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POSTAL SERVICE

1,000 post offices on chopping block

The U.S. Postal Service is considering closing as many as 1,000 local offices as it battles staggering financial problems.

The agency has been struggling with a sharp decline in mail volume as people and businesses switch to e-mail both for personal contact and bill paying. The agency is facing a nearly $7 billion potential loss this fiscal year, despite a 2-cent increase in the price of stamps in May, cuts in staff and removal of collection boxes.

Also on the block are branch offices across the country and postal officials sent a list of nearly 700 potential candidates to the independent Postal Regulatory Commission.

More may be added, the Postal Service says. The current list of potential candidates can be viewed at www.prc.gov.

DEMOCRATS

Obama invites senators to lunch

President Obama has invited all of his Senate allies to lunch Tuesday - his birthday - his spokesman said Monday.

Mr. Obama invited all 58 Democrats, and the two independents who typically vote with them, to the White House “to continue to talk about the priorities that they have,” press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters.

“I don’t doubt that health care will be discussed. I believe the economy will also be heavily discussed,” he said. “They’ll go through and discuss energy legislation.”

Mr. Obama, who turns 48 on Tuesday, also plans to press senators to inject roughly $2 billion more into a program that lets consumers trade in gas-guzzling cars and trucks for more efficient vehicles, Mr. Gibbs said.

SENATE

McCain to vote against Sotomayor

Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party’s failed 2008 presidential contender, announced Monday that he will join the vast majority of other party members to vote against Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who’s on track to be confirmed this week as the first Hispanic justice of the Supreme Court.

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