The U.S. Postal Service has increased first class stamp rates one penny to 42 cents and printed over one million extra one-cent stamps for people who didn't buy the Forever stamps. For those of you thinking, "Another stamp increase? Again?" the last increase was in May of last year. To ease the pain of a more expensive stamp, the USPS is also rolling out the Frank Sinatra stamp tomorrow. USPS Board of Governors Chairman Alan......

Images from WNBC Yesterday afternoon, a United State Postal Service tractor-trailer hit a fire truck in Laurelton, Queens, leaving a total of eight people injured. The truck had been responding to an alarm on 226th Street when the USPS vehicle hit it in the side at North Conduit Avenue and 225th Street. Then a taxi minivan crashed into the USPS truck. The Post says the impact caused the fire truck to spin around, stopping......

Mayor Bloomberg has announced that the city will crackdown on the abuse of parking permits issued to civil servants, reducing the overall number by 20%. The change comes after the Post revealed in November that “149 separate government entities had qualified for the coveted placards last year, ranging from the state lottery to the US Navy recruiting office, which was allocated an astonishing 110 permits.” In fact, so many agencies produce and distribute the parking......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a police officer was struck on Richmond and Wilson Aves. on Staten Island, there was a large fight on Franklin Ave. and Empire Blvd. in Brooklyn, and a double homicide on Furman Ave. and East 237th St. in the Bronx. The US Postal Service is expecting to process one billion individual pieces of mail today, three times the daily average. The busiest day of the year is expected to......

READING: Have you thought about Rereading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë lately? Writers and Brontë enthusiasts Jennifer Egan, Siri Hustvedt and Margot Livesey have! Tonight they celebrate the "heart-searing story of a plain, orphaned governess who struggles at an oppressive boarding school before moving to Thornfield, eventually falling in love with her mysterious employer, Mr. Rochester." The event coincides with a new Masterpiece Theatre presentation of Jane Eyre. 7:30pm // Symphony Space [95th and Broadway]......

Update: WNBC reports that Cho Seung Hui sent a "box containing a manifesto of sorts, photographs and other material" (including videos) to NBC News. NBC News received it today and president Steve Capus turned the box over the FBI, but MSNBC says that the box was sent between the two shootings. The package included a long, “rambling, manifesto-like statement embedded with a series of photographs,” Capus said. The material is “hard-to-follow ... disturbing, very......

The special US Postal Service-Star Wars R2D2 mailboxes have arrived, just in time to get acquainted with NYC-style slush. WNBC has a slideshow of a mailbox in Midtown, and we suppose the horrible sleet kept some fans away, lest they sully their Jedi robes. Some readers noted that there were R2D2 mailboxes outside the Kaufman Studios in Astoria as well as on Mott and Bayard in Chinatown, in addition to Manhattan locations of 43rd and......

Take this as your dose of levity for the day: As part of a big Star Wars stamp roll out for the film's 30th anniversary, the US Postal Service will have some mailboxes across the country wrapped with R2D2 decals. The mailboxes will be in 200 cities, and New York City is getting a few. The locations mentioned in the Daily News are 43rd and Broadway, 58th and Fifth Avenue, and 33rd and Seventh Avenue.......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a "rampaging squirrel" in Brooklyn, found skeletal remains on the Upper West Side, and a "suspicious person" on the GWB. The East 62nd Street lot that the Bartha house sat on before it was blown up by its owner has been sold for "near or above the $8million asking price." Even after all of the lawsuits are settled, that's still a nice chunk of change for his estranged ex-wife......

Bad Veins had only played five shows before they played our Movable Hype show last week, and we hope you caught them. With a megaphone, guitars, keys, a telephone microphone, drums and a reel to reel named Irene...the two members in this band manage to sound like a full rock orchestra. Their sound is a little bit Sparklehorse, a little bit Postal Service. A raw, almost "old-fashioned" sound with a new twist... you sort of......

You might envy the charm of brownstone life, but apparently one pitfall is that the some mail carriers don't like to deliver the mail to them. The NY Sun examines the situation after some Brooklyn residents realized their mail wasn't coming. Mail carriers feel stoops are dangerous especially in winter weather, and lately some residents' mail has been "rained upon, blown away, and destroyed." You'd think the mail would have to be delivered at the......

Yesterday morning, some subway service on different lines was disrupted due to a police investigation. It turns out that a woman was killed at 34th Street and 8th Avenue subway station. The Staten Island Advance reports that the woman was Grace Coughlin, a 53 year old US Postal Service Inspection employee. The motorman told police that Coughlin jumped in front of the train, but Couglin's family was told that she fell into the tracks. Police......

Apparently Sunday is the Metro sections Bloomberg real estate day. Last week we learned about the townhouse that Mike is buying to house his philanthropic foundation and this week we learn about how 731 Lexington Avenue, aka 151 East 58th, aka 1 Beacon Court, aka the Bloomberg Building got its many names."People thought of it as Alexander's, and we had to come up with something brand new, something significantly different," Melvyn H. Blum, executive......

Tareyton Williams, who was arraigned for the attempted murder of Michael Steinberg when he grabbed two cordless power saws from subway workers at the 110th and Broadway subway station last Thursday, was ordered for a psychiatric evaluation at Bellevue. Williams was also charged with first-degree robbery, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon in the strange attack. Williams was captured after punching another Upper West Side resident a few......

