Latest news with #Postal
Observer
12-05-2025
- Business
- Observer
Postal Prosperity Zone Oman project to launch this month
MUSCAT: A landmark initiative to integrate the Sultanate of Oman into the Postal Prosperity Zone (PPZ) – a global innovation programme promoted by the Universal Postal Union (UPU) – formally get underway this month. Overseeing the delivery of the PPZ Oman project is the partnership of Oman Post, part of Asyad Group, and UPU member Logistic-Natives, an international logistics infrastructure network for modern commerce. 'The PPZ Oman project, designed and managed by Oman Post and UPU CC member Logistics Natives, will start in May 2025, positioning Oman as a strategic node in a future-oriented, postal-driven e-commerce superhighway,' Berlin-based Logistic-Natives announced in a post on Monday. Plans for the establishment of the a PPZ project in Oman – the first in Asia and the Gulf region – were first unveiled last month during a visit by a high-level delegation from the Universal Postal Union (UPU), its Consultative Committee (UPU CC), and representatives from the World Customs Organization (WCO), government institutions, and global e-commerce stakeholders including Cainiao, SF Express and YTO. The underlying objective was to firm up plans for the establishment of the Middle East's first PPZ in the Sultanate of Oman. The PPZ initiative aims to enhance the integrated logistics network by establishing seamless digital links between Oman Post and international e-commerce platforms. It supports the development of modern customs systems and strengthens Oman's global transport competitiveness. The project focuses on real-time data exchange between postal and customs services, unifying labelling and tracking procedures, and optimising the movement of goods across air, sea, rail and road networks. Logistic-Natives, an association representing the interests of over 30,000 companies in the logistics industry, has described the PPZ initiative as a 'model for seamless cross-border e-commerce'. 'The PPZ initiative is a global innovation programme initiated by the UPU CC,' the German infrastructure network noted in its post. 'Fully aligned with UPU and WCO standards and regulations and based on existing UPU IT infrastructure, it facilitates cross-border e-commerce by (1) Establishing direct IT connectivity and integration between national posts and commercial senders (e.g. marketplaces); (2) Upgrading customs clearance flows and related infrastructure to meet global benchmarks and best practices; and (3) Optimising the digital and operational capabilities of national posts to provide competitive e-commerce delivery solutions and services which meet the requirements of commercial senders.'
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New development in Little River to bring three national fast food chains. What are they?
A new development coming to Little River will bring three new restaurant chains to the area. Impeccable Development plans to open a Freddy's, Del Taco and Popeyes in Little River near the car dealerships on S.C. 9. Construction should finish near the end of 2025 with the businesses opening shortly after, said Jared Postal, the project manager for Impeccable Development, in an email to The Sun News. This will be the third Freddy's and second Del Taco and Popeyes locations Impeccable Development will bring to the Myrtle Beach area. The three chains had few to no locations in the Myrtle Beach area prior to these developments. 'Horry County and surrounding areas continue to be an incredibly attractive market for us. We feel the area's steady population growth, strong year-round economy, and unique seasonality make it a great fit for brands like Popeyes, Freddy's, and Del Taco,' Postal said. 'We've seen great tremendous consumer support in nearby markets and believe Little River is the perfect next step in our expansion.' Traffic along S.C. 9 has increased with the population growth in the Little River area. At least 8,000 more cars traveled daily on S.C. 9 in 2023 compared to 2013, according to South Carolina Department of Transportation data. Del Taco has been making moves into the Carolinas, with a location to open soon in Durham, North Carolina, and another to open along Dick Pond Road near Socastee. The Tex-Mex restaurant started in California but has grown to just under 600 locations, according to its website. Freddy's is a national chain serving burgers, fries and frozen custard. There are hundreds of locations across the nation, with 12 in South Carolina. Popeyes serves Louisiana-style fried chicken with other southern-style sides. It will be in direct competition with Bojangles, which has a store less than half a mile away along S.C. 9.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
USPS mail delivery changes begin: Here's what to know
The Brief The USPS is adjusting service standards for first-class mail, periodicals, marketing mail, and package services. It will deliver 75% of first-class mail at the same service standard, 14% will be upgraded to a faster standard, and 11% will have a slower standard, the agency said – but all will still be within the current 1-5 day range. The changes are projected to save $36 billion over the next 10 years, USPS said. Changes to service standards for the U.S. Postal Service began this month, in an effort to provide "more reliable service" for Americans. Under the new approach, most will get their mail in the same service window, some will get it faster, and some a little slower. Here's what to know: What we know The USPS said it's adjusting service standards for first-class mail, periodicals, marketing mail, and package services. It will deliver 75% of first-class mail at the same service standard, 14% will be upgraded to a faster standard, and 11% will have a slower standard, but all will still be within the current range of one to five days. USPS Ground Advantage range of two to five days is also staying the same, while the day ranges for end-to-end Marketing Mail, Periodicals, and Package