By SUSAN HAIGH

The U.S. Postal Service is facing an uncertain future after the resignation this week of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and the suggestion by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency, that the mail service could be privatized.

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Unions representing postal workers have balked at the idea of privatization, staging protests across the country.

While they support modernization efforts, including those initiated by DeJoy, union leaders warned that allowing private corporations to run the U.S. mail will ultimately harm everyday citizens, especially the estimated 51 million people living in rural areas who depend on the Postal Service.

“It’s a terrible idea for everyone that we serve,” National Association of Letter Carriers President Brian L. Renfroe said during a panel discussion at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

What happens next may depend on who becomes the next postmaster general. The U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, an independent establishment of the executive branch that oversees the Postal Service, has retained a global consulting firm to conduct a search for the 76th postmaster general and CEO.

USPS currently employs about 640,000 workers tasked with making deliveries from inner cities to rural areas and even far-flung islands.

Trump and Musk look to make big changes to the USPS

In February, Trump said he may put the U.S. Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department in what would be an executive branch takeover of the agency, which has operated as an independent entity since 1970.

“We want to have a post office that works well and doesn’t lose massive amounts of money,” Trump said during the swearing-in ceremony for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “We’re thinking about doing that. And it’ll be a form of a merger, but it’ll remain the Postal Service, and I think it’ll operate a lot better.”

While he didn’t say anything about privatization at the event, the president has voiced support for the idea in the past. In December, he suggested privatizing the service given the competition it faces from Amazon, UPS, FedEx and others.

“It’s an idea a lot of people have had for a long time. We’re looking at it,” the president said.

Musk, meanwhile, voiced support this month at a tech conference for privatizing the Postal Service, saying, “We should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized,” the New York Times reported.

Postal workers protest, warn Americans may lose a beloved service

Across the country, postal workers have been staging protests in recent days, many chanting “U.S. mail not for sale,” and some holding signs that read: “The post office belongs to the people, not billionaires,” a reference to Musk.

FILE – Letter carrier Fred Moss holds up signs during a protest, part of a national series of rallies against the Trump administration’s plans to privatize or restructure the U.S. Postal Service, Sunday, March 23, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, File)

Renfroe said the goal of the protests is to make the American public aware that drastic changes are being considered for the Postal Service.

“Our message is: ‘No.’ Private business is interested in doing things that are profitable, as they should be,” he said.” But that is the distinction between private business and what we are, a public service, where we serve everyone, everywhere, no matter where they live, for the same price every day.”

How did the USPS end up in such a bad financial position?

Since a reorganization in 1970, the USPS has been largely self-funded. The bulk of its annual $78.5 billion budget comes from customer fees, according to the Congressional Research Service. Congress provides a relatively small annual appropriation — about $50 million in fiscal year 2023 — to subsidize free and reduced-cost mail services.

Amid challenges that include the decline in profitable first-class mail and the cost of retiree benefits, the Postal Service accumulated $87 billion in losses from 2007 to 2020. However, the service reported a $144 million profit last quarter, attributing it to DeJoy’s 10-year plan to modernize operations and stem losses. The service had reported a net loss of $2.1 billion for the same quarter last year.

“By steadily improving our product portfolio, we are increasing our competitive position in the shipping marketplace,” DeJoy said in a written statement February accompanying the first quarter results for Fiscal Year 2025.

Union leaders said Wednesday that they hope the next postmaster general sticks with the modernization plan and considers harnessing the Postal Service to provide other services to the public, including basic banking, electric vehicle charging and even U.S. Census work.

“Our network of physical locations, retail locations … our delivery network, puts us in a position to do so many different things,” Renfroe said.

NEW YORK (AP) — A brand that was notoriously connected to music piracy before reemerging as a subscription music service has been sold to Infinite Reality for $207 million.

The tech startup announced Tuesday it had bought Napster in hopes of transforming the streaming service into a social music platform where artists can connect with fans and better monetize off their work.

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“The internet has evolved from desktop to mobile, from mobile to social, and now we are entering the immersive era. Yet, music streaming has remained largely the same. It’s time to reimagine what’s possible,” said Napster CEO Jon Vlassopulos in a blog post.

Among its plans to update Napster, Infinite Reality said it will create virtual 3D spaces that will allow fans to attend concerts, and give musicians or labels the ability to sell digital and physical merchandise. Artists will also receive a wider range of metrics and analytics to better understand the behavior of platform users.

“We can think of no better use case for our technology than putting it in the hands of music artists who are constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible,” said Infinite Reality Chief Business Officer Amish Shah.

Napster was launched in 1999 by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker and quickly became the first significant peer-to-peer file-sharing application. It shuttered in early 2000s after the record industry and popular rock band Metallica sued over copyright violations. Rhapsody later bought the brand in 2011 and relaunched it as a music streaming service.

