The cuts will be limited in 2012, with 48 plants slated to be consolidated or closed in July and August, which will only impact 5,000 employees. However, when the plan is fully implemented at the end of 2014, 229 plants will be consolidated or closed and 28,000 jobs will be gone.

To customers, the consolidation plans will mean slower mail delivery for the most commonly sent mail — but not until 2014. Overnight service is being phased out, but agency officials say letters being sent locally should still just take a day through the end of 2013.

Even with the slower delivery, they say that 80% of first-class mail, which most consumers use, will continue to be delivered on time in 2012.

Rural post offices spared

"These changes are a necessary part of the plan to reduce costs and return the Postal Service to financial stability," said Megan Brennan, chief operating officer for USPS.

Last week, the Postal Service announced it was pulling back on plans to close thousands of rural post offices, saying these post offices would instead offer shorter hours.

The Postal Service also reported a $3.2 billion loss for the three months of 2012 ended March 31, which was due to the recession, declining mail volume and a congressional mandate to prefund retirement health care benefits.

The health care mandate is a major liability for the Postal Service, which doesn’t have the cash to make a $5.5 billion payment that’s due in August.

Unions say the health care payments are the main cause of the Postal Service’s financial problems and should be eliminated instead of plant closures and service delays, which could turn more customers away.

"The Postal Service’s actions are the best evidence there is that union members must contact their U.S. representatives and urge them to address postal reform immediately, using the recently approved Senate bill as a starting point for discussion," said Cliff Guffey, president of the American Postal Workers Union.

The Senate plan would spare about 100 plants from consolidation. The House doesn’t have such a measure in its bill, which the full House has yet to consider.

Senators called upon the House to move forward on legislation to save the USPS. The Senate plan, which passed last month, would allow the Postal Service access to $12 billion in overpayments in retirement accounts, while postponing health care retirement payments.

"It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Postmaster General is moving forward to reduce costs with the limited tools at his disposal," said Sen. Thomas Carper, a Delaware Democrat and one of the authors of the Senate bill. "Now it’s up to the House to pass a bill."

However, the House isn’t likely to tackle Postal Service legislation until this summer at the earliest.

The list of 48 plants to be closed in July and August won’t be released until later Thursday afternoon, postal officials said.

The Postal Service is, by law, an "independent establishment" of the executive branch. The agency doesn’t normally use tax dollars for operations, but it has a $12 billion loan from Treasury to stem the tide until it can get back in the black. 

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The retailer also said that despite the fact that its audit committee found that then-CEO Brian Dunn violated company policy by having a “close personal relationship” with a female employee, he gets a severance package worth about $6.6 million.

Best Buy hired an outside law firm in March to investigate Dunn, who resigned in April. The committee found that Dunn’s relationship with a female employee showed poor judgment. But the panel found he did not misuse company resources or company aircraft related to the relationship.

Still, the inquiry showed that Schulze, who has been with the company since its inception in 1966, acted inappropriately when he found out about the relationship free business cards.

He is resigning and will be replaced by Hatim Tyabji, chairman of Best Buy’s audit committee.

Schulze will receive the title chairman emeritus, an honorary position, and serve out his term as director through June 13.

“In December, when the conduct of our then-CEO was brought to my attention, I confronted him with the allegations (which he denied), told him his conduct was totally unacceptable and contrary to Best Buy’s policies and everything I, and the company, stand for. I understand and accept the findings of the Audit Committee,” Schulze said in a statement.

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The Labor Department said Friday that the producer price index dropped 0.2 percent last month. It was the first decline since December and the biggest one-month drop since October.

Wholesale gas prices fell 1.7 percent last month. That accounted for half the drop in energy costs, which was the only major category to decline.

The index measures price changes before they reach the consumer. For the 12 months that ended in April, wholesale prices have risen just 1.9 percent. That’s the smallest 12-month change since October 2009. And it’s down from a peak year-over-year increase of 7.1 percent last July, when higher gas and food costs pushed up wholesale prices.

Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the so-called core index rose 0.2 percent last month. The core index has increased 2.7 percent during the 12 months ended in April, down only slightly from March.Modest wholesale inflation reduces pressure on manufacturers and retailers to raise prices. That helps keep consumer prices stable, which boosts buying power and drives growth guaranteed high risk personal loans. Consumer spending makes up 70 percent of economic activity.

Lower inflation also gives the Federal Reserve room to hold interest rates at record-low levels. Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said that until core inflation falls to lower levels, he does not expect the Fed to launch other efforts to boost growth.

