US Rail Strike Update

The UPS Foundation, the American Red Cross and drone manufacturer CyPhy Works, Inc., today announced a partnership to launch a drone pilot program, marking the first time the American Red Cross will test using a tethered drone to assess damage after a major natural disaster in the United States. “With such catastrophic injury and damage being caused by natural disasters, every minute counts. It’s essential that public and private organizations work together to find new and innovative solutions to support and enhance recovery efforts after a natural disaster strikes,” said Eduardo Martinez, president of The UPS Foundation and chief diversity and inclusion officer.

The United States Postal Service reported new delivery performance metrics showing the average time to deliver a mailpiece across the postal network remained stable at 2.7 days between the period Jan. 1 and Jan 21. The Postal Service continues to implement mitigation plans due to recent winter storms to move mail and packages effectively with First-Class Mail performance showing steady signs of improvement over the second week of January. Additional second quarter service performance scores covering Jan.1 through Jan. 21 included: *First-Class Mail: 86.9 percent of First-Class Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 2.2 percentage points from the fiscal first quarter. *Marketing Mail: 91.7 percent of Marketing Mail delivered on time against the USPS service standard, a decrease of 1 percentage point from the fiscal first quarter. *Periodicals: 80.6 percent of Periodicals delivered on time against the USPS service standard, consistent with performance from the fiscal first quarter.

Gannett Co., Inc. the largest publisher in the United States including USA TODAY and over 200 local publications, filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Google for monopolization of advertising technology markets and deceptive commercial practices. The lawsuit seeks to restore competition in the digital advertising marketplace and end Google’s monopoly, which will encourage investment in newsrooms and news content throughout the country. As more Americans read the news online, publishers depend on digital advertising revenue to provide timely, cutting-edge reporting and content that communities across the country rely on. Google’s practices have depressed revenue and impacted local newsrooms adversely by monopolizing the markets for important software and technology products that publishers and advertisers use to buy and sell ad space. Google controls 90% of the market for “publisher ad servers,” which publishers use to offer ad space for sale. Google also controls over 60% of the market for “ad exchanges,” which run auctions among advertisers bidding for ad space on publishers’ websites. Google controls the largest source of advertisers bidding on exchanges. For Gannett, 60% of all buyers come through Google. The result is Google unfairly controlling selling, buying, and the exchange that matches sellers and buyers – and manipulating all aspects of online advertising transactions.