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In case you missed my story on the ongoing drought (I can't find it online), let me give you my three-sentence summary:

The 3+ inches of rain that have fallen over the past 10 days didn't end the drought but left local water-system directors feeling much better. High Point's City Lake is actually above capacity, and the city will consider lifting voluntary-water use restrictions next week. Greensboro, meanwhile, plans to gradually cut back its water purchases from Reidsville, Burlington and Winston-Salem from 10 million gallons per day to 5 million gallons, saving the city $11,000 to $12,000 per day.

But wait, there's more. Here's a handy site with lots of drought-related info and links.

Guilford County commissioners have elected Carolyn Coleman as their chairwoman for the next year. She's the first black woman to hold the post. You'll find more in today's paper.

In other business that didn't make the deadwood edition, commissioners:

- Rejected a plan to ask the state legislature to establish term limits for county commissioners. Legal experts, citing a 1992 Supreme Court ruling, have said such a law would be unconstitutional.

- Approved spending about $1 million on short-term fixes to the crowding problems in the county jails. Shipping prisoners to the county prison farm and hiring more jail officers are part of the plan. The money will come from savings and an account called the Inmate Welfare Fund, which is funded by prisoners' phone calls home and sales at the jail canteens.

Bruce Davis is taking shots from the local blogosphere over his blog.

The uproar isn't over something he wrote. It's what he didn't write.

Davis, a Guilford County commissioner, started his blog in October but hasn't posted anything since. In an interview on Friday, he said he hasn't found the time to blog between attending meetings, running his day-care center, and answering emails from constituents.

"Maybe I should have waited until I had more time before I set the thing up," he said. He added that he still wants to blog and answer some of the comments posted at his site, but he wants to give it the proper time and thought and not just dash off short responses.

Now that his year-long chairmanship of the board of commissioners has ended, he thinks more time could open up for blogging.

"It's going to slow down a little bit," he said.

Tomorrow's Greensboro City Council meeting is a ceremonial/houskeeping affair, complete with parting shots from three outgoing council members - Claudette Burroughs-White, Robbie Perkins and Don Vaughan - and a hearty welcome to new councilors Sandra Anderson, Mike Barber and Goldie Wells.

The few business items include setting the 2006 meeting schedule (unchanged from this year's schedule) and electing a mayor pro tem. Council is expected to follow tradition and elect Anderson, the top at-large vote winner in council elections last month.

The full agenda is here.

You may have seen my story in Saturday's paper about Greensboro finding a long-term source of fluoride for its drinking water.

That news won't find universal acclaim, based on anti-fluoridation sites like this.

The federal Centers for Disease Control, conversely, favors fluoride in drinking water.

You may have seen my story in today's paper looking back at some of City Council's key or high-profile decisions over the past few years. By no means did I intend it to be a look at every key decision; the dead-tree edition of the paper simply doesn't have the room for it.

I hoped it would be a starting point for some discussion, either about the three decisions I mentioned or others I didn't. I know one of the members of the News & Record's Reader Advisory Network said she was surprised I didn't ask her about the council's vote on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

I wrestled with whether to include it, and if I had room for five decisions in the story, it would have made the cut. My rationale for omitting it was this: the council's decision doesn't seem to have slowed the TRC's momentum one bit.

Of course, you're free to tell me I'm wrong.

State government scribe Mark Binker is monitoring the latest events in what's become a 13-month legal-and-electoral battle for a seat on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.

He'll have more in tomorrow's paper.

Today's installment is a hearing before a superior court judge in Raleigh. Commissioner Trudy Wade's attorney will tell the judge that a recount of provisional ballots was conducted incorrectly. The lawyer for challenger John Parks will say the recount went just fine.

The recount, conducted by the Guilford County Board of Elections this spring and largely upheld by the state elections board in September, left Parks ahead by 90 votes. A state Supreme Court decision has already resulted in hundreds of ballots being thrown out, but Wade wants even more discarded.

At some point, the judge will issue a ruling. If he sides with Parks, the Democratic candidate could be certified the winner and take office, ending what's likely the nation's last remaining election dispute from 2004.

