Stories credited to Alabama Daily News, by publication date. ChamberLight collects articles that mention the officials it tracks, so this shows its own coverage of this source, not how much the source publishes.

Stories from Alabama Daily News
Shaded: ChamberLight collected no stories, or almost none, from any outlet (a gap in its collection, not in the outlet’s publishing)

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Month	Stories	All outlets
April 2026	4	3,219
May 2026	0	none collected
June 2026	0	none collected
July 2026	0	none collected
August 2026	0	1 (collection gap)
September 2026	0	598

Who they cover

Party of the officials these stories are mainly about, across all 8 officials named. A story counts once for each official it is mainly about, so the split is over 8 story–official pairs, from 4 stories.

Democrat50% · 4 pairs
Republican50% · 4 pairs

Most covered

Stories mainly about each official, and their share of the source’s 4 stories.

Article tone

ChamberLight’s article analysis assigns each story a tone toward the official it covers. It describes the coverage of that official, not Alabama Daily News’s stance, and reader votes do not change it. 4 stories.

Good Look: 2 (50%)
Mixed: 2 (50%)
Informational: 0 (0%)
Bad Look: 0 (0%)

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No one has challenged a score on this page yet. Anyone can; editors publish every outcome here.

Articles served from aldailynews.com

Trump urges extending foreign surveillance program as some lawmakers push for US privacy protections

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is set to take up the reauthorization of a divisive program that lets U.S. spy agencies pore over foreigners’ calls, texts and emails, with supporters like President Donald Trump saying it has saved lives while critics point to long-standing concerns about warrantless surveillance of Americans. A key provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act permits the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and other agencies to collect and analyze vast amounts of overseas communications without a warrant. It incidentally sweeps up the conversations of any Americans who interact with those foreigners targeted for surveillance. The program expires Monday, and critics want changes, including a requirement for warrants before authorities can access the emails, phone calls or text messages of Americans. They also want limits on the government’s use of internet data brokers, who sell large volumes of personal information gleaned online, offering the government what critics say amounts to an end-run around the Constitution. Planned votes on the legislation were canceled Wednesday as an agreement between House Republican leaders and some rank-and-file members remained elusive. Members have pushed back despite a pressure campaign that included a trip to the White House and direct involvement from CIA Director John Ratcliffe. The chances of significant changes, however, seem to have dropped since Trump announced his support for the program’s renewal, saying it had proved its worth in supplying information vital to recent U.S. actions in Venezuela and Iran. “The fact is, whether you like FISA or not, it is extremely important to our military,” Trump said on social media Tuesday. Trump calls for another extension of the program U.S. authorities say the program, known as Section 702 of the law, is essential to national security and has saved lives by uncovering terrorist plots. Critics question what they say is a dangerous infringement on civil liberties and privacy. In a Truth Social post, Trump said a different FISA provision was used to spy on his 2016 campaign but that he supported Section 702’s renewal despite misgivings that political adversaries could use parts of the law against him in the future. He urged lawmakers to extend the foreign surveillance program for 18 more months. “My administration has worked tirelessly to ensure these FISA reforms are being aggressively executed at every level of the Executive Branch to keep Americans safe, while protecting our sacred Civil Liberties guaranteed by our Great Constitution,” Trump wrote. The Republican president is a longtime critic of the nation’s intelligence services and was once opposed to Section 702 before he reversed himself. His director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, sponsored legislation to repeal Section 702 as a Hawaii congresswoman but now supports it. She says new protections added since her time in Congress helped change her mind. Some Republican House members who have opposed the extension without changes went to the White House late Tuesday to discuss the matter. Ratcliffe also met with lawmakers early Wednesday. “I am asking Republicans to UNIFY, and vote together on the test vote to bring a clean Bill to the floor,” Trump said Wednesday. “We need to stick together.” Greater protections are sought for Americans’ communications In addition to a requirement for a warrant to access Americans’ data, critics also want greater protections on how the FBI or other agencies can search communications and how that is reported to the public. “Journalists, foreign aid workers, people with family overseas, all could have their communications swept up in this surveillance merely because they talked to someone outside of this country,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. He is pushing for changes that he said will ensure the government is not violating civil rights in secret. Several Republicans also have suggested changes, such as the warrant requirement. “National security and civil liberties are not mutually exclusive,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz. “We can give our intelligence professionals the tools they need to target foreign threats while ensuring that Americans are not subjected to unconstitutional surveillance.” Gabbard’s office releases an annual report showing the number of foreign surveillance targets and number of searches likely to identify an American. For 2025, the number of foreign surveillance targets increased to nearly 350,000 from almost 292,000 in 2024. Searches using terms likely to identify an American decreased slightly to 7,724 from 7,845 in 2024. The totals are incomplete because agencies such as the FBI have found ways to access the data without reporting the searches publicly, said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when searching for intelligence related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and racial justice protests in 2020, according to a 2024 court order. “It’s reminiscent of J. Edgar Hoover’s tenure at the FBI,” Goitein said, referring to the FBI’s founding director who used illegal surveillance to harass and spy on Americans. “They can pretty much target anyone.” There’s little time to make changes to the law Despite bipartisan concerns about the law and its implications for civil liberties, time is running out for Congress to make any changes before Monday’s expiration. Trump’s support also reduces the odds that enough Republicans will break ranks and join Democrats to push for an overhaul. Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, announced a proposal Tuesday that would require the Justice Department to seek a court order before the FBI could access search results involving Americans. Himes said in a statement that he wants to see Section 702 renewed with new protections. It “is too critical to allow it to expire, but the legitimate concerns about the possibility of abuse also demand that we consider additional reforms,” he said. The best chance for inserting changes likely is the House, where a large number of lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns. But Rep. Rick Crawford, an Arkansas Republican who leads the House Intelligence Committee, is backing Trump’s call for an 18-month renewal. Crawford has said he believes the government can empower spy agencies while also holding them accountable. The post Trump urges extending foreign surveillance program as some lawmakers push for US privacy protections appeared first on Alabama Daily News.

