The U.S. Postal Service is as American as founding father Benjamin Franklin, the first Postmaster General. Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution empowers Congress “to establish post offices.” Yet today rising costs and declining first-class mail volume threaten the USPS’s survival. Saturday delivery may be cut. Other proposals call for layoffs of 120,000 postal workers. More than 3,500 post

Federal government steps up efforts to prevent child deaths in hot vehiclesTampa, FLA. – Sept. 23, 2011…. Most parents think it could never happen to them. But children continue to die in hot vehicles – and parents and families across the country endure the worst nightmare imaginable. Dr. David Diamond, professor in the University of South Florida psychology department and Tampa Veterans

Here's one of my most recent news releases. Come join us Saturday! Kansas City, Mo. … Summer and baseball season will soon be winding down, the perfect time for a relaxing break on Saturday, Sept. 17, as one of the massage recipients helping Massage Envy attempt to break – and reclaim – the Guinness World Record for "Most People Being Massaged" at the same time and place. Massage Envy

In June I volunteered to start helping KidsAndCars.org publicize information to save children from dangers in and around cars -- heat stroke from being left in a car or getting trapped in the trunk, deadly backovers and frontovers, etc.On July 12 Good Morning America aired a story about two incidents that resulted in the deaths of boys aged 2, 4 and 8 who became trapped in car trunks. Stories have

News ReleaseKidsAndCars.org 2913 W. 113th St., Leawood, KS 66211 (Greater Kansas City)Office: 913-327-0013, Fax: 913-327-0014, www.KidsAndCars.org Contacts:Janette Fennell, 913-327-0013 or Janette@KidsAndCars.orgwww.KidsAndCars.org <http://www.kidsandcars.org/> Susan Pepperdine, 913-262-7414, cell 913-205-5304 or susan@pepperdinepr.com           

It's something of a curse to care about correct spelling and word usage. It's like the proverbial fingernails on the blackboard to see words misused...especially by those with college degrees. I once received an email note from a woman with a Ph.D. after her name that said, "Your welcome."The explosion of social media has only made matters worse. Writing in a hurry seems to be an excuse for carelessness.

Through my grandmother Elizabeth Vandiver Selby, my family has a link to Missouri's history. Her ancestor Willard Vandiver was the Missouri senator who in 1899 said, “I'm from Missouri. You have got to show me.” In his honor my grandmother named two of her three sons Willard and Vandiver. The third son was my dad, Forrest Selby.Both of my parents' families had been rooted in Fulton, Mo., since

It's been another great year in books. In varying degrees, they were entertaining, educational or enlightening. Often all three.I also joined another book club at midyear, bringing my total to three:Central Exchange (Overland Park, Kan.) Fairway Book Club (Fairway, Kan., neighborhood group)BlueStockings (Kansas City, Mo.)Book group membership encourages you to read a much wider range of books. Plus,

Dec. 7, 2010, marked the 69th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I spent over a week working on publicity for our local survivors. Our Mission, Kan., event went well, with 200 people, including 60 middle school kids, attending. I got to read my commemorative poem for #HonorFlight and introduce four survivors to tell their stories: Ed Russell and Jack Carson (both Army Air Corps) and Jess Dunnagan

This is what I love about public relations! On Saturday, Oct. 9, I received the call I'd been waiting for. The CEO of Layne Christensen, my client of 18 years, called to inform me that the company's drillers had been successful in reaching the 33 miners in Chile, setting the stage for their dramatic rescue a few days later. He authorized me to start our PR effort, so that night I wrote a news release