The U-S Postal Service announced today (Wednesday) that it will stop delivering mail on Saturdays starting in August, in a plan to save two-billion dollars a year. It’s unfortunate, but not a surprise to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who says the financially-struggling, quasi-governmental agency has been hemorrhaging billions.  “There are some things that we can do here,” Grassley says. “We could modify their health benefits plan, their unemployment plan. We can allow them to raise postal rates at more than the CPI.”

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.

“The post office is a business and they have to seek their own revenue and if Saturday delivery is part of their efficiency,” Grassley says. “They’ve already got their employment down below a half a million. How much further it has to go down, I don’t know.”

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.

Officials with the Shenandoah Police Department report the arrest this (Wednesday) morning of Jeff Ponton. The 35-year old from Shenandoah faces a misdemeanor charge of Theft in the 3^rd degree. Ponton was being held at the Page County jail.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – State lawmakers continue to debate what Iowa should do with surplus budget dollars. Should they put the money into services and programs or give it directly to taxpayers? A House subcommittee today (Wednesday) discussed Republican-sponsored legislation that would use the state’s surplus funds to provide credits to taxpayers.

Rep. Peter Cownie of West Des Moines says individual taxpayers would get $369 income tax credits. He says the plan would cost over $500 million and calls it the fairest way to deal with the money.  But Democrats and advocates questioned whether this was the best use of state funds, saying it would be better to spend the money on services and infrastructure.

The subcommittee approved the bill. It now goes to the full committee for deliberation.

DAKOTA CITY, Neb. (AP) – A woman from northwest Iowa has been charged with vehicular homicide for the Nebraska crash deaths of a 57-year-old woman and her 3-year-old granddaughter.  Twenty-seven-year-old Heather Reisdorph, of Sioux City, has pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts.

Authorities say her vehicle ran into the back of one that was waiting to turn left off U.S. Highway 75/77 south of Dakota City on Jan. 6. The impact pushed the vehicle into oncoming traffic, where it was struck by another vehicle.   Patricia Oldenburg, of Homer, Neb., and her granddaughter, Regan Coenen, of Sioux City, Iowa, died. Eight-year-old Braden Coenen was injured.