Whoa!

The Postal Service's recent announcement of another rate increase has started (expectedly) to incite complaints from the public, as though nothing else is going up in price.

The one-penny rate hike, effective May 12, represents "the second increase in about a year", whines The Messenger, a newspaper in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

The Messenger in an editorial in today's edition says:

"Never mind that inflation in general may not reflect the Postal Service's expenses. And never mind that the new system does not provide the incentives for efficiency that existed in the past.

And concludes: "It may be time for Congress to revisit the issue, asking whether it has been made too easy for the Postal Service to put its stamp of approval on rate increases."

Wonder who's out there miseducating a Midwestern paper and prompting calls for Congress to kick the postal reform tires?

Fuelish Surcharges

The PAEA permits the Postal Service to escape the law's inflation-linked limit on USPS shipping prices if "extraordinary or exceptional circumstances" come about -- but that would take something nearly cataclysmic, like a dramatic and unexpected surge in fuel prices, perhaps brought about by a geopolitical crisis in the Middle East.

The drip-drip-drip in incremental hikes in prices at the pump, on the other hand, won't give the USPS a reprieve.

Compare that with the variety of surcharges that FedEx, UPS and DHL regularly pass-on to their customers, including a fuel surcharge pegged to rising fuel prices.

The Motley Fool focused on the impact of these extra charges and highlighted the difference they make in shipping a package via USPS versus its competitors. It also noted that FedEx and UPS and FedEx last year raised their rates an average of 4.9% for their ground and express services.

The Postal Service has a pretty nifty set of tools on its website to help consumers get a handle on how much they'll save and avoid those nasty surcharges by shipping with the Blue Eagle, versus UPS and FedEx. The site also provides You-Tube-like-video from small biz owners testifying to the savings they reaped through partnering with USPS. Smart marketing, USPS.

Slip-Sliding Away?

As the U.S. economy continues to unravel, the looming question for the U.S. Postal Service is how significantly a recession could rock mailer spending -- and ultimately the state of USPS finances.

Especially in the first full year of operations under the new postal law and PRC rules, which generally limit postal price hikes in mailing services (which constitute 90 percent of postal revenues) to inflationary changes, regardless whether USPS revenues go up or down.

The first indication of how bad a bite the economic downturn may take out of USPS revenues will be revealed next Wednesday, January 30, at the next meeting of the USPS Board of Governors.

That will come when USPS Chief Financial Officer H. Glen Walker reports on the financial results of the most recent quarter (October - December, 2007). That period historically represents the largest quarter of USPS receipts, due to holiday-related mail volume, both in first-class and advertising mail.

Retailer data on 2007 holiday sales show that the period was a setback for many merchants, with 2007 the weakest year since 2002. Since then, consumer spending has remained sluggish, and could continue at a dismal pace into 2009, experts say. Consumer spending is a bellweather for the economy and generally reflects the direction of advertising spending using the mail, and upon which postal revenues are increasingly reliant.

Bigger than a Bread Box

OK, it may not be sexy. But it's an important start.

The first actions by the Postal Service exercising its broader product and pricing flexibility under the new postal reform law have been announced by USPS.

They occurred in connection with filing notifications by USPS with the Postal Regulatory Commission.

Effective March 3, USPS will offer a new, larger Priority Mail Flat Rate Box, that will help customers to ship 50 percent more than with the current box. It will be offered at a discount to overseas military addresses — another postal first for the armed forces.

The Postal Service also announced a new Sunday and holiday delivery price for Express Mail.

For further details and prices, read here.

Justice Dealt Following Attack on Postal Supervisor

Add this to the annals of postal violence.

A January 17 press release by the U.S. Attorney for Maryland announced the sentencing of two USPS employees, resulting from their violent attack upon their supervisor at the Postal Service Incoming Mail Facility in Linthicum, Maryland.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office:

"U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson sentenced John Bermudez, Jr., age 31, of Brooklyn, Maryland today to 10 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for assault of a government official and sentenced his brother, Gregory Bermudez, age 28, of Millersville, Maryland to eight months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, on the same charge, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. John Bermudez was convicted by a federal jury on August 2, 2007 after a three day trial and Gregory Bermudez pleaded guilty on July 26, 2007.

