U.S. Postal Service

The federal government is currently shut down. NPR's network is following the ways the government shutdown is affecting services across the country, including in Missouri and Kansas.

The federal shutdown will affect people across the United States. NPR's network of member stations explains what will be impacted and where.

Talks of overhauling the U.S. Postal Service have picked up since President Donald Trump began his second term. With service cutbacks already underway and privatization on the table, rural residents are bracing for more disruptions. Plus: There are more than 40 species of fireflies in Missouri, but for the past few years, people have been concerned about the populations diminishing.

As a new Postmaster General with ties to FedEx assumes control of the agency, postal workers and their customers are bracing for either scenario, especially as corporate America weighs in.

Despite the postmaster general resigning, a plan to cut back services will move forward this year.

Kansas City’s bus service is slow and rapidly declining. Advocates want the region to step up its funding. But in the meantime, more routes may get cut, and Kansas City could miss out on major economic growth. What will it take to fix the bus system? Also, Missouri content creators breathed a sigh of relief when President Donald Trump paused the federal ban on TikTok, but people who make their livelihoods off the video sharing app aren’t sure its future is secure.

The head of the U.S. Postal Service is stepping down, but rural communities in Missouri and Kansas are worried about operations getting even worse. Plus: A Kansas congressional delegation is working hard to revive a gutted foreign aid program that farmers say they can’t live without.

The U.S. Postal Service plans to consolidate some services to regional hubs in Kansas City and St. Louis. Critics say the move will hurt rural customers, especially people who rely on the mail for their medication delivery.

Organizations representing rural communities and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley have pushed back on a proposal that the U.S. Postal Service says could save it billions per year.

Kansas law requires all ballots to arrive by three days after Election Day, with a postmark on or before Election Day. But to avoid delays with the U.S. Postal Service, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab is encouraging voters to drop their ballot off in person.

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican who serves as the state’s chief elections officer, told Postmaster General Louis DeJoy there was cause to be “extremely concerned” about “a troubling pattern that persists in the U.S. Postal Service’s processing and handling of ballots.”

Sending birds through the mail is a longstanding practice in the United States, but reports of deliveries that come too late for hatchlings to survive are getting more common. It's part of a larger trend of complaints about delays within the U.S. Postal Service.