But more appeals from Wade, a Republican, could block that. Her attorney has given every indication that he'll take this thing back to the state Supreme Court, if necessary.

Update, 4:52 p.m.: The judge ruled for Parks. Wade plans to appeal. Look for more in tomorrow's N&R.

Greensboro City Council members and city staff are putting together a retreat that will likely take about two days as soon as late January or early February, according to a memo from City Manager Mitch Johnson.

Council briefly discussed a retreat at its Tuesday meeting but didn't set a date or agenda.

In his memo, Johnson recommends the retreat take place somewhere in Guilford County, "as there are several excellent facility options here in Guilford County."

Johnson hopes the council will set most of the retreat's agenda but hopes the meeting will cover some broader goals, including:

* Developing the council's key initiatives to form the backbone of the upcoming budget discussions;
* discussing the process for getting council more involved in policy development, as they expressed an interest in doing shortly after hiring Johnson in October;
* reviewing city government's critical needs and limitations, or as Johnson described it, a "State of the City" discussion.

Along with holding a retreat, according to Johnson's memo, some of council's other desires include a more transparent budget process and the development of options to get public input on the strategic direction of the city.

We'll have a version of this story in tomorrow's paper. Enjoy the weekend.

The N.C. Court of Appeals granted Guilford County commissioner Trudy Wade a minor legal victory Friday, but 2004 election opponent John Parks could still be named the winner soon.

The court issued a temporary stay of Wednesday's ruling by Superior Court Judge Henry Hight, who said Parks won his bid for at-large commissioner and should be sworn in as soon as possible. The stay comes during a five-day appeals period before Hight's order takes effect.

"It gets us over the first hurdle," said Robert Hunter, Wade's attorney.

The 13-month legal struggle over out-of-precinct provisional voting — and the paperwork associated with it — has wound its way through the courts and the state and local elections boards. A recount gave Parks, a Democrat, a 90-vote lead, but Wade, a Republican, has refused to concede.

Parks' attorney, Larry Moore, said he'd respond to Wade's legal action either late Friday or Monday. At that point, the appeals court will likely rule within days on whether to delay Hight's order from taking effect. Hunter has pledged to appeal the case to the state Supreme Court, if necessary.

Moore wants to see Parks certified by the State Board of Elections late next week. The candidate could be sworn in at the next commissioners meeting, now scheduled for Jan. 19.

More Scoop coverage here.

Since John Robinson has made it official, I guess we can tell you now:

The Inside Scoop newspaper column is moving to Tuesday. Why? Why not.

Actually, the paper is making room for more staff-written columns.

Frankly, Scoop doesn't care where it ends up. It's cranky, caffeine deprived and likely to aggravate local pols no matter what day of the week it runs. And after more than a year of developing this here blog, the authors who write both our dead-tree and online versions are giving some thought to how we might improve the newspaper version. The move to Tuesday may actually help with that.

Meanwhile, check out the newspaper versions of FastForward on Monday and Nancy McLaughlin's religion column, which is busting out from inside the paper to the local section front on Saturdays.

If my story on leaf collection didn't tell you everything you needed to know, here are a couple of additional resources:

* An updated map of leaf collection progress in Greensboro;

* The collection schedule in High Point.

During a City Council candidate forum in early November, an audience member asked about the possibility of selling the naming rights to the Greensboro Coliseum.

So I raised the issue while talking Wednesday to coliseum Managing Director Matt Brown, who told me that it's been something he's pursued off and on for about 10 years.

If he finds a viable contender (he ruled out renaming it the Viagra Coliseum, for instance), he would present the client to City Council and ask the council to decide whether to strike a deal.

If you're interested in having your name (or your company's name) on the marquee, Brown wants any naming-rights deal to run at least 10 years, and preferably longer.

What do you think about selling the coliseum's naming rights? Any companies or people you'd suggest to grace the coliseum's entrance?

Paul Gibson lost his bid to chair the Guilford County Board of Commissioners this year. Another chairman won't be elected until late 2006, but that hasn't stopped the Democrat from declaring his candidacy.

"I'll be back, baby," he avowed last week, evoking the deep baritone of a certain West Coast governor.