According to the guilty plea, testimony at trial and other court documents, Gregory Bermudez and John Bermudez, Jr., worked at the United States Postal Service Incoming Mail Facility (IMF) in Linthicum, Maryland. On February 8, 2006 at the IMF a supervisor instructed John Bermudez to stop playing cards and return to work. Both defendants argued with the supervisor, who sought the assistance of the manager of the work floor. When the manager responded he discovered the defendants in a heated argument with another employee. Unable to regain control of the work floor, the manager informed the defendants that he was calling the police and turned to walk away. The defendants followed the manager and, as the manager approached the phone, Gregory Bermudez struck him from behind with his fist. The victim fell to the ground and both defendants punched and kicked him as he lay on the ground. The defendants then left the facility through the loading dock area."

BMC Outsourcing RFP On the Way

The Postal Service expects next month to request proposals on how to contract-out some Bulk Mail Center activities, according to APWU.

APWU reports on its website that its national officers learned of the BMC outsourcing plans during a USPS “pre-decisional briefing” on developments associated with the Request for Information (RFI) Concerning a Time-Definite Surface Network issued by USPS last July.

That document, according to USPS, sought to “identify interested organizations with the capability to implement a time-definite mail distribution and transportation network."

In the RFI, the Postal Service invited private sector companies to indicate whether they were interested in helping to build and operate a private, sub-contracted national or regional network of facilities to support the distribution and transportation of Standard, Periodical and Package mail. Responses were due by September 24.

It appears now, nearly five months later, that USPS received a sufficient positive response from logistics operators to proceed to the next step: solicitating actual proposals on how to outsource some BMC activities.

The Postal Service's interest in privatizing portions of the mail distribution and transportation network represents one of its major cost-containment strategies, according to its updated Transformation Plan.

Attempting to tamp down job anxiety about the impact of potential BMC outsourcing, APWU President William Burrus said, "“While we expect changes to the BMC network and to the employee complement, we do not anticipate that they will result in a significant reduction in the number of USPS employees.” Burrus also held open the possibility of “in-sourcing” some functions that are currently performed by non-USPS employees.

More DNM Shots in Concord

The Postal Service has fired back at the claims of Do Not Mail advocates in New Hampshire, where the state legislature is considering a Do Not Mail bill, HB 1506. (Earlier posts on the bill are here and here.)

The Concord Monitor, the state capital's newspaper, on Friday printed the reply of Joanne Giordano, USPS vice president for public affairs and communications, to a January 11 Monitor op-ed by ForestEthics legislative consultant Steven Krieger and George DeWolf, the activist-constituent who requested the bill from its sponsor, New Hampshire lawmaker Susi Nord.

Giordano alleged that the Krieger-Wolf commentary contained "a number of inaccurate, misleading and misinformed statements that need to be addressed. Primary among them is the fact that consumers have several options to help manage the amount and type of mail that enters their home."

Pointing to the relationship between advertising mail and jobs, Giordano also said:

"In 2006, advertising mail brought more than $3.8 billion in increased sales to New Hampshire's economy and played a critical role in the success of New Hampshire businesses, large and small.

It's also important to understand that according to the nation's environmental watchdog, the Environmental Protection Agency, only 2.4 percent of materials found in landfills across the country is attributed to advertising mail."

On Thursday, January 24, the Commerce Committee of the New Hampshire House of Representatives will resume its hearing on Nord's DNM bill. The Committee suspended its January 10 hearing and agreed to pick up two weeks later when too many witnesses -- especially opponents -- appeared to testify.

HIPAA Hubbub

NALC President Bill Young has followed through on his threat.

Verbal shots between Young, the USPS Board of Governors, and the Postal Service's Office of Inspector General have escalated into a lawsuit brought last week by the NALC -- and its ally for the moment, APWU -- challenging the USPS Office of Inspector General's practice of surreptitiously obtaining the medical files of USPS employees who, the IG believes, may be fraudulently receiving workers' compensation benefits, abusing sick leave, or otherwise engaging in medical fraud.

When President Young, in his President's Message in the NALC's Postal Record, brought the matter to the attention of NALC members in December, he promised them, "I have directed NALC's attorneys to pursue this matter relentlessly through litigation."

The NALC/APWU lawsuit, filed in a Manhattan federal court on January 17 against the Postal Service and the Office of Inspector General, contests the IG's activities in asking doctors and hospitals treating postal employees involved in workers' compensation claims to quietly turn over the employees' medical records to assist the IG's investigation of the underlying claim and potential fraud.

