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…