June 6th, 2012
03:01 PM ET
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Joe Frazier's gym, post offices on 'endangered historic places' list

[Updated at 5:42 p.m. ET] A Philadelphia gym where boxing great Joe Frazier trained and historic post offices nationwide are among the United States’ most endangered historic places, according to an annual list that a preservation group released Wednesday.

The 25th annual "America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places," released by the nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation, lists what the group says are examples of important buildings, districts or landscapes that are at risk of destruction or irreparable damage.

The list includes the converted three-story brick Philadelphia warehouse where Frazier, a two-time heavyweight champion who handed Muhammad Ali his first professional loss in 1971's "Fight of the Century," trained throughout his career, according to the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.

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Filed under: U.S. • U.S. Postal Service
December 13th, 2011
03:29 PM ET
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Postal Service to delay closure plan

The U.S. Postal Service has agreed to hold off on closing any more post offices or mail facilities until May 15, 2012, to allow Congress time to work on a plan to save the service.

The service agreed to voluntarily enact a moratorium on closures, after a series of talks with senators. Sen. Richard Durbin said the postal service agreed to the deal, and he called it a challenge to Congress to "put up or shut up."

The news of the moratorium comes just a week after the service announced a plan that would slow down first-class mail, as the agency closes some 250 mail processing plants nationwide, which would eliminate 28,000 jobs.

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Filed under: U.S. Postal Service
Saving the small town post office
The post office in Weston, Georgia, is one of many that the U.S. Postal Service is considering closing to cut costs.
August 12th, 2011
07:43 PM ET
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Saving the small town post office

The U.S. Postal Service has published a list of more than 3,000 post offices it will consider closing to cut costs. Many of these closures would take place in small towns like Weston and Parrott, Georgia - neighboring communities about three hours southwest of Atlanta.

Residents of Parrott, a town of 158 people, have started a petition to save their post office. They cite a variety of reasons for wanting to keep it, including security, convenience and the identity the institution provides.

People want to know how they'll get their mail, stamps, packages, medicine and social security checks.

The postal service stands to lose $9 billion this year. Factors like a large drop in mail volume in recent years and the national economic downturn require tough steps to make the agency solvent, it says. However, it plans to listen to the concerns of people affected by closures at a series of public meetings set to begin in September.

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Filed under: Georgia • U.S. Postal Service
Seventh-day Adventist community loses Sunday mail delivery
Mail carriers won't be delivering in Loma Linda, California, next Sunday for the first time in 81 years.
April 18th, 2011
10:42 AM ET
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Seventh-day Adventist community loses Sunday mail delivery

Come next Sunday, residents of Loma Linda, California, will notice that something's missing on the streets - U.S. Postal Service mail carriers.

The community's 21,000 residents are predominantly Seventh-day Adventists, who observe the Sabbath on Saturday. For 81 years the post office went along, giving Loma Linda on Sundays the mail delivery that almost all of the country gets on Saturdays, according to local media reports.

But costs and technology are forcing an end to Sunday delivery, according to a report in The Press-Enterprise newspaper.

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Filed under: California • Religion • U.S. Postal Service