US POSTAL SERVICE ILLEGALLY FAVORED HILLARY DURING 2016 ELECTION & TARGETED GOP VOTERS' MAIL (HATCH ACT)

US POSTAL SERVICE ILLEGALLY FAVORED HILLARY DURING 2016 ELECTION & TARGETED GOP VOTERS' MAIL (HATCH ACT):

I WARNED EVERYONE THAT USPS MAIL CARRIERS WERE SPYING ON GOP VOTERS' MAIL IN 2015 & 2016.

ESPECIALLY IN STATES LIKE GEORGIA AND NORTH CAROLINA.

MANY PEOPLE DID NOT BELIEVE ME BUT NOW YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE.

IT'S TIME TO PRIVATIZE THE US POSTAL SERVICE & HOLD USPS WORKERS ACCOUNTABLE.


Sources: ABC News, Fox News, Washington Post


**** USPS takes hearing heat for 'favoring' pro-Clinton union's campaign work


The United States Postal Service took heat during a congressional hearing Wednesday for allegedly violating federal law by “favoring” a union doing pro-Clinton campaign work.

According to a report released Wednesday morning by the Office of Special Counsel, USPS engaged in “systemic violations” of the Hatch Act, a federal law that limits certain political activities of federal employees.

While employees are allowed to do some political work on leave, the report said the Postal Service showed a “bias” in favor of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) campaign operation, letting employees take leave without pay to participate in pro-Clinton campaign efforts.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard testimony from OSC and USPS officials on Wednesday, along with the USPS mail carrier who shared complaints with Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., in October 2016.

“’Postal Service leadership ‘took official actions with the intent of enabling’ the campaign activity of its union, and ‘with a clear understanding of what that activity involved,’” Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said in his prepared opening statement, citing the OSC report.

“Based on these findings, it is legitimate to wonder why no one will be held accountable, how Postal Service leadership allowed this systemic violation of the Hatch Act to go on for twenty years, and is this occurring in other federal agencies?”

Johnson was first notified of the “violations” in October 2016 by Tim Kopp, a letter carrier for the USPS and member of the NALC. Kopp thought the actions were “illegal” and was concerned the Postal Service “incurred unnecessary overtime costs” and “improperly coordinated” with NALC when it released several members for weeks of “union official” leave without pay to participate in partisan campaign work.

“I want things done fairly and I don’t want things done on a partisan issue—the union is always involved in highly political activities and I didn’t want this to be a partisan thing—I wanted this to be a thing where the general public does not lose trust in the postal service,” Kopp told the Senate panel Wednesday. “There are a lot of good employees, but the way this was done—it was a nightmare.”

According to the OSC report, roughly 97 NALC members requested the leave without pay to participate in get-out-the vote efforts in primarily 2016 battleground states: Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The NALC, which endorsed Clinton last June, compensated those USPS workers using the Letter Carrier Political Fund, the union’s PAC.

Officials at multiple levels apparently were involved.

According to OSC Acting Special Counsel Adam Miles, the NALC provided lists of letter carriers to participate in campaign activity to a senior headquarters USPS labor relations official, who then emailed the lists to other USPS officials across the country.

According to Miles, the local officials “interpreted the communications as directives” from USPS headquarters to release the carriers on union official leave without pay.

“The practice also put non-union employees, or union employees who supported other candidates, at a disadvantage,” Johnson said. “If those employees sought unpaid leave for several weeks for campaign activity, they would not have received the same treatment.”

The OSC found an “institutional bias” in favor of union-endorsed candidates, all of which were Democrats.

“USPS, through its longstanding practice of honoring these kinds of requests, failed to administer its programs in a politically neutral manner in violation of the Hatch Act,” The OSC report said.

Committee Ranking Member Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said that the USPS is “emblematic of a systemic problem not limited to one individual or one election cycle.”

“USPS has failed to implement sufficient controls to ensure compliance with the Hatch Act,” McCaskill said.

But USPS Postmaster General Megan Brennan told lawmakers that “senior postal leadership did not in any way guide union leadership in selecting the candidates for whom NALC employees could campaign” and that USPS “did not approve or choose candidates for the unions to support” or “ask the union to advocate for political candidates on behalf of the Postal Service.”

