A first-class letter is about to cost you a penny more to send.

Starting Sunday, Jan. 27, postage for a 1 oz. letter edges up to 46 cents.

Postage for postcards also goes up a penny to 33 cents.

Steve Padgett, the former mail carrier from Raleigh recently convicted of delaying and destroying U. S. mail, is in the news again. The lawbreaker, known as "Mailman Steve" to his fans, has received a nice check from donations by people all over the country who saw him as a hero, sparing the people he serviced from having to deal with piles of unsolicited "junk" mail.

Padgett made sure the people on his Apex mail route got their bills, personal letters and packages, but postal inspectors found bags of third class mail--advertising circulars and the like--in his garage and buried in his yard. The story, the most popular on newsobserver.com last month, struck a nerve.

The people who depend on third class mail to advertise their services are not amused. Neither is the U.S. Postal Service, which likes to point out that first class postal rates are relatively low compared to the rest of the world, in part, because of its success in keeping those advertisers using snail mail.

Linda Williams