Despite the Inspector General's broad statutory authority to investigate "fraud, waste and misconduct" throughout USPS, the NALC/APWU lawsuit calls the IG's actions an "unwarranted intrusion by government agencies into the privacy of their employees' medical information, an intrusion that exceeds the agencies' statutory authority and violates federal law, regulations, and the United States Constitution."

President Young, more hyperbolically in his Postal Record editorial, likened the IG's actions to recent news reports of "[u]nauthorized surveillance, illegal searches, suspension of civil liberties, illegal beatings -- all the way from wiretaps to water-boarding." The "Bad Cop" thing, as Mr. Young calls it.

Several initial observations on the lawsuit and underlying controversy:

* Interestingly, the NALC-APWU lawsuit never mentions the alleged reason -- the investigation of OWCP abuse by postal employees -- as the motivator for the IG's interest in USPS employee medical files. Neither do the press releases of NALC or APWU heralding the lawsuit. Hmmmm. Referring to potential fraud by their own members probably doesn't favor the optics of the unions' claims.

Even President Young, in his December editorial, acknowledged in his typically straight-forward fashion: "Now we are not stupid. With 800,000 USPS employees, there are bound to be some bad apples. Even among our own 225,000 city letter carriers, there will be some who do not deserve to wear the uniform."

* Second, why didn't the postal employees whose medical files were allegedly hijacked by the IG race up the courthouse steps to press their alleged rights? Why did the unions have to step up and file this lawsuit? Do they even have the legal standing to press this action?

* Third, in support of their lawsuit, the unions cite the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, or HIPAA. That law, as APWU points out in its press release, was intended to protect the privacy rights of Americans in their medical records. It generally prohibits health care providers from disclosing the medical records of their patients to third parties without patient consent. But HIPAA hardly provides iron-clad privacy protection, and there are exceptions to the HIPPA Privacy Rule. One exception, for example, permits health care officials to disclose a patient's medical records to "health oversight agencies" without the consent of the patient, when the health oversight agency is pursuing a legally authorized investigation, including into workers' compensation benefits.

* Fourth, the heart of the unions' lawsuit relies on its premise that the USPS Office of Inspector General is not a "health oversight agency." Is it?

In the OIG's standard letter of request to a health care provider for a USPS employee's medical records (included as Exhibit A of the complaint in the unions' lawsuit), the OIG asserts: "The Office of Inspector General is a health oversight agency because it oversees through our investigations a government health program in which health information is necessary to determine eligibilty or compliance."

The Department of Health and Human Service's own guidance on the HIPAA Privacy Rule states: "The Privacy Rule permits covered entities to disclose protected health information to workers' compensation insurers, State administrators, employers, and other persons or entities involved in workers' compensation systems, without the individual's authorization ..."

* Finally, the USPS IG, in cataloging on its website the types of hotline complaints it welcomes, includes the following workers' compensation (OWCP) activities, including:

• OWCP Fraud (employee): Fraud committed by an USPS employee in connection with an OWCP claim.

• OWCP Fraud (medical provider): Fraud committed by a medical provider (including physicians, durable medical equipment vendors, pharmacies, hospitals, laboratories) involving an OWCP claim (billing the USPS for unnecessary medical services or medical services that were never rendered).

• OWCP Processing (management’s failure involving processing paperwork): Complaint involving the process in which the USPS handled an OWCP claim or that there are fundamental flaws involving the process in which the USPS handles OWCP claims.

The NALC-APWU lawsuit has been assigned to federal district judge Denny Chin. Judge Chin was nominated to the federal bench in 1994 by President Clinton. He has handled his share of controverisal cases during his judicial tenure. In 2006, he attracted attention when he dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Florida man against the company behind the Atkins diet. In a footnote, Judge Chin dished advice when he wrote that he has had success with his own “much simpler diet, which can be described in four words: Run more, eat less.”

The FTC and the "M" Word

The Federal Trade Commission has issued its much-awaited, Congressionally mandated study on the USPS's mail monopoly, identifying the federal and state laws that apply differently to the Postal Service compared to its competitors, and what measures should be adopted to end such differences, including regulatory action by the PRC.

