In 2006, Congress passed a law that imposed extraordinary costs on the U.S. Postal Service. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) required the USPS to create a $72 billion fund to pay for the cost of its post-retirement health care costs, 75 years into the future. This burden applies to no other federal agency or private corporation.

If the costs of this retiree health care mandate were removed from the USPS financial statements, the Post Office would have reported operating profits in each of the last six years. This extraordinary mandate created a financial “crisis” that has been used to justify harmful service cuts and even calls for postal privatization. Additional cuts in service and privatization would be devastating for millions of postal workers and customers.

Colbert's LOTR movie, tentatively titled "Shadow of the Past," will be the second of two new upcoming films in the franchise from Warner Bros. Discovery.

Not meeting U.S. safety standards is one reason Chinese EVs cannot yet be owned permanently in the U.S.

"From the very beginning, this has been about one fundamental principle: the military being able to use technology for all lawful purposes," the Pentagon said in the statement.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a memo to staff that he will draw the same red lines that sparked a high-stakes fight between rival Anthropic and the Pentagon: no AI for mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons.

Since safer battery technologies and proper recycling methods already exist, the issue largely stems from cost and lack of regulation. In other words, the problem is solvable if addressed early.

The deal to buy Warner Bros will almost surely attract regulatory scrutiny from the Justice Department

Sam Altman: ... we believe the U.S. government is an institution that does its best to follow law and policy.

Anthropic's policies prevent its models, such as its chatbot Claude, from being used for those purposes. It's the last of its peers -- the Pentagon also has contracts with Google, OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI -- to not supply its technology to a new U.S. military internal network.

So good on Anthorpic.

Kegseth isn't going to invoke the DPA. They seem to get away with crazy shit that just hurts people, but they're trying not to spook the market, and going old-school socialist in peacetime is a bit much.

It was not immediately clear how the Pentagon intends to label Anthropic a supply chain risk — which typically requires the government and its contractors to cut ties with that company — while simultaneously invoking the Defense Production Act to compel the company to cooperate with the Pentagon.