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The Austin Police Department held a news conference after the county district attorney declined to charge three officers who shot and killed the suspected shooter, Ndiaga Diagne, after he opened fire early Sunday morning outside Buford's Backyard Beer Garden.

RELATED STORY |Gunman who opened fire on Texas bar was not on FBI radar, authorities say

The department shared portions of dramatic video showing the events as they unfolded. One officer's body-worn camera video shows him passing people running for safety and hiding crouched behind a wall.

"It's an AR-15!" someone is heard yelling. "Everybody down!" the officer yelled.

Austin Police Department

Police said officers arrived on scene within 57 seconds of receiving 911 calls about the shooting just before 2 a.m. Sunday. Within minutes, three officers saw the suspect, who police say fired his weapon in the direction of officers. The three officers returned fire, striking and killing Diagne.

Police also released portions of 911 calls and a video recorded from a parked vehicle showing the gunman walking in a parking lot. He is shown wearing asweatshirt reading "Property of Allah,"holding his rifle and raising it to fire at someone passing by.

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Austin Police Department

"I want to recognize the bravery of our officers, you saw that firsthand, as they ran into danger to stop this," said Austin police chief Lisa Davis. "It's quite clear they saved multiple lives."

The three murder victims were identified as 21-year-old Savitha Shan, 19-year-old Ryder Harrington, and 30-year-old Jorge Pederson. Police said two victims remained hospitalized on Thursday and described one of them as being in "critical condition."

Police said the FBI is investigating the incident as a potential act of terrorism.

Diagneis reported to be from Senegal. The Department of Homeland Security told Scripps News Diagne, 53, entered the United States on a tourist visa in 2000 before becoming a lawful permanent resident by marriage in 2006 and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2013.

At Thursday's news conference, Chief Davis said police in New York may have done a welfare check on the shooter in 2022, but she did not think it resulted in him being committed for mental health treatment.

"I don't know that they had enough to do a commitment for him," Davis said. "What I'm hearing is they gave him resources to call, that type of thing."

Scripps News obtained paperwork from Diagne's 2022 divorce in Texas, in which the court found he had "a history or pattern of committing family violence."

"This step will facilitate our joint efforts to promote stability, support economic recovery, and advance political reconciliation in Venezuela," the State Department said in ‌a statement.

"Our engagement is ⁠focused on helping the Venezuelan people move forward through a phased process that creates the ⁠conditions for a peaceful transition to a democratically elected government."

After months of heightened tensions, the U.S. captured Venezuela's President ​Nicolas Maduro ​in January, setting off a ​chain of changes in ‌the country, including the swearing-in of interim President Delcy Rodriguez.

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The two countries have since gradually resumed bilateral relations, after Rodriguez's interim government expressed interest in rebuilding ties with Washington with diplomatic missions in both countries following Maduro's capture.

"The ‌Bolivarian Government reaffirms its willingness to ​move forward in a new ​phase of constructive dialogue ​based on mutual respect, sovereign equality of ‌states, and cooperation between our ​peoples," the Venezuelan ​government said in a statement shared on Thursday.

"Venezuela expresses its confidence that this process will contribute to strengthening ​understanding and ‌opening opportunities for a positive and mutually beneficial relationship," ​it said.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward; Writing by Daphne ​Psaledakis; Editing by Sonali Paul)

The 37th annual ceremony, hosted byMean Girlsalum and Hallmark starJonathan Bennett, will honor stand-out portrayals of LGBTQ+ people and issues across media over the last year.Demi Lovatowill also take the stage for a special performance.Abbott ElementarycreatorQuinta Brunsonwill receive the Vanguard Award, whileLas Culturistaspodcasters actorsMatt RogersandBowen Yangwill accept the Stephen F. Kolzak Award for their efforts to raise LGBTQ visibility and promote acceptance. (Plus: PEOPLE is nominated in the "Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage" category!)

Ahead, see photos of the celebrities as they arrive for the March 5 awards show in Los Angeles.

Laverne Cox

Chrishell Stause

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Stephanie Beatriz

Cara Delevingne

Ariana Madix

Noah Schnapp

Joan Grande and Frankie Grande

Jordan C. Brown and Colton Underwood

Lili Reinhart

Read the original article onPeople

Since the first season ofBridgertonin 2020, the Irish actress has been a reluctant plus-size role model. Four seasons later, she's still confused by the distinction.