Higher gas and food prices early last year limited Americans’ ability to buy other goods, which slowed growth. The economy expanded just 1.7 percent in 2011. For April, energy prices fell 1.4 percent. The price of natural gas intended for home use dropped 3.1 percent, and other energy costs also fell.

A small amount of inflation can be good. It encourages businesses and consumers to spend and invest money sooner rather than later. The Fed last month reiterated that it planned to keep its key interest rate at a record low through at least late 2014. That’s not likely to change when the Fed next meets on June 19-20.

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The grocery giant joins some of the largest companies in the country with its vow to phase out the use of these cages, called sow gestation stalls, to keep pigs confined.

"Gestation stalls have been criticized in recent years due to animal welfare concerns," Safeway (, Fortune 500) said in a statement announcing its plans "to have a gestation stall-free supply chain."

The Humane Society, which has compared these cages to the Medieval torture devices known as "iron maidens," trumpeted Safeway’s decision as the latest victory in the struggle for animal rights.

Fast food franchises McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King as well as the foodservice giant Compass Group have all begun to phase out pork suppliers that use the stalls.

McDonald’s (, Fortune 500) announced in February that it "wants to see the end of sow confinement in gestation stalls in our supply chain." Wendy’s () says it has been giving preferential treatment to suppliers who don’t use the stalls since 2007, and that it wants "to eliminate the use of sow gestation stalls over time." Burger King also said it’s been transitioning towards a supply chain free of sow gestation stalls since 2007.

McDonald’s phasing out tiny cages for pigs

But not everyone in the $4 billion pork industry is against the stalls. Some say they prevent surly sows from hurting each other and make it safer for farmers to feed them and provide medical care.

Dave Warner, spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council, said that moving sows out of gestation stalls will increase pig fatalities and hurt production, and that increased costs will be passed along to consumers.

Nonetheless, pork producers have been bowing to market pressure to make the switch, though they’re doing it very gradually.

Warner said that retrofitting the barns to group pens instead of gestation stalls is expensive. He cited a study by the University of Minnesota that estimates it will cost the industry $1.9 billion to $3.2 billion to make the switch. Phasing out the stalls over a longer period of time could help reduce costs, as farmers would eventually have to retrofit or replace aging barns anyway, he said.

Smithfield Foods (, Fortune 500) said it’s converted 30% of its farms away from gestation stalls, and plans to be 100% free of them by the end of 2017. Hormel Foods (, Fortune 500) says it has transitioned 75% of its sows in Arizona and Colorado "to group sow housing," and is planning to start transitioning its Wyoming pig farms before 2018.

Burger King to use cage-free chickens

Cargill spokesman Mike Martin said his company produces 30% of the pork it sells, and half of that is grown without gestation stalls. Martin says the movement away from the small cages is "driven by our customers." But, he adds, "there is no evidence that gestation stalls cause any problem for the animals."

The trend is part of growing consumer awareness about animal rights, which extends well beyond pigs.

Burger King and Wendy’s are transitioning to cage-free chickens as a source for their eggs. Starbucks (, Fortune 500) recently said it would phase out the use of crushed bug extract for the red dye in some of its drinks. 

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Benchmark oil for June delivery was down 43 cents to $96.38 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 20 cents to settle at $96.81 in New York on Wednesday.

Brent crude for June delivery was down 27 cents at $112.93 per barrel in London.

On Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration said that increased oil imports and weaker domestic demand for petroleum helped boost U.S. oil inventories last week to 379.5 million barrels, the highest since 1990.

China reported Thursday that its imports and exports in April grew less than analysts expected, sparking investor concern crude demand may be waning in the world’s second largest economy.

Crude has slumped $10, or about 10 percent, from $106 last week amid fears the global economy may grow less than expected this year no teletrack payday loan. Political upheaval in France and Greece this week also renewed worries about Europe’s debt crisis and weak economy.

Some analysts expect oil prices to stabilize after the recent sell-off unless the global economy deteriorates significantly further.

“One could perhaps argue that with inventories building and global oil demand conditions softer in the first quarter, prices were on the high side to begin with,” Barclays said in a report. However, “the path of least resistance in prices is likely to be a slow grind higher from here in the coming months.”

In other energy trading, heating oil was down 0.8 cents at $2.99 per gallon and gasoline futures slid 1.5 cents to $3.01 per gallon. Natural gas added 1 cent at $2.48 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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