Isolated area in Idaho will keep mail via air drop

Postmaster General John Potter has reversed a decision to cut the last backcountry air-drop mail service in the country. The proposal was an attempt to save money; eliminating the weekly delivery would have cut a relatively miniscule $46,000 from the Postal Service's yearly budget. Although free post offfice boxes were offered in the closest town, it is far away and critics argued that the Idaho region served by the maildrop was practically inaccessible except by plane.

Howard Berkes of National Public Radio notes that the decision proved embarrassing for the Postal Service, especially in light of Potter's testimony before a Senate subcommittee this January. "We must serve every customer and every community equally," he testified. "We must provide the same access … in both easy-to-serve locations and locations so remote they can only be reached by mule, by swamp boat or by bush plane." (Read more)