Apr 16, 20268 votes

Trump urges extending foreign surveillance program as some lawmakers push for US privacy protections

Apr 16, 2026

Trump urges extending foreign surveillance program as some lawmakers push for US privacy protections

Apr 16, 202620 votes

Trump urges extending foreign surveillance program as some lawmakers push for US privacy protections

Apr 16, 2026

Senate panel advances Britt’s bill protecting kids online

WASHINGTON — In the wake of landmark rulings against social media giants, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee advanced bipartisan legislation Tuesday that would require mental health warning labels on social media platforms. Led by U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., the Stop the Scroll Act aims to blunt the harms associated with social media use for those under the age of 18. The bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration. “When you look at the continual elevation of this issue in various ways in the public, whether it be AI chatbots and our young people, sextortion, bullying, et cetera, I think parents are becoming more and more aware, and Americans will demand we do something,” Britt told Alabama Daily News. “I am hopeful that people will finally rise to the occasion, because our young people are certainly counting on us to,” she added. The bill cites that extensive use of social media can lead children toward “exposure to bullying, online harassment and abuse, discrimination, and child sexual exploitation.” Under the legislation, social media platforms would be required to display warning labels that would pop up for minors and would describe the potential harms of using that app. Underage users would then have to accept the mental health risks before accessing the platform. The bill also details that the label must be clear and accessible and follow the wording advised by the U.S. surgeon general. It would also provide minors with mental health resources. The Federal Trade Commission would be responsible for enforcing the proposed law. If a user acknowledges the risk on the label and begins using the platform, the bill calls for the warning label to pop up every hour while an individual is using a social media app. But the federal legislation could face pushback from social media companies. A federal judge recently blocked a similar state law in Colorado from taking effect after a tech trade group, which counts Meta and Google as members, sued over the labels infringing on First Amendment rights. When asked about concerns that big tech could interfere with advancing the legislation past the committee level, Britt said she wants her colleagues to be reminded that they are accountable to the people. “I think it’s incumbent upon us to do something, so I hope that my colleagues remember who they work for, Britt told ADN. “ I certainly do. And I want to see something done for the next generation.” Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has been vocal about his mental health struggles, is a cosponsor with Britt. The pair also introduced the legislation last Congress, but it did not advance. “Those same struggles many of our kids are facing, with plenty of evidence of addiction, anxiety, depression, and suicide rates increasingly directly linked to social media platforms,” Fetterman said in a statement. “…I know we need laws that protect our children and give them the necessary mental health resources they might need.” On the state level, the Alabama Legislature passed a bill this year that requires app stores to verify a user’s age and link parent accounts for minors. The post Senate panel advances Britt’s bill protecting kids online appeared first on Alabama Daily News.

