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It’s time again for endorsements.

We’ve had a steady stream of meetings with City Council candidates (and Natural Science Center boosters) over the past few days and almost always find them revealing.

Despite the welcome proliferation of candidate Web sites and blogs, there is no substitute for good, old-fashioned, face-to-face interviews.

Monday it was Yvonne Johnson and Bill Knight; Tuesday, Dianne Bellamy-Small and Luther Falls; today, Nettie Coad and Jim Kee, tomorrow, Sandra Anderson Groat, Danny Thompson and Gary Nixon (we split the at-large field in two); Friday,Zack Matheny and George Hartzman.

The endorsement schedule is as follows (it is subject to change, should major news break):

Oct. 18: Mayoral endorsement
Oct. 21: District 1/District 2 endorsement.
Oct. 22: District 3 endorsement.
Oct. 23: District 4/5 endorsements.
Oct. 24: Natural Science Center bonds.
Oct. 25: At-large endorsement.
Nov. 2. Endorsement recap.

Winston-Salem Police Sgt. Mickey Hutchens, who was shot last week after answering a domestic call, has died.

Hutchens 50, was a 27-year veteran.

He and another officer were shot when responding to an incident involving a 35-year-old man and his former wife.

Monte Denard Evans, 35, of Winston-Salem, after Evans had confronted his ex-wife at a Bojangles restaurant.

As Evans fled from the two officers, he opened fire on then, wounding both. The officers returned fire, killing Evans.

The police officers I know have told me that, for all of the obvious hazards of the profession, the scariest and most dangerous calls are the domestic ones.

You never know what to expect in those cases, they say. For instance, the person who called for police can turn out to be an assailant.

Even when the outcome isn’t fatal, it can be costly to officers.

In 2001, a man slashed a Guilford County sheriff’s deputy’s face with a box cutter during a domestic disturbance call in Greensboro. A Greensboro police officer shot and wounded the man.

Here is yet another reason why I don’t envy the stresses law officers face, and why I appreciate what they do, for little pay and too often, even less thanks.

Some of us took a two-hour tour of the Natural Science Center today.

We still didn’t get to all of the exhibits, but the tigers and the gibbons stand out, with the snakes and spiders a close tie for third..

This facility is a lot bigger than you would think

And it appears very efficiently run, a place that makes the most of recycled materials, spirited volunteers and considerable  good will from the private sector.

You'll be seeing highlights of the tour soon on a Web video the News & Record's Michael McQueen is preparing.

Or endorsment editorial on the bonds is scheduled for  Oct. 24.

Director Glenn Dobrogosz made a good case for the $20 million Science Center bonds and pointed out how and where the proposed expansions would occur.

The public has been solidly supportive of Science Center bonds in the past.

But in this economy it’s hard to tell how even this popular attraction will fare on the Nov. 3 ballot.

As for where I personally stand, I’m still undecided.

I know I’ve said this before but it still holds: The Science Center is a worthy cause but is this the right time?
 

A whopping 6 percent of registered  voters turned out for Tuesday's city primary.

That means 94 percent of them stayed home.

What it seems to say beyond that is voters aren't energized about the issues or the candidates.

There was no lack of choices, with 28 people running in the primary, 32 in all.

And  there will be a bigger turnout in November, when the mayoral race, District 5 and the Natural Science Center bonds join the fray.

But for whatever reasons, Greensboro voters seem far from fired up either about who's in office now or who's challenging them.

As I got nearer home last night after class, light suddenly turned to darkness.

The world became a sea of black pierced only occasionally by peeping headlights from approaching cars.

Oh great. No power.

I could barely see to slip the key into the door.

The whole neighborhood was quiet and plunged into shadows -- except for the wise guy around the corner with a generator.

You could see the flickering glow of candles in some windows.

Duke Power said it would be five more hours, my wife said.

But I'd planned to do some reading. And what about "Monday Night Football"?

So I set out for Lowe's for extra batteries and temporary lighting.

"Out of power, too, huh?" a Lowe's employee said.

He pointed to a shelf of flashlights and battery-powered lanterns that was nearly empty.

