Former APWU President Bill Burrus has been sharply critical of the current union leadership, most recently earlier this week when he noted that the APWU currently has “more elected officers than the top seven labor unions combined”.

Today he went a step further, advising the union that he was relinquishing the title of “President Emeritus” whiach had been bestowed on him two years ago.

The award has become an issue in my criticism of union decisions that will seriously affect postal employees and I cannot in good faith continue the ceremonial title with the expectations of solidarity. I strongly oppose the damage done to postal employment and the residual effect on employees. The Los Angeles convention will consider monumental issues that will decide the future of the union and I do not want to serve as a distraction to issues of substance and consequence.

via BurrusJournal.org – WITH REGRETS.

From USPS News Link:

This summer may be the hottest on record — for more than one reason.

For a limited time, the Miami, FL, Post Office is offering matted artwork with a commemorative envelope to celebrate the Miami Heat’s 2012 National Basketball Association Championship.

The artwork is available for $19.99.

For the cost of envelopes and postage, customers also can request a pictorial postmark commemorating the Heat’s championship. Customers should affix stamps to any envelope or postcard of their choice and send their requests to: Pictorial Postmarks, Champions Station, Postmaster, PO Box 524004, Miami, FL 33152-4004.

Customers also can send stamped envelopes and postcards without addresses for postmark, as long as they supply a larger return envelope with adequate postage and their address.

There’s a charge of 5 cents per additional envelope to be postmarked, when ordering 51 or more. Checks should be made out to “Postmaster.”

From USPS News Link:

The Postal Inspection Service’s Mail Fraud Team helped arrest and successfully prosecute the mastermind of the largest Ponzi scheme ever to go to trial.

R. Allen Stanford, former chairman of the Houston-based Stanford Financial Group, was sentenced to 110 years in prison. The jury also awarded the largest forfeiture judgment ever — $330 million — for a Ponzi scheme. The money will be returned to victims.

Stanford was convicted of multiple counts of mail and wire fraud — illegally soliciting more than $5 billion from approximately 25,000 victims.

Stanford convinced investors to purchase certificates of deposit and then misused most of the money. His victims mailed payments and believed the monthly statements he sent them accurately reflected their investments. Stanford diverted more than $1.6 billion of investor funds for his personal use.

“Stanford’s investors believed their life savings were safe and secure,” said Deputy Chief Inspector Shawn Tiller. “When criminals exploit the mail to perpetrate fraud, it’s our job as Postal Inspectors to bring them to justice.”

The Mail Fraud Team works full time at the Department of Justice and is composed of Postal Inspectors and investigative support analysts. The team works with attorneys to solve the department’s most significant mail fraud cases.

A postbox that was painted gold in Jessica Ennis’s home city to celebrate her Olympic triumph has been vandalised.

Graffiti was daubed on the box in Barkers Pool in Sheffield city centre, which has already become a tourist attraction, within 24 hours of it being painted.

A new layer of gold has been applied by a Royal Mail engineer, a Sheffield City Council spokeswoman said.

Royal Mail said it did not know what the graffiti said as an engineer repaired the damage very quickly as "a point of pride".

via Jessica's gold postbox vandalised – PA News Feeds – Evening Standard.

British Paralympians who win gold medals at next month’s Games will not be featured on individual stamps, Royal Mail has said, but the British Paralympic Association (BPA) has said it is ‘very pleased’ with the plans.

Team GB gold medal winners have been honoured with their own stamps being released the day after their success, as well as having a post box in their hometown painted gold.

While the golden post box treatment will be extended to Paralympic champions, the individual stamps will not, with royal Mail instead releasing a series of six first-class stamps featuring every medallist after the Games finish on September 9.

via Paralympics GB medal winners 'will not get individual stamps' | Metro.co.uk.

Press release:

PostScan Mail uses the power of the Internet to give subscribers the ability to manage every item of their postal mail through an easy-to-use online interface.

PostScan Mail is a new service that brings the impossible dream of a “paperless” society a little closer to reality. Every day, individuals and businesses are inundated with reams of paper in the form of physical, postal mail. Every day, the United States Postal Service processes about 550 million pieces of mail. That’s 23 million pieces every hour and 384,000 items each minute. No wonder companies and households are drowning in paper.

The advanced PostScan Mail system provides each subscriber with a unique U.S. street address for receiving postal mail. When letters or packages arrive at this address, PostScan Mail staff scans the front of an envelope or a package’s address label and sends an e-mail alert to the stated recipient. Recipients can then review the scanned image remotely, online, and decide what should be done with the item within their online mailbox. They may choose to save it, have it forwarded to another address, or scrap it entirely. Scanning mail images before actually receiving the physical item is of real benefit to enterprises that handle large numbers of mailed documents or payments. And individuals welcome the fact that they no longer have to spend time cleaning up the clutter of accumulated junk mail.

PostScan Mail takes care of both documents and package deliveries. Recipients can store mail and package items for 30 days at the PostScan Mail facility at no cost. If a longer storage period is required, it is available for a small monthly fee per item. And as long as the account remains active, subscribers receive free access to all of their scanned content. The sophisticated PostScan Mail application allows stored scans to be sorted into separate folders, e-mailed as attachments, downloaded to a computer, and deleted when they are no longer required. Other useful services offered by PostScan Mail include mail shredding and recycling and a check deposit service.

Because mail is received at a PostScan Mail facility, important deliveries are never missed because no one was at the mailing address to receive them. Subscribers can be assured that all of their deliveries will be received and stored securely and safely, with their convenience in mind.

Maybe the paperless society isn’t so impossible after all.