Last night around 10:50 p.m., heavy smoke was reported at the landmark James A Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue. Dozens of people were evacuated as the city's only 24-hour postal service branch was shut down so firefighters could locate the cause. ...

Has anyone else out there found their New Yorker subscription arriving later and later in the week? We're pitifully elated if it's in our mailbox before Thursday, and on more than one occasion it hasn’t even been delivered until the following week. Sure, there's content online, but you can't bring that on the subway! Apparently, we are not alone; even prominent Manhattan residents like Jessica Coen have been suffering – she wrote last week, "It's......

This morning around 6:15 a.m., two people were shot outside the Manhattanville Houses at 1430 Amsterdam Avenue before the gunman shot himself. Now it turns out the shooter was a postal carrier who had gotten into a fight with the men. NY1 reports that 48-year-old Roberto Caballero "had a confrontation with two men," and shot one man three times in the chest and the other once in the head. Then Caballero went to his apartment......

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......

Another noose was found Thursday afternoon - and this time, it was outside the Church Street Post Office. Um, WTF is going on? The noose was found on a lamppost, and while it was visible at street level, postal employees working on the second floor noticed it. Building management took it down. According to Newsday, there is scaffolding outside the building at 90 Church Street that "leads to the light pole, but the scaffolding is......

Migrating birds should have a safer journey now that the US Post Office has altered the exterior of one of its Manhattan facilities. Migrating birds have annually fallen prey to the Morgan General Mail Facility in Chelsea. The distribution center between 9th and 10th Aves. has a south face that reflects the trees in Chelsea Park on 28th St. Thinking they've found a nice perch, many birds smack into the side of the building. Volunteers......

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.......

It's not surprising news, but it's a reminder why people don't live in New York City. A report from the Independent Budget Office showed that New York City has the biggest tax burden than eight other big cities. In fact, NYC's tax burden is practically 50% higher than the average of cities like Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix and San Diego. (We don't know where San Francisco, Boston, or Seattle......

Shortly before 10, Gothamist got a tip that it was snowing in Manhattan in the Flatiron district. Just a few minutes ago, we witnessed the first snowfall of the Winter outside our offices in Greenpoint. The snow seemed to be coming from a swath of dark clouds above us. Those clouds have since been replaced by blue skies. We tried to take a photo of the snow, but there was so little of it.......

Columbia University sent out its admissions letters on Wednesday, and clever applicants figured out a way to see if they were admitted before the mail actually arrived. Apparently, the admissions officers were photographed sending out the "yes" letters via FedEx, while the rejections went out via USPS. As soon as the photo was published in the Spec, applicants picked up on it: FEDEX TRACKING SYSTEM BY ADDRESS! CALL AND GIVE THEM YOUR ADDRESS, ASK FOR......

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......

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......

In case you're still using regular mail, it should be noted that postage rates are going up tomorrow. The new rates for a first class letter go up 2¢ to 39¢. Earlier in the week, Gothamist went to the post office as we ran out of 37¢ stamps. Looking to by 5 more to get us through the week, we were told they weren't selling them anymore! Alas, we waisted about 10¢ by using the......

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......

As expected since he took the lead after the 16th stage, Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France yesterday. The win is Armstrong's 6th win in a row, setting a Tour record and besting the previous 5-time winners, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain. Armstrong's overall time for the 3 week, 20 stage, 3391 kilometer race was 83 hours 36 minutes 2 seconds. Andreas Klöden, the 2nd place finisher, was 6 minutes......

As the Tour de France enters the mountain stages today, Frenchman, Thomas Voeckler is still in first place. Five time champion Lance Armstrong, who was briefly in first, is 9:35 behind Voeckler and entering a stage sight unseen. "It's going to be tough. Up and down all day. Unfortunately, it's a stage we haven't seen. It's a hard day ahead." Stage 10 is the longest stage of the Tour at 147 miles and goes though......

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......

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......

One of my neighbors might be stealing my mail. My building has small mailboxes that lock, so oversized items are left on a table in the front hall. Every so often I find myself missing a large envelope or magazine that I know was delivered. Some other residents are having the same problem and we all suspect the same person. She's a little older, a little daffy and is the only person in our building......

Commissioner Raymond Kelly must be a forward thinking guy, or at least a guy with a forward thinking staff, as the NYPD embarks on a 60 day trial using the Segway Human Transporter. The NY Post reports that 10 officers were put on Segways last week to deal with areas of heavy pedestrian traffic, like Midtown and Coney Island; the USPS and Atlanta police have also been testing out Segways. Gothamist thinks that police officers......

So, you go to work, show your ID to the security guard, head to the elevator...but not without getting your disinfectant wipes from the dispenser in the lobby! This is the scenario in Hong Kong, where the region is hella freaked out about SARS (and rightfully so). My mother (a.k.a. the Hong Kong office) took pictures of what her office building in the Causeway Bay area is doing. This reminds Gothamist of some "How......

The daily convergence of life and Seinfeld: In New Zealand, postal worker was fired for hoarding letter. You know where I'm going with this: the Andrea Doria episode of Seinfeld where it's revealed that Newman has been hoarding letters...Jerry helps Newman deliver the letters, in hopes that Newman will be transferred to Hawaii. Of course, Newman doesn't get the transferred because Jerry has a delivery rate of 80%, unthinkable for the USPS of the Seinfeldian......