The (failing) US Postal Service, from Montana to Washington

The late Johnny Carson, host NBC's The Tonight Show, once joked about the US Postal Service. "But we do treat your mail with respect, from the time you put your letter in the mailbox to the time the letter receives, we make sure that your letter sees as much as the United States as possible."

Almost 4000 post offices have been closed around the country. Nowhere is postal service more important than in rural states like Montana—and letters see a lot of that state before they get where they're going. Tom Lutey of the Billings Gazette has a story about the tiny Eastern Montana town of Rosebud.