"You know what was really bizarre was, when I was shooting that series, I was exercising a lot because I knew I had to, so I had lost a bunch of weight — I was probably a size 10 and one of the corsets was a size 8," Coughlan admitted in the April issue ofElle UK. "And then people talked about how I was plus size, and I was like, 'How f---ed are we that I am the biggest woman you want to see on screen?"'

Coughlan, 39, recalls a particularly frustrating moment with a fan whose attempt to compliment the actress instead offended her.

"I remember this really drunk girl once talking to me in a bathroom being like, 'I loved [Bridgerton] because of your body.' And started talking about my body, and I was like, 'I want to die. I hate this so much…' It's really hard when you work on something for months and months of your life, you don't see your family, you really dedicate yourself and then it comes down to what you look like — it's so f---ing boring."

Coughlan's frustration hasn't stopped people from talking about her body, however, despite her repeated requests. In 2022, the actress even made a personal plea to fans.

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"If you have an opinion about my body please, please don't share it with me," she wrote in a since-deleted Instagram. "It's really hard to take the weight of thousands of opinions on how you look being sent directly to you every day."

These days, to silence the chatter, she's trying some reverse psychology.

"The thing I say sometimes that pisses people off is I have no interest in body positivity," Coughlan toldElle UK. "When I was a kid growing up, I never thought about that. I didn't look at actors and think about their bodies. So, I actually don't care."

Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with ourEW Dispatch newsletter.

Season 4 ofBridgertonshould have fans talking about Coughlan's character, Penelope Featherington, for a whole different reason: Her adorable baby Elliot! And the casting of her onscreen son could not have been better, the actress gushes.

"The baby looks so like me... We bonded right away, which was so cute. For comfort, he started pinching the top of my boob so hard, I ended up with a bruise. I went to the Emmy's later that week, and I remember people thinking it was a hickey and I was like, 'It's a baby pinch!"'

Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly

The "Love Story" production team put forth every effort to mimic the couple's wedding venue, theFirst African Baptist Church, which was erected in 1893, including using antique wood. True to life, they filmed the wedding by candlelight, creator Connor Hines says, as the church did not have electricity. Of course, the pair's wedded bliss was short lived; they perished (along with Carolyn's sister Lauren) on July 16, 1999, when a plane piloted by Kennedy Jr. crashed.

Kennedy Jr.'s nephew and congressional candidateJack Schlossberg recently ripped the seriesstarringPaul Anthony Kelly and Sarah Pidgeon(Thursdays at 9 ET/PT and streaming on Hulu) in an interview with "CBS Sunday Morning."

"I would just want people who do watch the show to watch it with one letter in mind," Schlossberg said, "and that's a capital 'F' for fiction." Here, we analyze the episode to help you separate fact from fantasy.

FX's "Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette" (Thursdays, 9 ET/PT on FX and streaming on Hulu) depicts the romance of the pair, who tragically died in a plane crash in 1999. Let's take a closer look at the actors and the real-life people they're portraying.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Paul Anthony Kelly as John F. Kennedy Jr.

Model turned actor Paul Anthony Kelly told USA TODAY that some days it took three hours to get into character. "It would be an extra two hours for coverup (of his tattoos) and then an hour for hair and makeup," Kelly said. That perfectly coiffed Kennedy hairdo was achieved with "a little bit of water and a hairdryer and a lot of brush work."

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Sarah Pidgeon as Carolyn Bessette

Sarah Pidgeon, a natural brunette, estimates she spent 22 hours in the hair salon over two days to lighten her locks within the realm of Bessette-blond. The stories written about the couple and Bessette in particular were "so misogynistic," Pidgeon tells USA TODAY. "There was this narrative that they wanted to stick to, generally, and this characterization of her that I've just found couldn't be further from the woman that I came to know."

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Naomi Watts as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Naomi Watts told "Entertainment Tonight" the production "did a bunch of tests" to find the right look, "because I really look nothing like her," the actress admitted. "The coloring is all wrong, and she has a different nose, and we certainly played around with prosthetics. And then we weren't improving. We were just making me look more different. So we sort of scrapped it." Watts donned a wig for the role, brown contact lenses and makeup to close the age gap.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Dree Hemingway as Daryl Hannah

Dree Hemingway, the great-granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, portrays "Splash" star Daryl Hannah in the limited series. In real life, JFK Jr. and Hannah had an on and off relationship for years, but broke up for good in 1994, according to reports.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Grace Gummer as Caroline Kennedy