I stocked up. We'd have enough light to function one way or the other, I thought.

I got home and loaded the batteries.

The new lights and some old ones worked just fine. I pulled a battery-powered radio out of storage and tuned in the Panthers and Cowboys. (As was turning out, maybe it was a blessing in disguise that I couldn't see it.)

My wife had gotten another update from Duke Power: 8 a.m. the next day.

Well, we'd make the best of it. I suggested that we eat the fast food we'd picked up for dinner by candlelight: Nothing says "I love you" like french fries by candlelight.

This wouldn't be so bad after all.

No hum from the air conditioner.

No TV to distract us from talking to each other.

A cool September night with open windows and chirping crickets.

Then, suddenly, the power came on.

I immediately popped up and turned off the radio and tuned in the TV.

As soon as I was done with dinner I headed upstairs. "Gotta watch the game in high-def," I told Eula.

I handed her the remote because I knew she'd want to watch something else on the tube downstairs.

So much for candles and fries.

If you're wondering what an intelligent, respectful and informative online comment thread looks like, here's one.

This is what we hope for when we open a story to reader reaction.

Maybe it'll take elephants (no, I'm not being partisan) to help show us the way to civil discourse.

I have to admit some surprise at most of the comments on our story about Greensboro police officers now deploying Tasers in public schools.

The issue isn't so much that the officers now are equipped with the stun guns; I agree that Tasers present a sensible and usually safer alternative to the use of deadly force (i.e., guns).

How could the schools allow sheriff's deputies to use the weapons without giving city police the same latitude?

The issue is communication.

The school board should have known. the head of safety for the school system, former Acting Police Chief Anthony Scales,  should have known. The general public should have known.

None did, until asked about it Wednesday..

Had the story not broken, we may not have known until an officer used one of the weapons.

School board Chairman Alan Duncan said the police have a right to arm officers as they see fit.

Scales adds that  school system contracts with law enforcement  does not  require police to inform the district when they change officers' equipment.

But common sense and common courtesy say the police ought to let people know.

Given the ongoing controversy over stun guns and lingering questions about their safety, the least Chief Bellamy should have done is told us something.

The Natural Science Center bonds have taken a back seat thus far to the mayoral and City Council races.

But as the proponents of the center’s expansion gear up their campaign, expect the dialogue to warm up as well.

What we’re talking here is $20 million for an 26,000-square-foot aquarium, a second phase of the “Animal Discovery” exhibit and a completely renovated museum.

The changes sound exciting and would probably boost local tourism and create jobs. Now also is a good time to stretch construction dollars, as contractors hungry for the work are more prone to bid lower.

According to the Science Center's Web site, the expansion could make back the bond investment in one year.

But in this economy, $20 million is a lot of money.

In any economy, it is a lot of money.

It will be interesting to see how voters react.
 

Just a friendly reminder: The books page returns tomorrow with some familar features and some new ones.

Then it will appear every other week, in addition to our round- the-clock books blog, Page Turners, which was created by bibliophiles in the newsroom.

We'd appreciate you letting us know what you think.

Some people wonder why the News & Record did not enable comments on Charles Davenport Jr.’s Sunday column.

Blogger Roch Smith Jr. suggests we are protecting Davenport from the wrath of those who disagree.

Not so.

We enable comments on some but not all content, particularly in cases in which the comments are likely to be anything but civil, as is almost any story involving race or sex.

But it’s a fact.

We started using more discretion in these cases as the comments became rowdier and rowdier.

It wasn’t the only change we made. We also shortened the window on letters to the editor comments to 24 hours in an effort to better monitor them.

More and more readers were complaining about the meanness and outright racist sentiment in the letters comments.

They were right.

So we acted.

I wrote about it here.

Roch’s not buying it.

As Charles will confirm, his columns are at odds with my own and with the paper’s editorial stances about 99 percent of the time.

So we’d offer him a cushion from commenters that we don’t even afford ourselves?

Fat chance.

That said, we know our process isn’t perfect.

Frankly, we would like to enable all comments all the time.

And we would if more people would agree to be adults in our online forums.

Sad to say, we’re not there yet.