Well, where were we? Oh yes, I remember now. I was cleaning out my desk and saying goodbye, and now, like a jack-in-the-box, I'm back.

I feel a little guilty though because the folks here at The Chronicle gave me a lovely retirement party at the Hatcher Center, thinking I would stay put. People from the newspaper and the city came and said such nice things about me I thought they must have me mixed up with somebody else. Commissioner Betty Beard gave me a print of Broad Street at Christmas with the News Building prominent in it. She said she thought I'd like to have it since I'd worked there for so many years.

Mayor Deke , whom I dubbed The Boy King, came and read a proclamation and a poem he'd written about me. When I ran into him behind the Marble Palace recently and told him my retirement hadn't stuck, I asked him whether he was going to repossess my proclamation. He said, "No, as long I can still be The Boy King."

He will always be The Boy King.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS: Retirement is not a bad gig, but the pay sucks, and you're busier than ever, so when the newspaper's new executive editor, Alan English, asked me to write City Ink again, I was happy because I have really, really missed you. No kidding.

I'm a little rusty, and it's going to take a while to get back into the loop.

As a warm-up, I went to some Augusta Commission meetings to take a look around, and nothing had changed.

Commissioners still vote along racial lines. The TEE Center is still stuck on stupid and getting stupider every day. Administrator Fred Russell is still in hot water, and Commissioner Johnny Hatney is still trying to get Thompson Building Wrecking Co.'s bids for demolition of city projects thrown out.

DUH, I GUESS HE WON: Mr. Hatney hasn't changed his mind one whit from two years ago when the city settled a reverse discrimination lawsuit with Thompson Building and three other contractors for $174,000, and he asked, "Why are we giving this guy any money?"

Since then, every time Thompson is the low bidder on city projects, Mr. Hatney grouses.

During last week's committee meetings, when commissioners were asked to approve Thompson's low bid for demolishing buildings on Alexander Drive, Mr. Hatney said, "I don't feel good that this gentleman gets all of the demolition."

He said it wasn't fair because Mr. Thompson has his own landfill and could underbid everyone else because he doesn't have to pay for dumping in the Deans Bridge Road landfill.

City Attorney Chiquita Johnson said she felt obliged to point out that the city code requires demolition debris from city projects to go into the city landfill and that Thompson's landfill is in South Carolina. They're "looking into it."

SMARTER IN THE BIG CITY? And by the way, commissioners recently voted to take $600,000 from city funds so Ms. Johnson can pay outside lawyers through the end of the year. Are there no lawyers in Augusta competent to do that legal work? Say Stephen Shepard, who was city attorney for four years? Ms. Johnson took the legal work he and his firm were doing for the city after the in-house department was set up and gave it to her friends in Atlanta.

NO, BY GOSHEN: The reason Mr. Russell is in hot water again is that he, the mayor and Housing and Community Development Director Chester Wheeler applied for a $50 million stimulus grant, $21 million of which was targeted to restart the stalled Village at Goshen project without telling commissioners, which Mrs. Beard likened to high crimes and misdemeanors.

The folks at Goshen didn't like not being told, either. A crowd of them came to the meeting loaded for bear. They don't want Section 8 housing in their neighborhood, and who can blame them?

The issue was taken off the commission agenda that day, and there were several public meetings at Goshen last week where they were assured there would be no Section 8 housing, only down payment assistance, which didn't sit well, either. They contend if the government has to subsidize your mortgage, you can't afford the house.

RUNNING AND WALKING: Candidates are lining up to run for Ed Tarver 's Senate seat, although he hasn't yet been appointed as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. One of them is state Rep. Hardie Davis , who said Mr. Tarver's appointment is imminent. Another is Richmond County State Court Solicitor Harold Jones , as is former Augusta Commissioner Marion Williams . But Mr. Williams also said he might run for his old District 2 seat on the Augusta Commission next year.

Meanwhile, former District 5 Augusta Commissioner Bobby Hankerson said he'll run for his old seat this fall. Mr. Hankerson lost the 1995 election to Calvin Holland by 11 votes.

And last week,Republican gubernatorial candidate Austin Scott came through Augusta on his 1,000-mile walk around the state. I guess candidates who do this sort of thing have their reasons, but they must not have jobs.

ELECTRIFYING SCHOOL NEWS: Richmond County Board of Education Finance Chairman Frank Dolan delivered some shocking news to his colleagues last week during a discussion of the school system's electric bill. Mr. Dolan said if President Obama's Cap and Trade bill passes, and he shuts down coal-fired plants, the system's electricity costs would triple, as would bills for all households and businesses.

The system's latest annual $5.8 million bill would jump to $17.4 million.

This could precipitate another federal program to help pay power bills. Electricare is not as far-fetched as you might think.

Superintendent Dana Bedden said he's been warned to look for more cuts in state funding in December or January on top of the $11 million already cut this budget year. That is not good news, especially since June sales tax revenues were down $500,000 from last June. So it's no wonder Dr. Bedden is in no mood for profane anonymous e-mails from teachers who object to the 15-minute daily furloughs he imposed in an effort to avoid pay cuts or layoffs.

Dr. Bedden told the board he has held off announcing any more bad news until he knows what other hits the system will take. So when trustee Barbara Pulliam told him most of the teachers felt like 15-minute furloughs were "sort of like an insult to them," Dr. Bedden didn't mince words about how he felt about the nasty e-mails.

He said he wouldn't want them teaching his children, and he'd tell them so to their faces.

"All that little anonymous, back-door, unprofessional stuff -- that says volumes about some of them, not to mention the ones who look me in the face and say, 'I need my money' and don't care about their peers," he said.

Later, board President Marion Barnes questioned Capt. Ted Brown about the number of new public safety uniforms he'd ordered.

"We need to keep in mind, even though we're going to get a new chief or whatever we call them, he can't come in here and say, 'We're going to change these uniforms 'cause I don't like what they got,' 'cause we don't have that kind of money," Mr. Barnes said. "He or she is going to have to accept what we already have, and add to." Prompting Trustee Frank Dolan to say, "I think Mr. Barnes is trying to say, 'Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Or do without.' "

HATCHET JOB: Congratulations to our Thomson neighbor Josh Stephens and Terrell Yelverton , former parole officers for the Augusta Parole Office who were acquitted in Richmond County Superior Court of charges of false imprisonment and making false statements about incidents that occurred four years ago while they were out looking for drug dealers and other lowlifes in some of the city's most dangerous alleyways and crack houses.

The state failed to prove its case on any of the charges against Mr. Stephens and Mr. Yelverton, a 12-year officer with a spotless record, and thankfully, Judge Jim Blanchard saw the prosecution for what it was and found them not guilty.

WE THINK YOU SHOULD KNOW: A gun belonging to the director of the state parole office is now in the hands of a criminal.

While Elizabeth Oxford was attending the trial in Augusta she went to the House of Prayer on Wrightsboro Road for lunch and left her Glock in her black four-door Impala. When she returned, she found that the car had been broken into and the gun stolen, according to a Richmond County Sheriff's Office report.

Ms. Oxford said there was a pry mark on the left front door at the door handle.