From CNN:
The U.S. Postal Service plans to stop delivering letters and other first-class mail on Saturdays beginning Aug. 1, although packages will continue to be delivered.
It will mark the an end of an era for the agency, which started Saturday delivery in 1863.
So you're thinking, "naw, I don't care, no one has sent me a letter since the 1980s." Well you should care. What this means is that the Postal Service will no longer need 15% of the membership of the National Association of Letter Carriers (214,000 urban mail carriers) and National Rural Letter Carriers' Association (100,000 rural mail carriers). That suits a Republican dream of defunding the Democratic Party by strangling the public sector unions, all because in 2006 we were too short-sighted to put up a fight when the GOP passed a law requiring the Postal Service to fund its employees retirements for 75 years instead of the customary 13 years (avg. lifespan minus age of retirement).
10:30 AM PT: Also on this topic, I strongly recommend RuralRoute's diary Axing Saturday Delivery Won't Save USPS for a first hand account from inside the Postal Service by a rural carrier.
10:31 AM PT: Rec list? Wow. Thanks.
11:14 AM PT: Background: The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006
11:32 AM PT: As jan4insight posted below:
11:57 AM PT: For those of you who are unclear on the importance of mail delivery, I point you to this article in Esquire. (Thanks BenderRodriguez)