While there is certain to be further commentary here and elsewhere in the coming days, a quick read of the study report shows that its conclusions are provocative, with morsels of support for everyone -- USPS and its competitors -- to satisfy each side's policy biases.

The study concludes that:

* Because of its status as a governmental institution and its universal service obligation, the Postal Service is burdened with a unique "net competitive disadvantage versus private carriers."

* From a market-wide perspective, the federally-imposed restrictions that impose economic burdens on the USPS and the implicit subsidies that provide the USPS an economic advantage should be viewed as "two distortions that compound each other and negatively affect the provision of competitive mail products."

* Congress should consider whether to reduce the constraints on the USPS's competitive products operations, to assist USPS in its management of labor costs and configuration of its network. At the same time, the PRC should consider requiring USPS to account for its implicit subsidies when making pricing and production decisions.

* Worksharing and recent PRC regulations requiring contribution to institutional costs may reduce any advantage the USPS' postal monopoly provides in its delivery of competitive products.

* In the longer term, Congress should consider action that further eliminates the legal differences between the USPS and its competitors, including:

-- Relaxing the current mailbox monopoly to allow consumers to choose to have private carriers deliver competitive products to their mailboxes would create net benefits for consumers;

-- Narrowing the postal monopoly to allow greater competition while still maintaining universal service; and

-- Establishing the USPS' competitive products division as a separate corporate entity -- with either private or governmental ownership.

The two Democrat members of the five-member FTC -- Pamela Jones Harbour and Jon Liebowitz -- in a concurring statement, criticized the report for its review of alternative business models that exceeded, they say, the mandate of the study and relied on inconclusive information.

Mail-In Voters: A New Force?

Today's New York Times picks up the story thread reported here last week: the significant impact that voting-by-mail could have on the results of Presidential primaries in a number of states, and especially in California on Super Tuesday, February 5. California election officials estimate half of the state's 15.5 million voters may vote by mail.

The early-voting dynamic of VBM has forced the Presidential candidates to adjust their campaign strategies, the Times notes, recognizing that many voters could be making their candidate selections over their kitchen tables now, not weeks from now in a voting booth. This has prompted the campaigns of the Presidential contenders to devote greater spending on phone banks, mailings and other tactics to specifically target these voters.

Voting by mail could shape the results in primary-significant states beyond California, including Florida and New Jersey.

The Times reports that "Officials in Florida, where the primary is January 29, report an increase in requests for absentee ballots, attributing it largely to the closeness of the races in both parties. About 42 percent of Democrats and 47 percent of Republicans in the state have requested absentee ballots."

Officials in New Jersey, which moved its primary to February 5 from March, also anticipate large numbers of mail-in voters, averting the potential of bad weather and capitalizing on the convenience of voting by mail.

Thirty-one states allow some form of voting-by-mail. Several states have changed their laws to "no excuse" voting, permitting allow voters to cast ballots by mail for any reason, as opposed to limiting it to sickness or absence from one's residence on Election Day.

The Times notes VBM's appeal, pointing to its convenience and alignment with on-the-go lifestyles of many Americans. But VBM is not without its critics, according to the paper, who claim that circumstances could change precipitously by the time of election day, pointing to the impact of Hillary's weepy moment two days before the New Hampshire primary.

Colorado, Washington Face Big VBM Decisions

The Colorado state Legislature, which opened its 120-day session last week, is likely to decide in the near future whether the state will move to an all-mail ballot by the time of the August primary and November general elections.

And in Washington state, where an increasing number of counties have adopted all-mail voting, its most populous county -- King County, with 900,000 voters -- may put off a move to all-mail elections until 2009

The Colorado Legislature is likely to see bills concerning the implementation of all-mail voting during the first two weeks of the session, the Fort Collins Colorodan says.

The combination of the Colorado Secretary of State's decertification of three of four electronic voting systems used throughout the state and a new statewide voter registration system that is not ready has created a "state of emergency" over the conduct of elections, according to Larimer County's Clerk, its top voting official. (For background on the state's election mess, see my earlier post.)

The Colorado County Clerks Association and some legislative leaders are pushing for a law allowing an all-mail election for 2008, but the proposal faces stiff opposition from local voting activists and some clerks, most notably Denver elections officials, according to the Rocky Mountain News.

Even proponents of voting-by-mail wonder whether the state could be successfully up-and-running with an all-mail voting system by late summer, or whether the situation could turn out giving VBM a black eye.

