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US: Postal Service Is Nearing Default as Losses Mount

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© Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesLabor represents 80 percent of the agency's expenses.
The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.

"Our situation is extremely serious," the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. "If Congress doesn't act, we will default."

In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency's deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers - nearly one-fifth of the agency's work force - despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions' contracts.

The post office's problems stem from one hard reality: it is being squeezed on both revenue and costs.

As any computer user knows, the Internet revolution has led to people and businesses sending far less conventional mail.

At the same time, decades of contractual promises made to unionized workers, including no-layoff clauses, are increasing the post office's costs. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency's expenses, compared with 53 percent at United Parcel Service and 32 percent at FedEx, its two biggest private competitors. Postal workers also receive more generous health benefits than most other federal employees.

Bizarro Earth

US: Police: Kids Found Living In Trash-Filled Car; 2 Arrested

Mount Dora Police Discover Incident In Walmart Parking Lot



Mount Dora, Florida - A man and woman were arrested early Monday after they were found living with three children, one of whom had second-degree burns, inside a garbage-filled car in the parking lot of a Mount Dora Walmart, according to authorities.

Justin Hamilton, 31, of Paisley, and Kristin Harris, 26, of Eustis, were arrested and charged with child neglect.

According to Mount Dora police, officers were called around 7:40 a.m. to the Walmart on U.S. Highway 441 in connection with a suspicious vehicle.

Cult

US, Wisconsin: Heavy police presence for West Allis neo-Nazi rally


More than 130 law enforcement officers from seven different agencies saturated the area around West Allis City Hall Saturday - all an effort to keep the peace during a neo-Nazi rally in response to the State Fair mob attacks.

"They (officers) were basically everywhere," said Deputy Chief Charles Padgett with West Allis Police Department.

Padgett said federal agencies also aided. The FBI helped local law enforcement develop a strategy.

Camcorder

US,Illinois: You Can't Videotape Police in a Police State

A man in Illinois faces a possible 75-year sentence for video- and audio recording his interaction with police officials. The man had brought a lawsuit against the local police department for selectively and illegally targeting him for various minor citations.


People

Trinidad and Tobago: What a Sorry State We're In

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© Andrea De Silva/ReutersA policeman checks a vehicle on a main street in Trinidad and Tobago, which is under night-time curfew.
Well, well, well - Trinidad and Tobago is now in a State of Emergency in an attempt at reducing crime, or at least, so they say.

In the 7 p.m. newscast on Monday 22 August, I saw numerous police officers performing their duties. This was excellent, and cements the statement which I've always made concerning crime and the police. This statement is, "if the police officers will simply do their duty, crime would reduce, full stop".

Why did it take a State of Emergency to get these cops to work, to suddenly have sufficient vehicles to be everywhere? Poor management is the simple answer; because as with any failing business, the cause is always a managerial issue.

Bizarro Earth

Trinidad Declares State of Emergency in Crime Hot-Spots

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A limited state of emergency is in force in several areas of Trinidad, as the government moves to tackle a recent spike in violent crime.

The measures, announced on Sunday by Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, include an overnight curfew.

She said they were targeting what she called "hot spots" as part of efforts to tackle "wanton acts of lawlessness".

The opposition said it was a "panic response" by the government.

The declaration of emergency rule in six areas in Trinidad, which will last 15 days, came after the country saw 11 murders in just a couple of days.

Ms Persad-Bissessar said the killings were a reaction by drug gangs to recent major seizures by the police of consignments worth millions of dollars.

Sheriff

US, New Mexico: State Cop Gets Ax Over Sex Scandal

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© Clyde MuellerNew Mexico State Police officer Bert Lawrence Lopez, left, pictured during a January DWI checkpoint on Agua Frรญa Street, has been fired. A surveillance camera caught him having sex with a woman on the hood of a car at La Bajada Ranch while in uniform.
The New Mexico State Police officer who was photographed having sex on the hood of a Honda is no longer a cop.

Bert Lopez was informed late this week that the Department of Public Safety has fired him, The New Mexican has learned.

It is unclear when that decision was made as agency spokesman Sgt. Tim Johnson has declined to comment until all appeals have been exhausted.

"It is an embarrassing situation for the department, but we have to remember the rights of the employee afford him due process we must follow so we won't be commenting further," Johnson said.

But when asked Friday evening if Lopez was still employed with the New Mexico State Police, Johnson said, "No."

Padlock

Media Rights Group Warns Egypt Blogger May Die in Jail

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© unknownMuzzled: Maikel Nabil Sanad is serving a three-year sentence for speaking out.
A media watchdog on Saturday called for the immediate release of a blogger sentenced by Egypt's military to three years in jail, warning that he might die after he stopped eating and drinking.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said in a statement that Maikel Nabil Sanad, who began his hunger strike on August 23 and more recently started refusing to drink, "could very soon die."

"The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces would have to take full responsibility. Held for exercising his right to freedom of expression, Sanad must not become the symbol of a repressive and unjust post-Mubarak Egypt," it said.

A military court convicted Nabil in April on charges of insulting the armed forces, prompting US lawmakers to send a letter to the military ruler, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, demanding his release.

Handcuffs

American Jailed in Cuba: I was 'Trusting Fool'

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© US State Dept.Alan Gross and his wife Judy
An American government subcontractor sentenced to 15 years in prison after illegally bringing communications equipment into Cuba told a Havana court he was a "trusting fool" and never meant any harm to the government, according to excerpts from his testimony released Friday by his lawyer.

Alan Gross, a 62-year-old Maryland native who has been jailed here since December 2009, said he had no idea his actions while on a USAID-funded democracy-building program would raise the ire of Havana authorities.

Cuba says he was distributing satellite telephones and other communications equipment that are illegal to use without authorization. The island's government says the U.S. democracy programs in general are an assault by Washington on the country's sovereignty. Gross has maintained he was only trying to help the Cuba's tiny Jewish community improve Internet access.

"I do deeply regret that my actions have been misinterpreted as harmful and a threat against the security and independence of Cuba. Surely, this runs counter to what I had intended," Gross told the court on March 4, according to the transcript released by his Washington-based lawyer, Peter J. Kahn.

Info

US: Rebecca Zahau Suicide Likely Tied to Boy's Injuries, Officials Say

Rebecca Zahau
© unknownRebecca Zahau's family doesn't believe her death was a suicide.
Rebecca Zahau, the girlfriend of pharmaceutical executive Jonah Shacknai who committed suicide at his Coronado mansion, was distraught over injuries his son suffered in her care and that is apparently why she decided to hang herself, authorities said Friday.

Zahau's nude body was found in the courtyard of the historic Spreckels mansion on Ocean Boulevard on the morning of July 13. Her hands and feet had been loosely tied, and a noose was around her neck and tied to a second-story balcony, officials said.

Although how she killed herself may seem unusual, it is not unprecedented and there is no evidence that there was foul play, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said at a Friday morning news conference.

Her fingerprints and DNA were the only ones found on the rope as well as the knife she used to cut it into pieces and place sections around her feet, hands and around her neck, Gore and other authorities said. Investigators also conducted an experiment with a woman of similar size to see if she could tie herself up in the same way with the same knots, and they concluded that she could, authorities said.

"Science does not lie," Gore said.