The time has been nigh for President Joe Biden to make good on his "Build Back Better" campaign slogan, and this week he laid out a $2 trillion infrastructure blueprint that does, in fact, think big.

Scientists tell us that the longer COVID-19 continues to spread easily in the population, the more opportunities the virus has to mutate into more contagious and more deadly strains.

In Biden's first solo news conference last week, the specter of former president Donald Trump loomed - part foil, part scapegoat and, once, as a punchline.

Jim Crow is alive and well in Georgia after Gov. Brian Kemp rushed Thursday evening to sign into law a sweeping Republican-sponsored overhaul of state election laws that includes new restrictions on voting and gives the legislature - not the elected secretary of state - control over how elections are run.

One would think that rather than raise a ruckus over homeless people being housed on Chattanooga's tax dime and the pandemic's "American Rescue Plan" in an East Ridge hotel, that East Ridge representatives like County Commissioner Tim Boyd would be all about lining up some charity — specifically some health assistance to give the homeless hotel tenants COVID-19 vaccinations.

It's been said and re-said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

In government, at least, things move slowly in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Georgia's new Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in his first Senate floor speech last week wasted little time with hellos or introductions.

Here's a hypothetical question: Suppose Congress, in it's new $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus law known as the American Rescue Plan, included a $350 billion pot of money to help cash-strapped cities, counties and states pay for pandemic costs. And suppose congressional lawmakers added a provision restricting states from using these funds in other ways — like tapping them to finance local tax cuts.

Georgia's Cherokee County Sheriff's Department Capt. Jay Baker had a bad day Thursday.

Where is responsibility from Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee?

Since when do we need a law allowing teachers remove disruptive students from a classroom?

In government, leadership - and its support - matters.

Ten years ago this week, the world watched in horror as a nuclear plant with multiple reactors in Fukushima, Japan, melted down on live TV day after day after day - the aftermath of a natural disaster in the form of a March 11, 2011, earthquake and its ensuing tsunami.

It's been a long, horrifying, lonely year. Coronavirus didn't just scar our spirits and leave holes in our hearts. It ravaged our psyches and put a stressful chill on our dreams of the future.

Not a single Republican voted for the $1.9 trillion stimulus, dubbed the American Rescue Plan.

Throughout March, we honor the incredible persistence and inspiring achievements of women in our nation's history.

As we wait for Congress to take its unsweet time with the COVID relief and stimulus bill - thanks to nonsensical GOP grandstanding to obstruct President Joe Biden and Democrats - we continue to learn more about the Biden war effort to produce enough vaccine for every adult in the country by the end of May.

Why the wait?

Masks can and have saved lives during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Don't you find this odd? Poll after poll — the latest from Morning Consult — finds 77% of Americans (and 59% of Republicans) say they support a COVID-19 relief bill.

And just like that, we have six more weeks of Chattanooga city election campaign news to digest before the April 13 runoff election we've dubbed the Tim and Kim show — mayoral hopefuls Tim Kelly and Kim White.

As we wait for the dust to settle on Chattanooga's post-election news, let's review the myriad ways our local and state governing bodies can confuse themselves and confound their constituents.