'Snail-mail' looking sluggish

As Americans' dependency on snail-mail diminishes, the U.S. Postal Service is eliminating the familiar, blue roadside drop-off boxes located throughout the country.

"Instead of using collection boxes, most people today send their mail from home or workplace and pay bills online and correspond via Internet," said Freda Sauter, a postal spokesman in Baltimore.

That means 14 mailboxes in the city will be hauled away. Those boxes are among the 40 boxes countywide that will be taken as the postal service downsizes.

During the first week of this month, the postal service studied its current mix of mailboxes in...