Even without the busy Christmas season, guarded closer than Pentagon secret telephone numbers are those leading to live personnel at postal facilities, observed Grumpy Editor.
A look under U.S. Postal Service listings in the latest CenturyLink telephone directory comes up with this: “Postal representatives are available to respond to your questions & or concerns 24 hours per day---7 days a week. Please call---”
Yeah, try.
In Grumpy Editor’s phone book there are 34 Post Office locations listed --- NONE with a telephone number.
A call to the regional postmaster brings a recorded voice, that includes information on passports. But that’s it. No live postal workers.
A Web search turns up some telephone numbers. But dialing them produce no live action.
The main phone number unearthed for the area, automatically disconnects about a minute after dialing.
Listed separately in the phone book with businesses beginning with the letter “U” is “United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General” with the address.
What this leads to is standing in line at your nearby postal facility to get an answer to a question.
Dial a regional postmaster and get another recorded voice.
Also, not being able to connect immediately with a postal authority makes it easier for thieves who break into mail boxes, especially cluster versions, and making off with contents.
Perhaps some of the extra funds from the five cents per stamp increase upcoming next month can be used for live personnel to man Post Office phones.
IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...
VETERANS HIT BY HOSPITAL STAFF SHORTAGES. Staff shortages at military hospitals have forced some to discontinue services, refer patients to private providers and send others to Veterans Affairs hospitals for treatment, a government watchdog has found, reported Stars and Stripes, adding "in some cases, lack of civilian personnel could threaten the accreditation of hospital programs."
NUNS VISIT CASINOS. Two nuns from a Catholic school in Torrance, Calif. over a decade allegedly stole more than $500,000 from their school which they spent in casinos and on vacations.
HELLO, ANYONE HOME? A moose awakened a couple in Anchorage by ringing the doorbell. A video showed the large moose backing its caboose into the doorbell.
ANOTHER NORTH KOREA “SURPRISE.” A think tank reported North Korea is expanding facilities near the Chinese border thought to house long-range miissiles that can reach the U.S.
GAIN IN GOLDEN STATE SOLAR USE SET. California last week became the first state requiring homes built in 2020 and later to be solar powered. The new provisions are expected to boost the number of rooftop solar panels in the Golden State. Builders last year took out solar permits for more than 115,000 new homes.
NEWS WORKFORCE FACES CUTS. Thomson Reuters Corp. said it plans to cut its workforce by 12 percent, or 3,200 positions, by 2020 as part of a push to reduce spending.
CALIFORNIA LEADS WITH WELFARE PROGRAMS. The Center for Immigration Studies said about 72 percent of households headed by noncitizens and immigrants use one or more forms of taxpayer-funded welfare programs in California, the top immigrant-receiving state in the U.S. This compared with about 35 percent of households headed by native-born Americans using welfare in that state.
END OF THE RUN? Fate of The Weekly Standard is uncertain, Editor-in-Chief Stephen Hayes informed staff last week, according to CNN. Ryan McKibben, chairman of MediaDC, publisher of the conservative magazine, asked to meet with Hayes this week.
BOOST FOR SEARS, KMART? Sears chairman and former CEO Eddie Lampert has, via his ESL Investments hedge fund, bid $4.6 billion to buy around 500 Sears and Kmart stores from the bankrupt operation. The bid included Diehard battery and Kenmore appliance brands.
U.S. MOVIE FLOPS IN CHINA. The film, Crazy Rich Asians, may have been a surprise hit in the U.S., but it hasn't gone down well in China where it flopped on its opening weekend, reported South China Morning Post. Social media users there indicated the Cinderella-esque plot was "bland" and reminiscent of typical Chinese TV plotlines, said the newspaper, adding some also took offense at the title.
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