“I also note that our postal unions do not speak for the Postal Service, and the Postal Service does not speak for our unions,” Brennan wrote in her prepared testimony, insisting USPS did not seek to assist the NALC’s “favored candidates.”

Brennan said the practice to grant leave without pay for NALC political activity had been in place for approximately 20 years, but that all violations of the Hatch Act were “unintentional.”

“We will change our practice in consultation with the OSC and based upon OSC’s guidance.

This will ensure that we do not put our people in harm’s way and they do not unintentionally run afoul of the Hatch Act,” Brennan said.

“As we have previously communicated to both this committee and to the OSC, and as the OSC has acknowledged, the Postal Service has always been ready, willing and able to end or modify our practice as appropriate, consistent with OSC’s recommendation.”

US POST OFFICE FOLLOWS IRS: TARGETS CITIZENS FOR POLITICS (EMPLOYEE THEFT)

USPS FOLLOWS IRS: TARGETS CITIZENS WHO OPPOSE OBAMA ADMIN POLICIES

USPS EMPLOYEES ARE ALSO STEALING CUSTOMER PACKAGES.

DOES ANYONE IN CONGRESS CARE?

Sources: Newsmax, Koin, St Louis Today, ConsumerAffairs.com, Youtube

From 2010 to 2012 the Obama Admin and key Democrat leaders allowed or ordered IRS employees to target Christians, Conservatives, Black-owned Businesses and Black Celebrities all for Politics as a means of silencing anyone who supported or considered supporting the GOP.

The GOP's only solution to stopping such harassment of US citizens was to Defund the IRS.

In 2016 it appears the Obama Admin and key Democrat leaders are now allowing or ordering US Postal employees to also target and harass Christians, Conservatives and anyone else who opposes Obama or Hillary.

Thousands of US citizens have submitted formal complaints to USPS Postmasters and USPS Inspector Generals with no resolution in sight.

Many people don't know that the US Postal Service actually falls under the Dept of Homeland Security.

So who chairs the Dept of Homeland Security?

Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson!

Is Senator Ron Johnson aware of such malfeasance at the hands of USPS employees against American citizens for the sake of Politics?

Does GOP leadership plan to hold a hearing of USPS brass on Capitol Hill as they did IRS brass?

Stay tuned.

***** Hazelwood US postal employees accused of stealing packages

Four current or former employees of a Hazelwood postal distribution center and the girlfriend of one of the men have been indicted in federal court here and accused of stealing electronics, drugs and other items from the mail.

The employees employed a process called “over-labeling,” where they created a new address label to replace the mail's existing label, then used that new label to direct the package to an address of their choosing, the indictment says. The ring targeted packages that they thought contained electronics, marijuana, clothing, pottery and “personal effects.”

In all, at least 33 packages were sent to seven addresses in St. Louis and St. Charles counties, the indictment claims.

Edward “Eddie” Lewis, 22, of Hazelwood; Sean West, 21, of the Florissant area; Quentin Cook, 22, of the Florissant area; Korey Howard, 23, of the Florissant area; and Che'yron Robinson, 22, of St. Charles, were all indicted Wednesday on a conspiracy charge. Their home addresses were not immediately available Tuesday.

Lewis and Howard also face charges of possession of stolen mail and West, Howard and Lewis face at least one charge of obstruction of correspondence.

Howard and West were so-called “Christmas casual” employees, and worked at the Hazelwood facility from November 2014 to January, the indictment says.

The investigation showed that a week after starting work, both opened mail that was on a delivery truck they were supposed to unload, according to the indictment.

Both are now unemployed.

Cook is a current employee, earning $2,000 per month, court documents say. Lewis worked for the postal service from May 2013 to March of 2014. Robinson is West's girlfriend.

West, Howard and Cook have been arrested and were scheduled to be in court Tuesday to plead not guilty. Their lawyers could not be immediately reached for comment.

Virginia Post Office Hostage Situation Ends Peacefully

Virgina Post Office Hostage Standoff


A daylong standoff at a small-town Virginia post office ended peacefully with three hostages being released and a suspect who came out of the building in a wheelchair in custody, police said late Wednesday.

Warren Taylor of Sullivan County, Tenn., is being questioned and authorities do not yet have a motive, state police Sgt. Michael Conroy said. The hostages and suspect left the building in Wytheville after authorities ordered the man to surrender.

