Post office: Big cuts start in May WASHINGTON (AP) — With no financial relief in sight, the U.S. Postal Service is pushing ahead with planned cuts to more than 260 mail processing centers around the nation, part of a billion-dollar
Post office: Big cuts start in May
WASHINGTON (AP) — With no financial relief in sight, the U.S. Postal Service is pushing ahead with planned cuts to more than 260 mail processing centers around the nation, part of a billion-dollar cost-cutting effort that will slow delivery of first-class mail.
In a statement Thursday, the cash-strapped agency said it had completed a review of closings to mail processing centers it had proposed last fall. Based on community input and other factors, the post office said, it will move forward with consolidations involving virtually all of the 252 facilities on the list, as well as up to 12 new locations, beginning in mid-May.
Of the 264 facilities, roughly 41 won’t be closed or consolidated right away as the post office conducts additional reviews.
The consolidations are expected to result in a loss of roughly 35,000 jobs, which the post office hopes to achieve mainly through attrition. The agency described the move as a necessary cost-saving measure because of declining mail volume.
Copter collision kills 7 Marines
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Two military helicopters collided over the California desert during nighttime training exercises, killing seven Marines in the latest of several aircraft accidents involving Camp Pendleton troops.
The crash happened around 8 p.m. Wednesday and involved an AH-1W Cobra that carries two crew members and a UH-1 Huey utility helicopter carrying the other five service members, Lt. Maureen Dooley with Miramar Air Base in San Diego said Thursday. Six of them were from Camp Pendleton and one was from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona.
The aircraft collided in a remote portion of the Yuma Training Range Complex on the California side of the Chocolate Mountains very close to the Arizona border, Dooley said. The crash is under investigation and she had no details as to what could have occurred, Dooley said.
Man acquitted in wife’s Scuba death
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama judge on Thursday acquitted the man accused of drowning his newlywed wife during a honeymoon diving trip to Australia eight years ago, saying in an unusual ruling that prosecutors did not prove the man intentionally killed his wife to collect on a life insurance policy.
Circuit Judge Tommy Nail issued his ruling before the defense presented its case in the two-week-long trial and before jurors deliberated. Gabe Watson, 34, had faced life in prison without parole if convicted of murdering his wife, Tina Thomas Watson, in 2003. He served 18 months in an Australian prison after pleading guilty there to a manslaughter charge involving negligence.
Mom arrested in death, gives birth
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama woman is under guard at a hospital after she gave birth following her arrest in the death of her 9-year-old stepdaughter who authorities say was forced to run for three hours as punishment for lying about eating a candy bar.
Jessica Mae Hardin, 27, was transferred from the Etowah County Detention Center to a hospital on Wednesday. Etowah County District Attorney Jimmie Harp confirmed that Hardin had given birth hours after she was arrested. He didn’t say whether the newborn was a boy or a girl.
Hardin and her mother-in-law, 46-year-old Joyce Hardin Garrard, were arrested and charged with murder on Wednesday in the death of Savannah Hardin.
Sears will shed stores after loss
NEW YORK (AP) — Sears said Thursday that it’s unloading some of its profit-busting stores including the Ala Moana Center location in Honolulu, but the retailer fell short of revealing how it plans to woo shoppers into its remaining ones.
Investors have long speculated that the troubled retailer could sell off its massive real estate holdings to generate extra cash. But industry watchers say that will do little to solve Sears’ main problem: Rivals have been able to lure customers away from the chain because of its drab stores and unexciting merchandise.
“The image is atrocious. The stores are old and they’re run down. They don’t look like a nice place to visit,” said Ron Friedman, a partner in the retail and consumer products industry group of accounting firm Marcum, LLP in New York.
