Goodbye Saturday mail? Postal Service plans cuts

Saturday mail may soon go the way of the Pony Express and penny postcards. The Postal Service said Wednesday that it plans to cut back to five-day-a-week deliveries for everything except packages to stem its financial losses in a world radically re-ordered by the Internet.

In this Tuesday, March 2, 2010 photo, letter carrier Kevin Pownall delivers mail in Philadelphia. Photo: MATT ROURKE / AP
In this Tuesday, March 2, 2010 photo, letter carrier Kevin Pownall delivers mail in Philadelphia. Photo: MATT ROURKE / AP

By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Saturday mail may soon go the way of the Pony Express and penny postcards. The Postal Service said Wednesday that it plans to cut back to five-day-a-week deliveries for everything except packages to stem its financial losses in a world radically re-ordered by the Internet.

“Our financial condition is urgent,” declared Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe. But Congress has voted in the past to bar the idea of eliminating Saturday delivery, and his announcement immediately drew protests from some lawmakers. The plan, which is to take effect in August, also brought vigorous objections from farmers, the letter carriers’ union and others.

The Postal Service, which suffered a $15.9 billion loss in the past budget year, said it expected to save $2 billion annually with the Saturday cutback. Mail such as letters and magazines would be affected. Delivery of packages of all sizes would continue six days a week.

The plan accentuates one of the agency’s strong points: Package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has plummeted. Email has decreased the mailing of paper letters, but online purchases have increased package shipping, forcing the Postal Service to adjust to customers’ new habits.

“Things change,” Donahoe said.

In fact, the Postal Service has had to adapt to changing times ever since Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general by the Continental Congress in 1775. The Pony Express began in 1860, six-day delivery started in 1863, and airmail became the mode in 1918. Twice-a-day delivery was cut to one in 1950 to save money.

But change is not the biggest factor in the agency’s predicament – Congress is. The majority of the service’s red ink comes from a 2006 law forcing it to pay $11 billion a year into future retiree health benefits, something no other agency does. Without that and related labor expenses, the mail agency sustained an operating loss of $2.4 billion last year, lower than the previous year.

Congress also has stymied the service’s efforts to close some post offices in small towns.

Under the new plan, mail would be delivered to homes and businesses only from Monday through Friday but would still be delivered to post office boxes on Saturdays. Post offices now open on Saturdays would remain open.

Over the past several years, the Postal Service has advocated shifting to a five-day delivery schedule for mail and packages – and it repeatedly but unsuccessfully has appealed to Congress to approve the move. An independent agency, the service gets no tax dollars for its day-to-day operations but is subject to congressional control.

The proposed change is based on what appears to be a legal loophole – and that may be a gamble. Congress has long included a ban on five-day-only delivery in its spending bills, but because the federal government is now operating under a temporary spending measure rather than an appropriations bill, Donahoe says it’s the agency’s interpretation that it can make the change itself.

“This is not like a `gotcha’ or anything like that,” he said. The agency essentially wants Congress to keep the ban out of any new spending bill after the temporary measure expires March 27.

Might Congress try to block the idea?

“Let’s see what happens,” he said. “I can’t speak for Congress.”

Two Republican lawmakers said they had sent a letter to leaders of the House and Senate in support of the elimination of Saturday mail. It’s “common-sense reform,” wrote Darrell Issa of California, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

But Alaska Democratic Sen. Mark Begich called it “bad news for Alaskans and small business owners” who he said need timely delivery to rural areas.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she was disappointed, questioned the savings estimate and worried the loss of Saturday service might drive customers away.

“The Postal Service is the linchpin of a $1 trillion mailing and mail-related industry that employs more than 8 million Americans in fields as diverse as direct mail, printing, catalog companies, magazine and newspaper publishing and paper manufacturing,” she said. “A healthy Postal Service is not just important to postal customers but also to our national economy.”

She noted that the Senate last year passed a bill that would have stopped the postal service from eliminating Saturday service for at least two years and required it to try two years of aggressive cost cutting instead.

The House didn’t pass a bill.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday, `’I think trying to act in this postal area is pretty difficult. But I understand where the postal commission is coming from. They’re in charge with running the post office, but yet the Congress, in its wisdom, has tied their hands every which way in order for them to actually run the post office in a revenue neutral way.”