All signs point to J.J. McCarthy being the starting quarterback for the Vikings moving forward.

The situation got much more clear last week when multiple reports revealed that the Vikings were no longer pursuing Aaron Rodgers.

That said, McCarthy offered up an interesting nugget to television personality Kay Adams on Tuesday morning before his group teed off at NFLPA Classic in Mayakoba, Mexico. Asked during his appearance on the Up & Adams Show when he found out he was going to the starter, McCarthy replied, “They haven’t told me.”

“I’m happy they didn’t because I try to earn it every single day,” McCarthy added. “I never want that to be given to me. It’s such a privilege and opportunity for them to give me that chance. I’m just going to make the most of it.”

It’s not necessarily surprising that the Vikings haven’t committed to McCarthy as their starter next season considering he doesn’t have much experience under his belt.

Though he was selected with the No. 10 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, and seemed to be trending in the right direction during training camp, McCarthy still hasn’t taken an official snap after suffering a torn meniscus during an exhibition game as a rookie.

As frustrating as the injury was for McCarthy at the time, he said he has found a silver lining in the fact that it grounded him and reminded him what was important in life.

“It was the ultimate blessing because it’s such a time of stillness,” McCarthy said. “It’s huge for young guys to find that routine that they can rely on and stay consistent with. So, I would say that was the biggest thing for me.”

It helped that McCarthy got to learn the ropes of the position from afar last season while Sam Darnold rewrote the narrative on his career while leading the Vikings to the playoffs. That should pay dividends whenever it’s time for McCarthy to take over under center.

Where is he at with the recovery process?

“I would say I’m 100 percent,” McCarthy said. “Just staying consistent with the rehab process and not wavering from that.

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Call me deranged, but …

Ah, thank you GOP for getting down to serious legislation by putting forth your recent bill about Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS).

As one who is afflicted with the syndrome, I’ll accept your definition, and here is the cause…

Watching people you know and love fall continually for a chronic liar, huckster, cheater, and grievance filled narcissist in the name of God and country … it really tests one’s mental acuity. Call me deranged but when a politician displays cruelty, callousness, revenge and arrogance, I really have a hard time acting “normal.”

I personally would tweak the definition of TDS to be “the acute onset of zealotry and adherence (of otherwise normal people) to the grievances and whims of Donald J. Trump. This creates an inability to distinguish between one’s own moral principles and those of a President whose petty impulses must be interpreted as serious policies to his ever subservient followers”

Jeff Zupfer, St. Paul

 

No shortage after all?

I read the Minnesota Republicans in our state legislative body want to add TDS to definitions of types of mental illness. I thought we had a shortage of mental health caregivers, but apparently Republicans are physicians as well. Run for the hills folks, they drank the Kool-Aid.

Martha Ruff, St. Paul

 

Give Trump a chance

As I read the Letters to the Editor from Sunday’s paper, I was surprised at how much hate there is in our community. Maybe the PP only published the negative letters to the editor, or maybe only “haters” sent in letters. I guess I can understand folks are upset with Donald Trump, Elon Musk and most all of government, but calm down. Give Trump the same time you gave Joe Biden, then let’s see where you’re at.

What I can’t understand though, is how tough everyone wants to be on teaching Russia a lesson. Rather than giving the Trump Administration a chance to find an acceptable resolution, people seem to accept a forceful resolution to Russia’s migration of parts of Ukraine, claiming Russia will not stop at Ukraine. That brings the question, whose children are you willing to risk life and limb to show Putin how to act? How many American lives are you willing to give?

I don’t want my grandkids over there fighting. And do you really think Putin will accept multiple nations sending their kids to fight? Do you believe, that if Putin is as terrible as you describe, and thousands of Russian soldiers are killed, will Ukraine be safe from a nuclear attack? Will he go even further? Give me a number of acceptable deaths you will be comfortable with that will be needed to teach Putin that lesson. Maybe you want to ruin Russia’s economy, will that make the Ukrainians safer?

Give Trump a chance.

Instead, focus on our homeland and pretend America is Ukraine, and other continents invaded our territory with 14 million migrants.

Mike Miller, St. Paul

 

Short-handed

This administration has gutted its DOJ so badly that it can no longer effectively press nor defend against the hundreds of lawsuits flying back and forth. Listen to this beauty of an exchange: Judge Theodore Chuang (District of Maryland): “Why do we get a declaration, but there’s really no documentation of anything there?”  Gardner (DOJ attorney): “We have about half the number of staff we had in November …”  Chuang: “You’re saying that the Justice Department isn’t taking this case seriously?”  Gardner: “It’s the opposite. I haven’t had a day off since January 20. We’re working day and night.”

Regina Purins, St. Paul

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