Hansi Lowong

Instead, it relies on stamp and service fees.

December is usually the busiest mailing and shipping season of the year, but in 2012, it apparently wasn't busy enough.

because the Postal Service ended its first quarter of the fiscal year with a net loss of $1.3 billion, partly due to increases in workers' compensation, retiree health benefit, and operating expenses.

The chair of the Postal Service's governing board, Amber McReynolds, says Congress should allow USPS to increase prices beyond the current limits.

But many advocates of customers and businesses that rely on USPS are concerned raising prices won't help stabilize the agency.

Hansi Lewong, NPR News.

This is NPR.

The Supreme Court appears inclined to further weaken the Voting Rights Act.

In places where voting is racially polarized, the landmark law has helped ensure districts are drawn in a way that gives racial minority voters a chance of electing their preferred candidates.

An NPR analysis has found the high court's decision in this case could affect 15 U.S.

House districts in the South that are

currently represented by a Black Democratic member of Congress.

Republican-led states may decide to keep some of these districts for partisan reasons, but losing a handful of those districts could fuel the largest ever drop in the number of Black representatives in Congress.

For a century after the Civil War, that figure stayed in the single digits or at zero.

But since the Voting Rights Act became law, the number's grown to 63 Black-represented districts today.

Anzi Luwong, NPR News.

NPR's Hansi Lowong has more.

For months, the Justice Department has been demanding certain states turn over complete copies of their voter registration lists, including any driver's license numbers and parts of voters' Social Security numbers.

In court filings, the DOJ says it wants this personal information to check if states are following federal law and keeping accurate voter rolls.

But most states have refused, citing privacy restrictions.