Grace Gummer, daughter of Meryl Streep and sculptor Don Gummer, plays Caroline Kennedy, John Jr.'s older sister, born three years before his arrival. After Caroline's father's assassination in 1963, her mother's death following a cancer diagnosis in 1994, and John Jr.'s death in 1999, Caroline is the only surviving member of their immediate family.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Ben Shenkman as Edwin Schlossberg

Ben Shenkman ("Royal Pains," "Billions") plays Caroline Kennedy's husband Edwin Schlossberg. The couple wed in 1986 and had three children, Rose (1988), Tatiana (1990), and Jack (1993). Tatiana died of acute myeloid leukemia in December 2025.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Alessandro Nivola as Calvin Klein

Alessandro Nivola portrays American fashion designer Calvin Klein, whose eponymous label was where Carolyn Bessette worked and where she met John F. Kennedy Jr.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Noah Fearnley as Michael Bergin

Michael Bergin, a Calvin Klein model who acted on "Baywatch," engaged in "a casual romance" with Carolyn Bessette in 1992, Elizabeth Beller writes in "Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy," upon which FX's limited series is based. "A former hotel doorman at the Paramount, Bergin would later, in a tell-all book, 'The Other Man,' claim he was sexually involved with Carolyn from the fall of '92 until her death.
"There's no doubt Carolyn befriended Bergin, and, true to form, helped him with his career," Beller continues. "Carolyn and Michael had an on-off relationship, much more off than on. His later account of it is considered questionable by many of Carolyn's friends."

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

'Love Story' cast photos compared to real-life people including JFK Jr., Carolyn Bessette

FX's "Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette" (Thursdays, 9 ET/PT on FX and streaming on Hulu) depicts the romance of the pair, who tragically died in a plane crash in 1999. Let's take a closer look at the actors and the real-life people they're portraying.

Did Carolyn Bessette's mom Ann speak at the couple's rehearsal dinner?

At the scripted rehearsal dinner, Carolyn's mom Ann Messina Freeman (Constance Zimmer) discards a prepared speech in exchange for improvised remarks. She remembers how a younger Carolyn once sat with a girl on the bus who was alone, instead of her friends.

"John, I know that you have been burdened with enormous expectations, and that there are a lot of people on the bus clamoring for your attention," Ann says. "I just hope that when you are faced with it all, you don't choose to sit where you are expected or wanted but where you are needed. That is something that I pray she can count on." Ann apologizes to guests before walking away.

In describing the evening in "Once Upon a Time," the book which inspired the series, author Elizabeth Beller referencesRobert Littell's book, "The Men We Became: My Friendship with John F. Kennedy, Jr."

"As Littell recounted in his memoir: Ann 'expressed reservations over the union, implying that it might not be in the best interest of her daughter," Beller writes. "Littell described how the crowd, happy and enthusiastic about the union, moved on quickly from the moment, but that John was 'visibly stung by his mother-in-law's remarks.'"

Did the bride and groom sleep on the beach the night before their wedding?

Following John and Carolyn's rehearsal dinner, the characters spend the night on the beach. Before parting to get ready for their nuptials, they strip and take a dip in the Atlantic Ocean.

In reality, the two spent the night before their wedding apart and indoors. Hair stylist/makeup artist George Kyriakos said in "JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography" that Kennedy Jr. shared his accommodations for the evening.

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"John slept in my then-wife Jackie's and my room the night before the wedding on a cot," Kyriakos said. "Which is crazy−there was this huge mansion where everybody had rooms and John was sleeping on a cot in our room. It was the whole don't-sleep-with-the-bride-the-night-before-the-wedding thing."

Littell remarked, per Beller's book, that Bessette headed to bed at a reasonable hour as guests partied: "She, wise woman, had gone to sleep hours ago."