“And so Congress needs to act, there’s no question about that, and I hope we’ll act soon.”

President Barack Obama’s spokesman, Jay Carney, said the White House learned only Tuesday about the agency’s decision to cut Saturday service. He said the White House is still evaluating the decision but would have preferred its own comprehensive overhaul package that failed to pass Congress last year be adopted “for the sake of a stronger future Postal Service.”

The president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Fredric Rolando, said the cutback is “a disastrous idea that would have a profoundly negative effect on the Postal Service and on millions of customers,” particularly businesses, rural communities, the elderly, the disabled and others who depend on Saturday delivery for commerce and communication.

He said the maneuver by Donahoe to make the change “flouts the will of Congress, as expressed annually over the past 30 years in legislation that mandates six-day delivery.”

The National Farmers Union said “impacts on rural America will be particularly harmful.”

Despite that opposition, the Postal Service clearly thinks it has a majority of the American public on its side. The service’s market research indicates that nearly 7 in 10 people support the switch as a way to reduce costs, Donahoe said.

He said the savings would include employee reassignment and attrition.

The agency in November reported a record annual loss of $15.9 billion for the past budget year and forecast more red ink in 2013, capping a tumultuous year in which it was forced to default on the $11 billion in retiree health benefit prepayments to avert bankruptcy.

The financial losses for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 were more than triple the $5.1 billion loss in the previous year. Having reached its borrowing limit, the mail agency is operating with little cash on hand.

The Postal Service is in the midst of a major restructuring throughout its retail, delivery and mail processing operations. Since 2006, it has cut annual costs by about $15 billion, reduced the size of its career workforce by 193,000, or 28 percent, and has consolidated more than 200 mail processing locations, officials say.

Learn secrets of Everett on a walk back in time

Shelton Story Pole, Wetmore & California Ave.: From 1923 to 1929 a 60-foot American Indian story pole stood right in the middle of this intersection. The pole became a problem for fire engines, which had trouble getting around it. Photo courtesy of the Everett Public Library
Shelton Story Pole, Wetmore & California Ave.: From 1923 to 1929 a 60-foot American Indian story pole stood right in the middle of this intersection. The pole became a problem for fire engines, which had trouble getting around it. Photo courtesy of the Everett Public Library

By Debra Smith, Herald Writer

Originally published Sept. 7, 2010.

EVERETT — It’s easy to walk downtown streets and forget Everett is an old man of a city, with secrets, strange stories and even violence in its past.

President Teddy Roosevelt once spoke to a crowd of 15,000 on Colby Avenue. A newspaper editor shot and killed a political foe not far from a spot later known as the Free Speech Corner.

For a period in the 1920s, a 60-foot American Indian story pole stood smack in the middle of Wetmore Avenue and California Street. It eventually had to come down because city firefighters couldn’t get fire engines around it.

Historian David Dilgard captured these and other fascinating tidbits in a downtown Everett walking tour you can take anytime. The audio tour and the accompanying map are available for free at the Everett Public Library’s website at www.epls.org. Download the audio tour onto an MP3 player and take a walk back through time.

Everett Theatre Sign, 2911 Colby Ave.: A fire at the theatre had one bright spot. The renovations after the fire included the addition of a charming Renaissance Revival facade. The site is one stop on a history tour of downtown Everett.Photo courtesy of the Everett Public Library
Everett Theatre Sign, 2911 Colby Ave.: A fire at the theatre had one bright spot. The renovations after the fire included the addition of a charming Renaissance Revival facade. The site is one stop on a history tour of downtown Everett.
Photo courtesy of the Everett Public Library

The tour takes a little more than an hour to complete. It starts at the library and follows a circular 2.5-mile route through downtown.

The tour includes more than 60 sites and covers subjects as varied as crime, politics, architecture and famous people.

Dilgard has led historical tours of downtown Everett for 30 years. However, he expects even the most knowledgeable locals to hear something surprising.

“I would be profoundly disappointed if anybody who took this tour didn’t find something they didn’t know,” Dilgard said.

Ban on shrimp fishing enacted for inland waters

A large brown spot shrimp and a predatory sea star. Photo: Ed Bowlby, NOAA/Olympic Coast NMS
A large brown spot shrimp and a predatory sea star. Photo: Ed Bowlby, NOAA/Olympic Coast NMS

By Gale Fiege, Herald Writer, http://www.heraldnet.com

EVERETT — Kevin Nihart made a living by fishing for spot shrimp in the waters of Possession Sound and selling his harvest off the dock near Anthony’s HomePort restaurant.

