Pam Sohn - Chattanooga Times Free Press

Sohn: Hope and faith alone will not defeat COVID-19. We have to put some muscle into it.

by Pam Sohn ·September 19, 2020

At the heart of every story about coronavirus loss and tragedy is the question of what happens next.

Staff photo by Troy Stolt / Junior chemistry major Tiffany Truong speaks with a classmate while sitting outside of the University Center on campus at UTC on Monday, Aug. 17 in Chattanooga. Monday was UTC's first day of in-person classes since March, when all University of Tennessee schools moved to virtual classes in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19.

Sohn: Donald Trump plays his usual politics with COVID-19 vaccine talk

by Pam Sohn ·September 17, 2020

We have to wonder when the conservative right will stop believing a president who cannot keep his stories straight for even a week at a time.

The New York Times photo by Erin Scott / President Donald Trump speaks in a news briefing Wednesday to dismiss his CDC chief's testimony earlier that day about the timetable for a hoped-for COVID-19 vaccine.

Sohn: Donald Trump didn’t make COVID-19, but he aided and abetted it

by Pam Sohn ·September 15, 2020

While President Trump returned to holding indoor rallies in Nevada on Sunday and Phoenix on Monday despite continuing COVID-19 concerns there, the Tennessee Department of Health reported 2,450 new COVID-19 cases Monday, bringing the state's case total to 174,274 cases.

The New York Times file photo / Michael Caputo, then a Republican strategist and now the assistant secretary of health for public affairs, at a campaign event for a Republican congressional candidate in New York in 2018. Caputo has told a Facebook audience without evidence that left-wing hit squads were being trained for insurrection, and he accused CDC scientists of "sedition."

Sohn: Instead of hating each other, why don’t we hate hate?

by Pam Sohn ·September 14, 2020

Hate isn't a two-way street. Nor is it bipartisan or nonsectarian or colorless or genderless.

Staff photo by Troy Stolt / A swastika is seen on a utility box just off of Riverside Drive on Monday, Sept. 14, 2020 in Chattanooga, Tenn. Several were painted on the Walnut Street Bridge and around the Bluff View Art District.

Pam’s Points: Political rancor intrudes on every aspect of our lives

by Pam Sohn ·September 13, 2020

Wildfires are racing toward your home.

AP Photo by Noah Berger / Flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires burn around a COVID-19/Stay safe sign in unincorporated Napa County, California. In Oregon, firefighters and law enforcement also had to battle false scare rumors of "rioters and looters.

Sohn: What climate change, fire and rain have to do with our Nov. 3 election

by Pam Sohn ·September 12, 2020

While the West's climate - especially in California - has always made it prone to fires, the link between human-caused climate change and bigger fires is inextricable, according to Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

AP Photo, Noah Berger - In this Sept. 7 photo, a firetruck drives along state Highway 168 while battling the Creek Fire in the Shaver Lake community of Fresno County, Calif. The fire later exploded so fast that it trapped hundreds of holiday campers who were airlifted to safety in a dramatic rescue that strained the limits of two California National Guard helicopters.

Sohn: While Donald Trump destroys us, we’ll keep asking where our GOP leaders are at

by Pam Sohn ·September 11, 2020

On Thursday, as many Americans struggled to reconcile what they heard with their own ears on the news - President Donald Trump talking with journalist Bob Woodward about the "deadly stuff" of the airborne coronavirus and his determination to downplay it to the public - this page sought input from Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann.

AP file photo by Alex Brandon / Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., gives President Donald Trump a walking stick during a signing ceremony for "The Great American Outdoors Act," in the East Room of the White House, on Aug. 4, 2020, in Washington.

Sohn: Donald Trump ‘likes’ playing down COVID-19. Apparently we’re all suckers

by Pam Sohn ·September 10, 2020

"This is deadly stuff," Donald Trump told journalist Bob Woodward in an on-the-record, taped interview on Feb. 7.

Doug Mills, The New York Times / President Donald Trump speaks at a reelection campaign rally in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Tuesday. Trump acknowledged to the journalist Bob Woodward that he knowingly played down the coronavirus earlier this year even though he was aware it was "deadly" and vastly more serious than the seasonal flu.

Sohn: What you need to know in order to vote

by Pam Sohn ·September 8, 2020

Election Day is seven weeks and six days from today.

File photo by Alyssa Pointer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP / An early voter who wore gloves to cast her ballot during Georgia's primary election shows off her sticker.

Sohn: Have a happy Labor Day; plan your vote

by Pam Sohn ·September 6, 2020

Have a happy Labor Day.