1995 the amazing digital circus
Ever wanted to bring your dog with you aboard a cruise ship? Do you have a business focused on dogs and their families? If you answered yes to either question, you’ll be excited to learn that what’s being called the first-ever dog-friendly cruise is being planned aboard Margaritaville at Sea’s Islander out of the Port of Tampa in November 2025. And business opportunities await. Cruise ships famously don’t allow dogs other than service animals. Organizers of this cruise anticipate selecting from a long line of hopefuls. A “waitlist for all dog parents who have dreamt of bringing their furry friends along for their vacations will open soon,” a news release says. Organizers are calling for 250 dogs, “their owners and their closest humans” to become “inaugural ambassadors” for the cruise, which they promise will offer “unique experiences and activities including gifts and samples from top vendors, dog shows and trainings, guest speakers, costume contests, parades, and more.” The event is being staged by two organizations — Cruise Tails and Expedia Cruises of West Orlando. The website cruisetails.com seeks sponsors and investors in hopes of turning the cruise into a recurring event. Sponsorship and partnership opportunities are available for companies seeking brand visibility “across a passionate pet-loving audience,” the site says. And participants must sign photo waivers, the website says, adding, “We anticipate the fun will be all over social media and even in the press. In fact, the 250 chosen will undoubtedly be asked by sponsors to try products and post about them.” Cruise Tails was formed by Steve Matzke, a Bradenton-based entrepreneur listed on LinkedIn as beginning his career this month as an “independent consultant.” Matzke spent four years prior to that as senior director of external relations for the American Accounting Association, and 12 years before that as director of faculty and university initiatives for the American Institute of CPAs, his LinkedIn profile shows. Expedia Cruises of West Orlando was founded in 2019 by Dawn von Graff, an avid traveler who has taken more than 75 cruises and visited more than 80 countries, and her husband. She owned a computer networking firm, worked as an international tour manager, and was a top salesperson for Marriott before forming Expedia Cruises of West Orlando as a full-service travel agency. Details including dates, prices and itineraries have not yet been released. According to the website, organizers hope to select the inaugural 250 dogs based partly on how the dogs perform in a “video talent singing contest” as well as “a variety of criteria” to be announced “over the next few weeks.” The bigger the dog’s entourage, the better chance it will have to be chosen, the website says. “Preference will be given to dogs in a group which includes one dog cabin traveling with two or more associated cabins of friends or family without dogs,” it says. A spokeswoman for Margaritaville at Sea says the organizers are chartering the Islander, and the cruise will not be available for booking to the general public. Each dog will have “private relief stations” on their cabin balconies, and when dogs don’t make it to the relief station, each will have its own “pet butler” to ensure “their cabin and the boat remain in top condition,” a Cruise Tails spokeswoman said. Participants must agree to follow protocols on board, including keeping their dogs in permitted areas and making sure they are up to date with appropriate vaccinations. Dogs will not be allowed in dining areas, the ship’s casino, pool decks, lounges or music venues, according to the news release. Organizers will also be looking for workers and vendors. “We’re going to need dog walkers, pet butlers, and so much more,” the website says. And “if you have a proven skill like pet massage, grooming and pet walking or if you make custom dog costumes, have a unique dog product you would like to promote or are a well-known dog expert, we would love to chat with you.” Calls for pet handlers and vendors will be posted “in the next few months,” the site says. Whether the event turns into the profitable industry that its organizers hope for will undoubtedly depend on how the first one unfolds. A spokeswoman did not immediately have answers to such questions of what will happen to dogs that get aggressive with humans or other dogs? Will owners be required to purchase additional insurance to cover any possibilities? Will food be provided and how will feedings be handled? Contributors on Reddit.com posted mixed reactions to the announcement on Monday. “Cruises are already floating petri dishes. This doesn’t seem like a very good idea,” said one. “Now all decks are poop decks,” said another. A couple of posters worried about dogs going overboard. One said, “sounds awesome if you like dogs,” while another chimed in, “Better than a gorilla-friendly cruise, I suppose.” Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.Ravens now in the AFC North driver's seat after 3 convincing wins in 11-day stretch
