Quick hits: Mail is one of life's constants; China buys more beans; auctioneer school, federal firefighter payments

In the U.S., mail carriers are still beloved by many
Americans. (Adobe Stock photo)

Despite the U.S. Postal Service's ongoing financial and organizational struggles, U.S. Postal carriers remain beloved by many Americans. "With the Postal Service seemingly in jeopardy, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the nation’s more than 500,000 postal employees," reports Steven Kurutz of The Washington Post. Stephen Starring Grant, a former postal worker, told the Post, "I was the face of the United States government for a lot of the people on my route. . . No matter what else is going wrong, you’re still getting your mail.”

As China's promised purchases of U.S. soybeans continue to be tracked, the country purchased "10 U.S. soybean cargoes this week," report Naveen Thukral and Ella Cao of Reuters. The update comes "as the world's top buyer continues purchasing from the United States following a late October trade truce. The cargoes, totalling around 600,000 metric tons, are for shipment between March and May, the traders said, which is the peak shipping season for rival supplier Brazil."

Auctioneer students come from far and wide to learn
at the Bozeman, Mont. school. (Adobe Stock photo)

It's all about pitch, tenor, cadence, body language and the ability to say "SOLD!" like you mean it. "Welcome to the Western College of Auctioneering in Bozeman, Mont., a major training ground for a profession that is critical to the sale of cars and cattle in America," reports Liza Weisstuch of The Wall Street Journal. "Since it was founded in 1948, the school has matriculated over 5,000 students, who also auction everything from real estate to farm equipment to fine art."

After years of avoiding and denying the harm toxic wildfire smoke can do to firefighters, some recompense has been made. Firefighters "will be eligible for a payment of nearly $450,000 and college tuition for their family if they die or become debilitated from a smoke-related cancer," reports Hannah Dreier of The New York Times. "The legislation, which passed as part of a larger military spending bill, requires that some 20 smoke-related cancers be automatically treated as line-of-duty injuries or deaths for all firefighters who work for public agencies."

As 2025 moves into the rearview mirror, it still warms the heart to hear all the good things that happened before 2026 came marching in. Across the globe, some wondrous stuff happened. The U.S. neared completion of the "world’s most ambitious oyster reef restoration in the Chesapeake Bay, with more than 1,700 acres of reefs now revitalized," reports Reasons to Be Cheerful. "Over 120,000 'hedgehog highways' now connect about 240,000 gardens across the U.K. . . .Yemen now has an estimated 1.3 million beehives, some 100,000 more than three years ago." Read 97 good things here.