Meanwhile, in Washington state, its most populous county -- King County, with 900,000 voters -- may put off a move to all-mail elections until 2009, because of delays in obtaining high-volume tabulation equipment, the Seattle Times reports. The County Council voted in 2006 to switch to all-mail voting in 2007 or 2008, but only after an election superintendent is hired, the elections office completes a "culture change" and management-training program, and the council adopts a plan for ballot drop boxes and regional voting centers. The superintendent position is vacant, and a recruitment process is under way.

A Postal Divide?

Will consolidation of postal facilities in the name of cost-containment and service efficiency actually erode postal service as a universal service?

Will it unleash the same "we-them" forces that exist within the digital divide?

Mark Hare, a local columnist for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, in Rochester, New York, in an op-ed looks at the potential consolidation and closure of several postal stations in Rochester, and asks whether the plan will end up hurting Rochester's urban poor.

The consolidation plan -- the "Rochester Metropolitan Facilities Unitary Plan" -- will be the subject of discussion this Thursday at a USPS-sponsored community meeting in Rochester.

Hare writes: "I think it's pretty clear there will be fewer retail outlets in the city, and that many of those folks who really do need the Post Office will not have transportation to the community meeting."

He quotes Gene Sydor, the station manager at the downtown post office on Cumberland Street, on the import of USPS presence in the a poor neighborhood.

"Last year at this station," Sydor says, "we sold 23,000 money orders." There is a population in poor neighborhoods that has no access to checking accounts. "There are people who use this as a bank," he says. When the S.S.I. disability checks come out, "the line is through the building," he says, with people cashing checks and buying money orders to pay bills — rather than using pricier check-cashing establishments. These are the same people who need to purchase stamps in person to put their bills in the mail."

The Real Indiana

When you think of Indiana, what comes to mind: a plow or a machine press?

Some folks in Indiana are steamed that the Postal Service, in its depiction of the Hoosier State in the upcoming Flags of Our Nation stamp series, has decided to feature a farm tractor pulling a chisel plow through a field with a cityscape in the distance.

The Fort Wayne Daily News editorializes: "The Hoosier state hosts the nation’s 15th-largest economy, but only the 28th-largest agricultural sector. Indiana’s share of U.S. agriculture has declined from 2 percent in 1997 to 1.4 percent in 2006 ... A better representation of Indiana would be from manufacturing, which is 33.4 percent of Indiana’s GDP, compared to just 15.6 percent in the U.S. We rank first in the nation for specializing in manufacturing."

Farming? Manufacturing? Come on, folks! For most of us, neither of these come to mind when we think of Indiana. It's this.

USPS Career Workforce Numbers Decline

Postal Service employment statistics showed a continuing decline in the career workforce at the end of 2007, according to postalnews blog, in numbers it gleaned from the just-issued USPS 2007 Comprehensive Statement on Postal Operations. But a significant bump upwards occurred in the numbers of casual and transitional employees.

The USPS ended the year with 681,013 career employees, down 1.9% from the prior year.

The decrease of 13,329 career jobs was offset by the addition of 21,537 casual workers, and 11,801 transitional employees.

By craft, clerks and nurses saw the largest decline, down 4.5%, for a loss of 9,515 jobs.

City carriers were also down from the prior year, by 1.9%, or 4,367 employees.

Rural carriers increased by 1.8%, and mail handlers were up 0.7%.

Field supervisors and managers declined by 1.6%, or 533 jobs, while Headquarters added 103 positions, for an increase of 3.7%.

Field support positions also increased, up 3.8%, or 276 additional career positions.

New Hampshire Panel Mulls Do Not Mail

The Commerce Committee of the New Hampshire House of Representatives heard testimony from five witnesses Thursday on HB 1506, a bill to establish a state Do Not Mail registry. (For an earlier post on this bill, read here.)

According to observers, Commerce Committee members attending the hearing were sharply negative about the bill, questioning its viability and emphasizing its negative economic impact.

Because of the requests of additional witnesses to testify, the Committee announced that it would resume the hearing in two weeks, on Thursday, January 24.

Witnesses who testified on Thursday included: Rep. Susi Nord (D), the bill's sponsor; Rep. Jane Beaulieu (D); Rep. Neal Kurk (R); George DeWolf, the activist-constituent who requested the bill from Rep. Nord; David Paige from NAPUS (his testimony is here); and Robert Baker, a rural letter carrier.

