The popular animated television special A Charlie Brown Christmas made its debut 50 years ago, and the United States Postal Service celebrated the anniversary Oct. 1 by issuing 10 different forever stamps in full color featuring Snoopy and many of the young characters from the Peanuts comic strip in scenes from the TV program.

Washington Correspondent The Florida postal worker who piloted a gyrocopter to the lawn of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., faces sentencing April 13, 2016, after pleading guilty to a felony Nov. 20.

Two recent surveys offer the United States Postal Service a glimmer of hope for a happier New Year in 2016. A national poll by the Pew Research Center, released Nov. 23, found the USPS ranked as the most trusted federal agency, with favorable ratings given by 84 percent of those polled.

The selection of postmarks this week is overwhelmingly Christmas-themed, though the folks in Kitty Hawk, N.C., have two new postmarks recognizing those aviation pioneers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, on Dec. 17. The brothers took turns on that date in 1903 piloting their Wright Flyer airplane into the history books.

The United States Postal Service announced Nov. 5 that it expects strong growth in its package business during the 2015 holiday season. The federal agency said in a release it is expecting a 10.5 percent increase in package mail between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve.

Citing his “deep understanding of postal issues and workers’ concerns,” the American Postal Workers Union has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sander’s bid for the presidency.

A key feature of Canada Post's 2013 action plan has been put on hold following the country's recent federal elections that saw the Liberal Party of Canada claim a new majority.

A year after the United States Postal Service slashed parcel prices for big commercial shippers by as much as 58 percent, it is planning to boost its Priority Mail shipping prices by 9.8 percent. If approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, the new prices, announced Oct. 16, will become effective Jan. 17, 2016, and will affect all consumers and organizations that send parcels via the Postal Service.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office says not only has the United States Postal Service slowed the speed of mail deliveries, it doesn’t provide accurate data on much of the mail it handles.

For an organization with longstanding financial troubles, the United States Postal Service has managed to attract a lot of attention with a proposed delivery truck it calls the NGDV. That’s the newest postal acronym for Next Generation Delivery Vehicle — a bigger, but not sleeker, delivery truck that the cash-strapped Postal Service wants to buy for residential deliveries.

Each year in early November, Haines, Alaska, hosts the Alaska Bald Eagle Festival, offering visitors an opportunity to view large numbers of these majestic birds in their natural habitat at the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.

The mural is by Victor Arnautoff, who was commissioned by the federal Works Progress Administration to produce murals for federal buildings in the Bay Area as part of a New Deal program. Officials said the painting had been declared lost after the downtown Richmond post office was remodeled in 1979, but a former janitor of the building helped officials from the museum find it.

Sala Sinfonica Pablo Casals is a 1,300-seat concert hall in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that serves as the home to the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. The first concert performed there took place Oct. 3, 2009. The hall is named for cellist and conductor Pablo Casals (1876-1973), who was born in Catalonia, Spain.

After the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, postal workers not only saved the mail, they saved the new post office building.

It’s time to catch up on the week that was in stamp-collecting insights and news. Linn's Stamp News is looking back at its five most-read stories of the week.

A surprise for collectors and servicers of United States first-day covers: We are pretty much done for the year. Before the American Philatelic Society’s Stampshow 2015 last month, in Grand Rapids, there had been one commemorative and one definitive issue listed for the last four months of this year.

Mary-Anne Penner, acting director of Stamp Services for the United States Postal Service, confirmed to Linn’s that she is having discussions with the two firms that print U.S. stamps about producing a soakable stamp.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the only 2016 presidential candidate to address postal issues in his campaign, has been acting without public attention on another important postal issue. The Vermont senator single handily has forced the United States Postal Service board of governors out of business, two individuals familiar with the issue have told Linn’s.

Postal inspectors appear to have made some progress managing a program that allows law enforcement agencies to monitor the mail of criminal suspects, according to a report by the Office of Inspector General of the United States Postal Service.

The United States Postal Service will not issue a religious-themed stamp for the 2015 holiday season. This issue was brought to the forefront in the national press when the online conservative news and opinion site the Daily Caller published the article “Is the Postal Service Declaring War On Religion?” by reporter Rick Pollock.