Terri L. Morris of Holton KS, the former postmaster of Whiting KS, was sentenced last week to two years probation, and ordered to pay restitution of $5,338, after having been convicted of embezzlement.

During trial, prosecutors presented evidence that the crimes took place while Morris was postmaster in Whiting, a town of about 200 in Jackson County, Kan. In 2010, investigators with the U.S. Postal Service made an unannounced visit to the Whiting Post Office and conducted an audit that showed a shortage of more than $7,000. Morris took the money and filed fraudulent statements to the Postal Service to cover up the thefts.

WASHINGTON, D.C. —Today, Rep. Scott Tipton (CO-03) sent a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa requesting a hearing on the negotiated service agreement approved by the U.S. Postal Service late last week. Read the rest of this entry »

Nanette Milne, Scottish Conservative MSP for the North East has written to Norman Lamb MP, Minister for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs following the report commissioned by Consumer Focus Scotland which has highlighted the shocking figure of 1 in 3 people having difficulties receiving parcels as a result of inconvenient opening hours for collections offices.

Read more: MSP acts on parcel deliveries – Local Headlines – Mearns Leader.

The share price of MaltaPost plc slumped by 18.2% today to drop to a new three-year low of €0.63 on a single trade of 19,412 shares on the stock exchange.

In May, the postal operator revealed a 54.5% drop in profitability to €0.5 million as the company’s income and costs were negatively impacted by the changes in the tariff structure of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) for cross border mail with effect from 1 January 2012.

Read more: MaltaPost share price at new 3-year low – timesofmalta.com.

The US Postal Service lost $547 million from operations in July, bringing the actual year to date cash loss to $1.6 billion. Those numbers do not include the non-cash “losses” due to bookkeeping entries for PAEA charges. (Adding the PAEA charges would bring the total loss to $13.5 billion, but as we’ve noted before, the extra $11.8 billion doesn’t reflect actual cash that the USPS has paid, or will be paying.)

Some key indicators from the report:

• Mail volume continues its steady slide- first class is down 6.3% from last July, while standard is down 3.4%.
• Shipping revenue is up significantly, but is still a relatively small contributor (17%) to total revenue.
• Salaries and benefits for employees dropped 2.8% from July 2011.
• The report shows that total “expenses” year to date climbed by 9.9% from last year, but that increase is almost entirely due to the USPS double counting the PAEA charges. (The FY 2011 PAEA charges that the USPS reported last year also appear on this years reports, even though no actual payments have been, or will be made).
• Actual operating expenses year to date are down by 1%, more than offsetting the 0.7% decline in actual revenue.

2012 8 28 July Financial Summary to the Governors PRC.pdf.