John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette became tabloid fodder when the publisher son of President John F. Kennedy, described as the "closest thing to American royalty," and the Calvin Klein publicist, "a star in her own right," met in 1992 while at his fitting for the clothing brand. In recent years, Bessette's fashion has found a new following – particularly on TikTok – as a new generation fawns over her simple but chic wardrobe. After they were married, Bessette was known as Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. The end of the Kennedys' love story shocked the world when they died in a plane crash alongside Bessette-Kennedy's sister, Lauren Bessette. The former first son was piloting the aircraft when it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard in 1999. Now, director Ryan Murphy is releasing the first installment of his "Love Story" anthology based on the whirlwind romance between John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. See their relationship in photos, beginning here
at the U.S. Customs House in New York City on May 19, 1999, for the Newman's Own/George Awards.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> John Kennedy Jr. with wife Carolyn Bessette arrive at Bright Night Whitney, a retrospective celebration of a century of American art at the Whitney Museum in New York City March 9, 1999. Kennedy was the publisher of George magazine. The pair married in 1996 on Cumberland Island, Georgia.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy leave the funeral of Michael Kennedy at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville, Massachusetts, after services, Jan. 3, 1998.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette stop for photographers after Kennedy presented actor Robert De Niro with the Municipal Art Society of New York's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal at a gala dinner in New York, March 4, 1997.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy leave at the end of the White House Correspondent's annual dinner in Washington, D.C., May 1, 1999.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy arrive at a gala to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Whitney Museum's Madison Avenue building in New York City.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy arrive at the White House for a state dinner in honor of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> The July 18, 1999, edition of the Cape Cod Times featured the news that John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane went down off Martha's Vineyard on July 16, 1999.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Robert F. Kennedy Jr., left, Max Kennedy and Victoria Kennedy gather with family on the beach at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, to await word of John F. Kennedy Jr., whose plane went missing off Martha's Vineyard, July 17, 1999.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Victoria Reggie Kennedy consoles Sen. Ted Kennedy after the Coast Guard transports John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Lauren Bessette's bodies after they were recovered from the plane.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Members of the Kennedy family head out to sea aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Sanibel which took them to the USS Briscoe for a burial at sea on July 22, 1999.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> A makeshift memorial for John Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette, at sunset on Moshup Beach, Martha's Vineyard.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> A photograph of John Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette sits among flowers and other items at a makeshift shrine outside the couple's apartment building in New York. Kennedy, his wife and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when the plane he was flying crashed off Martha's Vineyard on July 16, 1999.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Hundreds of flowers and letters to John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette were placed on the hedges and the ground at the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Hyannis, Massachusetts.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

See John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette's whirlwind romance

John F. Kennedy Jr.andCarolyn Bessettebecame tabloid fodderwhen the publisher son of President John F. Kennedy, described as the "closest thing to American royalty," and the Calvin Klein publicist, "a star in her own right," met in 1992 while at his fitting for the clothing brand. In recent years, Bessette's fashion has found a new following – particularly on TikTok – as a new generation fawns over her simple but chic wardrobe. After they were married, Bessette was known as Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. The end of the Kennedys' love story shocked the world when they died in a plane crash alongside Bessette-Kennedy's sister, Lauren Bessette. The former first son was piloting the aircraft when it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard in 1999. Now, director Ryan Murphy is releasing thefirst installment of his "Love Story" anthologybased on the whirlwind romance betweenJohn F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. See their relationship in photos, beginning hereat the U.S. Customs House in New York City on May 19, 1999, for the Newman's Own/George Awards.

Did John F. Kennedy Jr. have to outrun helicopters on his wedding day?

In "Love Story," John puts the pedal to the metal on his way to the church with his cousin Anthony Radziwill (Erich Bergen), to lose a hovering paparazzo helicopter. They speed down a dirt road and are gleeful when they lose the unwanted guest.

Kennedy Jr.'s friend Sasha Chermayeff recalls having to shake choppers prior to the ceremony in the 2019 documentary, "JFK And Carolyn's Wedding: The Lost Tapes."

"Everybody wanted to lose them," Chermayeff says. "So we took off and had to basically evade them by blasting into the trees, making it possible to make it kind of a trick route and losing them. And then all of a sudden, they weren't there anymore."

Was Carolyn Bessette late to her wedding because of her Narciso Rodriguez dress?

In "Love Story," Carolyn is shocked to learn that her cowlneck slip dress doesn't have a zipper and that she'd have to put it on over her head — a maneuver that would ruin her makeup, which had already been done.

"Shouldn't someone have thought of this?" John's sister Caroline Kennedy (Grace Gummer) asks. "You know what, I'll figure it out," designer (and close Bessette friend) Narciso Rodriguez (Tonatiuh) says before taking the gown. Carolyn is sewn into the dress and arrives to the ceremony as the last of the daylight fades.

It's hard to imagine Bessette would be surprised that the design lacked a zipper. According to Beller's book, bride and designer, "collaborated on this for many months. They were spotted together in Paris, where Carolyn had flown several times for three-hour couture fittings in order to ensure the sublime, pearl-colored silk crepe dress fit like a glove. The estimated cost was around $40,000 [more than $80,000 today]; Narciso gave it to her as a gift."