Raiders find winning formula again in topping Saints
Discomfort and joy: Finding our inner JoniKristin Cavallari is kissing and telling about her experience dating Morgan Wallen . The Hills alum shared NSFW details about her past romance with the country star, more than a month after seemingly confirming they had at one point been involved. "He's a great f--k buddy," Kristin said on the Dec. 29 episode of Bunnie XO 's Dumb Blonde podcast . "He was good in bed." Morgan, 31, has not commented on the Very Cavallari star's remarks. Kristin also shared details about her first date with the "Love Somebody" singer, who, she added, is a "good guy" with a "big heart." "The first date that we went on, he was a true gentleman," the 37-year-old told Bunnie, "and he was like, 'I'll pick you up, I'll pick the place,' like, just f--king handled business." Kristin, who shares children Camden , 12, Jaxon , 10, and Saylor , 8 with ex-husband Jay Cutler , said Morgan did indeed pick her up and met her kids before they went out. "My kids were so excited," Kristin said. "It was so cute." She said that Morgan got the two a private room at the venue they visited, without naming it, and that they were accompanied by his bodyguard. The singer later dropped her off, she said. But the date did not end there. "He kissed me in the rain," she said, "and it was the sweetest thing." Kristin did not specify when the date occurred or how long their romance lasted. She also said she has not spoken to him in "probably a year." "But," she added, "I have nothing but good things to say about him." In November, more than a month after confirming her breakup from Montana Boyz TikToker Mark Estes and amid romance rumors about her and Morgan, Kristin seemingly admitted that she had dated the 2025 Grammy nominee . In a video posted on her social media, she and BFF Justin Anderson took part in a viral trend in which people call out truths about one another. In the clip, Kristin is seen jogging as her friend is heard saying, "Suspect let Morgan Wallen hurt her feelings, and she kept going back." She bursts out laughing and covers her mouth in response. On Bunnie's podcast, Kristin offered some context into the claim. "God, I'm so sorry, Morgan. He didn't hurt my feelings," she began. "I'll be honest with you—Morgan was the first guy in my entire f--king like that wasn't just completely enamored with me. And I was like, 'What in the f--k is going on?' It really threw me." The Uncommon James founder added, "I love having the upper hand and I feel like with him, I didn't have the upper hand. The only time in my life. So it really f--ked with me." Look back at surprising celebrity couples over the years... They played doomed lovers twice, in 1990's Too Young to Die? and 1993's Kalifornia , but in real life they had a perfectly lovely relationship . "I still love the woman," Pitt, who was Lewis' date to the 1992 Oscars when she scored a Supporting Actress nomination for Cape Fear , told Vanity Fair in February 1995. "There's some real genius there. I had a great time with her...It was one of the greatest relationships I've ever been in. The problem is, we grow up with this vision that love conquers all, and that's just not so, is it?" It wasn't just a Gen X fever dream, they really closed out the 20th century as a couple after, legend has it, being introduced by Gwyneth Paltrow (who famously dated Damon's best bud Ben Affleck ). They split up in 2000. After the fact, Damon called Ryder a "great woman" in a 2004 Playboy interview , while Ryder told Black Book in 2009, "Matt couldn't be a greater, nicer guy. I'm really lucky that I'm on good terms with him." There was something about their chemistry at the 2003 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, where Diaz presented Timberlake with the award for Best Burp—because they dated for almost four years, seriously enough to issue a statement when their relationship ended in 2007, "mutually and as friends, with continued love and respect for one another." The Scandal star appeared on the cover of InStyle Weddings in 2005 when she was engaged to the Big actor , but they split up in 2007. Madonna never addressed the story that she dated the rapper , who was killed in 1996 when he was only 25, until 2015. When Howard Stern brought up her infamously feisty 1994 chat with David Letterman , she explained, "I was dating Tupac at the time, and the thing is...he got me all riled up on life in