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Rep. Sam Graves has taken the congressional lead in pushing the U.S. Postal Service to continue its six-day mail delivery service.

While postal officials warn of huge operating losses resulting from declining mail volume and last year’s high gas prices, the Republican lawmaker called the current delivery schedule “an essential service.”

The Northwest Missouri representative has introduced legislation that would express “the sense of the House” about maintaining a six-day schedule that began in 1912. Any reduction, Mr. Graves said, would serve a particular hardship on a largely agricultural district like the one he represents.

“I believe that any cutback on postal delivery would disproportionately hurt rural areas,” he said in a statement.

House leaders referred the proposed resolution to the chamber’s Oversight and Government Reform Committee. A bipartisan group of lawmakers, Democrats Nick Rahall of West Virginia and Zoe Lofgren of California, and Republican Chris Smith of New Jersey, joined the Graves bill in co-sponsorship.

The resolution claims working families depend on the postal service for the timely delivery of paychecks. It also contends a curtailed schedule might create mail back-ups that could actually escalate costs because of increased overtime.

Also, “Social Security is the primary or sole source of income for many senior citizens, and any delay in the delivery of their Social Security checks would make it difficult for them to purchase even essential items, such as food and medicine,” the resolution reads.

In testimony before a congressional subcommittee late last month, Postmaster General John E. Potter said the postal service could experience a net loss of $6 billion this fiscal year, despite sweeping efforts to cut costs. Contributing factors were the high cost of fueling 220,000 postal vehicles and mail volume expected to decline 12 billion to 15 billion pieces this fiscal year from the last.

“It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable,” Mr. Potter told the subcommittee.

To curtail the schedule, Congress would have to remove a provision in its annual postal service appropriation that calls for six-day delivery. That stipulation has been in place since 1983.

The following information was released by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana:

MICHAEL COLEMAN, age 35, a resident of Marrero, Louisiana, pled guilty today in front of United States District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman to a one count bill of information for theft of government funds, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten.

According to court documents, in May, 2008, MICHAEL COLEMAN, who was previously employed as a letter carrier at the Main Post Office in Gretna, Louisiana, admitted that he found and stole six blank postal money orders at the post office. According to court documents, these postal money orders were “bait” money orders, meaning they were money orders that could be tracked upon their usage by the United States Postal Service. After stealing the six postal money orders, COLEMAN deposited one of them in his personal bank account, gave some of them to his family members, and sold the rest. In all, the bait postal money orders were worth $1,215. Sentencing has been scheduled for August 20, 2009.

The single count carries a maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment, three years supervised release, a $250,000 fine, and a $100 special assessment.

The case was investigated by agents from the United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorney Matt Chester.

Baltimore, Maryland - A federal grand jury indicted Marvin Lamont Foster, age 54, of Rosedale, Maryland, and Kyle Mathias, age 23, of Joppa, Maryland, today for conspiracy to steal from the United States Postal Service (USPS), announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein.

“Anyone who buys stamps at a discount should be on notice of the risk that they are purchasing stolen property,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.

According to the indictment, Foster was a window clerk at the Elkridge Post Office, having been employed there since 1998. First class postage stamps are provided by USPS to local post offices packaged in “bricks” which consist of 2,000 stamps valued at $840 per brick and “coils” which consist of 100 stamps valued at $42. The indictment alleges that from June 2008 through March 2009, Foster stole “bricks” and “coils” of stamps from the post office, which he provided to Mathias and others to sell. Mathias sold the stamps through an account he set up on E-bay. The indictment seeks forfeiture of $682,809.11, alleged to be the proceeds of the scheme.

Foster and Mathias face a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Postal Service - Office of Inspector General and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for their investigative work. Mr. Rosenstein commended Assistant United States Attorneys Sandra Wilkinson and Rachel M. Yasser, who are prosecuting the case.

The following information was released by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas:

Former rural carrier associate Rodney Ervin has been sentenced to prison for mail theft, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft, acting United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today.

U.S. District Court Judge Melinda Harmon sentenced Ervin to one month imprisonment on the mail theft count, one month for the access device count to run concurrently. He will also serve a two-year mandatory statutory maximum sentence for the aggravated identity theft count, to run consecutively for a total of a 25-month sentence. Indicted on July 17, 2008, Ervin pleaded guilty on Nov. 7, 2008, admitting he stole mail containing credit cards from customers residing along Rural Route 127, delivered out of the Bear Creek Station located on Cairnway Drive in Houston.

Special Agents of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG) initiated an investigation upon receiving a customer complaint advising use of a Chase MasterCard credit card stolen from the mail. Follow-up investigation revealed two additional Chase credit cards stolen from the mail. USPS-OIG agents determined Ervin had been assigned to the effected route when the reported mail losses had occurred. In addition, Ervin was captured and identified from video surveillance at various merchant locations using the credit cards and signing the legitimate customers’ names. The customers advised they did not authorize Ervin possession or use of their credit cards and Ervin was identified as being responsible for $2,517.52 in fraudulent charges.

Following the sentencing of another rural carrier associate in just less than two weeks, also resulting in the mandatory two-year-term, once again, the USPS reiterates: “Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States and is a serious federal offense,” said Max Eamiguel, Executive Special Agent-in-Charge, USPS-OIG, Southwest Field Office. “The American public trusts the Postal Service to deliver its mail intact. When a postal employee betrays that trust and steals mail, then uses stolen financial information to wreak havoc in the lives of our citizens, Special Agents of the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General investigate. Fortunately, these incidents are not common and the overwhelming majority of the 700,000 postal employees are honest and hard working. With the prosecutive support of the United States Attorney’s Office, we will aggressively pursue any employee committing a postal crime.”

Ervin began his employment with the United States Postal Service as a rural carrier associate on Aug. 28, 1999. His employment has since been terminated.

Ervin will be allowed to self-surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on within 45 days. In addition to the 25 months sentence plus the mandatory two-year prison term, Judge Melinda Harmon also imposed a two-term of supervised release to begin following his release from prison and further ordered he pay restitution to the victims in the amount of $2,517.52.

The investigation leading to Ervin’s indictment and arrest was conducted by Special Agents with USPS-OIG. The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Tammie Y. Moore.

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