If you're a Fox News watcher — and in Tennessee and North Georgia many people are — you missed a moment and a speech that someday will be the stuff of history books. You missed American patriotism rising to the moment.

A caller to our office Thursday morning was incensed that one of Tennessee's senators, Marsha Blackburn, left the chamber where she is a juror in the Trump impeachment trial to give a Fox News interview on Tuesday.

In today's insult-driven, hate-filled and fear-mongering world, it's too easy to find outrage in the least things.

There's been a lot of talk among pundits about "vulnerable" Republican Congress and Senate members in the election year of Trump's impeachment.

Last summer, our community was shown a long-awaited efficiency consultant's report on Hamilton County's school buildings, and the finding was stunning: Our 74 public schools carried a $1.36 billion capital needs price tag.

The Hamilton County school board was right Thursday to opt for hiring up to 10 of its own security officers for some campuses — despite reservations from the sheriff, who said he would rather see the district arm teachers or school staff members.

Every time we learn new information from people like Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani who worked with the president's personal attorney on the effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate a 2020 campaign opponent of President Donald Trump, "it always points in the direction that Trump was putting his interests above America's security and election integrity."

It appears that we have a 2016 election hacking redux — a deja vu, all-over-again operation that shows the "Russian hoax" was and is real.

Is it any wonder that too many Americans don't know what to believe anymore?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week will again sharpen the focus on the impeachment of President Donald Trump. And on the future of our democracy.

While we wait on dithering politicians to make our world safer, and as we watch with horror while our president unravels both himself and the world, there are some patriots who could — and should — speak up to make a difference.

Your government is at work to cheat you again. You only have until Friday night to tell the U.S. Forest Service that its plan to timber in North Georgia's Chattahoochee National Forest is a bad idea.

It's easy to miss local and state news these days — what with all the impeachment and Iran headlines.

Who says making the world better doesn't begin at home?

Welcome to 2020. The year of impeachment.

President Trump has said many times he doesn't like "endless wars."

The 2010s were a lost decade for climate. We can't afford a repeat, scientists warn. But that looks to be where we're heading under today's derelict political administration.

It is about to be 2020.

It is heartening that Tennessee - and Chattanooga - will continue to welcome refugees in the coming year - even after President Trump in September slashed the number of refugees allowed into the country and gave states and local governments the right to refuse refugee resettlement within their borders.

It's Christmas Eve - the eve of the one day a year most of us give in to sentimental memory, awesome faith and the belief that there really is peace on Earth. Somewhere. Some day. Even today, every day - if we would make it so.

In the age of impeachment, it's easy to tune out of all news — even important science news. Don't be that cave person.

Tennessee Valley Authority in August adopted a budget plan to help reverse rising electricity prices, but it's a complicated hope. And depending on who you ask, perhaps an unlikely one.

After weeks of impeachment weariness, Thursday's Democratic debate was a welcome ray of sunshine and hope.