RoseMarie Terenzio, Kennedy's Jr.'s former executive assistant and friend, explains in "JFK Jr." that "the neckline was too tight to get over her head, so Narciso had to open it and then re-close it. She had gone for two fittings. But I think the dress wasn't fully made yet and then when they put the finishing touches on, Carolyn was thinking, 'It'll be fine.' She wasn't going to fly back to Paris for another fitting."

"But that's what took so long," Terenzio continues. "And then when she got dressed that day, they put a scarf over her head to slip the dress on. To not mess up her hair and not get makeup on the dress."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:'Love Story' fact check - Carolyn Bessette's wedding dress explained

If it doesn't, the Postal Service might not be able to pay its employees or vendors by February 2027, with potentially dire consequences for mail delivery,Postmaster General David Steinertold The Associated Press.

"How long are employees going to work and vendors going to show up if we're not paying them?" Steiner said in an interview on Wednesday.

The postmaster general is scheduled to testify before Congress later this month about the Postal Service's financial struggles and the need to change longstanding rules and regulations that he considers burdensome. He singled out the $15 billion cap on borrowing that has been in place since 1990.

The Postal Service is an independent agency that is funded mostly through postage revenue and the services it provides. Steiner said it has all the burdens of a government agency, such as having to deliver mail six days a week to every address, but none of the benefits, such as an annual appropriation from the federal budget.

"We have to have a conversation with the American public," Steiner said. "If you want us to deliver everywhere, every day, we'll do it. That's not a problem. But who is going to pay for it?"

Steiner, a former CEO of the nation's largest waste management company and a former member of the FedEx board of directors, took over the struggling Postal Service last July. He said raising the borrowing limit is the easiest thing lawmakers can do immediately to help the agency.

"That will buy us the time to make the fixes we need to make, and we can sail on down the road," he said.

He has called forexpanding the service's revenue base, including extending itslast-mile delivery serviceto more entities. Last-mile delivery refers to the final step of getting a package from a local distribution center to a customer's door, the most labor-intensive part of the delivery process.

USPS's net losses for the 2025 fiscal year totaled $9 billion, even though total operating revenue increased by $916 million or 1.2%, due largely to its Ground Advantage shipping service. Net losses in fiscal year 2024 were $9.5 billion.

Ultimately, other changes are needed, as well, Steiner said, including giving the Postal Service authority to raise postage prices high enough to cover losses. He said increasing the price of a first-class stamp to 95 cents, from today's 78 cents, would be enough to "fix" the Postal Service's fiscal woes. A decade ago, a first-class stamp was 47 cents, although postal officials note it's still the lowest price in the industrialized world and covers a delivery range that's ten times farther than in other countries.

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But he said an independent agency created by Congress to oversee the Postal Service won't allow it, he said.

"If the Postal Regulatory Commission adopted our pricing model, problem solved," he said, adding how the package delivery side of the business could then subsidize the mail side.

Steiner and other Postal Service officials also have called for reforms to its pension and retiree health benefit obligations, including the ability to invest the money in something other than Treasury bills.

Multiple postmaster generals over the past two decades have repeatedly asked Congress or regulators to change the various rules governing the Postal Service. In 2022, Congress did pass the Postal Service Reform Act, which ended a requirement that the agency prefund its retiree health benefits, but it left other constraints intact.

Meanwhile, the Postal Service has seen annual volume plummet from about 220 billion pieces to about 110 billion today as more people pay bills and communicate online.

"Take those 110 billion and put a 78-cent stamp on them. That's $86 billion of revenue that evaporated in 15 years," he said. "If either FedEx or UPS lost $86 billion of revenue, they would have no revenue."

But instead of helping the Postal Service, Steiner said regulators and Congress have imposed costly mandates.

"I like to say we sort of got thrown overboard on a ship into the cold water, right? And instead of throwing us a life preserver, we get thrown an anchor," he said.

Calls on Thursday to some members of Congress who oversee the Postal Service were not immediately returned. A message was also left with Keep Us Posted, an advocacy group launched in 2021 in response to price increases and service delays. Last month, the organization warned the USPS was "headed for a taxpayer bailout" given its cash flow issues. The group urged Congress to pass legislation it says would limit rate increases to once a year, tying them to service performance, among other measures.

Steiner acknowledged he didn't realize the depth of the Postal Service's cash crunch until he took the postmaster general job last year.

"Interestingly, I'm not sure some of the people at the Postal Service realized how dramatic it was," he said.