Nordstrom continues to expand its off-price division. The department store retailer, which in May closed on its deal to go private, is on track to open 21 Nordstrom Rack stores this year. It expects to open roughly the same amount in 2026, and has already announced a handful of openings, including a 30,000-sq.-ft. store at Turkey Creek in Knoxville, Tenn., and a 27,000-sq.-ft. store at Sarasota Pavilion in Sarasota, Fla.

As reported recently in the Bangor Daily News, John Halle (CEO of Cate Street Capital) has formally dismissed the libel lawsuit that Cate Street Capital and Halle had initiated against Verle Sutton almost two years ago. This claim of libel had resulted from an article in the May 2014 issue of The Reel Time Report, written by Sutton, in which Cate Street Capital and State of Maine officials were strongly criticized for actions they took that related to the Great Northern Paper mills in northern Maine. Industry Intelligence, the publisher of Reel Time, had also been named as a defendant in this lawsuit. Industry Intelligence and John Halle reached a settlement earlier in 2016. In response to John Halle choosing to end the lawsuit against Sutton, and the Industry Intelligence settlement, Verle Sutton has issued the following statement: I am grateful to family and friends who have been so supportive during the last two years as we fought through the groundless lawsuit that John Halle and Cate Street Capital initiated against me for authoring “The Maine Problem.” The legal costs incurred during the last two years have been substantial, and the time our family lost was unfortunate. However, our losses pale in comparison to the damage that has been inflicted on the East Millinocket and Millinocket communities and, in fact, on all of northern Maine. These communities and this region were misled by state officials and Cate Street about the viability of the restarted Great Northern Paper mills.

Amid ongoing disruption to delivery schedules Royal Mail has brought forward a swathe of price increases originally slated for next year. The business is locked in a bitter industrial relations dispute with the Communication Workers Union that has resulted in strike action that began at the end of September, and is set to continue throughout October, November and December. Royal Mail had been due to put up prices from 3 January 2023. Instead, prices for advertising mail, business mail, publishing mail, partially addressed mail, poll card mailing, and response services will go up from 7 November.