Tag Archives: Lawmakers

Since opening in May of 2021, Alabama’s crisis centers have helped thousands of Alabamians suffering from mental health or substance use, with demand for the centers continuing to skyrocket.

While Alabama Department of Mental Health Commissioner Kim Boswell has long advocated for additional crisis centers to cover the entire state, state lawmakers recently suggested a dedicated revenue stream should first be established before funding additional centers, citing future economic uncertainty.

Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Hazel Green, was among those lawmakers and expressed his hesitation to allocate new funds toward the construction of new crisis centers during a budget hearing at the State House. Reynolds chairs the House General Fund Committee.

“I sat with some of the mental health…

On March 5, US lawmakers introduced a bill to penalize app stores in the country from listing TikTok or any other application developed or provided by TikTok’s parent company ByteDance. The bill, called “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” classifies ByteDance as a foreign adversary. It defines a foreign adversary as—

• a company or entity domiciled or headquartered in a foreign adversary country (this includes China, North Korea, Russia and Iran)
• any entity in which individuals or entities from a foreign adversary country own a minimum stake of 20%
• a person subject to the directions/control of a foreign adversary country.

Any app store or web hosting service that fails to comply with the bill will be fined any amount that results from…

“Google’s hands are not tied, and it has a responsibility to act,” he wrote.

In an email to The Times, Lara Levin, a spokeswoman for Google, declined to comment on the investigation or the senator’s letter.

Mr. Blumenthal made the same case in his letter to Microsoft, writing to the company’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, and its president, Brad Smith. The Microsoft representative declined to make any additional comment.

The operators of the suicide site have long used Cloudflare, an American firm that provides cyberprotections, to obscure the names of its web host, making it difficult or impossible to know what company is providing those services.

In 2019, Cloudflare was notified of the dangers of the suicide website by Australian government officials. The next year, parents…

“Google’s hands are not tied, and it has a responsibility to act,” he wrote.

In an email to The Times, Lara Levin, a spokeswoman for Google, declined to comment on the investigation or the senator’s letter.

Mr. Blumenthal made the same case in his letter to Microsoft, writing to the company’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, and its president, Brad Smith. The Microsoft representative declined to make any additional comment.

The operators of the suicide site have long used Cloudflare, an American firm that provides cyberprotections, to obscure the names of its web host, making it difficult or impossible to know what company is providing those services.

In 2019, Cloudflare was notified of the dangers of the suicide website by Australian government officials. The next year, parents…