BIRMINGHAM, Ala., June 28 — The U.S. Department of Justice’s U.S. Attorney’s office for Northern District of Alabama issued the following press release:

A federal grand jury today indicted a U.S. Postal employee for mail violations, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and Christopher Nugent, assistant special agent in charge, U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General.

The indictment filed in U.S. District Court charges JERRY WAYNE DILLIARD, 62, of Fayette, with delay and destruction of U.S. mail and theft of mail by a Postal employee, from December 2009 to October 2010. At that time, Dilliard was working as a letter carrier at the Tuscaloosa Post Office.

"The United States mail is one of this country’s most respected institutions. Individuals and businesses trust and rely on the efficient operation of the mail system," Vance said. "Anyone who abuses this system does the country a great disservice and should expect to be prosecuted," she said.

Theft of mail matter by a postal employee and delay and destruction of mail are both punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Congressman Dennis Ross last night tweeted that he’d found a “great article” that explains why all the money the USPS has overpaid into retirement funds over the years really isn’t an “overpayment”. And who wrote this piece of expert analysis? An economist? An actuary?

No, a TV critic. None other than the Miami Herald’s Glenn Garvin.

We’ve already mentioned Garvin’s article, which has received nationwide distribution in McClatchy newspapers. The column doesn’t actually “explain” anything. Garvin cites OPM’s dismissal of the $75 billion overpayment as if the agency were an impartial observer. He doesn’t mention that every dollar USPS overpays is a dollar OPM doesn’t have to ask Congress for. Garvin totally ignores the $6.9 billion FERS overpayment, probably because OPM admits that it exists. He also fails to acknowledge that all of the losses and debts the USPS incurred from 2007 -2010 were caused directly by the arbitrary trust fund payments. All of them.

As we pointed out when the story was originally published, the funniest thing about Garvin’s “analysis” is that he blames the USPS’s problems on a “dying ink-on-paper technology in an electronic world”. This from a man who makes his living writing for a newspaper. A newspaper that makes most of its money from the sale of those annoying ads that fill its “ink on paper” pages. A newspaper that competes for advertising dollars with direct mailers (many of them the kind of small businessmen Darrell Issa claims to be fighting for) who rely on the US Postal Service.

Twitter / @RepDennisRoss: A great article on the “po ….