general." After her divorce from Ryan Phillippe and before marrying agent Jim Toth , Reese starred with Jake in the 2007 thriller Rendition and they dated for a couple of years. "She is, as I would say about most of the women who I'm close friends with or had relationships in my life," Jake said admiringly of his ex , "one of the smartest, strongest people I've ever met." Before marrying Livia Giuggioli in 1997 (they separated in 2019), Firth had a five-year relationship with Tilly that produced son William Joseph Firth , who was born Sept. 20, 1990. The younger Firth is also an actor who appeared with his father in Bridget Jones's Baby . This was them: The U.S. Open champ courted the A Walk to Remember star between 2003 and 2004, but ultimately it wasn't a love match . "He broke my heart," Moore told Howard Stern in 2018. "I was a kid, he was a kid. I started dating him when I was 18." You oughta know by now that one of the most enduring mysteries in music history is who exactly inspired Morissette's iconic 1995 single—and the Full House star is at the top of the list of maybes! Morissette denied it in the 2021 documentary Jagged , but that's a tough pill to swallow. "Oh yeah, I love her music," Reynolds told People of his then-fiancée in 2005. "It can be awkward when she walks in and I'm listening to it in my underwear dancing." The music stopped for the Canadians in 2007, but their breakup after four years together was very polite . You can't blame the Mad Men star for liking funny guys . Jones and Sudeikis dated for a few months in 2010, five years before she briefly dated Will Forte . The Good Will Hunting stars paired off in real life, too, but they didn't drive off into the sunset together . "Well, I'm single," Damon said on The Oprah Winfrey Show in January 1998. "I was with Minnie for a while, but we're not really romantically involved anymore. We're just really good friends, and I love her dearly....I care about her a lot. We care about each other a lot. It wasn't meant to be, you know? And if it's not meant to be, then it's not meant to be." The pronouncement was a bit too public for Driver's taste. "It's unfortunate that Matt went on Oprah ," she told the LA Times later that year. "It seemed like a good forum for him to announce to the world that we were no longer together, which I found fantastically inappropriate." The stars met on the set of the 1981 movie Excalibur and eventually lived together (Neeson says Mirren gave him his first driving lessons) before they broke up in the mid-'80s. "I should be so lucky and be honored to have spent three or four years with that lady," Neeson told ET Canada in February 2023. "She's really something else." Finding love in Jurassic Park ? Talk about a meat cute. The co-stars began dating after filming the 1993 blockbuster , with Goldblum telling The Chicago Tribune at the time, "I was struck, I'd been a big fan of hers. I think she's an amazing actress, and a spectacular person. I was struck from the beginning. But after the movie we realized we liked each other." They got engaged in 1995 but ultimately split two years later. They reunited on-screen for the first time in 2022's Jurassic World: Dominion , the sixth installment in the franchise. The X-Files alum was in a relationship with The Crown creator between 2016 and 2020. Anderson won an Emmy for her turn as Margaret Thatcher in the Netflix hit in 2020. According to Arquette, the two dated while filming their 1995 Western Wild Bill . The Clueless actor confirmed a little-known rumor during a Reddit AMA chat in November 2015, revealing that he used to date the actress. The two had starred in the 1992 TV movie Desperate Choices: To Save My Child . "She was my first actress girlfriend," he said. "We had a long distance relationship for a long time. I was so into her." E! News exclusively broke the news that the Real Housewives of New York star and Modern Family actor were a pair in 2015. But by the following year, they had split. The Southland alum and the actor, who played Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show , dated for several years before calling it quits in 2013. The famous bachelor was actually settled in with Preston pre- John Travolta back in 1987. They even lived together and shared a potbellied pig named Max before breaking up in 1989. Why, yes, she does believe in life after love. The Top Gun star and the legendary diva dated back in the '80s following her divorces from Sonny Bono and Gregg Allman . Before he was Heidi Klum 's ex, the "Kiss from a Rose" musician romanced a different supermodel. The duo reportedly started dating after meeting on the set of the 2005 film Brick , but they only stayed together for six months. The Dawson's Creek alum and the Josie and the Pussycats