The holiday season will provide the struggling U.S. Postal Service with a much needed infusion of revenue, but hardly enough to stop its financial meltdown.
As the mail service heads into the holidays buckling under a $5.1 billion debt, sending packages is just about the only business line that’s growing and in the black. Keep reading →
After a 200-year history of delivering snail mail, the U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general proposed Friday that going into the email business might help pull the agency out of debt.
According to the report, the so-called eMailbox would be run by USPS with security features, but there was no mention of crucial details such as how much it would cost or a timeline for launch. Keep reading →
A new sense of urgency emerged Tuesday to save the U.S. Postal Service from disaster. It reported a $5.1 billion deficit for 2011 expected to grow to more than $11.3 billion next year.
Postal Service executives pleaded with Congress to come up with a plan to save the 200-year-old American institution. It’s likely to include layoffs of thousands of workers. Keep reading →
Disgover.com, a relatively new social networking and collaboration tool, is throwing out that boring and time-consuming 20th century office meeting.
Gone is the urgency for face-to-face meetings, long distance conference calls, high-priority e-mail messages or communal gatherings at a high-end hotel in a posh locale, travel costs that are a drain on government budgets in these austere times. Keep reading →
A new Senate plan emerged Wednesday to save the U.S. Postal Service from going belly up and keep Saturday delivery service for at least two years, but it also includes laying off 100,000 workers to balance its budget.
The proposal would keep the agency “from the brink of bankruptcy,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. But it still contains a number of painful fixes for the 200-year-old institution that is more than $9 billion in debt. Keep reading →
President Barack Obama took new action today on a growing crisis for patients unable to get certain prescription drugs, by directing the Food and Drug Administration Monday to take steps to reduce drug shortages across the USA, especially for those needing life-saving cancer drugs.
Obama signed an executive order intended to ease a problem that has been mushrooming in recent months, forcing delays in surgeries and cancer treatments. Keep reading →
The Food and Drug Administration has awarded a five-year $35 million grant to a nonprofit pharmaceutical think tank to figure out ways to improve drug safety and other measures toward ending the shortage crisis that’s enveloped the industry.
The National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education (NIPTE), a Chicago-based organization, is the recipient of the September grant that will be distributed to 11 universities to develop solutions to deter shortages of live-saving drugs by simplifying manufacturing and having fewer quality problems. Keep reading →
A penny hike in the cost of a first class stamp will help the financially-strapped U.S. Postal Service bring in $888 million a year but it’s not enough to save many jobs, according to a Cornell University management expert.
Rick Geddes, an expert on the Postal Service, tells Breaking Gov that the price hike is just a small part of massive changes the agency must undergo as it tries to solve its budget deficit and huge loss of mail volume since 2007. The Postal Service will still have to close rural offices and big sorting centers to downsize to today’s mail economy. Keep reading →
The congressional Super Committee has received several proposals to reduce the federal deficit with more pay freezes and less benefits for federal employees and a smaller federal workforce overall.
Specifically, there are proposals in both the House and Senate to eliminate benefits that help make federal jobs a magnet for good candidates – good pay, steady work, rare cutbacks and solid health insurance and pension benefits. Keep reading →
The Department of Veterans Affairs has reached the final stretch of what’s been a long effort to employ technology that allows private hospitals access to veterans’ medical records that can be used to evaluate health history and deliver better care.
The move is one of many within the VA as it strives to overhaul its image and provide the best care for America’s veterans and protect the security of their records. Keep reading →