Apr 15, 202611 votes

Senate panel advances Britt’s bill protecting kids online

Apr 15, 202614 votes

Aviation safety bill based on deadly midair collision near Washington faces a House vote

An aviation safety bill seeking to address lessons learned from last year’s midair collision of a jet with an Army helicopter near the nation’s capital is up for a vote Tuesday evening in the House, but key senators and the families of the 67 victims think the bill needs to be strengthened. The House bill, called the Alert Act, has the backing of key industry groups. The National Transportation Safety Board said recently that the legislation, since amended, now addresses its recommendation to require all aircraft flying around busy airports to have key locator systems that let pilots know more precisely where other aircraft are flying around them. The NTSB has been recommending the new technology systems since 2008, and Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy has said such a system would have prevented the collision of the American Airlines jet and Army Black Hawk helicopter that plunged into the icy Potomac River on Jan. 29, 2025. Two key House committees unanimously advanced the bill last month. The bill is now being brought up for a full House vote under rules that won’t allow any amendments. But victims’ families said they want to make sure the bill has strict timelines to guarantee the reforms will be completed. Sponsored by Republican Sam Graves and Democrat Rick Larens, the legislation needs to secure two thirds of House support to advance to the Senate. Separate legislation called the ROTOR Act that the Senate crafted came up one vote short in the House. Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell have also said the Alert Act still needs to be improved. Earlier this year, the NTSB’s Homendy sharply criticized the original version of the bill as a “watered down” measure that wouldn’t do enough to prevent future tragedies. But the board said the revised version would now address the shortcomings their investigation identified and require the Federal Aviation Administration, Transportation Department and the military to take needed actions. National Transportation Safety Board members at a hearing in late January were deeply troubled over years of ignored warnings about helicopter traffic dangers and other problems, long before the collision. Everyone aboard the American Airlines jet, flying from Wichita, Kansas, and the helicopter died when the two aircraft collided. It was the deadliest plane crash on U.S. soil since 2001, and the victims included 28 members of the figure skating community. A helicopter route in the approach path of a Reagan National Airport runway didn’t ensure enough separation between helicopters and planes landing on the airport’s secondary runway, and the route wasn’t reviewed regularly, the board said. The poor design of that route was a key factor in the crash along with air traffic controllers relying too much on pilots seeing and avoiding other aircraft. The bill now requires planes to have Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast In systems that can receive data about the locations of other aircraft. Proponents of the use of such systems said they would have alerted the pilots of an American Airlines jet sooner about the impending collision with the Black Hawk helicopter. Most planes already have the complementary ADS-B Out systems that broadcast their locations. The NTSB cited systemic weaknesses and years of ignored warnings as the main causes of the crash, but Homendy has said that if both the plane and the Black Hawk had been equipped with ADS-B In and the systems had been turned on, the collision would have been prevented. The Army’s policy at the time of the crash mandated that its helicopters fly without that system on to conceal their locations, although the helicopter involved in this crash was on a training flight, not a sensitive mission. The post Aviation safety bill based on deadly midair collision near Washington faces a House vote appeared first on Alabama Daily News.

