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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Honey, they shrunk the catalogs. While retailers hope to go big this holiday season , customers may notice that the printed gift guides arriving in their mailboxes are smaller. Many of the millions of catalogs getting sent to U.S. homes were indeed scaled down to save on postage and paper, resulting in pint-sized editions. Lands’ End, Duluth Trading Company and Hammacher Schlemmer are among gift purveyors using smaller editions. Some retailers are saving even more money with postcards. Lisa Ayoob, a tech-savvy, online shopper in Portland, Maine, was surprised by the size of a recent catalog she received from outdoor apparel company Carbon2Cobalt. “It almost felt like it was a pamphlet compared to a catalog,” she said. Catalogs have undergone a steady recalibration over the years in response to technological changes and consumer behavior. The thick, heavy Sears and J.C. Penney catalogs that brought store displays to American living rooms slimmed down and gave way to targeted mailings once websites could do the same thing. Recent postal rate increases accelerated the latest shift to compact formats. The number of catalogs mailed each year dropped about 40% between 2006 to 2018, when an estimated 11.5 billion were mailed to homes, according to the trade group formerly known as the American Catalog Mailers Association. In a sign of the times, the group based in Washington rebranded itself in May as the American Commerce Marketing Association, reflecting a broadened focus. But don't expect catalogs to go the way of dinosaurs yet. Defying predictions of doom, they have managed to remain relevant in the e-commerce era. Retail companies found that could treat catalogs with fewer pages as a marketing tool and include QR and promo codes to entice customers to browse online and complete a purchase. Despite no longer carrying an extended inventory of goods, catalogs are costly to produce and ship. But they hold their own in value because of growing digital advertising costs, helping retailers cut through the noise for consumers barraged by multi-format advertisements, industry officials say. In an unlikely twist, notable e-commerce companies like Amazon and home goods supplier Wayfair started distributing catalogs in recent years. Amazon began mailing a toy catalog in 2018. That was the same year Sears, which produced an annual Christmas Wish Book Wish starting in 1933, filed for bankruptc y. Fans of printed information may rejoice to hear that apparel retailer J.Crew relaunched its glossy catalog this year. Research shows that the hands-on experience of thumbing through a catalog leaves a greater impression on consumers, said Jonathan Zhang, a professor of marketing at Colorado State University. “The reason why these paper formats are so effective is that our human brains haven’t evolved as fast as technology and computers over the past 10 to 20 years. We retain more information when we read something on paper. That's why paper books remain relevant," Zhang said. “The psychology shows that three-dimensional, tactile experiences are more memorable.” Pint-sized presentations still can work, though, because the purpose of catalogs these days is simply to get customers’ attention, Zhang said. Conserving paper also works better with younger consumers who are worried about the holiday shopping season's impact on the planet, he said. Postal increases are hastening changes. The latest round of postage hikes in July included the category with the 8.5-by-11-inch size that used to be ubiquitous for the catalog industry. Many retailers responded by reducing the size of catalogs, putting them in a lower-cost letter category, said Paul Miller, executive vice president and managing director of the American Commerce Marketing Association. One size, called a “slim jim,” measures 10.5 by 5.5 inches. But there other sizes. Some retailers have further reduced costs by mailing large postcards to consumers. Lands' End, for one, is testing new compact formats to supplement its traditional catalogs. This year, that included folded glossy brochures and postcards, along with other formats, Chief Transformation Officer Angie Rieger said. Maine resident Ayoob said she understands why retailers still use catalogs even though she no longer is a fan of the format. These days, she prefers to browse for products on the internet, not by flipping through paper pages. “Everybody wants eyeballs. There’s so much out there -- so many websites, so many brands,” said Ayoob, who spent 35 years working in department stores and in the wholesale industry. Targeting customers at home is not a new concept. L.L. Bean was a pioneer of the mail-order catalog after its founder promoted his famous “Maine Hunting Shoe” to hunting license holders from out-of-state in 1912. The outdoor clothing and equipment company based in Freeport, Maine, is sticking to mailing out regular-sized catalogs for now. “By showcasing our icons, the catalog became an icon itself,” L.L. Bean spokesperson Amanda Hannah said. "Even as we invest more in our digital and brand marketing channels, the catalog retains a strong association with our brand, and is therefore an important part of our omni-channel strategy, especially for our loyal customers.”India not pursuing shared BRICS currency, analysts sayx99bet 。

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader-in-waiting John Thune plans to have the chamber in session for 10 straight weeks to start 2025. That’s according to the Senate’s 2025 legislative calendar released by the South Dakota Republican on social media Thursday. The calendar has senators in session for five days a week for most of the year, which, if adhered to, would be a change in the chamber’s current flow of usually eschewing Friday votes. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

WASHINGTON — The House shut down Democrats’ efforts Thursday to release the long-awaited ethics report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, pushing the fate of any resolution to the yearslong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations into further uncertainty. The nearly party-line votes came after Democrats had been pressing for the findings to be published even though the Florida Republican left Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Republicans have argued that any congressional probe into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent to set. While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare. Shortly before the votes took place, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., who introduced one of the bills to force the release, said that if Republicans reject the release, they will have “succeeded in sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied the claims. Earlier Thursday, the Ethics panel met to discuss the Gaetz report but made no decision, saying in a short statement that the matter is still being discussed. It’s unclear now whether the document will ever see the light of day as lawmakers only have a few weeks left before a new session of Congress begins. It’s the culmination of weeks of pressure on the Ethics committee’s five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers. The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump’s announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the committee chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump’s choice to head the Justice Department. “I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said. The Gaetz report has also caused tensions between lawmakers on the bipartisan committee. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, publicly admonished Guest last month for mischaracterizing a previous meeting to the press. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges. His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison.

