Postal Service U S

www.usps.com When you have a letter or a bill to mail, sometimes all you need is a U.S. Postal Service mailbox. But the familiar blue boxes are getting harder to find. The Postal Service has removed thousands of them nationwide in recent years to cut costs. The Postal Service website offers a search tool for locating mailboxes, but it's not easy to find, in part because the agency doesn't call them mailboxes. No, they're "collection boxes." From www.usps.com "> www.usps.

Consumers apparently still believe a penny saved is a penny earned, as many rushed this week to buy "forever stamps" that will help them avoid a pending one-cent rate hike in first-class postage. The U.S. Postal Service announced this week that the price of mailing a standard letter will rise from 41 cents to 42 cents beginning May 12.

The clash between letter carriers and man's best friend is the butt of many jokes. But for one block in Hawthorne, it is no laughing matter. The U.S. Postal Service is refusing to deliver mail to residents' front doors in a cul-de-sac on 134th Place at Doty Avenue, where it says aggressive dogs, including a boxer mix and a Chihuahua, are putting its employees at risk. "This is the biggest threat they face out there," said Larry Dozier, a postal service spokesman for the Los Angeles area.

The cost to mail a first-class letter looks likely to rise again -- but in the future, postal customers may not need to buy those annoying little 1- and 2-cent stamps to make up the difference. The U.S. Postal Service is poised to introduce its first "forever stamp" that would always be valid for mailing.

United Airlines parent UAL Corp. won back the right to fly domestic mail with a U.S. Postal Service contract valued at as much as $400 million after losing the business in 2006 because of poor on-time performance. Elk Grove Township, Ill.-based United said it evaluated its business model for carrying mail before bidding for the new contract. The agreement will begin April 28 and run through Sept. 30, 2011, United said.

Can the postman come to the rescue of gridlocked Wilshire Boulevard? He's going to give it a try. The U.S. Postal Service has changed the final pickup at 300 mailboxes along Wilshire from downtown to West Los Angeles from 5 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The idea is to get the postal trucks off the boulevard before rush hour with the hope that it will ease the often grueling commute on one of the city's main east-west routes. Parking is prohibited along much of Wilshire from 7 to 9 a.m. and from 4 to 7 p.m.

The postal rate increase that goes into effect today comes at a crucial time for the United States Postal Service. With Americans increasingly paying bills online and using e-mail for both personal and business correspondence, the Postal Service is facing a steady decline in first-class mail, its most profitable service. At the same time, its labor and fuel costs continue to rise. The changing conditions, Postmaster Gen. John E.

More than 7,000 postal workers will be notified within the next two weeks that the U.S. Postal Service has agreed to pay $61 million in what lawyers say is the country's largest disability discrimination class-action settlement. The settlement reached late last month, if approved by a judge, could break new ground under the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, which require employers to make "reasonable accommodations" for disabled employees.

The U.S. Postal Service is requiring vendors to use environmentally friendly materials to create envelopes and packages that carry 500 million Priority Mail and Express Mail shipments annually. Packaging-products suppliers including Bell Inc. must use materials that can be recycled and won't harm the environment, Postmaster Gen. John E. Potter said. The changes apply to 10 direct suppliers and 200 makers of products such as glue, ink and paper.

The U.S. Postal Service will not build a massive mail processing center in San Juan Capistrano and instead will place it on 26 acres the agency owns in nearby Aliso Viejo, officials said Monday. Although San Juan Capistrano officials were relieved that the 9-acre building would not occupy a grassy parcel between Interstate 5 and the hills on its northern edge, officials in Aliso Viejo said that they too opposed the facility.