I don't have any fears that my bank is going to go belly-up later this year and need the federal government to step in to run it.

The banks that are having the problems aren't the ones down the street; they are the mortgage banks and investment banks. The reason these banks are having a rough time right now is that their executives thought mortgage securities were the bee's knees. Packing up gobs of mortgages and making money off the interest was the latest greatest thing and so everyone started doing it.

Then, bunches of subprime mortgages started hitting the foreclosure rolls.

Now they're losing money instead of making money.

Now we see the feds running IndyMac in California.

It is only natural to wonder about the solvency of your own bank when images of a collapse persist all weekend long on cable news.

Augusta's locally based banks are doing well. We know this because we write a story about their earnings statements every three months. Georgia Bank & Trust was in Saturday's paper. First Bank of Georgia is coming soon.

The financial condition of every bank is listed on the FDIC Web site. Queensborough, Regions, Augusta First, they're all there.

In the year of my high school graduation, 1989, there were 1,500 troubled banks on the FDIC's list. There's about 100 on the list now.

I think there will be a few more bank failures in the headlines before the year is done. If it happens, not everyone is going to lose all their money.

Keep in mind that the FDIC insures deposits up to $100,000, more if it is a joint account.

I've seen a bank go down. It had nothing to do with bad mortgages. The president had taken the assets and invested the money in casino boats. He was getting away with it until the FBI came knocking. No, they weren't there to get him ; they were there to collect evidence to nab someone that was trying to cheat his bank in a check kiting scheme. That's when they noticed some oddities.

It would be a funnier twist of fate if the bank failure hadn't affected the school system's accounts.

FISHING WONDERLAND STILL COMING: Bass Pro Shops folks tell me that they'll start building after the developers give them their concrete foundation.

They are the headline tenant for the Village at Riverwatch near Interstate 20.

The deadline to have the slab ready is November. Give them a year to get the place built.

VALUE: Cato Corp., the company that runs the Cato clothing stores, is opening one of its value-clothing retail stores Thursday in North Augusta, in Edgewood Square shopping center.

It is one of the quirky-titled brands: It's Fashion Metro.

Apparel is trendy, urban-inspired and value-priced.

What it says to me is: We've opened just in time for the back-to-school shoppers.

OUT OF GAS: Allstate Motor Club tracks many things, including the number of people who call them for roadside assistance. The number of Georgians calling for emergencies because they ran out of gas went up 51 percent, compared with last year.

Allstate can't directly say it is because of higher gasoline prices, but some of those stranded motorists are telling the club that they're trying to stretch their dollar and that means stretching their fuel into fumes.

STARBUCKS: No, my column two weeks ago about Starbucks' secrecy about the stores it was going to close had nothing to do with Starbucks releasing the list of stores. (If Scuttlebiz had that kind of power over gigantic corporations, we'd have Southwest flying out of Augusta Regional by now.)

With Augusta keeping all of its coffee shops, it appears we're a bunch of lucrative coffee drinkers.

The only Starbucks stores closing in Georgia are in Atlanta and Macon. The sole South Carolina store is in Spartanburg.

Mocha frappuccino soy milk latte cheers.

Reach Tim Rausch at (706) 823-3352 or timothy.rausch@augustachronicle.com.