Obama endorses ending one day of mail delivery

Obama endorses ending one day of mail delivery

President Barack Obama said Monday the U.S. Postal Service should be allowed to reduce mail delivery to five-days-a-week to help cut its massive losses.

The Postal Service lost $8.5 billion last year and is facing even more red ink this year as the Internet siphons off large amounts of first-class mail and the weak economy reduces advertising mail.

While the post office has cut more than 100,000 workers in the last few years it needs to cut more, close offices and find other ways to reduce costs to keep operating.

In his economic growth and debt reduction plan unveiled Monday,,Anime supplier, Obama endorsed the idea of dropping one day of mail delivery - it is expected to be Saturday - and urged other changes in postal Prada handbag saleoperations

He agreed that nearly $7 billion the post office has overpaid into the federal retirement system should be refunded to the agency, urged that its payments for advance funding of retiree medical benefits be restructured, and said the post office should be allowed to sell non-postal products and raise postage rates.

Currently the post office cannot raise rates more than the amount of infl,Cheap moncler vests,ation.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the president "has offered helpful recommendations to stabilize the Postal Service's financial crisis."

Sen. Tom Carper,Louis Vuitton Handbags wholesale D-Del., who has proposed a bill including many of the same suggestions, welcomed the president's statement.

"I have been saying for some time now that Congress and the administration need to come together on a plan that can save the Postal Service and protect the more than seven million jobs that rely on it," he said in a statement.

In NY-9 special election, Dems race to stave off an upset

In NY-9 special election, Dems race to stave off an upset

Democrats here spent Tuesday in the final throes of a frantic, last-ditch effort to stave off a loss in the special election race to replace Anthony Weiner.

Democrat David Weprin, trailing Republican Bob Turner in multiple polls, raced to half a dozen campaign stops, imploring voters at senior centers and subway stops to cast their ballots for him.

Party officials say their best hope for winning lies on the shoulders of the vaunted Queens County Democratic Party machine, which kicked into high gear Tuesday. Inside its headquarters — which doubles as the Weprin campaign’s nerve center — get-out-the vote workers rushed to pick up manila folders containing block-by-block layouts of the district; others sat at the phones,cheap Giants JerseysSports jerseys wholesale methodically working through voter-contact lists. Volunteers fanned out across Queens,Ed Hardy wholesaleCheap Flower Girl Dresses handing out glossy placards highlighting Weprin’s endorsement from the New York Times editorial page.

Despite the last-minute Democratic push, the GOP appeared poised to capture the 9th District seat – an upset that would signal a rejection of President Barack Obama on his party’s turf and underscore the peril that he and Democrats up and down the ballot could face in 2012.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans expressed cautious optimism but refused to predict that Turner, long an underdog, would prevail.

The suddenly intense interest surrounding Turner’s candidacy was on full display Tuesday, when he cast his ballot at a Breezy Point polling station. As he walked outside of a Catholic mass on his way to the polls, Turner was swarmed by a horde of jostling camera crews and reporters.

David O'Meara targets Ayr Gold Cup with Pepper Lane

David O'Meara targets Ayr Gold Cup with Pepper Lane

From here, David O'Meara has quickly made a mark competing alongside prolific near-neighbours, like jockeys Paul Hanagan and Silvestre de Sousa and fellow trainers Richard Fahey and Mark Johnston.

A mere 15 months after taking over the licence at the then down-at-heel yard, a successful squad of 60 horses - and counting - is establishing O'Meara, 34, as amongst racing's brightest young stars.Moncler men jackets

Already the ex-jump jockey has landed major prizes with Blue Bajan and Smarty Socks.

But on Saturday, he chases his most valuable pot so far when the filly Pepper Lane lines up as favourite for the 120,000 Ayr Gold Cup, Scotland's premier flat race.

"It's been fantastic," he said.Breitling watches wholesale "Training is something I always wanted to do when riding, and I tried to watch and learn. The job here came up, and I count myself very lucky.

"It's a lot busier compared to being a jockey,Moncler women's jackets and it really feels 24/7 - I must work 100 hours a week - but obviously it's been very rewarding, so you don't really notice."

From County Cork, Ireland, O'Meara - who studied veterinary science at Limerick University - rode 140 winners as what could be fairly termed a 'journeyman jockey'.

But, revealingly, at the same time, he was learning his trade from some of the shrewdest brains in the business including trainers Jim Bolger, Philip Hobbs and Peter and Tim Easterby.

It was for Hobbs that he recorded his biggest success in the saddle when Bells Life landed a race over the famously tricky Grand National fences in 2000.

Pepper Lane is on a roll as she travels for Saturday's fast and furious Ayr Gold Cup, a 27-runner, three-quarter mile dash, having recently completed a hat-trick of wins, in the prestigious Great St Wilfrid Handicap at Ripon.

"People wonder if she is maybe a Ripon specialist because she's won there three times, but she's done it at Redcar too, and been second in a nice race at Pontefract which is very different," said O'Meara.

"She'd be one of the smallest horses I have, so her improvement isn't down to her growing, but we have learnt quite a bit about what she likes,Prada handbag sale and she thrives on not too much work at home.

"She's fit and well but the one thing is that I couldn't be sure how she'd handle very soft ground."

Pepper Lane's improvement has been little short of astonishing since coming under O'Meara's care last year and she shows no sign of stopping

Ayr has already been battered by the remnants of Hurricane Katia this week (hence the expected soft going); now David O'Meara and Pepper Lane are on their way to storm the place.