The S&P 500 is set to end November well on pace for its best annual gain in a generation, powered by a robust economy, a supportive Federal Reserve and outsized gains for the megacap tech stocks that dominate the blue-chip benchmark. Wall Street analysts, giddy with the prospect of a regulation-burning and business-friendly administration under President-elect Donald Trump, see further gains well into the coming year as well, as the two year bull market gallops into 2025 and beyond. 🚨 Don’t Miss this amazing Black Friday move! Get 60% off TheStreet Pro. Act now before it’s gone 😲 Deutsche Bank analyst Bankim Chadha threw down Wall Street's furthest S&P 500 marker in a note published earlier this week, pegging his end-2025 price target at 7,000 points, a level that would suggest another 16.25% gain from Friday's close. Chadha and his team see "steady robust momentum continuing into 2025, with earnings-per-share growth in the low double digits." They forecast collective profits of $282 a share, $7 ahead of Wall Street's $275 consensus. "We see various aspects of the cycle still to come, including a move from de- to restocking; a pickup in [capital spending] outside tech; a manufacturing recovery; rises in consumer and corporate confidence; a recovery in capital markets and M&A activity; a pickup in loan growth; and rest of the world growth," Chadha and his team predicted in an outline that largely resembles Wall Street's lofty expectations for 2025 stock performance. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Threading that needle will be a complicated task, however, for a Trump administration that could be in conflict with the Fed, in trade wars with its largest partners, and mired in legal challenges to some of its key policy objectives tied to immigration and tariffs. Risks to Wall Street's bullish outlook While the economy is riding solid momentum into year-end, it is also susceptible to a pullback in government spending, as Trump has promised, and to a weakening labor market, which could add to concern that the recession risk it's been able to avoid for the past four years could soon resurface. The merger boom that banks are forecasting could also take time to develop, given that regulatory changes to the financial sector will take time to come into force and could face resistance in a Congress that will be controlled by only narrow Republican majorities. Big takeover deals could also be thwarted by the market's historically high valuations, which continue to suggest the need for a near-term correction should earnings in any of the upcoming quarters fall short of Wall Street's forecasts. Related: Goldman Sachs analyst sees starting point for year-end S&P 500 rally Another risk: Trump's trade policies, as evidenced by his selection of tariff hawk Jamieson Greer as U.S. trade representative and his threat to impose significant tariffs on goods imported from China and from allies in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada treaty. These factors have the potential to both stoke inflation and blunt global growth. Bank of America analysts suggest that Trump's 2018 tariffs clipped S&P 500 profit margins by around 60 basis points, or 0.6 percentage point. A similar impact in 2025 would add a 4% headwind to collective earnings growth. That could keep the Fed from following through on market bets for further 2025 interest rate cuts, removing an important tailwind for stock performance over the first half of the year. U.S. fund flows at record levels "We don’t think the Fed will cut rates as sharply as markets expect," said Jean Bolvin, who heads the BlackRock Investment Institute. "An aging workforce, persistent budget deficits and the impact of structural shifts like geopolitical fragmentation should keep inflation and policy rates higher over the medium term. " Wall Street's broader optimism, however, is not simply an insular view: Global investors are plowing cash into U.S. assets Bank of America's weekly Flow Show report, published Friday, said global investors are "all-in on Trump 2.0" and are positioned for further gains for U.S. assets into the January inauguration. Related: Analyst revamps S&P 500 target for 2025 U.S. stock funds, the report indicated, gathered $55.8 billion in new money last week, the most since March, with record flows into large-capitalization names and the best new allocation for small-cap funds this year. Broader growth forecasts, meanwhile, remain optimistic, with Goldman Sachs predicting a 2.5% advance for the U.S. economy next year. That above-trend forecast is tied in part to a resilient labor market, slowing inflation and robust consumer spending. Consumer confidence is surging In fact, the Conference Board's benchmark index of consumer confidence in November hit the highest levels in more than a year. Chief Economist Dana Peterson cited "more positive consumer assessments of the present situation, particularly regarding the labor market," from Americans participating in the benchmark survey, With consumers feeling flush and prepared to spend the largest amount on record over the holiday season, the economy's most-important driver is firing on all cylinders. The market's most influential sector, meanwhile, is confident enough to spend around $700 billion a year over the coming decade to build out artificial-intelligence data centers and capture the potential of what could be the most impactful technology since the steam engine. More Economic Analysis: Collectively, that should set the table for another leg higher in the current bull market, which began in October 2022 and has added around $20 trillion in value to the S&P 500 benchmark. U.S. valuations are elevated but not as stretched as traditional metrics imply," said Joe Davis, global head of Vanguard's Investment Strategy Group. "And more importantly, the market has been increasingly concentrated toward growth-oriented sectors, such as technology, that support higher valuations." "Ultimately, high starting valuations will drag long-term returns down. But history shows that absent an economic or earnings growth shock, U.S. equity market returns can continue to defy their valuation gravity in the near term," he added. Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocksAssessing UW's bowl plans as Oregon showdown loomsElon Musk blasts Australia's planned ban on social media for children

