Former Bridgeton Postmaster Daniel Mayo has been charged with

Mayo.jpgNews staff photoFormer Bridgeton postmaster Daniel Mayo

stealing more than $17,000 in fraudulent checks from the U.S. Postal Service during his tenure in charge of the city post office.

Mayo made his first appearance in federal court Tuesday in Camden, where he was released on a $50,000 bond after waiving his preliminary hearing, according to officials. The case is scheduled to pick up again in 60 days.

“Basically, the allegation is that Mayo input fictitious hours into the U.S. Postal Service payroll system (for an employee who had since resigned),” said Scott Balfour, special agent with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General.

Full story: Former Bridgeton postmaster in federal court for allegedly stealing $17,000 from U.S. Postal Service | NJ.com.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service ended the second quarter of this fiscal year (Jan. 1 – March 31, 2011) with a net loss of $2.2 billion, compared to a net loss of $1.6 billion for the same period in FY 2010.

Despite significant cost reductions and revenue growth initiatives, current financial projections indicate that the Postal Service will have a cash shortfall and will have reached its statutory borrowing limit by the end of the fiscal year. Absent substantial legislative change, the Postal Service will be forced to default on payments to the federal government.

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On Saturday, May 14, 2011, Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB) will again join forces with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) to Stamp Out Hunger across America, providing assistance to the millions of Americans who are struggling to put food on their tables every day.

Now in its 19th year, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive, which is always held on the second Saturday in May, has become the nation’s largest single-day food drive. In 2010, drive organizers representing nearly 1,500 U.S. Post Office branches across the country, collected a record-setting total of 77.1 million pounds of food donations. This pushed the historical total for the drive to more than one billion pounds of food. Read the rest of this entry »

The US Postal Service’s Bord of Governors holds its regular monthly meeting today, and for thefirst time, the afternoon open session will be broadcast live over the Internet. Click here to listen to the webcast, which begins at 2 PM.

Board of Governors; Sunshine Act Meeting

DATE AND TIMES: Tuesday, May 10, 2011, at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.

PLACE: Washington, DC, at U.S. Postal Service Headquarters, 475 L’Enfant Plaza, SW., in the Benjamin Franklin Room.

STATUS: Tuesday, May 10 at 8 a.m.— Closed; and at 2 p.m.— Open.

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED:

Tuesday, May 10 at 8 a.m. (Closed)
1. Strategic Issues.
2. Pricing.
3. Financial Matters.
4. Personnel Matters and Compensation Issues.
5. Governors’ Executive Session— Discussion of prior agenda items and Board Governance.

Tuesday, May 10 at 2 p.m. (Open)
1. Approval of Minutes of Previous Meetings.
2. Remarks of the Chairman of the Board.
3. Remarks of the Postmaster General and CEO.
4. Committee Reports.
5. Quarterly Report on Financial Performance.
6. Quarterly Report on Service Performance.
7. Tentative Agenda for the June 20– 21, 2011, meeting in Washington, DC.

The House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, U.S. Postal Service and Labor Policy has scheduled a hearing entitled “Where Have All The Letters Gone? – The Mailing Industry And Its Future” at 9:30am Thursday May 12, in room 2247 of Rayburn House Office Building.

via “Where Have All The Letters Gone? – The Mailing Industry And Its Future” | Subcommittee on Federal Workforce.

From the League of Postmasters:

The LEAGUE has received official notification that the significant recommendations that LEAGUE and NAPUS submitted in reference to the revisions of Employee and Labor Relations Manual (ELM) Section 415, Rate Retention and Change to Lower EAS Grade will not be adopted. There was one recommendation that was adopted regarding applying for lateral reassignment to vacant duty assignments at their saved grade levels within their commuting areas to protect the salary. This was minor language to include in the overall change. The organizations submitted recommendations on two occasions to try and save some of the salary protection that EAS had received in the past during RIF Avoidance period, Specific RIF Notice Period or a RIF.

This means that those Nonbargainig Unit employees impacted by RIF Avoidance period, Specific RIF Notice Period, RIF-Related 30-Day Nonduty, Nonpay Status period, or a Rif will not receive saved salary indefinitely. Employees retain their current grade and pay for a period not to exceed 2 years from the effective date of the change to the lower grade position. On expiration of the saved grade period, if the employee’s salary is within the salary range for the lower grade, the salary is continued. However, if the salary exceeds the maximum of the new grade, the salary is immediately reduced to the grade maximum.

The League is disappointed that the significant portion of our proposals was not adopted. Postal Headquarters continued to sight the financial conditions they were presently facing could not justify any saved salary past the two years.
Rate retention currently in affect for DUO impacted Postmasters and Managers is still in effect.

Defrauded Workers Comp and Other Insurers of $1.4 Million

CHICAGO—A chiropractor who owned and operated a clinic in Maywood for more than a decade was sentenced today to 70 months in federal prison after pleading guilty last year to healthcare fraud. The defendant, Darwin Minnis, admitted that he and others submitted false claims to obtain payments from workers’ compensation and other insurers for services that were not provided and inflated claims for services that were provided, which resulted in an intended loss of at least $3 million and an actual loss of more than $1.4 million.

Minnis, 56, who is in federal custody and formerly of West Chicago, was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $1,450,202 by U.S. District Judge John Grady, who imposed the sentence in Federal Court.

From at least 2000 through June 2009, Minnis owned the Spine and Joint Rehabilitation Center, where most of the patients were U.S. Postal Service employees who were eligible for benefits from the U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Program. Three medical doctors also worked at the clinic at various times.

Minnis, at least one doctor, a billing employee, and others illegally submitted false and inflated claims to obtain workers compensation payments for the clinic and patients from the Labor Department, as well as private health insurers, for various services related to patients’ work-related injuries, including medical, diagnostic, and physical therapy services. Minnis forged doctors’ signatures on documents supporting the false claims, misrepresenting that services, treatment, physical therapy, and/or testing had been provided, ordered, or supervised by medical doctors. Minnis knew that Workers’ Comp would not accept a chiropractor’s opinions or reports as medical evidence to support patients’ claims. Under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, chiropractors were not qualified physicians and their opinions did not constitute medical evidence except in very limited cases involving specific spine problems.

Minnis, the physician, and the billing employee were indicted together in March 2010. Minnis pleaded guilty last November. The other two defendants have also pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

The sentence was announced by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; L. Scott Caspall, Special Agent in Charge of the Great Lakes Field Office of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General; James Vanderberg, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Region of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General; and Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Stern.