The bill will likely be assigned to a subcommittee after the Jan. 24 hearing.

Kiwi Woman Stung By Postal Plea

To prune or post, that's the dilemma facing a New Zealand woman, Athena Ellis, who said the local postman put a note in her mailbox on Monday asking her to cut the lavender surrounding the mailbox.

Why? Because the "postie" was afraid of getting stung.

The New Zealand Press reports that the nation's postal service may stop delivering Ms. Ellis' mail unless she prunes the lavender around her letterbox that is attracting bees and creating a "hazard".

"It's so nice to have flowers, and I can't control nature. I can't say, `Go away, you naughty bees'," Ellis fretted.

Ellis said she would be reluctant to cut back the lavender, but would have to if there was no alternative.

Those are the momentous decisions facing New Zealanders these days. Meanwhile, back in the United States, rumors began to circulate that Do Not Mail extremists have secretly begun dropping lavender seeds around mailboxes here.

McNulty Announces GPO/WEP Hearing

Congressman Michael R. McNulty (D-NY), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Social Security of the Committee on Ways and Means, has announced that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing to examine the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision.

While these provisions were intended to help equalize the treatment of workers across employment sectors, many of the approximately one million individuals whose benefits are affected by these provisions believe the GPO and WEP are unfair.

The hearing will take place on Wednesday, January 16, 2008, in the main committee hearing room, 1100 Longworth House Office Building, beginning at 10:00 a.m.

The Subcommittee announcement of the hearing is here.

Don't Look Away From New Hampshire

Though the eyes of America may shift away from New Hampshire after today's Presidential primary, postal eyes will remain focused on the Granite State, especially on Thursday.

That's the day that another pernicious Do Not Mail bill will receive a hearing before the Commerce Committee of the New Hampshire state legislature.

The bill, HB 1506, directs the New Hampshire Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau of the Department of Justice to establish and operate a registry of state residents who do not wish to receive direct mail solicitations.

A handful of witnesses from postal employee organizations and postal industry-related groups are slated to testify against the bill.

At least eight states are considering bills that would create state-run Do Not Mail registries -- seven states carried over legislation from their 2007 session, along with the New Hampshire bill.

The Mail Moves America coalition website provides a good run-down on state-by-state Do Not Mail legislative activity. Postal analyst Alan Robinson also has provided some commentary on the devastating economic impact of DNM.

TSP to Plan Participants: Stop Day Trading!

An interim rule of the Thrift Savings Plan went into effect yesterday, limiting the number of inter-fund transfers that postal and federal employees and retirees may carry out during the course of a year -- a move designed to deter plan participants from aggressively playing the market through their plan accounts.

The restrictions will be officially announced in the annual TSP participant statement mailing which is scheduled for February 2008. The TSP says it expects the rule to take permanent effect in April 2008.

In explaining the move, the TSP announced, "In recent months, it has become clear that a relatively small number of Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) investors (less than 3,000 of our 3.8 million participants) are engaging in excessive frequent trading. Because this activity is clearly accelerating, and in light of the detrimental effect on fund performance and transaction costs, at its November 2007 meeting, the members of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board authorized the Executive Director to put in place restrictions on interfund transfers."

(Steve Barr provides an excellent overview of the recent changes and the current state of the TSP in today's Federal Diary column.)

According to Fedsmith.com, the TSP's new rule "will restrict TSP participants to only two interfund transfers (account rebalancings) per calendar month but would also allow subsequent unlimited interfund transfers into the very safe and conservative G Fund.

The interim regulation gives the TSP Executive Director the right to request that the frequent traders stop their trading practices right away. And, if they don't, the TSP will restrict the frequent traders to having to request transferring money between funds by using regular mail service."

Regular mail service, huh? That's one more creative way to increase USPS mail volume!

Remember this Number: 94%

That's the percentage of Americans polled in a recent nationwide survey who had a favorable impression of the United States Postal Service.

Ninety-four percent.

The Postal Service, in an Associated Press poll conducted in mid-December, outranked all other major federal governmental institutions in the impression that Americans had of the organizations.

Fifty-eight percent of the respondents said they had a "very favorable" impression of the Postal Service. In comparison, 27% said they had the same impression of the Supreme Court and only 11% held the same regard for Congress.

