President Joe Biden on Wednesday formally unveiled his $2 trillion infrastructure and jobs plan. In a speech in Pittsburgh, the President explained that he wanted to rebuild the U.S. economy from “the bottom up.” He also explained the types of infrastructure that needs fixing, and how only those making over $400,000 a year would be taxed to pay for the plan.  The American Jobs Plan as Biden is calling it, includes $174 billion investment over 10 years to incentivize the purchasing of electric cars, as well as $100 billion investment in improving broadband internet access. Immediately Republicans expressed opposition to the plan even though most aspects of it are popular with the American people. Biden’s chief of staff Ron Klain said on Thursday that the President wants to work with the GOP on passage of the bill, “if it’s at all possible.” But Biden faces opposition from Democrats too. New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said much more than $2 trillion is needed to fix the crisis of climate change. 

Unemployment claims rose once more last week as per the latest Labor Department figures revealing on-going uncertainty about the nation’s economic outlook in the midst of a pandemic that is still not on its way out. More than 714,000 people filed for jobless benefits, a bit higher than the week before. Meanwhile new research shows that American food banks distributed far more food aid to Americans last year than the year before, revealing the scale of suffering. Low income children were badly affected given that many relied on school-based food assistance before the pandemic. Elderly Americans were also among the worst impacted. Cruelly, some of the wealthiest private hospitals in the nation became even richer during the pandemic as they qualified for government-backed pandemic loans even as smaller, struggling health clinics shuttered. There have been more than 30 million documented cases of COVID-19 infections in the U.S. since the pandemic began and the official death toll stands at 553,000.

As Covid infections tick back up in the U.S. President Biden on Thursday revealed a new network of community leaders tasked with convincing Americans to get vaccinated. The COVID-19 Community Corps is inviting people to apply to join them ...