ART: Tonight Dreamland: Coney Island 1905-1925 opens. The exhibit is opened through August 19th and features "original drawings, blueprints, and vintage photographs of New York City’s favorite amusement park, Coney Island." Opening Reception 6 to 8pm // Ricco Maresca Gallery [529 West 20th St] // Free THEATER: The year's not half over, but we'd bet good money that Men Eat Mars Bars While Touching Their Penis, which opens tonight, would win the prize for most......

Due to interest from brides (bridezillas?), the US Postal Service created new stamps for wedding invitations: Doves in a loose, lacey pattern in pastel green and purple. And the NY Times says that "nearly all" of the 10,000 stamps issued last Wednesday were purchased at Kleinfeld on West 20th Street! While Gothamist understands the need to have something pretty-pretty for a wedding invite, but they are somewhat boring. We're fans of using the USPS's other......

We were really knocked out by Mazarin at Pianos last week. Very fun band. One can only hope that this week holds such surprise awesomeness. Some potential candidates: Party-pop masters Ok Go (at left) made a hilarious choreographed dance video in their backyard that captures the energy and fun of their live show. Plus, ladies may just fall in love with frontman Damian Kulash's gigantic Mick Jagger lips. With dance punks Controller.Controller and spirited psychedelic......

In February of 2005, we booked New York band The Cloud Room to play our 2nd Movable Hype show. We had heard their song Hey Now Now and it instantly stuck in our head like peanut butter to the roof of one's mouth. This is how it was for everyone we talked to. We'd even venture to say that a song hasn't stuck in our head like that since. This week, Pitchfork took a stab......

Fie on you, US Postal Service! We couldn't find any 2 cent stamps left, in order to complement our Muppet stamps with some Navajo jewelry, Now we're faced with a huge mailing we need to do (hateful wedding etiquette that says reply card envelopes must be stamped also!), and the lines at the post office have been sooooo long. And angry. Gothamist could go to Mailboxes Etc., where they'll charge, oh, about 25% more for......

Coachella confirmations are starting to appear, after many many rumors. This year, the 6th, will be held April 30th to May 1st at Empire Polo Field in Indio, CA (same venue as last year). The lineup is still unconfirmed but you can probably expect Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand and the Killers. Others asked to perform this year are the Futureheads, Snow Patrol, Keane, Bloc Party, Secret Machines, Hot Hot Heat, Phoenix, The Bravery and Radio 4.......

Columbus Day, which Gothmamist hasn't really celebrated, except for college protests about the holiday (which are pretty matter-of-fact at the alma mater), means that banks and some schools are closed. There's only Express Mail from the US Postal Service, but the branch at 8th Avenue across from Penn Station is open. And more likely than not, you still have work. But for those of you who are able to, the city has some festivities you......

There's been an unusual amount of mail-related news lately. First, the Church Street post office just a block away from the World Trade Center has finally reopened. Tribeca residents, who had previously walked by the closed post office (where someone does stand guard), now rejoice in not having to go to Canal Street, Bowling Green or other locations for their mail. Also yesterday, a man robbed a post office at 340 West 42nd Street of......

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Buckminster Fuller's patent for the geodesic dome, the U.S. Postal Service has created these awesome Buckminster Fuller stamps. Based on a Time magazine cover illustration by Boris Artzybasheff, Gothamist loves how Fuller's head is a dome - we'd dig a doll like that. And Fuller's first name was Richard, but came to be called "Bucky." Gothamist was obsessed with bucky balls, which are "carbon-composed clusters of 60 carbon......

After capturing the lead a day earlier, Lance Armstrong relinquished the lead in stage five of the Tour de France yesterday. His US Postal Service team, and several other contenders, stayed behind while some riders raced ahead in the 220.5 km stage. The lead and the yellow jersey belongs to Frenchman, Thomas Voeckler. Voeckler, 25 years old, is now 9:35 ahead of the sixth place Armstrong who hung back to save his energy for the......

After four stages in the Tour de France, American Lance Armstrong is already the leader, wearing the yellow jersey. Armstrong's team, the United States Postal Service, won the 65 kilometer team time trial yesterday with a time of 1:12:03 in the driving rain. Armstrong now leads the race by ten seconds over his teammate George Hincapie and by 16 seconds over another teammate, Floyd Landis. It's the first time in Tour history that Americans have......

- Weather's effect on the 2004 butterfly census - Early July 4th weather predictions - Weather in Wired Magazine's Infoporn section - Walmart blames bad sales on the weather - The BBC's 30 year old weather art - How to set up your own XML weather feed - The US Postal Service and rain - Aerosols and the Hydrologic Cycle - Thermals--making flights bumpy and paragliders happy - Official BBQ thumbs-up for the 4th This......

Should be another partly-cloudy day with a high of 83. Scattered thunderstorms will begin rearing their heads around 7PM. Last night Gothamist received notification that her Vans shipped. (Yes, the black and white checkered ones, thanks for asking.) Amid the email's many links was one particularly intriguing one that said "USPS Weather Page." It goes without saying that it was the first thing Gothamist clicked. Ribbs.usps.gov contains a weather alert bulletin board that you can......