U.S. Postal Service Reaches Agreement with Treasury on $10 Billion CARES Act Lending Authority

Barnes & Noble today announces their selections for The Best Books of the Year (So Far). The list is a stunning collection of books selected by the B&N bookselling team, representing the very best works published across various categories since January of 2023. As readers know well, narrowing down to a few choice titles can feel insurmountable when so many fantastic new books are published every week. This year, the booksellers of Barnes & Noble tackled the task first by compiling three-title shortlists across lots of categories ... and they liked the results so much that they have kept them. They now announce over 50 of the best shortlists, an original and hopefully inspiring way of looking at the best new books of 2023 — so far.

On May 13, 2021, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved two separate but related bills addressing USPS finances and operations. The first, the bipartisan Postal Service Reform Act of 2021 (H.R. 3076 (PDF)), was approved by voice vote, making it now eligible for a floor vote in the US House of Representatives. The bill was introduced two days prior to committee consideration following a painstaking effort to craft a bipartisan document. Lead sponsors were Committee Chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Ranking Member Rep. James Comer (R-KY) along with original co-sponsors Government Operations Subcommittee Chair Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) and Ranking Member Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC). The bill was approved by the committee without amendment or any audible dissension, and included bipartisan agreed upon elements such as: codifying six-day delivery, requiring postal employees to enroll in Medicare at eligibility age, and elimination of the requirement that USPS pre-fund its retiree health benefits for 75 years into the future.

Learning Company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) reinforced its commitment to racial justice with a major book donation aimed at amplifying Black voices while getting books into hands of children and families in need. HMH is in the process of donating over 50,000 titles by Black authors to more than 15 youth-serving nonprofit organizations across the United States. Donated through HMH’s Books for Equity initiative, the curated list of titles explores issues of race and features Black main characters, including works by Toni Morrison, Kwame Alexander, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Margaret Walker, Melba Pattillo Beals and many more. Recipients of the donations include City Year, Girls Write Now, Boys & Girls Club of Harlem, Communities In Schools of Central Texas, and more.