Sears to close last store in the city it once called home

The recent United Nations global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, brought the world’s leaders together again to try to reach agreement on further commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. High on the agenda was preserving the health of the world’s forests – a critical natural resource for absorbing these emissions. With this heightened international attention on preventing deforestation, primarily in the developing world, now is a good time to remind ourselves that the North American forests that supply the wood fiber for our paper and packaging products are among the most sustainably managed in the world. They are so well-managed, in fact, that our forests continue to be a net absorber of carbon. In the United States, sustainable forest management practices, the regeneration of forest area and modern harvesting practices resulted in a net sequestration of carbon every year from 1990 to 2019, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Postal Regulatory Commission released today its Financial Analysis report for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. The in-depth analysis of the Postal Service’s financial performance concluded that the organization’s overall financial condition continues to worsen. In FY 2023, the Postal Service recorded a net operating loss of $2.3 billion — an increase of $1.8 billion over the previous year. When non-operating expenses are included, the overall net loss increases to $6.5 billion. The primary highlights from the report were: *The Postal Service had a net loss of $6.5 billion. *Total Factor Productivity, a measure of Postal Service efficiency, saw the largest decrease (4 percent) since it was first calculated in 1965. *Total mail volume decreased by 8.7 percent, including a 2.0 percent decrease in the volume of Competitive products. *Revenue from Competitive products increased by $0.2 billion. *Despite rate increases, Market Dominant revenue decreased by $0.4 billion. *Total operating expenses were $2.1 billion higher than the previous year. *The Postal Service recorded total assets of $45.3 billion and total liabilities of $68.4 billion at the end of FY 2023.

Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas had already indicated they favored overturning Quill before the case was heard. On Tuesday, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested she would join them, calling the ruling “obsolete,” according to Yahoo Finance. Ginsburg said letting states tax online sales would equate to “equalizing sellers.” But Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Samuel Alito said the decision on ecommerce taxation should be left up to Congress, Yahoo reported. Sotomayor said the lack of a mechanism for collecting taxes directly from consumers was the real problem, not the Quill ruling. Click Read More below for additional information.