON – The United States has filed a motion of its intent to seek the death penalty upon the conviction of James Wayne Ham for the murder of a mail carrier with the United States Postal Service (USPS), announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson along with Inspector in Charge Robert Wemyss of the U.S. Postal Inspection … Read more

Carole Swan was ordered to pay $75,765.28 as restitution to the federal Department of Labor for workers’ compensation payments. She was convicted of two counts of making false statements to obtain federal employee’s compensation. She had signed documents saying she was unable to work because of injuries suffered years earlier when she was a rural … Read more

  It’s a Saturday and the start of the weekend for most people. Not Clay Myer. He headed for the post office on Chestnut Street soon after daybreak to sort 3,000 pieces of mail and stack it in his Toyota pickup with a camper cover on the back. By 10:30 a.m., the truck — front … Read more