Judge orders Postal Service to take “extraordinary measures.” Typhoon Goni makes landfall in Philippines, packing “catastrophic” winds.

SALEM, ORE. » A federal judge has ordered the Postal Service to take “extraordinary measures” to deliver ballots in time to be counted in Wisconsin and around Detroit, including using a priority mail service.

Chief U. S. District Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, Wash., issued the order Friday after being presented with data showing on- time delivery of ballots sent by voters was too slow in Michigan and Wisconsin. They are “battleground states” in the November election.

Delivery of ballots in the Postal Service’s Detroit district, for example, has dipped as low as 57% in the past week, Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office said Saturday.

“Every vote must be counted,” Ferguson said. “Our democracy depends on it.”

MANILA » Typhoon Goni, expected to be the strongest storm to hit the Philippines this year, made landfall Sunday morning, with weather officials predicting “catastrophic wind damage” as it roared through the country.

The warning came as emergency response teams backed by the Philippine police and military scrambled to prepare. Winds were expected to be particularly strong in Catanduanes province and other areas, Pagasa, the national weather agency, said in tweet it posted Sunday morning.

The center of the eye of Goni made landfall as a super typhoon at 4: 50 a. m. in Catanduanes, an island province, Pagasa said.

The typhoon had sustained winds of 135 mph at its center and gusts of 165 mph.