Kroger announced Friday that it has agreed to pay up to $1.2 billion to settle the majority of allegations that the company helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic.

The settlement will be paid out to states, local governments and Native American tribes over multiple years. If all conditions are met, it “would allow for the full resolution of all claims,” Kroger said in a statement. 

Kroger said this marked an “important milestone” in its efforts to resolve the pending opioid litigation and support abatement efforts. 

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The company said that this settlement “is not an admission of wrongdoing or liability by Kroger,” adding that it has been a “leader in combatting opioid abuse.”

The company said it plans “to vigorously defend against any other claims and lawsuits relating to opioids that the final agreement does not resolve.”

Kroger took a $1.4 billion charge related to the opioid settlement in the second quarter. It posted a loss of $180 million, or 25 centers per share, during the quarter.

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The company is one of a handful of retail pharmacy chains that were accused of failing to control the distribution of highly addictive opioids, contributing to the oversupply of painkillers in communities around the nation.

Nearly 645,000 people died from overdoses involving any opioid, including prescription and illicit opioids, from 1999 to 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last fall, CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Walmart agreed to pay about $13.8 billion to resolve thousands of state and local government lawsuits involving opioid painkillers.

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The Rite Aid pharmacy chain – which is reportedly planning to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection – is also facing allegations that it “knowingly” contributed to the opioid crisis.

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The White House Situation Room officially completed its massive $50 million facelift on Friday, with President Biden cutting a blue ribbon to ceremoniously unveil the renovation.

The renovation changed the entirety of the 5,500-square foot multiroom complex within the West Wing of the White House, including the dismantling of the iconic conference room where President Barack Obama and his top aides watched the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. The Sit Room, as it is also called, is where other world developments, such as the North Korean missile launches and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, are monitored and acted upon.

The overhaul also included digging five feet below ground to add technological and other changes, officials said.

Marc Gustafson, the National Security Council official in charge of the Sit Room, said the renovation took a year and was completed in August.

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The Situation Room got its roots following the failed Bay of Pigs experiment in 1961, as President John Kennedy concluded the White House needed a centralized location to monitor world events.

The facility now provides round-the-clock surveillance where representatives from the intelligence community, all U.S. military branches and other agencies watch intelligence feeds and look over social media updates and videos.

A brand-new feature of the upgraded space is a large conference room, known as “WHSR JFK,” which includes leather-bound seating for 14 and video screens on the walls. WHSR stands for White House Situation Room and is pronounced “whizzer.”

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Biden received an intelligence briefing Tuesday, using the new room for the first time, Gustafson said. He said the president “loved it.”

Biden, a frequent visitor to the Situation Room since taking office, sometimes drops in unannounced to join meetings and even has a special VIP entry door, Gustafson said.

Gustafson said the original conference room, memorialized in a 2011 photo of U.S. officials watching the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan, was dismantled during the renovation, but its pieces were saved and were moved to Obama’s presidential library.

A phone booth that Biden and others had used while in the Situation Room was also removed. It is being stored for Biden’s future presidential library.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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More than three years after the pandemic first began, businesses and families alike are still feeling the long-term implications of COVID-based restrictions, anti-business economic policies, and bureaucratic red tape. 

That’s why one Christian-based financial tech company, Revere Payments, decided to relocate to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, to solidify its search for real “freedom” as it continued operations despite government hurdles. 

“When it came to the brand of Revere, Revere is really centered around freedom, and… when the decision came, where would we relocate or locate the headquarters for Revere, it seemed the obvious choice for the freedom brand was the freedom state of Florida,” CEO Wendy Kinney told Fox News Digital. 

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“So for us, it came through prayer and contemplation, and really the brand driving along with the Lord driving where we’re going to go,” she continued. 

The payment processing company made the announcement earlier this month, revealing that the headquarters would be moved from Las Vegas to Palm Beach Gardens. 

“This move will result in the creation of 100 new job opportunities within the next three years,” the press release states. 

Florida endured the largest influx of new residents last year, with its population surge amounting to a whopping 2% – well above the national average of 0.4% that was recorded between July 2021 and July 2022.