Apr 14, 202610 votes

Aviation safety bill based on deadly midair collision near Washington faces a House vote

Apr 14, 202611 votes

Sewell pitches Medicare reimbursement bill during rural health roundtable

Alabama’s rural hospitals face significant financial hardships, and the federal wage index can exacerbate those challenges. Recently, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, introduced legislation aimed at helping to fix the disparity found in the complicated formula used to determine Medicare reimbursement payments for hospitals based on regional labor costs. “Alabama has endured some of the most devastating hospital closures in the nation,” Sewell said in a statement. “Each one leaves families traveling farther for care, mothers delivering babies without nearby maternity units, and seniors losing access to the doctors they’ve trusted for decades.” As a rural state, Alabama has the lowest wage index in the continental United States at roughly 0.64, meaning for every $100 in services rendered to a Medicare patient, hospitals in the state are reimbursed $64 by the federal government. A more urban state like California has a rate of 1.23, which allows hospitals to be reimbursed $123 for a $100 worth of services given to Medicare patients. The bipartisan Save Struggling Hospitals Act would codify the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ low-wage index hospital policy, which was in place between 2020-2024. The rule increased the wage index for hospitals in the bottom 25th percentile, which in turn helped rural hospitals receive more Medicare payouts. But a court ruling in 2024 struck down that rule, leaving some Alabama hospitals having to once again grapple with low reimbursements. “By strengthening the financial foundation of vulnerable hospitals, this bill offers a lifeline to communities that have consistently been asked to do more with less,” Sewell said. Hospitals must update their wage information each year. As higher wage index hospitals pay their employees more, their reimbursements go up; meanwhile, lower wage index hospitals see their reimbursements decline. And the wage index must be budget-neutral, so any increase in reimbursements in one area would lead to a decrease in another area. That makes it a hard sell for lawmakers in Congress. During National Public Health Week, Sewell hosted a rural health event in Demopolis, where she touched on the need to address the wage index issue and discussed challenges facing hospitals in the state. Officials from several hospitals attended the event, including Whitfield Regional Hospital CEO Doug Brewer and Greene County Health System CEO Rodgerick Williams. Rep. Terri Sewell leads a rural health roundtable with hospital leaders in Demopolis. (Office of Rep. Terri Sewell) “One of the things that’s most challenging for any hospital in Alabama, rural or otherwise, is the fact that we get reimbursed for… Medicare at much lower rates than other states,” Sewell said during the roundtable. “Which means that the margins these CEOs have are razor-thin.” As of January, 22 rural hospitals in Alabama were at risk of immediate closure, according to an analysis from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform. In December, Alabama’s entire congressional delegation sent a letter to CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, urging the agency to reclassify rural hospitals under the wage index to help them stay afloat. The lawmakers requested that low-wage index providers that are within 50 miles of a higher-paid wage area be allowed to reclassify to that area and thus receive a higher reimbursement rate. The current requirement only allows low-wage index rural hospitals within 35 miles of a higher-paid area to reclassify to that area. The Save Struggling Hospitals Act has bipartisan support in the House and Senate. Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., and Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. and Mark Warner, D-Va., are also cosponsors of the bill. The legislation was also introduced last Congress, but it did not advance. The post Sewell pitches Medicare reimbursement bill during rural health roundtable appeared first on Alabama Daily News.

Apr 13, 202613 votes

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Articles served from aldailynews.com

Trump urges extending foreign surveillance program as some lawmakers push for US privacy protections

Trump urges extending foreign surveillance program as some lawmakers push for US privacy protections

Trump urges extending foreign surveillance program as some lawmakers push for US privacy protections

Trump urges extending foreign surveillance program as some lawmakers push for US privacy protections

Senate panel advances Britt’s bill protecting kids online

Senate panel advances Britt’s bill protecting kids online

Aviation safety bill based on deadly midair collision near Washington faces a House vote

Aviation safety bill based on deadly midair collision near Washington faces a House vote

Sewell pitches Medicare reimbursement bill during rural health roundtable