Tag Archives: mail

U.S. postmaster promises timely election mail, ‘dramatic’ changes after

By Andy Sullivan and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy on Friday told lawmakers the Postal Service would deliver ballots “securely and on time” in the November presidential election, but indicated he would pursue dramatic operational changes after that date.

DeJoy faced pointed questions at a Senate hearing from Democrats, who have accused the wealthy Republican donor of trying to tilt the election to President Donald Trump.

Republicans largely defended DeJoy, saying the Postal Service needed an overhaul. “I am sorry you are on the targeting end of this political hit piece,” Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson told him.

DeJoy sought to assure Americans that widespread delays caused by cost-cutting measures would not cause their mail ballots to go uncounted in November. DeJoy suspended those service changes this week after facing public outrage.

“The American people should feel comfortable that the Postal Service will deliver on this election,” he told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

But DeJoy insisted that overtime limits and other cost-cutting measures would be needed to shore up the finances of a service that lost $9 billion last year. More sweeping changes could be in store after November, he said.

DeJoy, who has donated $2.7 million to Trump and other Republicans since 2016, rejected charges that he was trying to undermine confidence in the Postal Service ahead of an election in which up to half of U.S. voters could vote by mail partly due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump has repeatedly and without evidence said that an increase in mail-in ballots would lead to a surge in fraud, although he himself has voted by mail. Trump said last week that he opposes additional Postal Service funding because it could lead to wider use of mail voting.

Experts say it is secure as any other method.

DeJoy said he has not spoken with the Trump campaign or White House Staff Mark Meadows about postal service operations.

He said postal workers will deliver 95 percent of election mail within three days, as they did in the 2018 congressional elections. The increased mail volume would not be a problem for the Postal Service, which sees far larger increases ahead of Christmas and Mother’s Day, he said.

He added that he would personally vote by mail.

DeJoy, however, said he would not bring back mail-sorting machines and mailboxes that have been pulled from service in recent weeks, saying they were routine responses to changes in mail volume, which has dropped in the pandemic. He said he had not ordered those changes.

After he took the job in June, DeJoy imposed reductions in overtime, cuts in retail hours and restrictions on extra mail transportation trips that resulted in widespread delays nationwide.

Bigger changes could be in store after the election. DeJoy urged regulators to allow the Postal Service to raise prices and pressed lawmakers to lower retirement costs. He said the coronavirus pandemic had cost the service $10 billion.

The Washington Post reported on Friday that DeJoy has proposed setting higher prices for service in some states and requiring election ballots to use First Class postage instead of cheaper bulk-mail service, among other changes.

“We’re considering dramatic changes to improve service,” he said.

Republican Senator Rand Paul said he should consider laying off some of the service’s 630,000 employees.

Senator Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he had received more than 7,500 reports of mail delays from people in his home state of Michigan.

“If you plan to continue pursuing these kinds of changes, I think my colleagues, and many of our constituents, will continue to question whether you are the right person to lead this indispensable public institution,” Peters said.

Delaware Senator Tom Carper was caught uttering a series of expletives as he struggled with technology issues in the hearing, which was conducted via video.

Six states and the District of Columbia sued DeJoy on Friday, saying the service changes have harmed their ability to conduct free and fair elections.

Dozens of Democrats in the House of Representatives have called for DeJoy to be fired. DeJoy is due to testify there on Monday.

The House is due to vote Saturday on legislation that would provide $25 billion in Postal Service and require DeJoy to reverse his service changes.

(Editing by Chris Sanders and Alistair Bell)

U.S. nearly rules out terrorism after false ricin alert at Pentagon

FILE PHOTO: The Pentagon in Washington, U.S., is seen from aboard Air Force One, March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. investigators have nearly ruled out terrorism after envelopes sent to a Pentagon mail sorting facility were falsely flagged for the possible presence of the deadly poison ricin, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

A Pentagon spokeswoman said tests so far showed that the alert was triggered by castor seeds, which ricin is derived from, as opposed to the deadly substance itself.

U.S. security and law enforcement officials separately said an active counter-terrorism investigation was not being conducted into the envelopes.

Ricin is found naturally in castor seeds but it takes a deliberate act to convert it into a biological weapon. Ricin can cause death within 36 to 72 hours from exposure to an amount as small as a pinhead. No known antidote exists.

