WASHINGTON (AP) — The financially beleaguered Postal Service backpedaled on its plan to end Saturday mail delivery, conceding Wednesday that its gamble to compel congressional approval had failed.Still ... I have not received mail on a Saturday for ... years. Is this a local phenomenon, or is the USPS mounting a subtle, "phantom protest"?
With limited options for saving money, the governing board said the agency should reopen negotiations with unions to lower labor costs and consider raising mail prices.
Yet the board also said it's not possible for the Postal Service to meet its goals for reduced spending without altering the delivery schedule. Delaying "responsible changes," the board said, only makes it more likely that the Postal Service "may become a burden" to taxpayers.
Congressional reaction was mixed, mirroring differences that have stalled a needed postal overhaul for some time. Some lawmakers had urged the agency to forge ahead with its plan, while others had said it lacked the legal authority to do so.
The Postal Service said in February that it planned to switch to five-day-a-week deliveries beginning in August for everything except packages as a way to hold down losses.
That announcement was risky. The agency was asking Congress to drop from spending legislation the longtime ban on five-day-only delivery.
Congress did not do that when it passed a spending measure last month.
It doesn't really matter to me if they don't deliver Saturday mail to private residences. Most of what I get is junk mail, and the rest is bills. The local USPS installed a box on the corner of the cul-de-sac in which I live some years ago, so I have to walk all the way to the corner to pick up my mail! Outrageous! I may actually have to walk a few steps to check my mail!
And when I order bullets from Montana Gold? * USPS doesn't put it in the "bulk mail" box ... they put a polite little pink slip in my letter box telling me to go pick up my parcel. Well, it's 80+ pounds of lead and brass.
Frankly, I don't blame them. If I were the mail carrier, I wouldn't put an 80# box on my doorstop, either!
My solution? I bought a hand-truck.
I figure, these guys are doing all they can to hold down costs. If I can do my part to pick up the heavy stuff that *_I_* ordered (they give a good price on bulk shipping via USPS vs UPS), then it's my patriotic duty to trundle my hand-truck up to the window in my local post office.
When I can't manage a case of 2250 200-grain bullets from my car to my loading bench, I'm too feeble to shoot IPSC matches anyway.
Not an issue.
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*
Update: April 11, 2013
Check the link in the body of the store, but as of this date Montana Gold Bullets is "OUT OF STOCK" on every single bullet which they typically sell. Caliber, weight, configuration ... none of this matters. They are apparently out of business until the raw materials become available to resume production. "The Business of America is Business", as Calvin Coolidge is often misquoted, and due to purely political reasons, Business in America is Bad.
And by the way, I try not to include loading data here due to liability concerns.
4 comments:
It must be you. My local PO brings my bullet orders to my door.
You must know people in very high places. I could not order a 2250piece case of any kind of bullets and be sure of having them delivered in the next year. Bullets, along with primers, and loaded ammunition are unobtainium.
Antipoda
On a different subject, has the Geek ever compared the homespun wit and wisdom of our VP, Joe Biden, with the wit and wisdom of the immortal Will Rogers?
Antipoda
I know you did not intend it to be an endorsement, just knowledge that slipped out. I would be interested in more place you find reloading supplies such as "Montana Gold". and any reloading words of wisdom you have. Not that any one has supplies but someday I hope they will.
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