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

Rite Aid Corporation announced that it has secured regulatory clearance for an amended and restated asset purchase agreement with Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. whereby WBA will purchase 1,932 stores, three distribution centers and related inventory from Rite Aid for an all-cash purchase price of $4.375 billion on a cash-free, debt-free basis. Rite Aid also has the option to purchase generic drugs that are sourced through an affiliate of WBA at a cost substantially equivalent to Walgreens for a period of 10 years. The Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period expired for the proposed transaction. Under the amended and restated agreement, Rite Aid will retain approximately 250 additional stores as compared to the prior agreement announced between Rite Aid and WBA in June 2017, resulting in a reduction in the transaction sale price. The decision to retain these stores follows discussions between Rite Aid and WBA, as well as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission ("FTC"). Click Read More below for additional detail.

The Postal Service is putting an early step in its network modernization plan on hold, after a bipartisan group of senators told the agency to slow down implementation. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) in a letter last week that USPS will pause the movement of mail processing operations at facilities across the country. Nearly 60 USPS facilities — out of 427 — have initiated Mail Processing Facility Reviews to determine whether the agency should move some of its mail processing operations to larger regional hubs. DeJoy told Peters USPS will put these changes on hold “at least” until Jan. 1, 2025. “Even then, we will not advance these efforts without advising you of our plans to do so, and then only at a moderated pace of implementation,” DeJoy wrote in a May 9 letter.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) gave an early Christmas present to debt collectors, at the expense of the very consumers they are mandated to protect. Ignoring a mountain of public comments from citizens, cyber security experts and consumer advocacy groups including Keep Me Posted (KMP) detailing the multitude of harms and risks unleashed by its proposed rules, the Bureau plowed ahead and finalized a sweeping deregulation that will subject society to an unwelcome digital deluge of menace and fraud. Under the guise of so-called modernization, the CFPB will give the green light to 3rd-party debt collectors to exploit Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter messaging — as well as emails and text messaging — in their bounty hunting efforts. The new rules would further allow for an unlimited quantity of such unsolicited digital contacting — while simultaneously expanding the frequency of phone calls to 7 times per week per alleged debt. Meanwhile, the safe, secure and discreet practice of mailing paper letters will remain an option for professional firms seeking reliable communications options. To be clear, America’s consumers did not ask for this. And they will not even be given the option to opt-in to any such digital communications they might prefer.