In an email sent to constituents last night, Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham reported that the U.S. Post Office located at 1915 14th Street NW will be closing on December 31. more ›

If you thought that the U.S. Postal Service was done making cuts to its brick-and-mortar operations, well, you were mistaken: word comes today that the USPS is now considering shutting down around ten percent of its retail outlets nationwide. more ›

The lengthy quest of Mary Cheh's office to serve a subpoena to Sulaimon Brown and Cherita Whiting has ended! A statement released this afternoon by the Councilmember says that Brown and Whiting were served notice via certified mail and are expected to appear before the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment on May 13. Mark your calendars, people. more ›

The U.S. Postal Service will reportedly start delivering mail addressed to "Tysons Corner, VA" in the 22102 and 22182 zip codes this month. more ›

While it's no secret that the financial troubles of the United States Postal Service will likely lead to the closure of local post offices like the one at 14th and T Streets NW, it's also having another effect that may have slipped under your radar: a reduction in the number of familiar blue collection boxes around town. more ›

The United States Postal Service has been looking for ways to cut back on costs for, well, years now. But one of the biggest drains on USPS' yearly budget is their brick-and-mortar postal offices, which, with massive cuts in labor and a movement to online services, are often understaffed and underutilized. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that the USPS was looking to move on closing thousands of offices -- and Prince of Petworth publishes an email from a reader who overheard that the post office at 14th and T Streets would be "closing in a few months." more ›

Earlier this afternoon, a suspicious package at a U.S. Post Office at 3300 V Street NE ignited into flames -- now there are some additional details on that story. Authorities have admitted that there were two suspicious packages which were discovered at the D.C. post office this afternoon -- neither package was opened, but one was thrown into a bin and caught on fire. The packages reportedly resemble the two packages which were addressed to Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley and flared up inside Maryland state buildings yesterday. more ›

Multiple outlets are reporting that some kind of package ignited today at a United States postal facility on the 3300 block of V Street NE. The ignition occurred shortly before 3 p.m. today. The building was evacuated after the ignition, but no injuries have yet been reported. It is also not yet clear whether or not this incident has any connection to two similar incidents which occurred at Maryland state buildings yesterday afternoon. more ›

WRC-TV reporter Tom Sherwood reports that all D.C. government mailrooms have been temporarily shut down as a result of two packages which detonated at Maryland state buildings in Anne Arundel County this afternoon. Sherwood notes that the move is "precautionary only." Earlier today, two U.S. Post Office packages experienced "flareups" after being opened at a Maryland Department of Transportation building near Baltimore-Washington International Airport and at the Jeffrey Building in Annapolis. All Maryland government mailrooms were also locked down shortly after the incidents. more ›

Ah, the holiday season -- the time of year when you make the people that keep your day-to-day life on the tracks aware that you appreciate their effort. Postal workers, sanitation employees, your paperboy or girl, a doorperson if you have one -- it's always a smart move to make sure that you keep those people happy. Some neighborhoods and apartment buildings in Washington even take up an envelope or jar and present their local servers with a collective gift, which kind of makes us feel all gooey inside. But if you were thinking about tipping with cash, you might want to think again. more ›

The elements apparently really had it in for the Postal Service last night. Not only was the Curseen-Morris Mail Processing Facility/Brentwood Post Office one of the many properties near Rhode Island Avenue NE which lost power due to the high winds, but the Post also reports that two postal employees suffered minor injuries after the wind blew out windows on as many as 30 mail trucks at the building. True to the creed, however, normal mail service is not expected to be affected in D.C. today. more ›

Not bad, D.C., not bad. New data from the 2010 Census shows that the District of Columbia has now reached a 68 percent level of participation, which means 2 percentage points more of us mailed in our Census forms this year than did in 2000. Last we checked a little over a week ago, we were still hovering at 66 percent. more ›

We've been having fun playing with this interactive map from the 2010 Census, which provides nearly real-time updates on the mail-in participation rate by jurisdiction.

A "Mail Participation rate" is the percent of forms mailed back by households that received them. To find your area's 2010 Census participation rate using the map, enter your zip code, or your city and state, in the search field and click the “Find” button. Once you do this, a national view of the map will appear with a data window on the exact location you chose. The mail participation rate for that area will be featured prominently within that window. From here you can either zoom in or compare that area's 2010 participation rate to its 2000 Census participation rate.

The U.S. Postal Service is attempting full collection and delivery throughout the Metro area today, even though many roads are still impassable. more ›

From U.S. Postal Service spokesperson Deborah Yackley:

We have suspended delivery and collection for today. There was limited retail but it is all closing down at 11 a.m. We don't know about tomorrow yet.

The U.S. Postal Service resumed mail delivery in the D.C. metro area on Monday, managing to deliver to approximately 80 percent of customers, USPS spokesperson Deborah Yackley said. Regular mail delivery was suspended on Saturday due to the snowstorm. more ›

One service that managed to keep rolling during December 2009's big snowstorm was the Saturday mail delivery. But WTOP reports this morning that all D.C.-area post offices will be closed today -- there will be no mail delivery or collection. (Here's hoping you got all your Netflix provisions and pertinent tax documents in yesterday's mail.) more ›

The U.S. Postal Service today released yet another revised list of possible branch closures, and one D.C. office has been trimmed. The Northeast branch, located at 1563 Maryland Ave. NE, will stay. In Maryland, two other branches were also spared: the Friendship Heights branch, and the Silver Spring Center branch. The total list is now at only 241 post offices still under review nationwide, down from almost 3,300 at the beginning of the process. more ›

Once out of college, most of us find it rare to receive care packages. Remember having your day brightened after treking down to mail services to retrieve a package, tearing it open with anticipation of what might be inside? But gone are the days of mystery boxes packed with love and much needed supplies from mom. more ›

There's been a lot of hand-wringing on many a D.C. neighborhood blog this summer about the U.S. Postal Service's plans to shut down many of their branches in an effort to trim costs. Today the USPS announced that it has trimmed its list down to 413 retail offices nationwide, with nine of those located inside the District (that's down from 13 in the previous list of 677). These are the local post offices still in danger: more ›

D.C. residents who are subscribed to the District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles email alert system were reminded Monday that the agency has discontinued in-person vehicle registration renewals. The email, which was sent on the same day the change became effective, explained that from now on, for all vehicle registration renewals, customers must use online or by mail services. And if you missed the message and show up in person to a DMV service center, you'll be directed to a dropbox to drop off registration renewal requests for processing. Dropbox renewals will be processed within 48 business hours, the DMV says. The change is tied to Mayor Fenty's FY2010 budget plan, which proposed eliminating in-person vehicle registration renewals and most safety inspections in order to cut spending. You can sign-up for email notifications from the DMV at their web site. more ›