Services are being shortened. "All mail will benefit from more reliable service," a USPS press release said. Dig deeper Postal workers will be allowed to dispatch earlier and travel farther distances in an effort to improve "service reliability and enable critical revenue growth." Additionally, mail tracking is now being organized into three "legs": Leg 1 is the path from collection to origin processing, Leg 2 is the path from origin processing to destination processing, and Leg 3 is the path from destination processing to final delivery. The current service standards only account for Leg 2, according to the agency – and the new changes will more "accurately reflect how mail travels through the postal network." The changes are projected to save $36 billion over the next 10 years "from transportation, mail processing, and real estate cost reductions." Timeline USPS said these service standard changes will be implemented in two phases to "facilitate effective operational execution," with the first having already begun on April 1 and the second on July 1. Big picture view USPS has been struggling financially in recent years and fought calls from President Donald Trump and others that it be privatized. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, appointed during Trump's first term in 2020, announced a 10-year turnaround plan last year, but announced plans to step down in February and asked the Postal Service Board of Governors to look for his successor. By the numbers Since a reorganization in 1970, the USPS has been largely self-funded. The bulk of its annual $78.5 billion budget comes from customer fees, according to the Congressional Research Service. Congress provides a relatively small annual appropriation — about $50 million in fiscal year 2023 — to subsidize free and reduced-cost mail services. Amid challenges that include the decline in profitable first-class mail and the cost of retiree benefits, the Postal Service accumulated $87 billion in losses from 2007 to 2020. However, the service reported a $144 million profit last quarter, attributing it to DeJoy's 10-year plan to modernize operations and stem losses. The service reported a net loss of $2.1 billion for the same quarter last year. USPS currently employs about 640,000 workers tasked with making deliveries from inner cities to rural areas and even far-flung islands. What they're saying "By implementing the new standards and the operational initiatives to which they are aligned, we will be better able to achieve the goals of our modernization plans and create a high-performing, financially sustainable organization, which is necessary to achieve the statutory policies and objectives established for the Postal Service by law," Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a statement. What you can do The USPS also implemented a new Service Standards Map that customers can use to find out estimated mailing times from one ZIP code to the next. The search results show the expected delivery dates based on which mail service is used. The Source This story was reported using information provided by the U.S. Postal Service on February 26, 2025. It was reported from Cincinnati, and the Associated Press contributed.
New York Times
05-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Democrats Are Looking for the Resistance in All the Wrong Places
Ever since Donald Trump returned to the White House and turned Elon Musk's chain saw on longstanding federal programs and agencies, Democratic voters have been asking: Where is the opposition? Democrats are still furious at Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, for helping Mr. Trump keep the government open; many find the public style of Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader in the House, too buttoned-up to meet the moment. And while more Democratic politicians are jetting to town hall meetings and rallies, list-building and maneuvering to run for president in 2028 aren't the same thing as organizing. Even Senator Cory Booker, who took to the Senate floor this week with a 25-hour speech, capped his heroic effort with a volley of texts and emails asking for money. That's not how you build a movement. Democrats have been looking for the next resistance in all the wrong places. Instead of waiting for some politician to say the right words and catch fire, they should look to the people who are already on fire: federal workers. America's 2.4 million civilian federal workers are, by their nature, generally patriotic and politically moderate. Nearly 30 percent of them are veterans. They all take an oath to defend the Constitution. Also, unlike many politicians from both parties who went to elite schools, are worth millions and have to talk about their parents' or grandparents' humble beginnings to claim a connection to their constituents, most federal workers are just like the people they serve: working and middle class. All this makes them uniquely well positioned to lead a new kind of resistance — more mainstream and grounded than the last one, and powerful enough to mobilize millions of Americans under its banner. It's a truism that Americans do not realize how much good the federal government does in their lives. But now there's an army spreading out to remind them. In March, off-duty park rangers led demonstrations in more than 100 locations, from Abraham Lincoln's home to Zion National Park. Postal employees, who work for an independent federal agency and number about 635,000 nationwide, held similar rallies in more than 200 places. Federal workers are also protesting inside the U.S. Capitol, testifying at community impact hearings and speaking up at town halls. On Saturday, groups such as Indivisible and MoveOn, which helped lead the resistance to Mr. Trump during his first term, are staging their first big national demonstration in Washington, and federal workers and their unions have a significant role. Satellite rallies are happening in more than 1,000 locations around the country. Why is this new defiance emerging from