A multibillion-dollar program to buy electric vehicles for the U.S. Postal Service is far behind its original schedule, plagued by manufacturing mishaps and supplier infighting that threaten a cornerstone of outgoing President Joe Biden’s fight against climate change.

The Postal Service is slated to purchase 60,000 “Next Generation Delivery Vehicles,” or NGDVs — mostly electric — from defense contractor Oshkosh, which has a long history of producing military and heavy industrial vehicles, but not postal trucks. Congress provided $3 billion for the nearly $10 billion project in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, one of Biden’s chief legislative accomplishments.

But as of November, the Postal Service had received only 93 of the Oshkosh trucks, the agency told The Washington Post — far fewer than the 3,000 originally expected by now. Significant manufacturing difficulties that were not disclosed to the Postal Service for more than a year have stymied production, according to internal company records and four people with knowledge of the events, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional reprisals.

Among the problems: Engineers struggle to calibrate the vehicles’ air bags, according to two people familiar with the manufacturing process. When workers ran leak tests on the vehicles’ bodies and internal components, water poured out as if their oversize windows had been left open in a storm, three people said.

Currently, Oshkosh can produce just one truck per day at its South Carolina factory, according to internal company records and five people with knowledge of the production process. Company records, including emails among executives and internal progress reports, show Oshkosh originally planned to be manufacturing more than 80 vehicles per day by now.

The wide-ranging production problems have not been previously reported and were not mentioned in an inspector general audit published in October. A senior company executive tried to alert the mail agency to the problems in 2022, but was blocked by superiors, four of the people said.

“This is the bottom line: We don’t know how to make a damn truck,” said one person involved in production.

The massive delay means a project once hailed as a hallmark of Biden’s industrial and climate agenda may not take shape until long after he leaves office on Jan. 20 — or could never materialize. Republicans in Congress have pledged to repeal key funding sources for Biden’s climate investments with the GOP in power next year on Capitol Hill and at the White House, and Trump-aligned officials with designs on cutting government spending have circled the Postal Service as an area of interest.

“The days of a bailouts and handouts are over. The American people spoke loud and clear. I worry about that EV money sitting around, that it may be clawed back. I think there are lots of areas where there’s going to be significant reform over the next four years,” House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) told Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in a hearing this week.

This report is based on nearly 21,000 pages of government and internal Oshkosh records obtained by The Post through the Freedom of Information Act and other sources. It is also based on interviews with 20 people familiar with every phase of the truck project, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss proprietary information.

In June, the Biden administration honored the mail service’s EV commitment with a “federal sustainability award.”

In a statement, an Oshkosh spokesperson said the company was “fully committed to being a strong and reliable partner” for the Postal Service and “we remain on track to meet all delivery deadlines.”

“Since we were selected to fulfill the NGDV contract in 2021, Oshkosh and the USPS have worked closely together to design and deliver a modernized fleet with a flexible mix of American-made electric- and gas-powered vehicles that will connect every home and business across the country. New vehicles are in service today, which have received overwhelmingly positive feedback from postal carriers,” the spokesperson said.

The company did not respond to a list of detailed questions.

John Pfeifer, Oshkosh’s chief executive, told investors on Oct. 30 that the company was “really happy with where we are” and called the NGDV a “revolutionary vehicle.”


“We’re today ramping up production,” Pfeifer said. “When you go through — you take a brand-new vehicle to market, we believe, together with the Postal Service, that a prudent production schedule is better than trying to start by sprinting. So we’re ramping up today. We’ll be at full production throughout 2025.”

A Postal Service spokesperson said several issues with the NGDV program were detailed in the inspector general audit and “resolved directly with our supplier.” But the agency declined to comment on specific questions or identify which issues the report helped resolve. The spokesperson called the truck procurement “a large, successful program that for a variety of reasons had many moving parts.”

It said that any major production of a purpose-built vehicle has unique engineering requirements, and its contract with Oshkosh allows for robust performance monitoring. The Postal Service said it expects to receive 6,484 NDGVs in the current fiscal year.


“Our relationship with Oshkosh is defined by our contract, and we intend to hold Oshkosh to its contractual obligations, while recognizing the normal interplay that will need to take place in the execution and performance of an agreement of this magnitude,” the spokesperson said.

“We’re moving forward in modernizing our vehicle fleet — which will bring tremendous benefits to our organization. Under our plan, letter carriers in every state will be able to deliver mail and packages using new and modern vehicles within the next five years,” DeJoy said in a statement. “The work being done on this program demonstrates electrification and sustainability efforts can coexist — not conflict — with cost savings, efficiency gains and operational transformation priorities.”

The agency is also purchasing tens of thousands of other vehicles, including EVs, from mainstream automakers.

Biden administration officials declined to comment.

I like the concept a lot.

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Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Moss announced he is being treated for cancer, the 47-year-old revealed on Friday.