The standoff began at about 2:30 p.m. when shots were fired at the one-story brick post office in the mountain town in western Virginia. No one was injured, and relatives of two of the hostages said they were able to talk to their loved ones by phone.

It ended about 8 1/2 hours later without the dozens of SWAT members armed with automatic weapons having to fire a shot.

"We're just grateful it ended peacefully," Conroy said. "This is just the best outcome we could hope for."

Police in the town in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains told the Wytheville Enterprise the suspect had what appeared to be a common plastic explosive strapped to his chest. Conroy said police had found weapons and that shots were fired, but no explosives had been uncovered.

He said they were still searching the building late Wednesday, as well as Taylor's truck.

The suspect made no demands other than to ask for a pizza, said Pete Rendina, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

An FBI negotiator had asked the several dozen SWAT members, police, fire and others surrounding the building to be quiet because authorities were talking with the suspect.

An officer in the early evening delivered food and drink to the front door at the request of the suspect, state police said. Earlier reports said the man holding the hostages was in a wheelchair, but state police said he entered the building pushing one.

Carlton Austin said his daughter, postal worker Margie Austin, was among the hostages. She managed to call a family friend around 4:30 p.m. and said she was fine. Later, her father said, family members were waiting to hear more.

"That's all we can do," he said.

Niki Oliver told the Enterprise that her brother, Jimmy Oliver, was one of the hostages and had been able to phone family members.

"We love you," she yelled to him as his mother was speaking to him on the phone.

Niki Oliver said her brother went to the post office to mail a Christmas gift to his son.

Postal worker Walt Korndoerfer said he was in the post office when he heard shots and a co-worker ran past. He called police and then ran himself.

His wife, Christine Korndoerfer, said he called around 3:30 p.m. to tell her he had gotten out safely.

"My husband is not one to get upset," she said. "When he called, I don't think I've ever heard him so upset."

Sutherland said the streets were filled with holiday shoppers at the time in the traditional-looking American town of 8,500 decked out for Christmas.

"All the stores are busy," he said.



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Sources: AP, Huffington Post, Google Maps

Virginia Post Office Under Seige! 5 Held Hostage

Virgina Post Office Hostage Standoff


An armed man in a wheelchair took five hostages Wednesday at a post office in western Virginia, forcing officials to cordon off three blocks of a downtown filled with holiday shoppers.

Shots were fired, but there were no reports of injuries. The man made no demands other than to ask for a pizza, said Pete Rendina, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said authorities are negotiating with the suspect.

Virginia State Police sent in a SWAT team and a bomb technician, and police at the scene told the Wytheville Enterprise the man had five pounds of a common plastic explosive strapped to his chest. Geller would not confirm that.

Susan Holman, manager of a store across the street, said officers told employees to leave the building because there was a man with explosives in the post office.

"The officer told us the man had enough explosives to take out the whole block," Holman told the Enterprise.

Mayor Trent Crewe told The Associated Press five hostages were in the building, including three employees and two customers.

Carlton Austin said his daughter, postal worker Margie Austin, was among the hostages. She managed to call a family friend around 4:30 p.m. and said she was fine. Later, her father said, family members were waiting to hear more.

"That's all we can do," he said.

Postal worker Walt Korndoerfer said he was in the post office when he heard shots and a co-worker ran past. He called police and then ran himself.

His wife, Christine Korndoerfer, said he called around 3:30 p.m. to tell her he had gotten out safely.

"My husband is not one to get upset," she said. "When he called, I don't think I've ever heard him so upset."

Town manager Wayne Sutherland, speaking from his office four blocks from the scene, said dozens of officers had circled the freestanding, brick post office.

"It's completely surrounded by police in every direction," Sutherland said. "All I can see is blue lights."

Rendina said the man was in a wheelchair and missing part of his leg, but he had no other information. Postal inspectors from Roanoke and Charleston, W.Va., were at the scene.

Sutherland said the streets of the town of 8,500 were filled with holiday shoppers.

"It's Christmas and all the stores are busy," he said.

Wytheville is the county seat of Wythe County, in southwest Virginia.



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Sources: AP, Huffington Post, Google Maps