SATURDAY MAIL DELIVERY TO END

The U-S Postal Service has announced it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays starting in August.

Postal officials say it will save them two-billion dollars a year. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he's not surprised, because the financially-struggling agency has been hemorrhaging billions:



That's the Consumer Price Index, the benchmark that's used in determining the fairness of price hikes. The Postal Service reported nearly 16-billion dollars in losses for its last budget year and expects even larger losses in 2013.

The losses last year were triple the losses from the previous year. The problem isn't just the popularity of e-mail, but also the costs for future postal retirees' health benefits, which made up for 11-billion dollars of the near-16-billion in losses:

While Saturday mail delivery to homes and businesses across Iowa and nationwide will end in August, the Postal Service will continue to deliver packages six days a week.

P-O boxes will still get mail on Saturdays and post offices that are now open Saturdays will remain open on Saturdays.

Radio Iowa contributed story