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Other states that led in population growth include Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Arizona and Idaho.

On the other end of the spectrum, California, New York and Illinois, which have some of the highest tax burdens in the country, saw the biggest population declines in 2022. California saw its population tumble by more than 343,000 people in 2022, although New York had the overall largest decline in its population with a 0.9% drop.

Kinney attributed the widespread exoduses from blue states to restrictive COVID-related policies and the impact the strategies had on business owners and children alike. 

Recent data from federal standardized test scores indicated back in June that students nationwide are still battling the effects of school closures – another restrictive COVID-related stance that has had a startling effect on the country’s most vulnerable. 

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Scores by the National Center for Education Statistics – also known as the Nation’s Report Card – indicated math scores have reached their lowest rate since 1990 while reading scores dipped to the lowest since 2004, continuing the downward trend since the pandemic began in 2020.

Kinney called the results of these pandemic policies “catastrophic.”

“There’s no question when you think about the pandemic and the residual and the collateral damage of it, whether it be to businesses, employees, people losing their jobs, but really to children, right down to children not being able to learn appropriately and efficiently, especially in the public school systems where they were really shut down for a long period of time, where some of those kids in that system, that was their best meal of the day, that was their warm hug,” Kinney said. 

“That was their welcome. That was such a critical part of their well-being, and to take such an extreme approach, which some of these states did, I think it was catastrophic,” she continued. 

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Even though Biden previously declared the pandemic over back in 2022, critics have worried restrictive COVID-related policies could be making a comeback as some colleges and workplaces revert to 2020 mandates.

Fox News Digital asked Kinney if the Biden administration would take action to stifle the policies in order to lay the groundwork for businesses to flourish. 

“Could the Biden administration do something to overcome the hurdles that we face? Could they? Yes. Will they? No,” Kinney responded. “My concern at this point, because of some of the chatter you hear, is the new variant of COVID and more restrictive policies. If you look at Rutgers, they’re looking at a jab and masking. You’re hearing all kinds of whispers now that more masking is coming.”

“The Biden administration recently has bought a lot of PPE equipment, so there’s more coming, and I hope I’m wrong. I hope some of the people who are speaking out about this are wrong, but the real concern is what’s going to happen now with 2024 approaching a new variant that’s going to be used to possibly restrict people in ways that we’ve literally never seen,” she continued. 

Despite the president’s previous claim the pandemic is over, and reinvigorated fears over COVID mandates, Kinney argued the American people will not “tolerate” any more restrictions.

“I think Americans will not allow their freedoms to be stolen again,” Kinney said. “The American people aren’t going to stand for it anymore. If you just look around an airport, or you go anywhere, you see 95-plus percent, if not more, of the people are not wearing masks, and then you see the few scattering of people here and there who have their children masked up, or they’re masked up even to this day.” 

“But I think trying to put the American people in a position where they’re locked down again… I just think that would be really catastrophic,” she continued. “I don’t think they’re going to tolerate it.”

FOX Business’ Megan Henney and Fox News’ Taylor Penley contributed to this report. 

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Friday that Elon Musk’s SpaceX must conduct more than 60 corrective actions before the next launch of its Starship Super Heavy rocket.

SpaceX must also keep its Starship rocket grounded until the 63 corrective actions are completed, the FAA said. The agency concluded its probe into the April 20 launch from Texas that resulted in Starship exploding after liftoff.

“Corrective actions include redesigns of vehicle hardware to prevent leaks and fires, redesign of the launch pad to increase its robustness, incorporation of additional reviews in the design process, additional analysis and testing of safety critical systems and components including the Autonomous Flight Safety System, and the application of additional change control practices,” the FAA said. 

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SpaceX did not return FOX Business’ request for comment.

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SpaceX on Tuesday shared footage on X, the Elon Musk-owned social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that depicted a “fully stacked Starship on the launch pad at Starbase.” The facility is located in Texas. 

In addition to addressing the corrective actions the FAA identified as “impact[ing] public safety,” the company must apply for and receive a license modification from the FAA “that addresses all safety, environmental and other applicable regulatory requirements,” the agency said.

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