He won’t be able to do it this year, however.

The state Fish and Wildlife Commission decided in December to ban commercial shrimpers in the inland marine waters south from Deception Pass and Port Townsend, including all of Puget Sound. The idea is aimed to boost sport fishing in more urban areas of the state. Spot shrimp is a prawnlike shellfish found from California to Alaska.

For Nihart, it’s a tough loss for his business and he says it’s a sad loss for his many faithful customers, who bought from him off the docks in Everett, Mukilteo and Edmonds.

Now Nihart, who lives in Anacortes, can commercially fish for spot shrimp only in the marine waters around the San Juan Islands and in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the availability in the San Juans is limited.

“Fishing near Everett was how I made my living,” Nihart said. “I can’t afford to run my boat from the straits to the dock in Everett or even truck my shrimp in for the Everett Farmers Market. A lot of people I sold to are going to be disappointed. I feel bad for my customers.”

Only a small group of people actually shrimp commercially in the waters off Washington. The state licensed just 18 commercial shrimp fishermen last season and only two, including Nihart, harvested spot shrimp in Puget Sound, said department biologist Mark O’Toole.

It used to be that the Port Susan, Possession Sound and Puget Sound spot shrimp harvest was divided, 60 percent to recreational fishermen and 40 percent to commercial boats. The spot shrimp season begins in late spring. Nihart is a long-line fisherman who uses shrimp traps on his lines. Recreational shrimp fishermen use traps similar to crab pots.

Nihart sold spot shrimp at the Everett Farmers Market for the past four years and for the past six years on the dock below Anthony’s HomePort restaurant off Marine View Drive.

Joe Verdoes, president of the Puget Sound Shrimp Association, testified in September before the state Fish and Wildlife Commission, asking that commercial fishing of spot shrimp be allowed to continue in the Puget Sound region.

“This change makes it very difficult for guys like Kevin,” Verdoes said.

The state is encouraging commercial fishing in the strait because it is more of a sustainable resource there, O’Toole said.

“This is particularly hard on Kevin, and we know people in Everett, Mukilteo and Edmonds are going to miss being able to buy fresh prawns from him off the dock,” O’Toole said.

Native American kids learn about humanity

YETI club members at the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club.
YETI club members at the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club.

Article by Jeannie Briones and Kim Kalliber; photos by Jeannie Briones, Tulalip News Staff

The Tulalip Boys & Girls Club has incorporated a new program into their learning curriculum. YETI (Youth Education To Inspire) Tribal is an Internet-based club designed to help children explore their bodies and emotions, and learn about the wonders of humanity. What’s more, these children will be connecting with others around the Northwest via the Internet.

Kids in the YETI club, guided by adult supervision, make a fun-filled journey with children from other cultures, learning the complexity of the human body. The age group ranges from 2nd to 4th grade, and the club currently consists of kids from Tulalip and other reservations located in Spokane, Wash., Warm Springs, Or., and Lapwai, Idaho. Tulalip YETI clubbers meet every Wednesday at the Boys and Girls Club, from 3:30 p.m.- 4:30 p.m., to engage in online conversations and activities, along with arts and crafts and games in the Club’s Immersion Room.

These live chats engage kids from all over the Northwest to help each other understand who they are and learn to respect themselves, others, and other cultures, in a safe and non-judgmental environment.

“I like everything about it. We are getting kids together around the Northwest and different reservations to talk about what they like and what they don’t like, and they learn about their bodies, minds, and feelings. What I hope is that this program expands across the entire country. It’s a very good program. So far we are in our second week and the kids love it, they’re having a blast,” said Jay Davis, Tulalip Boys & Girls Club Yeti Club Facilitator and Games Room Coordinator.

Jay, along with Christina Gahringer, Director of Education Technology, for the Club, are currently working with the kids on body exploration. Kids are learning about their bodies and the functions of body organs, such as the heart, lungs, stomach and brain. Students then create a life-size drawing of their bodies, coloring in their inside parts. By learning bodily functions, kids can learn to better appreciate their bodies and to respect them.

