23 JAN 08: FIGHT NIGHT

Columbus Council? Simply too dull. Russell County Commission? Too many members ailing. No, the place to turn for an exciting governmental meeting these days is the Muscogee County School Board. Anyone might show up to complain -- including the board members.

Take Tuesday night's school board meeting. There was Columbus NAACP President Bill Madison, talking about the African-American employees who are suing the school district over retirement plans. Based on the late TV newscasts, he did NOT thank the board for making schools so nice for any incoming students from Jena, Louisiana.

Some school board members told Bill Madison it's up to the Georgia Legislature to change the rules for school retirement plans. So any lawsuit against Muscogee County Schools might bring a dramatic moment in the courtroom -- with district attorneys pointing toward Atlanta, as the real culprit.

But these days, the big issue for the Muscogee County School Board is something members approved several months ago. The planned new central administration building came up again Tuesday night -- even though a special meeting on that topic has been called for Thursday night. So it was a little like pro wrestling, teasing the next main event....

School board member Joseph Roberson suggested further action on a central administration building be stopped for now. He noted a growing local buzz for denying Muscogee County schools a special sales tax, if the $25 million building is built. How about a compromise - a smaller building, but with portables set up around it?

(Columbus Council candidate Jeremy Hobbs is trying to spark an online campaign in favor of a city sales tax, and against a school sales tax. He calls it "Give a Penny, Take a Penny" - which is easy to say, when you would wind up with some control over the pennies.)

Muscogee County school officials tried to assure the audience that their priorities are really in order. They said no students are lacking textbooks, while work proceeds on the administration building. Of course not - because that was last year's crisis, which this year it's the heating system....

A student at the Academic Success Center for high-risk youth told me Tuesday the building has lacked working heat since December. He said teachers have set up space heaters in classrooms. In other words, conditions are perfect for teaching early U.S. history.

The student also claimed the Academic Success Center's computers started malfunctioning, after the space heaters were set up. I faced something like this when I was in high school. Our science class turned on all the hot plates for an experiment, and several classrooms lost power. [True!]

An official with the Academic Success Center confirmed part of this story to WRBL - but said a boiler actually went out last week, not last month. Time flies, when you're not in a Youth Detention Center....

But back to the board: Muscogee County school officials say education is NOT being overlooked, as work proceeds on the central administration building. Oh really?! When are environment clubs making field trips to the ruins of the Sears store, to look for recyclables?

The Muscogee County School Board will meet Thursday night on the "Educational Services Center" - and whether to issue bonds for the $12 million or so needed to match the building's design. Some of us wonder if the money might be raised faster, through buying stocks which hit new lows Tuesday.

And what's this I'm hearing about the school district possibly being reported to the Georgia Attorney General? One woman is filing "Open Records Requests" for all sorts of details about the administration building project, and not receiving immediate answers. But then, we all know how responsive Thurbert Baker has been to Kenneth Walker's supporters....

E-MAIL UPDATE: We're going to have to start reading the Ledger-Enquirer's editorial pages, because people keep writing us about them....

ok......I have finally seen the best reply, comment, whatever you want to call it ....the remark in Sound off in todays paper regarding an artwork being a Phillips Screw.......That one should win every award possible!!!

This remark apparently was in Monday's newspaper, and it was NOT posted Monday night. I checked the Ledger-Enquirer's web site Tuesday, and met a new obstacle. You're now required to register with a "new system." Those wealth-building systems in TV infomercials usually don't work - so why should this?

The registration page includes a question asking how much money I make a year. It makes you wonder if my answer will determine whether my home page shows a list of stock prices or revival meetings.

But anyway: I registered with the Ledger-Enquirer web site - and the "Sound Off" section had comments from Sunday and Tuesday, but NOT Monday. So you'll have to go to a library and find an old-fashioned newspaper to understand this message about a "Phillips Screw." Maybe someone actually a positive comment -- you know, a + sign on top.

And the presidential primary campaigning in Columbus now is officially underway - as this e-mail/ad reached us:

The Columbus Obama campaign opened a headquarters at 905-3rd Avenue on Saturday. Scores of supporters braved the cold and rain to celebrate and to hear Congressman Sanford Bishop make a rousing speech. Canvassing and phone calls are underway, and more volunteers are welcome. Folks can buy bumper stickers, yard signs and buttons at the headquarters and get all sorts of Obama information. Thanks.

Bebe Bahnsen

We mentioned the opening of this office last Thursday, two days before the official big event. But about this "canvassing" - will putting up tents around Columbus really bring more votes?

Speaking of the 2008 election, your blog has discovered former WXTX news anchor Roszell Gadson is entering politics -- sort of. He's the press secretary for Alabama Congressional candidate Craig Schmidtke. Huh -- not a presidential candidate?! After all, that primary is four months earlier.

There's a hint of politics in other news items from Tuesday:

+ Assistant City Manager David Arrington gave Columbus Council an update on how money from the 1999 sales tax vote is being spent. Spending in several areas is well under the budget - yet the city is lacking seven million dollars for a planned natatorium. Maybe if local swimmers started selling special bikinis, encouraging you to "cover the gap...."

(David Arrington added the groundbreaking for a new skate park near Golden Park could occur any day. I have no problem with this, as long as the construction workers wear helmets and elbow pads at all times.)

+ A high-ranking member of Zimbabwe's parliament spoke to the Columbus Kiwanis Club. David Coltart said his country faces a humanitarian crisis in several areas -- but I never heard him blame it on President-turned-dictator Robert Mugabe. Of course, he might be in Columbus on a quiet shopping trip for a home in exile.

+ Veteran TV anchor Hugh Downs appeared at a St. Francis Hospital banquet. When Downs hosted "20/20," he seemed embarrassed about his years as host of the game show "Concentration." Yet nowadays Downs appears in infomercials - so perhaps he's had to forfeit too many gifts.

+ Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for "In the Valley of Elah" - the fictional movie based on the murder of Fort Benning soldier Richard Davis. If he actually wins the award next month, Carmike Cinemas might actually be forced to show that movie in a local theater.

+ The director of Georgia's Pardon and Parole Board admitted to Columbus State Rep. Carolyn Hugley that 16 percent of all parolees are unemployed. You'd think some of them could have been put to work finding legal places for convicted sex offenders to live....

+ GPB's "Lawmakers" reported Georgia state purchasing cards have been used to buy all sorts of curious things - including services at the "Psycho Clown Tattoo Parlor" in Texas. There must be a less expensive way to draw new district maps than this....

+ The New York Fire Department was barred from the St. Patrick's Day parade in Savannah. Organizers said the firefighters have hurt the parade's reputation, by throwing beads at spectators. We certainly don't want anything to distract visitors from the real purpose - getting drunk along the riverfront.

+ Instant Message to the Fraternal Order of Police: Whom will you support for President now? With Fred Thompson pulling out Tuesday, the real "Law and Order" candidate is gone....

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