One of the letters was addressed to U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Pentagon said on Tuesday it had put its mail facility under quarantine. The Pentagon provided no further comment on Wednesday, referring reporters to law enforcement agencies.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Houston-area woman charged with mailing explosives to Obama, Texas governor

Houston-area woman charged with mailing explosives to Obama, Texas governor

By Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) – A Houston-area woman has been charged with mailing booby-trapped packages designed to explode to former U.S. President Barack Obama, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and a federal office in Maryland.

Julia Poff, 46, was ordered held in jail last week ahead of trial after she was indicted on charges of mailing packages last year that were designed to kill, transporting explosives and other criminal counts, court documents showed.

“Poff presents a real safety risk to witnesses and others in the community,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy wrote in a five-page order outlining the case.

Poff, who was charged earlier this month and pleaded not guilty last week, reached out to the Houston Chronicle to defend herself, the newspaper reported on its website on Thursday.

Poff told the Chronicle that investigators had taken trash from her home. The trash was “used in some serious crimes that we did not commit and know nothing about,” she was quoted as saying.

It was not clear whom Poff was referring to as “we.”

An explosive-laden package mailed to Obama in October 2016, while he was still in office, contained hair that an FBI crime lab matched to one of Poff’s cats, the judge wrote in the detention order.

Poff is said to have expressed dislike for Obama, who is a Democrat, according to the order. Packages sent to Obama and the U.S. Social Security Administration in Maryland were both stopped in screening, according to Houston TV station KPRC.

In October 2016, Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, opened a third package that also was rigged to explode, but it failed to detonate.

The judge’s detention order said Poff was upset with Abbott because she believed that in his previous role as state attorney general, he played a part in her inability to receive support from her ex-husband.

It was unclear what type of support Poff might have sought. The state attorney general’s office has a division that handles requests for child support after a divorce or separation.

The packages sent to Obama, the Social Security Administration and Abbott contained pyrotechnic powder, and investigators found a large amount of fireworks at Poff’s home in Brookshire, west of Houston, the court order said.

Poff is represented by a public defender, who could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

She is scheduled to appear in court for a hearing on Jan. 2.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank McGurty and Peter Cooney)

U.S. mail carriers emerge as heroes in Puerto Rico recovery

Luis Menendez, a mail man for the U.S. Postal Service, delivers mail at an area affected by Hurricane Maria in the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.

By Hugh Bronstein

GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico (Reuters) – With the Puerto Rico power grid shredded by Hurricane Maria, the U.S. Postal Service has taken the place of cellphone service at the forefront of island communications.

Only 15 percent of electrical power has been restored since the storm bludgeoned the U.S. territory on Sept. 20, but 99 of Puerto Rico’s 128 post offices are delivering mail. Tents have taken the place of post offices wrecked by Maria.

Mail carriers gather information on sick and elderly residents in far-flung parts where hospitals have closed. Data is fed into the Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief office in San Juan so medical attention can be provided.

Restoration of the power grid is months away and many rural roads are blocked by mudslides, sink holes and downed trees and telephone poles. Since the start of the month the Postal Service has nonetheless been delivering letters and care packages to family members desperate for news.

“It’s been a clutch situation, and you guys have totally come through,” a FEMA worker was heard telling Postal Service Caribbean customer service manager Martin Caballero on Sunday.

“We might know the general area where people need help, but the mail carriers are the only ones who really have the exact addresses,” the FEMA worker told Reuters, asking not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to news media.

Caballero regularly goes on AM radio, which can be heard by listeners lucky enough to have diesel to run generators, to tell people in inaccessible parts of the island where their mail is being held. He invites them to pick it up, but only when travel conditions become safe.

Even for urban middle-class customers in the San Juan suburb of Guaynabo, whose concrete homes were not smashed by the storm, it was a chore to recover their blown-away mailboxes or build new ones. Hurricane or not, the Postal Service will not drop off mail without a designated box.

“The wind took them all,” said resident Jenny Amador, a 42-year-old teachers’ assistant.

“I found mine in those trees,” she said, pointing to a gnarl of branches and trunks on the road. She re-attached her mailbox in a cockeyed position in front of her house, using a clothes hanger.

One plucky woman, having heard the postman was on the way, stood stoically with her mailbox tucked under her arm. No one minded when mail carrier Alfredo Martinez showed up out of uniform, unable to do laundry for lack of clean water.

One resident said the return of the mail service was comforting, a sign of a return to normalcy. But another greeted Martinez with a warning.

“If you are bringing me any utility bills, go away,” she said.

 

(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Howard Goller)