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CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — In a bid to discredit a key government witness in the ongoing Pilot Flying J fraud trial, a defense attorney on Nov. 30 offered up a question about any scheme to defraud customers.

Those boxes piling up on your doorstep over the holidays don’t ship from Santa’s workshop. As Americans spend more money shopping online, real estate developers are sinking record amounts of money into new warehouse space, building bigger, taller structures to meet the needs of e-commerce — and the robots that help it along.

Shoppers clicking “buy” on smartphones, tablets and laptops spent almost $20 billion online from Thanksgiving through Monday. Now retailers have to turn that spending spree into a flood of cardboard boxes on their way to shoppers’ doorsteps.

The big delivery firms are preparing for unprecedented package volumes during the holiday shopping season as retailers say they are on course to set new sales records.

As the Port of Portland’s container terminal sat mostly or completely idled for years, one thing was constant: The Port wasn’t losing money.Private operator ICTSI Oregon continued to pay rent even when ships weren’t calling and containers weren’t moving.