But seriously, folks. Gibson, who was elected to a four-year term in 2004, says he ran for office to lead the board, and that didn't change when Carolyn Coleman was elected chairwoman earlier this month.

The commissioners pick a chairman every December, so Gibson will have at least two more more shots at a position that's akin to being mayor of Guilford County.

"I did want to be chairman and I do want to be chairman," he said, "but if I never get to be chairman, that's fine too."

By now, you've probably seen my story about City Council rejecting the purchase of landlord Bill Agapion's land at the corner of Cedar Street and Friendly Avenue.

So what will become of the property? Agapion is "keeping all options open," said Bill Aycock, the owner of Aycock Realty who's been representing Agapion on the potential deal with the city. Aycock said Wednesday that some private investors have already expressed interest in buying the land.

After Tuesday's vote, Aycock considers negotiations between Agapion and the city to be "a dead issue."

The folks over at Guilford County's Board of Elections canceled today's meeting on voting machines. The meeting was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but that was also canceled when only one of three board members showed up.

Look for more discussion on this next month. Until then, Scoop offers bedside reading.

This document was drawn up by county elections director George Gilbert, who generally favors touch-screens over optical-scan systems for Guilford. He offers a primer on law changes and other considerations counties are facing as they purchase new voting equipment.

These papers come from optical-scan supporter and Gilbert critic David Allen, who helped push voter-verified paper ballots into law earlier this year.

Allen is also a big-time critic of Diebold Election Systems, one of two voting-machine vendors the county is considering. Click here for more from Capital Beat's Mark Binker.

That's what Guilford County is asking architecture firms as it prepares to build a 600-bed jail in downtown Greensboro.

This week, the county sent out requests for qualifications to about 30 firms - mostly in the Southeast - with experience that might qualify them to design the facility.

RFQs, as they're called, are akin to job advertisements. Responses to RFQs are like resumes; they'll basically show the county what kind of experience the applicant has to complete the task.

For non-architects, the first page of the RFQ gives a quick overview of what kind of jail the county is looking for. The jail will almost certainly stand along Sycamore Street between Blandwood Avenue and Edgeworth Street - right behind the existing facility.

The county wants responses by Jan. 27.

At some point thereafter, the county commissioners will select a firm and get a price tag. Then they'll have to decide how to pay for the project. A bond referendum, a short-term sales-tax increase, and a borrowing plan that won't require voter approval have all been discussed.

More Scoop coverage here.

John Parks. Trudy Wade. Back at the state Supreme Court.

If the court lets Parks take office and Wade doesn't pursue further appeals, this thing could be over shortly. If not, prepare to wait awhile longer.

You can get started on Wednesday, Jan. 4.

Council is scheduled to meet from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the plaza level conference room at the Melvin Municipal Office Building (300 W. Washington St.) to discuss plans for an upcoming council retreat.

City Council won't hold its usual first-Tuesday-of-the-month business meeting next week due to the closeness of Jan. 3 to the holidays.

Instead, council will meet Jan. 10 and 24 and hold its monthly briefing session Jan. 31 (for the diehards among you, the start time for the briefing sessions have moved from 9 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.)

Council typically holds business meetings on the first and third Tuesdays each month and a briefing session on the fourth Tuesday.

We'll have a version of this brief in Saturday's paper. Have a safe and happy new year, everybody.

GREENSBORO — The Guilford County Board of Elections will pick new voting machines Jan. 13, according to county elections director George Gilbert.

The elections board will meet at noon at the Old County Courthouse, 301 W. Market St. in Greensboro.

The recommendation will then go to the county commissioners, who are expected to vote on the proposal at their Jan. 19 meeting.

The county must buy new voting equipment now that new state regulations require all machines to produce a "paper trail" of votes.

Guilford has been using touch-screen voting machines, but a group of voting-rights advocates favor paper-based optical-scan machines.

At this point, only one voting machine vendor, Election Systems and Software, will demonstrate its equipment at a Jan. 12 public forum now that Diebold Election Systems has declined to sell its machines in North Carolina.

ES&S is now the only vendor eligible to sell voting equipment in North Carolina.

Both touch-screen and optical-scan machines will be demonstrated at the forum inside the Old County Courthouse from 5 to 7 p.m.