7 Things: Recession looms as Biden administration tries to explain it away, Jerry Carl slams Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia and more …

7. Rash of overdose deaths leads to free fentanyl test strips

  • A fentanyl death spike in one Alabama county has led to a non-profit procuring fentanyl test strips to provide to recreational drug users. The strips can be used to test for fentanyl in unregulated drugs, which have been found at the scene of some of the overdoses.
  • Madison County coroner Tyler Berryhill called the Partnership for a Drug-Free Community after six residents died from Sunday to Tuesday of last week, and now, illegal drug users can pick up a test strip and test their drugs before they use them. The state just legalized these strips earlier this year, and they are available around the state.

6. New York preparing for migrants to be sent to the state

  • As migrants from the southern border have been placed in various areas of the country, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has held a press conference where he discussed how receiving migrants would impact the city.
  • Adams advised, “Our schools are going to be impacted. Our healthcare system is going to be impacted. Our infrastructure is going to be impacted.” Adams also emphasized that “everyone” would be impacted by this.

5. There is a Libertarian candidate in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race

  • In the U.S. Senate race in Alabama, Republican candidate Katie Britt is the clear frontrunner against Democratic candidate Will Boyd, but a Libertarian candidate by the name of John Sophocleus has been announced.
  • Sophocleus was the nominee for governor in 2002 for the Libertarian Party in Alabama. Sophocleus has made it clear that his focus is on taxes, spending and the economy. He outlined, “Trump was a government Democrat running as a Republican. The latest bureaucracy: Space Force. What was Trump thinking? Reagan talked a good game, but he was a big spending Democrat from California who grew the size of government and greatly increased the debt.”

4. Battle still confident Space Command is coming

  • Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle has maintained that the U.S. Space Command headquarters would be coming to the Redstone Arsenal and recently reaffirmed his confidence in an interview on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal.”
  • Battle said that he understood the issues Colorado had with moving the headquarters but added, “[W]e’re still going to be working with Colorado Springs. There are a couple of commands that we share with them. We’ll still be sharing with them when Space Command comes in.” Battle went on to say, “Huntsville will be the best place for Space Command to be, and we will be able to provide years and years of protection for the people of the United States of America in doing that.”

 3. Jerry Carl: Biden’s Saudi visit is ‘embarrassing’

  • U.S. Representative Jerry Carl (R-Mobile) criticized President Joe Biden’s recent trip to Saudi Arabia, where he met with the Saudi prince. Biden had previously said that the same prince was responsible for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and he would make him a pariah.
  • Carl declared, “I thought it was embarrassing. I mean, to call the prince out as a murderer and then go over to ask him for help – I think that shows some tremendous weakness, tremendous weakness.”

2. Global demand has decreased, so gas prices have fallen

  • Falling gas prices have been praised by President Joe Biden and his administration, but the falling prices are mostly due to a decrease in global demand that’s lowered the price of oil, according to most recent reports.
  • Supply of fuel has also increased, according to AAA spokesman Clay Ingram, who also said 2022 “is just so different and wacky and unusual.” He continued, “You don’t know what’s going to happen really so having this much of a drop is unusual but again having record prices like we have had over the past few months is not usual either.”

1. We’re likely headed for a recession, but White House denies it

  • The White House has been accused of attempting to change the definition of what an economic “recession” is to avoid a recession being declared, and President Joe Biden has been directly questioned on the issue and said, “We’re not gonna be in a recession.”
  • Despite experts warning that the United States economy is heading for a recession this year, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated, “This is not an economy that’s in recession. We’re in a period of transition in which growth is slowing, and that’s necessary and appropriate.”