An April 11 postmark from Middlesboro, Ky., accomplishes the dual goal of honoring Cumberland National Historical Park, and celebrating the new 2016 quarter dollar that also commemorates the park. The quarter was launched that day with an 11 a.m. ceremony at the park’s visitor center.

A new report confirms what a lot of postal customers have been saying for months: mail service isn’t as good as it used to be. That’s the verdict that the Postal Regulatory Commission delivered March 28, declaring there has been “a recent dramatic decline of service performance” for single-piece letters and postcards, and that all forms of first-class mail had failed to be delivered as quickly as promised.

When Postmaster General James Farley went to San Antonio in 1937 to dedicate the Texas city’s new post office and federal building, he used the event to plug stamp collecting. “You’ll find it a lot of fun,” he told a crowd of 3,500. “And besides it helps the [Post Office] department.” Today you would be hard pressed to find a more beautiful post office in America than the six-story Beaux Arts building Farley dedicated across the street from the Alamo. Yet if you go into the post office and buy a stamp — as Farley urged 79 years ago —you are in for an ordeal.

33-year United States Postal Service carrier Patrick Barton received the National Safety Council’s Million Mile Club award last week after reaching the milestone without a single preventable accident on his record.

Also this week, the U.S. 1936 Great Seal airmail special delivery stamp was the focus of our Tip of the Week, a contributor put two stamp-perforation-measuring computer programs to the test, and the APS announced its considering changes to its World Series of Philately exhibiting.

A British company that purchased the historic Old Main Post Office says it will fight any effort by the City of Chicago to acquire the building through eminent domain.

Every four years, the United States Postal Service counts on a surge of political mailings to fill its mailbags. This year expectations are high, with postal officials hoping for as much as $1 billion in added revenue, more than double the level of 2012 political mailings. But the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General is throwing cold water on those estimates.

A postmark showing a duck and a carousel is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Webfooters Post Card Club of Portland, Ore. The group is celebrating March 26 with an anniversary event at Oaks Park Dance Pavilion in Portland that includes a post office cancellation station, social hour, guest speaker and more.

The start of the 2016 major league baseball season is only days away, and a new postmark from San Juan, Puerto Rico, pays tribute to the man who was the first major league player from Puerto Rico. Hiram Bithorn was born March 18, 1916, in San Juan’s Santurce district.

Also this week, Tony Wawrukiewicz tells the story of pressure-sensitive package labels, John Hotchner wonders about an obscene mail warning, and Ralph Smith discovers that some the highest paid postmasters are in small towns.

A survey by FedSmith, a blog that writes about the federal bureaucracy, makes an interesting point about where the good-paying jobs in the United States Postal Service can be found. Not all the best jobs are in Washington or other urban areas, reports author Ralph Smith. He found many of the top salaries go to people who work “in the middle of nowhere — certainly not very close to any large metropolitan area.”

Federal Express Corp. may have seen its postal revenues drop by three percent in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, but its tab of almost $1.4 billion for carrying mail still was enough to make it the United States Postal Service’s top supplier in fiscal 2015. The Memphis-based carrier has held the top position as the leading postal supplier since 2002.

Also this week, we profiled a stamp-hobby search engine, explained the rare-but-expected drop in cost of sending a first-class letter, and sought to find out exactly what S-D Day is.

A rare drop in postal prices will become effective Sunday, April 10, the United States Postal Service announced Feb. 25. The decrease, which results from the expiration of a temporary rate increase ordered in late 2013, had been widely anticipated. It will be only the third time that there has been “a general reduction in postage rates,” according to the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers.

March 5 was the grand opening date for the Grammy Museum at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss. The 27,000-square-foot facility is being described as the world’s most technologically advanced music museum.

The Oregonian is reporting that the Senate Rules Committee last week approved a bill that will put the burden of paying for ballot-return postage solely on the state.

For the revenue hungry United States Postal Service, they seemed like the perfect product. Produced with virtually no added costs, press sheets of imperforate self-adhesive stamps were hot sellers from the moment the first sheets went on sale in July 2012 with the issuance of the Major League Baseball All-Stars stamps. But barely four years later, sales of the sheets have become mired in controversy.

Also this week, readers learned about the new Linn's Stamp News digital edition platform, a Moon global forever stamp was announced, and a Linn's contributor recalled his experience at the first-day ceremony for the latest Lunar New Year stamp.

When President Barack Obama submitted his final federal budget to Congress Feb. 9, it was pronounced DOA — dead on arrival — by many. Little noticed among the myriad proposals was the president’s plans for the troubled United States Postal Service.

Also this week, the USPS made public how it would cut stamp prices if its plea to retain emergency rate increases continues to be rejected, and a spectacular and seldom-seen error went for a six-figure price.