star dated for about a year back in 2002. The NCIS: LA stud and America's sweetheart dated way back in 1993, when 17-year-old Witherspoon first moved to Los Angeles. The man who now rocks the Iron Man suit for Marvel admitted that drugs and alcohol were to blame for the end of his seven-year relationship with the Sex and the City star. "I liked to drink, and I had a drug problem, and that didn't jibe with Sarah Jessica," he admitted in an a 2008 interview with Parade , "because it is the furthest thing from what she is. She tried to help me. She was so miffed when I didn't get my act together." The late Friends alum and The Hangover star supposedly had a fling 2003, but it didn't last long enough to be more than a little blip on the Hollywood hookup radar. The 2 Broke Girls actress dated her Thor costar briefly in 2010, appearing very cozy while attending Comic-Con to promote the Marvel film. But their relationship fizzled by the time the movie premiered the following year. In 1999, way before he wed Blake Lively , Reynolds dated the 3rd Rock From the Sun star. The duo even attended the premiere of The Green Mile together. The child actors turned A-listers briefly dated in 2006 but remained close friends—and co-starred in the intense 2009 drama Brothers . "She's a vegan," Gyllenhaal pointed out when presenting Portman with the Desert Palm Achievement Award in 2011, "which makes it really frustrating when you're picking a place to eat."
Stocks wavered on Wall Street in afternoon trading Thursday, as gains in tech companies and retailers helped temper losses elsewhere in the market. The S&P 500 was down less than 0.1% after drifting between small gains and losses. The benchmark index is coming off a three-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 6 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 1:52 p.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite was down less than 0.1%. Trading volume was lighter than usual as U.S. markets reopened after the Christmas holiday. Chip company Broadcom rose 2.9%, Micron Technology was up 1% and Adobe gained 0.8%. While tech stocks overall were in the green, some heavyweights were a drag on the market. Semiconductor giant Nvidia, whose enormous valuation gives it an outsize influence on indexes, slipped 0.1%. Meta Platforms fell 0.7%, Amazon was down 0.6%, and Netflix gave up 1.1%. Tesla was among the biggest decliners in the S&P 500, down 1.9%. Health care stocks helped lift the market. CVS Health rose 1.7% and Walgreens Boots Alliance rose 3% for the biggest gain among S&P 500 stocks. Several retailers also gained ground. Target rose 2.8%, Best Buy was up 2.2% and Dollar Tree gained 2.7%. Retailers are hoping for a solid sales this holiday season, and the day after Christmas traditionally ranks among the top 10 biggest shopping days of the year, as consumers go online or rush to stores to cash in gift cards and raid bargain bins. U.S.-listed shares in Honda and Nissan rose 4% and 16%, respectively. The Japanese automakers announced earlier this week that the two companies are in talks to combine. Traders got a labor market update. U.S. applications for unemployment benefits held steady last week , though continuing claims rose to the highest level in three years, the Labor Department reported. Treasury yields turned mostly lower in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.57% from 4.59% late Tuesday. Major European markets were closed, as well as Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia. Trading was expected to be subdued this week with a thin slate of economic data on the calendar. Still, U.S. markets have historically gotten a boost at year’s end despite lower trading volumes. The last five trading days of each year, plus the first two in the new year, have brought an average gain of 1.3% since 1950. So far this month, the U.S. stock market has lost some of its gains since President-elect Donald Trump’s win on Election Day, which raised hopes for faster economic growth and more lax regulations that would boost corporate profits. Worries have risen that Trump’s preference for tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation , a bigger U.S. government debt and difficulties for global trade. Even so, the U.S. market remains on pace to deliver strong returns for 2024. The benchmark S&P 500 is up roughly 26% so far this year and remains near its most recent all-time high it set earlier this month — its latest of 57 record highs this year. Wall Street has several economic reports to look forward to next week, including updates on pending home sales and home prices, a report on U.S. construction spending and snapshots of manufacturing activity. AP Business Writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed.