Does Mail-In Balloting Restrict Voting Rights?

The use of mail-in ballots has grown rapidly in California in recent years, and analysts predict it could hit a record in 2008, the International Herald Tribune reports.

In 2000, about one-fourth of the ballots cast in California in the presidential election came by mail. That grew to 33 percent in 2004. This year, analysts and campaign officials say it could be more than half.

Some 4 million voters in the state are enrolled as "permanent absentee voters," meaning early ballots for the primaries will automatically go to their homes.

At the same time, in the name of efficiency and cost savings, California's move to greater voting by mail has also caused an additional consequence: counties have reduced the number of polling places, stretching the distance to the polls for some voters.

Take Napa County for example. More than forty percent of the Napa County polling places used in the 2004 presidential election are history.

Does this consequence restrict voting rights? The Napa Valley Register doesn't think so. In an editorial, it said:

"In November, Registrar of Voters John Tuteur sent out letters informing 12,000 registered voters that their options have been narrowed: They can vote by mail, use a vote-by-mail ballot and drop it off at the nearest remaining polling place, or come down to the elections office to cast their ballots in person.

Some voters have expressed concern that this shift jeopardizes their voting rights. The convenience of voting down the street from one’s home in Calistoga -- where four of six voting precincts were eliminated, including those at a couple of mobile home parks — has narrowed.

In our view, the decision should not limit voter’s rights in any way. Other areas have seen greater voter participation because of the growing vote-by-mail trend, and we hope to see the same phenomenon here."

An All-Mail Vote in Colorado?

State leaders in Colorado are mulling over the possibility of conducting November's elections partially or entirely by mail, as the result of the state's decertification last month of electronic voting in 54 of the counties in the state.

Colorado officials will need to make a decision pretty quickly, with dwindling options and little time to prepare for a major change, the New York Times reports.

Mail-in ballots have been optional across Colorado since 1992, and about 30 percent of the statewide vote in the last few elections has come in by mail.

All of the arguments for and against all-mail voting are playing out in Colorado, but under the pressure of a timeclock. Most election clerks tend to favor voting-by-mail, while political officials are not so sure.


Kathryn Young, the Colorado Springs City Clerk told KKTV in Colorado Springs, that an all mail in ballot election would turn more votes. "I think there's a little more control over the process of a mail in ballot election", Young said. Plus it's cheaper and perhaps more thorough.

"A horde of “unsophisticated” voters stuffing the ballot box looms within the realm of possibilities if voters are forced to use mail-in ballots this November", Mesa County Commissioner Steve Acquafresca told the Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction.

Currently, 29 states allow some option of mail-in absentee voting that does not require the voter to explain the request for a mail ballot, according to Electionline.org.

The Federal Government also mandated that a statewide Voter Registration Database be implemented two years ago. but Colorado still hasn't complied.

Is Colorado up to the task?

Big Mo + VBM = Obama Win in California?

Can the combination of momentum and voting-by-mail combine in California to move the state's Democratic primary votes to Sen. Barrack Obama?

Any California registered voter may vote by absentee ballot. You do not have to be "absent" or "out of town on election day" to vote by mail in California. You may vote an absentee ballot just because you want to. (For further information, read here.)

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that more than 44 percent of California's 16 million registered voters are expected to vote by mail. Ballots are scheduled to arrive in voters mailboxes early next week. California is among two dozen states holding its primary on Super Tuesday, February 5.

Most mail-in voters submit their ballots in either the first week after they receive them or the week before the election, analysts say, so an Obama victory in Iowa -- and potentially one in New Hampsire -- along with the media buzz could be a boon to Obama in the Golden State.

FedEx Drivers Leverage IRS Inquiry

FedEx Corp. contract drivers suing the company for pay and benefits have asked federal judges to consider an Internal Revenue Service preliminary decision that they may be regarded as full-time employees for 2002 tax purposes. (For more on the IRS decision, read here.)

FedEx said in an SEC filing last month that it might have to pay $319 million in taxes and penalties plus interest for 2002 for misclassifying the contractors.

The IRS is reviewing calendar years 2004 through 2006 for similar issues, FedEx said.

The drivers want to use the IRS decision as leverage in a national class action lawsuit seeking hundreds of millions of dollars, claiming the company exerts control over them as if they were full-time workers without paying full-time benefits.