Legal

The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it's never been as close to the precipice as it is now: the agency is so low on cash that it won't be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances.

Amazon.com is offering to bring thousands of jobs to California as it tries to back away from confrontation over the state's new internet sales tax law. The online retailing giant proposed opening six distribution centers that would employ a total of 7,000 Californians, according to sources with knowledge of the offer.

Apple was slow to act against the booming counterfeit industry in China and other Asian countries, according to cables obtained by WikiLeaks. The technology giant eventually organized a team in March 2008 to curtail the explosion of knockoff iPods and iPhones, according to an electronic memo from the Beijing embassy dated September 2008.

A decades-old requirement that retailers put a price tag on each item they sell is no longer beginning today. Instead of putting price stickers on each item, stores can now use other forms of price marking, such as clearly displaying signs on shelves or making price scanning available to customers.

An investigation continues into whether Kansas State University's online merchandise store is skirting sales tax law. Now some state legislators also are beginning to question its online practices. In early August it was reported that purchases made by Kansas residents at the "K-State Official Online Store" weren't being charged any sales taxes.

When it comes to avoiding the requirement of collecting sales tax from its consumers, Amazon isn't afraid to open its wallet. More than nine months before a proposed June 2012 referendum asking that California’s new internet sales tax law be overturned, Amazon has already spent $5.25 million, state records show, more than any company has spent in California this far from a vote in at least a decade.

With widespread accounts of rape dating back to at least 1997, Change.org is demanding that Sears admits to these cases and opens a full investigation that immediately results in the arrest of alleged serial rapist Anil Santha.

European Apparel has filed suit against Billabong and Brad Bleick for unspecified damages resulting from breach of contract, alleged fraud and alleged conspiracy to commit fraud. The lawsuit alleges that Paul Naude, the executive director and general manager of Billabong, issued written authority in April 2011 to European Apparel authorizing them as a distributor for Billabong in various markets.

The U.S. Labor Department said that it had opened two investigations into working conditions for foreign cultural-exchange students employed at a Hershey Co. candy warehouse in central Pennsylvania. At the same time, the organizations responsible for employing the students were seeking to resolve a standoff with them by offering a week's paid vacation and cultural-enhancing day trips to Philadelphia, Amish country, and Gettysburg.

Borders and Books-A-Million have reached an agreement for a lease sale involved 14 Borders superstores and specialty stores for $934,209. Citing documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, the report said the store locations include Portland, Maine; Canton, Ohio; Concord, N.H.; and Mays Landing, N.J.