The U.S. Postal Service lost billions of dollars in revenue during the last fiscal year as the volume of mail plunged. Lawmakers may one day soon consider cutting mail delivery to five days a week. They also may need to sort out how the Postal Service pays for the benefits of current and future retirees. But most customers only care about ...

A group of manufacturing industry representatives--including the National Association of Manufacturers, American National Electrical Manufacturers Association, the Manufacturers Alliance, and Rockwell Automation--has gone on record noting that a federal strategy and support is critical if American manufacturers are to thrive in the post-recession global economy. This transformation to smarter, safer, and more sustainable manufacturing provides an opportunity for the federal government ...

DALLAS (AP) -- Scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug rose from his childhood on an Iowa farm to develop a type of wheat that helped feed the world, fostering a movement that is credited with saving up to 1 billion people from starvation. Borlaug, 95, died Saturday from complications of cancer at his Dallas home, said Kathleen Phillips, ...

Agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, the father of the "green revolution," died Saturday at his home in Dallas at age 95. Here is a look at some of the honors he received: -Nobel Peace Prize, 1970 -Election to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 1970 -Aztec Eagle, Government of Mexico, 1970 -Outstanding Agricultural Achievement Award, World Farm Foundation (USA), 1971 -Presidential Medal ...

Why isn't our government doing more to put people back to work? Mass unemployment is a human and national calamity. It destroys families, crushes hopes. The longer it lasts, the more it cripples economic recovery and undermines democracy. Nearly 27 million Americans are unemployed or can't find more than part-time work. Yet legislators are reacting to this reality somewhat like the ...

The alarm goes off at 5:30 am, and you could swear you went to sleep five minutes ago. First a quick shower, followed by the finishing touches on that homework assignment due tonight over coffee and breakfast — if there’s time. Then it’s off to work, a solid eight-plus hours of time where you’re busy with reports, meetings and other assorted ...

WASHINGTON, DC - If you think the word "intern" refers just to the legions of eager young folks who descend on Washington each summer, providing cheap labor by day and guzzling beer at night, think again. When Uncle Sam talks about interns, he might mean the college students who get a few months of valuable on-the-job experience, but he also could ...

Lawyers and professional staff at a federal legal aid organization voted on Tuesday to form a union under the auspices of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. "We welcome the union as a new partner and look forward to working together to advance the mission of LSC to provide access to justice for all," Legal Services Corporation President Helaine ...

Want to help the federal government save some money? Make sure to vote Thursday in a contest designed to help Uncle Sam cut costs. The winner gets a face-to-face meeting with President Obama before Christmas, and the winning idea will be included in his 2011 budget. The Office of Management and Budget launched the SAVE Award in September, an effort to ...

A gunman fatally shot one federal employee and wounded another at a Las Vegas federal courthouse before being killed by U.S. marshals on Monday morning. The victims were a court security officer and a deputy U.S. marshal, who was listed in stable condition. "I can receive no news more grim or sobering than word of a line-of-duty death or injury to ...

Eliminating Saturday mail delivery could save the U.S. Postal Service $5.1 billion annually by 2020, most of which would come from lower personnel costs, agency officials said on Monday. In the face of declining mail volume and a 10-year, $238 billion budget deficit, the Postal Service is proposing to reduce mail delivery days from six to five. The move would eliminate ...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- In a letter posted on the Internet, the software engineer who slammed his plane into an office building housing federal tax employees Thursday expressed his anger at the government, specifically the Internal Revenue Service. A U.S. law official says investigators are looking at an anti-government message on the Web linked to Joseph Stack. By Thursday afternoon, ...

This report is the first in a three-part series. WASHINGTON (AP) - Nobody wants to buy them a beer. Even near military bases, female veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't often offered a drink on the house as a welcome home. More than 230,000 American women have fought in those recent wars and at least 120 have died doing ...

A federal program to allow borrowers with little or no equity in their homes to refinance is struggling to gain traction, according to government data released Tuesday, showing that only 93,070 borrowers have been helped since the effort was launched in April. The program has encountered difficulties that government regulators had not expected, such as the limited capacity of lenders to ...

NEW YORK — It's a good time to borrow money for a home, car or small business. A year after a global freeze in the credit markets prompted massive government intervention to prevent the financial system from collapsing, interest rates remain at historic lows. But banks are demanding more collateral, bigger down payments and detailed financial histories from borrowers. And that's ...