JERUSALEM (AP) — A new round of Israeli airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital of Sanaa and multiple ports, while the World Health Organization's director-general said the bombardment occurred nearby as he prepared to board a flight in Sanaa, with a crew member injured. “The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the social media platform X. He added that he and U.N. colleagues were safe. “We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” he said, without mentioning the source of the bombardment. The Israeli strikes followed several days of Houthi launches setting off sirens in Israel. The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used by the Iran-backed Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in the cities of Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with power stations, asserting they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials. Israel's military didn't immediately respond to questions about Tedros' post but issued a statement saying it had "capabilities to strike very far from Israel’s territory — precisely, powerfully, and repetitively.” The strikes came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad’s regime and others learned" as his military has battled those more powerful proxies of Iran. The Houthis' media outlet confirmed the strikes in a Telegram post, and the Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah reported multiple deaths. Iran's foreign ministry condemned the strikes. The U.S. military also has targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days. The United Nations has noted that the targeted ports are important entryways for humanitarian aid for Yemen, the poorest Arab nation that plunged into a civil war in 2014 . Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv , while other missiles and drones have been shot down. Last week, Israeli jets struck Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis also have been targeting shipping on the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The U.N. Security Council has scheduled an emergency meeting Monday in response to an Israeli request that the council condemn the Houthi attacks and Iran for supplying weapons to the rebels. 5 journalists killed in Gaza Meanwhile, an Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip overnight , the territory's Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said that all were militants posing as reporters. The strike hit a car outside Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The journalists were working for the local news outlet Al-Quds Today, a television channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group. Islamic Jihad is a smaller and more extreme ally of Hamas and took part in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel, which ignited the war. The Israeli military identified four of the men as combat propagandists and said that intelligence, including a list of Islamic Jihad operatives found by soldiers in Gaza, had confirmed that all five were affiliated with the group. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian militant groups operate political, media and charitable operations in addition to their armed wings. Associated Press footage showed the incinerated shell of a van, with press markings visible on the back doors. Sobbing young men attended the funeral outside the hospital. The bodies were wrapped in shrouds, with blue press vests draped over them. The Committee to Protect Journalists says more than 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the start of the war. Israel hasn't allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza except on military embeds. Israel has banned the pan-Arab Al Jazeera network and accused six of its Gaza reporters of being militants . The Qatar-based broadcaster denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its war coverage, which has focused heavily on civilian casualties from Israeli military operations. Another Israeli soldier killed Separately, Israel's military said that a 35-year-old reserve soldier was killed during fighting in central Gaza early Thursday. A total of 389 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation more than a year ago. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border in an attack on nearby army bases and farming communities. They killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. About 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead. Israel's air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry. It says more than half the fatalities have been women and children, but doesn't say how many of the dead were fighters. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. The offensive has caused widespread destruction and driven around 90% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold, wet winter. Also Thursday, people mourned eight Palestinians killed by Israeli military operations in and around the city of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said that it opened fire after militants attacked soldiers, and it was aware of uninvolved civilians who were harmed in the raid. ___ Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed. A previous version of this story was corrected to show that the name of the local news outlet is Al-Quds Today, not the Quds News Network. ___ Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war Josef Federman And Wafaa Shurafa, The Associated Press
NoneTrump names David Sacks as White House AI and crypto czar
