Target Corporation updated its guidance for second quarter 2017 comparable sales and earnings per share (EPS). As a result of improved traffic and sales trends through the first two months of the quarter, Target is now expecting to report a modest increase in its second quarter comparable sales. In addition, the Company now expects to report second quarter GAAP and Adjusted EPS1 above the high end of its previous guidance range of $0.95 to $1.15. Both GAAP and Adjusted EPS are expected to reflect a 5 to 9 cent benefit driven by the net tax effect of the Company’s global sourcing operations. In addition, GAAP EPS is expected to reflect 2 to 3 cents of pressure related to the unfavorable resolution of tax matters. Target plans to report its second quarter 2017 financial results on Wednesday, August 16. “Target’s recent progress reinforces our confidence and commitment to our strategy as we build an even better Target for tomorrow. Following better-than-expected results in the first quarter, we’ve seen additional, broad-based improvement in traffic and category sales trends in the second quarter, despite continued challenges in the competitive environment” said Brian Cornell, chairman and CEO of Target. Click Read More below for additional detail.

Target is giving thousands of its employees a raise. The retailer announced this week that it will start raising its minimum wage next month to $10 an hour, and will eventually raise it to $11 an hour for all U.S. stores. "Target has always offered market-competitive wages to our team members," Brian Cornell, Target’s CEO, said in a statement. "With this latest commitment, we'll be providing even more meaningful pay, as well as the tools, training, and support … that set Target apart." Although Cornell didn’t specify how many of the company’s current 323,000 employees will get the raise, it will apply to the 100,000 temporary workers that the retailer plans to hire ahead of the holidays. Target also committed to boosting its minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020. Click Read More below for more of the story.

Amid a three-year nationwide surge in book bans, 2024 began on a hopeful note for freedom-to-read advocates, with legal victories in book-banning lawsuits in Iowa, Florida, and Texas. But after some early successes, several cases are poised to enter a critical next phase. As the wheels of justice grind on, PW rounded up the status of some of the more closely watched book-banning suits. Perhaps no lawsuit has generated more attention than the challenge to HB 900 in Texas, which, among its provisions, would have forced booksellers in the state to rate books for sexual content as a condition of doing business with Texas public schools. In January, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld district court judge Alan D. Albright’s decision to block the most odious parts of the law. But a subsequent order from the Fifth Circuit has delivered something of wake-up call for freedom-to-read advocates. In another closely watched case featuring library books, federal judge Sharon Gleason is weighing whether to order dozens of books taken from library shelves in the Mat-Su Borough School District in Alaska returned while a lawsuit challenging their removal is heard.