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The Takeaway: Florida Retirees Protest Demise of U.S. Postal Service

Pushing the Envelope: Seventy miles from Tampa, Fla., Nalcrest looks more or less like any other Sunshine State retirement community. It's not. "Nalcrest" stands for the National Association of Letter Carriers Retirement, Education, Security and Training. The town is a haven for retired mail carriers-and,  according to Wall Street Journal, they're "delivering a first-class protest" against the demise of the U.S. Postal Service.

How? By using the U.S. mail, rather than email, websites or competing shipping companies, to send correspondence, pay bills or ship parcels.

We say...it's got to come through the U.S. mail or we don't want it here," said Matty Rose, 67 years old, manager of Nalcrest.


They've also sent a petition to Congress against dropping Saturday delivery and raised money to send to the postal worker's union's lobbying arm.

You've probably heard that the USPS is flailing, as more Americans rely on the Internet (or private carriers like FedEx and United Parcel Service) instead of envelopes, stamps and Uncle Sam. This has left the USPS strapped for cash, but how to fix the issue is a contentious topic-and one which the U.S. Senate will start debating soon. At stake is whether the country should end Saturday mail delivery, raise stamp prices beyond the rate of inflation and close thousands of post offices and processing centers nationwide, among other changes.

Many of the proposed changes would lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of postal jobs and future postal workers would enjoy less-generous benefits packages," according to the Washington Post.


The American Postal Worker Union says that under the changes, small businesses will suffer,  many people will be laid off and elderly patients may struggle to get mail-order medicine. But surveys have shown a majority of Americans favor ending Saturday delivery and closing post offices.

Tuesday Quick Hits:

  • The U.S. Treasury is launching a new savings bonds website today, part of a push to get more Americans to buy traditional government-issued, small-denomination bonds. "We think they are good products ... and the interest rates are competitive," Bureau of the Public Debt Commissioner Van Zeck told Reuters.

Photo: Getty Images/Flickr RF

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