WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) – Iran has made a rare
purchase of U.S. wheat as it tries to build its food stockpiles
amid tougher sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe
over its nuclear program, the U.S. government said on Thursday.

The U.S. Agriculture Department reported that Iran bought
120,000 tonnes of U.S. wheat — enough to fill two large cargo
ships.

By Emily Stephenson

(Reuters) – Heavy industry groups and states argued in a federal court on Tuesday that U.S. environmental regulators had used faulty science in determining that greenhouse gas emissions endangered human health in the latest attempt to dismantle the Obama administration’s rules on the emissions.

During the first of two days of arguments on a case that seeks to overturn Environmental Protection Agency regulations, Harry MacDougald, a lawyer for the petitioners, said uncertain evidence was used to reach “90 percent” certainty that human emissions are responsible for harmful climate change.

By Cezary Podkul and Emily Stephenson

(Reuters) – Postal officials were blunt in December when they stood before 120 residents in Dedham, Iowa, to tell them why their town’s post office has to close. The Internet, officials said, was killing the U.S. Postal Service.

“Well, I have no Internet,” resident Judy Ankenbauer said at the meeting. Like many of Dedham’s 280 residents, Ankenbauer said she still relies on the post office to buy stamps and send letters and packages.

By Cezary Podkul and Emily Stephenson

(Reuters) – Postal officials were blunt in December when they stood before 120 residents in Dedham, Iowa, to tell them why their town’s post office has to close. The Internet, officials said, was killing the U.S. Postal Service.

“Well, I have no Internet,” resident Judy Ankenbauer said at the meeting. Like many of Dedham’s 280 residents, Ankenbauer said she still relies on the post office to buy stamps and send letters and packages.

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) – President Barack
Obama’s proposed 2013 budget repeated a call to allow the U.S.
Postal Service to end Saturday mail delivery and tap into a
retirement-fund surplus, as lawmakers hash out the details of
postal legislation.

The budget outline released on Monday included several steps
to provide relief to the cash-strapped Postal Service that
closely matched plans the Obama administration proposed in
September 2011 as part of a deficit-reduction plan.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Postal Service’s losses shot up to $3.3 billion in the last three months of 2011, a tenfold jump from the same period a year before, as its customer base eroded with the growth of email and online billing.

The cash-strapped agency recorded the loss during its traditionally strongest period, the year-end holiday shipping season, as declines in mail volumes outweighed growth in shipping.

WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. Postal
Service’s losses shot up to $3.3 billion in the last three
months of 2011, a tenfold jump from the same period a year
before, as its customer base eroded with the growth of email and
online billing.

The cash-strapped agency recorded the loss during its
traditionally strongest period, the year-end holiday shipping
season, as declines in mail volumes outweighed growth in
shipping.

Feb 6 (Reuters) – Three senators called for the U.S.
Postal Service to reconsider closing thousands of facilities and
urged an end to a multibillion-dollar annual payment by the
USPS, highlighting debate in Congress over how to reform the
money-losing agency.

Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent, and Democratic
Senators Mary Landrieu and Patrick Leahy said on Monday that a
Postal Service plan to study closing more than 3,600 post
offices and about 250 processing facilities would eliminate
needed jobs and hurt rural communities.

By Emily Stephenson

(Reuters) – An Oregon special election in which national Democrats have sought to paint the Republican congressional candidate as a Tea Party radical foreshadows a tactic the party will employ in its quest to take back Congress seats lost in the 2010 election.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent about $1.3 million in the race, half of it opposing Republican businessman Rob Cornilles in Tuesday’s election to replace Democratic ex-Representative David Wu.

HONOLULU (Reuters) – Farmers expect another year of rising income and even higher costs, and plan to boost their plantings of soybeans and corn this year, according to a Reuters survey released on Wednesday.

Farmers said they expect to increase their corn plantings by 6 percent, soybean acres by 2.5 percent and wheat acres by 7.1 percent, according to a random survey of 462 farmers and ranchers at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, which concluded this week.