A just-released inventory of Tennessee's public infrastructure needs reveals $61.94 billion in demands, with over half the money required for transportation, followed by higher education, K-12 school renovations, water and wastewater projects and new public schools and additions.

Three years after a school voucher bill brought the legislature to a standstill, lawmakers are being asked to choose sides again — this time with COVID-19 as the main factor.

Chattanooga residents voiced their wish lists for the 2022-23 fiscal year budget Monday evening, covering topics ranging from infrastructure to public health.

When officials in Chester, Georgia, heard that the 2020 census had pegged their small town at 525 people, their jaws dropped. They believed the town was almost triple that size and feared an inaccurate number could force them to make budget cuts.

Hamilton County officials take little issue with hiring family members amid a push to ban some from being paid by county funds.

Republican governors are appealing to the Biden administration not to restrict how states spend federal infrastructure aid with attempts to push what GOP leaders denounced as "a social agenda" that tries to use infrastructure regulations to encourage unionization, regulate contracting or limit some road projects to cut fossil fuel use and climate change.

The Hamilton County Board of Education has voted to increase pay for school age child care program employees - which have become increasingly difficult to find - and increase rates for program participants to pay for the pay increases.

The Republican-controlled Tennessee Senate has approved political redistricting plans for the state's nine congressional seats and 33 state Senate districts.

Hamilton County Commissioner David Sharpe will run for re-election to the county's District 6 seat this year, he announced Wednesday.

The Hamilton County Commission on Wednesday approved a $4.3 million contract for the design of a new school to replace Tyner middle and high schools.

Construction is expected to begin by this summer on the biggest new housing development in Collegedale in years after city commissioners approved plans this week for a 67-acre development off Orchard Drive.

At their first face-to-face showing as political opponents Tuesday, District Attorney Neal Pinkston and challenger Coty Wamp debated who is a dedicated prosecutor and who is focused on just politics.

Concerns over COVID-19 and lingering snow from a weekend storm halted several Middle Tennessee events traditionally held on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to honor the late civil rights leader, but more than 100 people turned out in Nashville to protest new Republican-drawn congressional and legislative district maps.

The Hamilton County Election Commission has sent out more than 5,000 notices to residents inquiring about possible changes of address ahead of the May 3 primary elections.

State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, would no longer represent parts of Bradley County under a Tennessee Senate Republican legislative redistricting map, given preliminary approval this week, which aims to enshrine GOP political power in the Volunteer State over the next 10 years.

State Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican and chair of the Senate Finance Committee, on Thursday night hosted the first of four local town halls to gather public opinion on Gov. Bill Lee's proposed overhaul of the state's public education funding formula.

Whitfield County is seeking a $400,000 housing grant that would allow local residents who are short on cash to rehab homes that are in disrepair.

The Hamilton County Commission will vote next week on a measure that would prohibit the use of county funds to pay family members of constitutional officers.

Bradley County would be united within the same congressional district for the first time in a decade under a political redistricting plan being finalized by Tennessee legislative Republicans.

The Chattanooga City Council on Tuesday evening unanimously approved two key appointments to Mayor Tim Kelly's administration.

At the request of Hamilton County school board chair Tucker McClendon of East Ridge, the district is forming a special committee to "review reading material content concerns and explore options available to address those concerns," according to a memorandum from McClendon to the board.

NASHVILLE — Tennessee lawmakers return to the state Capitol this week for their 2022 session with an agenda that includes the mandatory once-a-decade task of redrawing of state legislative and congressional district lines as well as a planned push by Republican Gov. Bill Lee to overhaul the state's 30-year-old funding formula for public K-12 education.

Two land transactions last month by candidates for Hamilton County mayor demonstrate what happens when a group of business owners enters the political arena.