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Efforts to reduce the nation's persistently high maternal mortality rates involve state panels of experts that investigate and learn from each mother's death . The panels—called maternal mortality review committees—usually do their work quietly and out of the public eye. But that's not been the case recently in three states with strict abortion laws. Georgia dismissed all members of its committee in November after information about deaths being reviewed leaked to the news organization ProPublica . Days later, The Washington Post reported that Texas' committee won’t review cases from 2022 and 2023, the first two years after the state banned nearly all abortions. In Idaho, the state let its panel disband in 2023 only to reinstate it earlier this year. “They’ve become more of a lightning rod than they were before,” said epidemiologist Michael Kramer, director of the Center for Rural Health and Health Disparities at Mercer University in Georgia. RELATED STORY: Huge gaps in maternal and neonatal death rates show which states really care about life Here’s what maternal mortality review committees across the nation do and what might happen next: “Maternal mortality review committees are important because they are the most comprehensive source of information about maternal mortality that we have,” said David Goodman, who leads the maternal mortality prevention team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The panels review deaths that occur during pregnancy or within a year after it ends, whether directly related to the pregnancy or not. Causes of death can range from hemorrhage during childbirth to drug overdoses to traffic accidents. The goal, Kramer said, is to examine maternal deaths and help "decide what we can do about them.” All states, a few cities and Puerto Rico have these committees. Their membership varies and may include OB-GYNs, maternal-fetal medicine doctors, nurses, midwives, mental and public health experts and members of patient advocacy groups. Most have representatives from several areas of expertise, which the CDC recommends . How members are selected also varies; people may apply, submit letters of interest, or be invited to serve. The selection shouldn’t be politically motivated, Kramer said, because “if there’s a systematic exclusion of certain data or certain perspectives” it’s difficult to truly understand what’s happening. First, the panels work with state vital statistics offices and epidemiologists to identify deaths associated with pregnancy by examining death certificates and looking for a pregnancy checkbox or a related cause of death. They may also search for links to birth and fetal death records, or delve into hospital discharge data, media reports and obituaries. Once they identify cases, they collect as much information as possible, such as prenatal care records, hospital and social service records, autopsy reports, and interviews with family members. Professional “abstractors” distill all this into case narratives, which committee members pore over. Most use a standardized review process developed by the CDC—and all panels can get help and guidance from the agency. They consider questions such as: Was the death pregnancy-related? What was the underlying cause? Was it preventable? What factors contributed? RELATED STORY: Olympic champion highlights Black maternal mortality following teammate's death States generally have privacy rules that protect committee members and people who provide information on the deaths. The groups then issue public reports that don’t name moms or hospitals but include overall findings, trends and recommendations. Some come out a couple of years or more after the deaths. Across the nation in 2023, Goodman said, 151 recommendations from those reports were implemented by communities, hospitals, medical professionals and policymakers. Georgia will rebuild its committee through a new application process, the state public health commissioner said. Texas' committee has been reviewing 2021 deaths and will start on 2024 cases at its next meeting, Texas Department of State Health Services spokesperson Lara Anton said in an email to The Associated Press. “Reviewing cases is a lengthy process and legislators have asked for more recent data. Starting the next review cycle with 2024 cases will allow us to provide that in the next report,” Anton said, adding that maternal and child health epidemiologists will continue to analyze and publish data for 2022 and 2023. In Idaho, the reconstituted review committee now falls under the state board of medicine, which licenses doctors, instead of the state's health and welfare department. It will operate like it always has, said Bob McLaughlin, spokesperson for the medical board. Members met for the first time in November and plan to issue a report by Jan. 31. Because the legislature wanted the most up-to-date information, McLaughlin said the first report will cover only 2023 cases, and the group will review 2022 deaths next. Goodman said he’s encouraged that every state has a review committee now—only 20 had them in 2015.Brown: Indian diplomat pushed back when he used the words “Sikh nation”