Daily printout: Feb. 3

Thomas J. Marshall retired as the Postal Service’s general counsel on Feb. 1, after more than 30 years with the organization.

He began his USPS career as an attorney in the Eastern Area law office in Philadelphia. He was promoted to deputy managing counsel in St. Louis and held managing counsel positions in the Capital Metro law office and the Civil Practice Section.

Marshall was named general counsel in May 2013 and has been responsible for supporting the Postal Service in all aspects of its business, including its network rationalization plans, price setting, product development and other major business and strategic initiatives.

Marshall is known for leading the law department in finding creative legal solutions to complicated issues. For example, Marshall and his teams developed litigation and appellate strategies to successfully obtain the exigent price surcharge that was in effect from 2014 through April of 2016, and which resulted in significant revenue for the Postal Service. 

Another legal strategy developed under Marshall’s leadership enabled the Postal Service to continue operating, adjust prices and change products after it lost a statutory quorum of the Board of Governors — and ultimately all the presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed board members — a situation that lasted for nearly five years, beginning in 2014.

Before joining USPS, Marshall was a commercial litigator with the Resolution Trust Corp., and the international law firm Reed Smith Shaw & McClay.

The Postal Service will release its Year of the Horse stamp, the seventh in the current Lunar New Year series, on Feb. 3.

The Lunar New Year holiday is celebrated in many Asian cultures around the world and historically marks the arrival of spring. It has become a popular observance in the United States, with festivities that include parades, special foods and gifts.

The lunar calendar operates on a 12-year cycle, with each year assigned a different zodiac animal.

The horse is the seventh animal in the Chinese zodiac. The horse is associated with speed, strength and endurance. People born in the Year of the Horse are said to be energetic, free-spirited, confident and hardworking.

In 2026, the Year of the Horse begins Feb. 17 and ends on Feb. 5, 2027.

The stamp features a horse image that evokes the ornate masks used in Lunar New Year parades.

Deep vermillion, violet and blue are the predominant colors. The horse mask incorporates some elements of symbolic meaning, including paper flowers for spring adorned with gold leaves for luck.

Referencing the ornate masks used in Lunar New Year parades, the current stamp series offers a contemporary take on the tradition of paper folk art created during this time of year.

Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS, designed the stamp with original artwork by Camille Chew.

The current Lunar New Year series began in 2020 with Year of the Rat, which was followed by the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon and Snake.

The Postal Service’s two previous Lunar New Year stamp series ran from 1992-2004 and 2008-2019.

The Lunar New Year: Year of the Horse stamp will be available in panes of 20 at Post Offices and usps.com.

The Postal Service will dedicate the stamp during a ceremony in Houston.

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The Postal Service has made resources available to employees and customers to clarify a recent addition to Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) section 608.11.0, Postmarks and Postal Possession, and to improve public understanding of postmarks and their relationship to the date of mailing.

The new wording, which was officially added to the DMM on Dec. 24, does not change the way mail is postmarked. Rather, it defines the postmark, explains locations at which a postmark is applied, clarifies the scope of information conveyed by a postmark, and advises customers of how to obtain evidence of the date on which the Postal Service accepted possession of their mailings.

A stand-up talk was distributed this month, reminding retail employees that customers may request a local (manual) postmark, also called a “round-date stamp,” at the retail counter of any Post Office, station, or branch; and that when a customer requests a manual postmark, the mailpiece must be hand-canceled, free of charge.

Resources available for employees include:

• The retail stand-up talk, “Local (Manual) Postmarks Must Be Applied at Retail Locations Upon Request”; and

• Postmarking policy in the Postal Operations Manual, sections 312.1-312.2 “Local Postmark Requirement” and “Local Postmark Requests.”

Information for customers has been posted to the usps.com frequently asked questions on postmarking, and to the USPS Newsroom statement page in the “Postmarking Myths and Facts” document.

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