Moss, while on Instagram Live, said he was released from the hospital on Friday after spending six days undergoing treatment for cancer found in the bile duct between his pancreas and liver.



An emotional Moss called himself a “cancer survivor” and thanked “prayer warriors” for their support.

Earlier this month, Moss took some time away from his punditry work on ESPN to “focus on a personal health challenge.”

Moss shared that on Thanksgiving he had a procedure to put a stent in his liver after experiencing urine discoloration. He also shared that he underwent a six-hour procedure to remove the cancer about a week ago adding that he will undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

The six-time Pro Bowler made it a mission of his to return to his ESPN gig.

“As soon as I get healthy to get back out with guys, I will be on set. … Hopefully I can be with you guys soon,” Moss said.

“My goal is to get back on television with my team.”

The NFL legend played 14 seasons in the league, most notably with the Minnesota Vikings and the New England Patriots



He is considered one of the greatest wide receivers in the sport’s history, being named a first-team All-Pro four times and leading the NFL in receiving touchdowns on five occasions. Over his stellar career, Moss had 15,292 receiving yards and 156 touchdowns.

While wearing Team Moss sweatshirt that read “Let’s Moss Cancer” across the front, Moss said he is selling apparel with most proceeds going to cancer research.

Horrible idea:

Before President-elect Donald Trump can move “aggressively” to kill workforce protections for thousands of federal employees, as he has promised, he could face a vigorous court challenge.
He’ll be ready.

Get the latest election news and results

But so will his opponents.
Trump will return to the White House better prepared than during his first term, and with the backing of a Republican-controlled Congress and a generally friendly Supreme Court majority. Potentially, critics of his workforce policies could have a tough fight in all three branches of government.

A key element of Trump’s preparation on federal employment issues is the work done during his four years away from Washington by James Sherk, the self-described shepherd of Schedule F, a contentious, but short-lived, federal employee workforce category. Biden revoked Schedule F when he took office, and later his administration adopted a regulation designed to thwart a reissued Schedule F.


A year before Trump’s reelection, Sherk, Trump’s first-term domestic policy special assistant, outlined a defense of the policy that Trump announced during his first term.
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It could upend the traditional nonpartisan nature of the civil service.
Schedule F would make certain feds “at-will” employees, meaning they could be fired without the due process protections that allow appeals of adverse employment actions against government employees. In addition, the policy would allow agencies to fill those positions with political loyalists by skipping competitive hiring rules for career civil servants in positions “of a confidential, policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating character.”

It’s important to note that while due process protects individual federal employees from arbitrary terminations, the public is the main beneficiary. The current rules protect everyone from partisan politics unduly infecting government services. Likewise, competitive hiring prevents a government workforce from being overpopulated with political pawns. While presidents and their political appointees set policies for agencies, career civil servants are charged with implementing those policies without political favoritism. Making many of them at-will employees threatens the nonpolitical nature of the federal workforce and the public services they provide.

While Schedule F opponents are marshaling their arguments, they are aware that Trump has powerful allies on his side. With Republicans controlling Capitol Hill next year, MAGA legislators could seek to make Schedule F law, if that seemed a faster route to implementation. That would require a Senate supermajority of 60 votes, however, meaning some Democrats would have to agree. Even if opponents won early judicial battles against the policy, they eventually could face a Supreme Court dominated by Republican-nominated justices, who are more inclined to favor Trump’s schemes.
Instead, it’s more likely that Trump reinstates the plan through another executive action, which is what the president has promised. During the presidential campaign, Trump vowed to “immediately re-issue my 2020 Executive Order restoring the President’s authority to remove rogue bureaucrats. And I will wield that power very aggressively.”

Sherk outlined his Schedule F defense last year in writings from his perch as the Center for American Freedom director at the Trump-allied America First Policy Institute. Then, he targeted the Biden administration’s regulation aimed at preventing Schedule F from returning. Sherk, who declined interview requests, claimed, oddly, in a September 2023 issue brief that President Joe Biden “is trying to protect the bureaucracy from accountability to the president.”

Despite the Biden administration’s roadblock, Sherk isn’t worried.
“What is done through executive action can be undone through executive action,” he wrote. Once Trump takes office in January, “Schedule F could be reissued with full force and effect. The Biden administration’s regulations can slow down — but not block — Schedule F.”

Sherk, an economist by training, contends any delay would be only a few months and “if Schedule F were reissued today, opponents would have virtually no legal basis to challenge it.”
Federal employment law attorneys, however, disagree on his timing and his legal analysis.
Even if Trump reissues his directive on Day One, it will still take more time than Sherk predicts for the necessary rules and regulations to be implemented, predicted James Eisenmann. He is a former executive director and general counsel of the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency that deals with allegations of unfair personnel actions against federal employees. Plus, he added, “they have to have a good reason for reversing the Biden regs.” Eisenmann now represents feds as a partner with Alden Law Group.