“I like learning about the body parts,” said Tulalip Boys & Girls Club member Eian Williams.

YETI club members will also be learning about emotions, such as happy, sad, angry or scared, and the affect they can have on the body. Kids will explore the physical sources and reactions of emotions.

As a whole, YETI is designed to help kids to gain a sense of personal appreciation, to see themselves in others and gain patience and understanding in their relationships, now and in the future.

The YETI Tribal Club is a part of Wholeschool, a non-profit educational organization, started in Spokane, Washington. YETI also operates with support from Tulalip Tribes Charitable Funds.

To learn more about the YETI Club, contact Jay or Christina at the Tulalip Boys & Girls Club at 360-716-340 or visit www.bgclub.tulaliptribes-nsn.gov.

Stillaguamish Tribe sponsors salmon habitat restoration on Cherokee Creek

Coho salmon swim in newly restored habitat in Cherokee Creek.
Coho salmon swim in newly restored habitat in Cherokee Creek.

Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, http://nwifc.org

The Stillaguamish Tribe recently partnered with the state Department of Natural Resources Family Forest Fish Passage Program to restore access to Cherokee Creek, near Darrington.

Cherokee Creek provides spawning, rearing and refuge for coho and other species of Pacific salmon, as well as cutthroat and bull trout. However, the creek also was home to a deteriorating metal culvert that had been poorly installed and was too small to withstand floods.

“The culvert had created an artificial waterfall that was too high for salmon to swim or jump past on their way upstream,” said Scott Rockwell, Forest and Fish biologist for the tribe. “It was also interfering with natural stream ecology, interrupting the downstream movement of water, fallen trees and gravel.”

The Family Forest Fish Passage Program replaced the culvert with a steel bridge and an 80-foot-long section of stream channel that restored fish access to more than a mile of productive spawning habitat. The state program helps small forest landowners comply with forest practice rules by covering 75-100 percent of the cost of eliminating stream barriers.

At a fall event celebrating the project’s completion, many coho salmon swam through the restored area.

“Their genetic compasses guided them back to habitat that had not been accessible for years,” said Washington State Forester Aaron Everett, who worked on the project.

As a project sponsor, the Stillaguamish Tribe conducted landowner outreach, collected habitat data, provided matching project funds, and managed project design, construction oversight, permitting and billing.

Cherokee Creek is a spawner index stream for coho salmon. For the past 12 years, Stillaguamish natural resources staff have documented the number and location of spawning adults and redds (egg nests) to help forecast the size of future coho runs.

For more information about the state’s Small Forest Landowner Office, visit www.dnr.wa.gov/sflo.

Back to the River documentary premieres at Seattle Aquarium

 

Dana Wilson, Lummi tribal fisherman, pauses in front of a sign for the movie, Back to the River. Wilson and his father are both in the documentary.
Dana Wilson, Lummi tribal fisherman, pauses in front of a sign for the movie, Back to the River. Wilson and his father are both in the documentary.

http://nwifc.org

 

The premiere of the documentary, Back to the River, was held at the Seattle Aquarium Feb. 2. The movie details the story of the treaty rights struggle from the pre-Boldt era to tribal and state co-management. The movie includes the voices and personal accounts of tribal fishers, leaders and others active in the treaty fishing rights struggle. More photos of the event can be found here and you can watch the movie on Vimeo. To order a copy of the movie, e-mail: contact@salmondefense.org.

Tribal member shines at poetry competition

By Kim Kalliber and Jeannie Briones, Tulalip News Staff

Eighteen year-old Tulalip tribal member Braulio Ramos took an unexpected journey into self-discovery during his senior year at high school. What did he learn? That he’s pretty darn good at public speaking, and reciting poetry.

Braulio Ramos

With no real interest in learning poetry, Braulio, a student at the Bio Academy at Maryville’s Getchell High School campus, joined the Poetry Out Loud nationwide recital contest. His natural charisma, topped with mad memorization skills, won him first place in the high school level competition in December 2012.

That win landed him in Burlington, Washington where he took part in the regional poetry recital competition on January 30th.

Over 50 audience members, including four judges, filled the Burlington Library to watch 13 contestants from high schools around the northwest, do their thing. Each contestant had to recite two poems of their choosing from the Poetry Out Loud pre-approved list of poetry. Their performance is judged on physical presence, voice articulation, dramatic appropriateness, level of difficulty, evidence of understanding, and overall performance.