this corner of the political landscape? Many Democrats accepted Mr. Trump's re-election with a kind of stunned resignation — it's hard to argue with a popular and electoral vote victory. But hardly anyone expected Mr. Musk's rampage through the heart of the federal government with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The authors of Project 2025, a blueprint prepared for Mr. Trump's new term, called for tightening government hiring and retention standards, and for making it easier to fire low-performing civil servants. They did not recommend giving an unelected mega-billionaire super-bureaucrat the power to demolish whole government agencies and programs overnight by deleting their budgets, firing many of their employees without cause or due process and badgering the rest with mass emails demanding they prove their value on a weekly basis. Human beings also don't like being told that their life's work is being fed 'into the wood chipper,' as Mr. Musk gleefully described DOGE's destruction of agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It's still early days. Many government workers are keeping their heads down, hoping to avoid attention and keep their jobs. Some are doing what they can to throw sand in the gears, by leaking damning news to reporters. Many of their unions — who just had their longstanding contracts canceled by Mr. Trump — are fighting back in the courts. And every week, more of the rank and file are speaking out, sharing their stories and organizing. Rosa Lafer-Sousa and Matt Brown are postdoctoral research fellows at the National Institutes of Health, doing cutting-edge work in neuroscience. They're both officers in the fledgling union of N.I.H. fellows. Despite their prestigious jobs, most of the fellows live paycheck to paycheck, Dr. Brown said. After 10 years of academic study, he makes less than $70,000 a year. DOGE's firing spree is breeding a heightened political awareness in them. 'I spend a lot of time on TikTok,' Dr. Lafer-Sousa said. 'Very early on, seeing videos in my feed of veterans who had just been illegally terminated, seeing scientists who had just been illegally terminated, seeing park rangers,' she said, she realized that 'this is our coalition. We are now all experiencing the same cruel treatment, and we can work together to fight back against this.' 'What unites us is we all took an oath,' she added. 'We all chose, at least within the federal sector, to serve our country.' An Army Corps of Engineers worker said something similar when we met in March at a weekly picket outside the office of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Lower Manhattan. He described how the day he was hired, he stood by a flag, put his hand on a Bible and took an oath to defend the Constitution. He had come out on his lunch break to support fired bureau workers. 'They keep Wall Street in line,' he explained. 'This is all crucial to the way we live our lives, the way we protect our homes and the way the American system has worked.' As we talked, protesters of all races and ages marched in circles, waving American flags and chanting things like '2-4-6-8, Dodd-Frank is pretty great!' One woman held a sign that read, 'Credit card late fees? Hidden charges on auto loans? Mortgage lender 'loses' your payment? THE C.F.P.B. HELPS YOU.' Since Mr. Trump returned to office, dozens of clinical drug trials have been halted, cancer research programs have been shut down, commercial fishers in the midst of updating their boats have lost thousands of dollars, food banks have gone into panic mode, veterans have lost mental health counselors, parents of kids with special needs have been told to expect fewer school aides, and the Social Security website crashed four times in 10 days. As the blast radius of Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk's cuts and chaos spreads, federal workers and their message will only resonate further. It's like the Joni Mitchell lyric: 'You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.' The health workers, scientists, park rangers, veterans care providers, letter carriers, air traffic controllers and many others who are speaking out aren't just trying to save their jobs — they're trying to save programs and investments that were providing irreplaceable services to regular Americans. By going after the federal work force, Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk are radicalizing the very people who can best explain how the government does so much good for so many.
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Rep. Messmer answers questions following last weekend's protest
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — Indiana's 8th Congressional District Representative Mark Messmer answers questions on Friday following a protest in downtown Evansville last weekend. Hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside his field office last Saturday. Saving Congressman Messmer has not made himself available, they urged the congressman to host a town hall. Some constituents also told our crew they were concerned over the future of Medicaid and Medicare. It's something that Congressman Messmer on Friday says he's working to protect. 'Everybody always thinks of the worst outcome possible when we're talking about making any type of adjustments to programs. But our goal and whatever reforms we do to any Medicaid-specific programs will be to make sure the programs are preserved for the people who truly need it.' In Washington, Congressman Messmer says he's working on renewing the federal Farm Bill and worker protection issues. Welcome Home: Marion VA visits Evansville to offer gratitude to Vietnam veterans Rep. Messmer answers questions following last weekend's protest Warrick County organizations to open women's residential recovery center Downtown business celebrates Evansville's 213th birthday Postal workers and supporters oppose USPS privatization in downtown Evansville Eyewitness News. Everywhere you are. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