Savings targets could cost 10,000 civil service jobsKroger and Albertsons' plan for the largest U.S. supermarket merger in history crumbled Wednesday, with Albertsons pulling out of the $24.6 billion deal and the two companies accusing each other of not doing enough to push their proposed alliance through. Albertsons said it had filed a lawsuit against Kroger, seeking a $600 million termination fee as well as billions of dollars in legal fees and lost shareholder value. Kroger said the claims were “baseless” and that Albertsons was not entitled to the fee. The bitter breakup came the day after two judges halted the proposed merger in separate court cases. U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson in Oregon issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday blocking the merger until an in-house judge at the Federal Trade Commission could consider the matter. An hour later, Superior Court Judge Marshall Ferguson in Seattle issued a permanent injunction barring the merger . Ferguson ruled that combining Albertsons and Kroger would lessen competition and violate consumer-protection laws. The companies could have appealed the rulings or proceeded to the in-house FTC hearings. Albertsons' decision to pull out of deal instead surprised some industry experts. “I’m in a state of professional and commercial shock that they would take this scorched earth approach,” said Burt Flickinger, a longtime analyst and owner of retail consulting firm Strategic Resource Group. “The logical thing would have been for Albertsons to let the decision sink in for a day and then meet and see what could be done. But the lawsuit seems to make that a moot issue.” Albertsons is unlikely to find another merger partner because it has significant debt and underperforming stores in most of its markets., Flickinger said. Consumers will feel the most immediate impact of the deal's demise, he said, since Albertsons charges 12% to 14% more than Kroger and other grocery rivals. “They had so much debt they had to pay it off it's reflected in their pricing and promotional structure,” Flickinger said. Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran testified during the federal hearing in September that his company might consider “structural options” like laying off employees, closing stores and exiting certain markets if the merger with Kroger didn’t go through. “I would have to consider that,” he said. “It’s a dramatically different picture with the merger than without it.” But in a statement Wednesday, Sankaran said Albertsons would “start this next chapter in strong financial condition with a track record of positive business performance." In the company's most recent quarter, Albertsons' revenue rose 1% to $18.5 billion and it reported $7.9 billion in debt. Kroger and Albertsons first proposed the merger in 2022 . They argued that combining would help them better compete with big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, which are gaining an increasing share of U.S. grocery sales. Together, Kroger and Albertsons would control around 13% of the U.S. grocery market. Walmart controls around 22%. Under the merger agreement, Kroger and Albertsons — who compete in 22 states — agreed to sell 579 stores in places where their locations overlap to C&S Wholesale Grocers , a New Hampshire-based supplier to independent supermarkets that also owns the Grand Union and Piggly Wiggly store brands. But the Federal Trade Commission and two states — Washington and Colorado — sued to block the merger earlier this year, saying it would raise prices and lower workers' wages by eliminating competition. It also said the divestiture plan was inadequate and that C&S was ill-equipped to take on so many stores. On Wednesday, Albertsons said that Kroger failed to exercise “best efforts” and to take “any and all actions” to secure regulatory approval of the companies’ agreed merger transaction. Albertsons said Kroger refused to divest the assets necessary for antitrust approval, ignored regulators' feedback and rejected divestiture buyers that would have been stronger than C&S. “Kroger’s self-serving conduct, taken at the expense of Albertsons and the agreed transaction, has harmed Albertsons’ shareholders, associates and consumers,” said Tom Moriarty, Albertsons’ general counsel, in a statement. Kroger said that it disagrees with Albertsons “in the strongest possible terms.” It said early Wednesday that Albertsons was responsible for “repeated intentional material breaches and interference throughout the merger process.” Kroger , based in Cincinnati, Ohio, operates 2,800 stores in 35 states, including brands like Ralphs, Smith’s and Harris Teeter. Albertsons , based in Boise, Idaho, operates 2,273 stores in 34 states, including brands like Safeway, Jewel Osco and Shaw’s. Together, the companies employ around 710,000 people. Kroger sued the FTC in August in federal court in Ohio, claiming that the federal agency’s in-house administrative hearings were unlawful because the FTC was also able to challenge the merger in federal court in Oregon. In paperwork filed Wednesday, the FTC said it expected to update the court on its next steps in that case by Dec. 17. In Colorado, which also sued to block the merger, Attorney General Phil Weiser said Tuesday that he still was awaiting a decision from a state judge. In that case, Colorado also was challenging an allegedly illegal no-poach agreement Kroger and Albertsons made during a 2022 strike. Shares of Albertsons were down less than 1% in late trading Wednesday, while Kroger's stock was up less than 1%.