Sherk said appellate court rulings indicate positions with a “‘confidential, policy-determining, policymaking or policy-advocating character’ cannot be reviewed in court.” That’s a key phrase in the order. But for legal purposes it means “Schedule F is extremely, extremely broad,” Eisenmann said, perhaps too broad for legal muster.
The employees Schedule F defined as policymakers covers those whose jobs include “viewing, circulating, or otherwise working with proposed regulations.” That could cover “even administrative staff,” said Nick Bednar, a University of Minnesota associate law professor and political scientist who researches federal bureaucracies. “I question whether Congress intended the phrase to extend to employees in the competitive service that help superiors draft policy or simply view and circulate policy as part of their jobs.”
By expanding “the phrase to cover positions that merely ‘view’ policy documents,” he said Trump’s policy “would sweep positions held by non-appointees, such as scientists, administrative assistants, and IT professionals” into employment categories with easier termination policies. “This broadened definition goes beyond Congress's intent and exceeds the plain meaning of ‘policy-determining.’”


Sherk’s insistence that the order “retained protections against politically motivated” dismissals isn’t convincing. “The mere threat that the Trump Administration might use Schedule F as cover to fire these employees has already injected unfair political influence into the civil service,” Bednar said.
Feds have reason to worry about Schedule F mission creep.
In a long, November 2023 letter to the Office of Personnel Management opposing the Biden regs, Sherk said “Schedule F would cover a maximum of 50,000 positions — about 2 percent of the federal workforce.” His issue brief, however, said “Schedule F would apply to between 2 and 4 percent of the overall federal workforce,” pushing the number closer to 100,000.

The number of employees affected, however, could be much larger than the number of positions.

A Government Accountability Office report said the policy-heavy Office of Management and Budget under Trump sought to place 136 types of jobs in Schedule F. But that would hit 415 employees, 68 percent, of OMB’s workforce, according to the auditors’ analysis.
Further, the America First Agenda for the next administration portends a much broader application of the policy. It declares: “Return the federal civil service to at-will employment — the original vision for a professional merit service.”
That’s one reason Randy Erwin, National Federation of Federal Employees president, vigorously opposes Schedule F, even if his members would not be immediately affected by it.
“They’re making it sound like it’s limited,” he told me recently. “The problem is once it is established, there is a very strong concern that they’ll continue to expand and expand what federal employees Schedule F applies to.”

Video coming shortly, but wanted to share with you guys that Fran confirmed this morning that Drew Thelwell will continue to start, Ladji come off the bench.

I should have taken a picture, but the Hampton Inn I stayed at last night had a fishbowl on the front desk with a sign that says, "Drop your business card with your Hilton Honors number written on it for chance to win 5,000 Honors Points".

WHY the requirement to write your account number on the card??? Anyone could go fishing in that bowl and have your name and Honors number, and possibly the email address and mobile phone number associated with that account, too!

Why can't they simply contact the winner to get the Honors number? That's the entire point of a business card. So people can contact you.

This was ruled a suicide. Holy shit.

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2026 four-star offensive lineman Hudson Parliament returned to Iowa City for the fifth time in the last year for the #Hawkeyes matchup with Washington.

"(Iowa) is right up there in my recruitment."

STORY:

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Dems can't stop losing..

"In the latest blow to the party, Lindy Li, a prominent Democratic National Committee (DNC) fundraiser and surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris, announced her departure from the Democratic Party - labeling it a "cult" after facing a barrage of internal attacks for her recent criticisms of Harris."

Sad it took her so long to realize the obvious, but better late than never. The hivemind does NOT allow for any dissent. My favorite part of the article:

"Li argued that Harris was “indulging in delusions” of making a political comeback and criticized the Democratic Party for carrying what she called the “stench of loser” following their defeat in November's elections."

Merry Christmas indeed

The players will be looking for:

* A to-be-determined percentage of media rights revenue.

* Medical care for players after their college careers have come to an end. Funds from the B1G would purchase medical insurance policies for former players that would cover the treatment of injuries from their college football careers.

If the B1G does not make significant progress on doing more for players, the players' next step could be to register as a 501(c)(5) labor organization and potentially begin the process of becoming a union.


Link to Story:

Interesting history for the guy leading the charge in Syria. To me it sounds like he got a lot of assurances from the west to protect them from Russia for this pipeline deal.

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She faces some stiff competition to get in (now or in the future), but a very cool honor for Lisa Bluder all the same.

More info on the 2025 eligible candidates for the Basketball HOF here:

Just got a letter saying they are reducing everyone's coverage and raising rates by a minimum of 20%. Smh

Yeah, people just don't realize how great the economy is right? Yeah right. iT wEnT uP 4o% iN OtHeR cOuNtRiEs!

Trump Responds to Biden’s Decision to Commute Sentences of 37 Prisoners on Federal Death Row – Including Child Rapists and Killers​