Post Office

WEDRON, Ill. -- In September 1926, a young airmail pilot named Charles Lindbergh crashed his plane in a field on the outskirts of this Fox River town about 80 miles southwest of Chicago. Eight months later, he made the world's first solo transatlantic airplane flight.

About 16 miles to the northeast, Millington was once called Milford until the post office opened in 1861, prompting officials to change the name to avoid confusion with a Milford in a different county.

Now both tiny towns are bracing for a different brush with history. The U.S. Postal Service is considering making their cottage-size post offices extinct.

Want your mail? Shovel your walk.

WASHINGTON -- The independent panel that oversees the U.S. Postal Service voted Thursday to deny the agency's request to increase the cost of mailing a letter by 2 cents, keeping first-class stamps at 44 cents.

WASHINGTON — The post office wants to increase the price of a stamp by 2 cents to 46 cents starting in January. The agency has been battered by massive losses and declining mail volume and faces a financial crisis.

OGDEN -- People who waited until the last second to mail in their income taxes get a little extra time Thursday to get their return postmarked with that all-important April 15 stamp.

HACKER VALLEY, W.Va. -- Retha Casto doesn't pay her bills online, connect with friends through Facebook or use GPS for directions. So when the U.S. Postal Service decided after 153 years to suspend operations at the Hacker Valley post office, the 87-year-old woman picked up her pen.