Braulio spent hours rehearsing lines to ‘Bilingual/Bilingue’ by Rhina P. Espaillat and ‘Jabberwocky’ by Lewis Carroll.

“The first one [I read], I was kind of scared, for the second one I was more confident and playful,” said Braulio.

Though Braulio did not place in the regional competition, he’s confident that he put on a good performance.

Numerous audience members thanked Braulio for his performance, praising his strong voice, and the originality and flare that he lent to his poems.

“I felt like a superstar,” said Braulio.

Sound Publishing to purchase Everett Herald

Sound Publishing, Inc. announced today that it has signed an agreement with the Washington Post Company to acquire the Everett Daily Herald, a 46,000 circulation daily and Sunday newspaper and its other print and online products. The transaction is expected to close in early March.

The Herald has been owned by the Washington Post Company (WPO:NYSE) for 35 years and is a leading provider of local news and information for the Snohomish County area.

“We are thrilled to have The Daily Herald join our growing family of newspapers,” said Gloria Fletcher, President of Sound Publishing. “The Herald is a very well respected newspaper and it is a great fit with our print and digital products serving the greater Seattle area.”

Sound Publishing is the largest community media organization in Washington, with 39 newspaper and digital titles, including The Arlington Times and The Marysville Globe, with a combined circulation of over 730,000. Sound is a subsidiary of Black Press, Ltd. Black Press publishes more than 170 newspapers and other publications in British Columbia, Alberta and Washington, as well as the Honolulu (Hawaii) Star-Advertiser and the Akron (Ohio) Beacon-Journal daily newspapers.

Marysville wrestlers head to 3A Wesco Regionals

Wrestlers By Roy Pablo, Tulalip News Guest Writer

Marysville Pilchuck High School made a great showing at the District Wrestling Tournament this past weekend.  The tournament was held at Stanwood High School on Friday and Saturday and is sending 10 wrestlers on to districts.

There were two first place winners, Ishmael Perez in the 195lb. weight class and Drew Hatch in the 160lb. weight class. Two second place winners, with Killian Page at 145lbs and Ryan Daurie at 126lbs.  Jacob Green 120lbs, Iggy Gabov 220lbs, and Jory Cooper 285lbs all placed 3rd and Johnathon Neuman 106 lbs took 4th.  Jake Merrick 182lbs and Sam Foss 106lbs advance as alternates.  Tony Hatch was also honored at this event with the Assistant Coach of the Year award.
Ishmael Perez, a senior this year, said, “I am really pumped to go on to regionals, and really excited about taking first. I worked really hard in High school and I am glad the work paid off.  This is my last chance so I really hope I make it to state. “ Ishmael pinned his opponent from Stanwood in the second round.

Drew Hatch also took first and dominated his opponent Josh Crebbin from Oak Harbor, pinning him in the second round.  “I was really excited and it was a great feeling after pinning Josh in the finals.  I guess it was especially cool because my Dad got that award for all of his hard work with the team,” said Drew.

Tony Hatch thinks his son’s win is much more exciting than the award, but is still incredibly honored.

When asked Tony to share his feelings about the nomination and the award Tony had this to say, “Being selected Wesco North 3A Assistant Coach of the year is very humbling. I just believe that this sport teaches kids very important life lessons, and that is why I have pushed my kids, nephews and other Tulalip kids to stay with it.  I have always tried to coach kids that being a classy champion is so much better than an arrogant champion, and that an athlete’s character is being judged at all times.  Even if we lose, we have to learn to lose like champions, but the next time we meet, the outcome will be different.”

“These kinds of teachings and philosophies have brought the kids that we coach to a whole different level,” continued Tony.  “I am glad the other coaches have noticed the job that we have done with our athletes.  I was surprised to see that my name had been nominated for Assistant Coach of the Year, but to see that the Wesco Coaches voted me Wesco North Coach of the Year was pretty cool.  I am honored and kind of humbled that they think of me like this.”

Marysville Pilchuck High School has the honor of hosting the 3A Wesco Regionals this Saturday February 9th.  They hope to send all 10 of their wrestlers on to the WIAA Mat Classic State Championship at the Tacoma Dome February 15th and 16th. They had three state placers last year and hope to at least double that figure.