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Here's a look at tomorrow's headlines:

(But first, read tomorrow's N&O for stories on the first day of the Eno Festival and a follow-up to staff writer Stanley Chambers' story on the shooting of a Durham police officer Thursday. These stories came too late to get into the Saturday Durham News).

LET THE FILING BEGIN: It's shaping up to be a quiet municipal election season. Of course you never know until the actual filing begins. One name we'll be watching for? Donald Hughes. The son of former Councilwoman Jackie Wagstaff has been a rumored candidate. It will be interesting to see if he makes it official.

WATTS HAPPENING: (Darn, I wish I thought of that headline yesterday.) Read staff writer Jim Wise's story on the 60th anniversary of the Watts Hospital-Hillandale Independence Day Parade. A slice of Americana so pure one booster dares you attend without a tear in your eye. 

BLUES TICKETS: Organizers of the Bull Durham Blues Festival have extended their early ticket discount. When I asked why, they said "You know why." It's the economy, of course. So buy your tickets Saturday or Monday. You'll save 10 to 20 bucks and support a hometown cause. (I looooved headliner Elvin Bishop's "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" when I was in high school.) 

BRONTO REDUX: I don't know if the Museum of Life and Science is shielding well-connected names as some of my more cynical colleagues surmise. I do know the museum started as a children's museum and still has the best interests of young people at heart -- even if some of those young people took a hack saw or a chainsaw or a really big knife to the beloved bronto on Ellerbe Creek.

There's plenty more, including Minister Paul Scott on why black people should not celebrate July Fourth and Flo Johnston on faith. And cartoonist Dennis Draughon gets a chuckle out of Coach K's promise to never, ever leave Duke.

I'm seeing "Jersey Boys" tomorrow! Have a great Fourth.

And thanks for reading,

Mark   

Durham Police Officer D.J. Youmans was shot in the abdomen during a call at the South Square Townhomes on Shannon Road early Thursday morning.

Youmans, 32, and his training officer responded to a shots fired call, which was then changed to a possible break-in in progress. Shots were fired from inside apartment 5-A as officers arrived. The bullet hit Youmans under his bulletproof vest.

"It just reminds you of how dangerous this job is and how these officers put themselves out on a daily basis," Durham Police Chief Jose L. Lopez Sr. said from the scene. 

Youmans, who became a Durham cop in May after being a New York City officer, has undergone surgery at Duke University Hospital. 

Investigators have made an arrest in the shooting. For more information go to the story:

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1592299.html 

In anticipation of its NCAA Division I reclassification, N.C. Central University has brought its more than half-dozen athletic booster clubs under one umbrella: the Eagle Club.

“We are thrilled about the Eagle Club and the promise it provides our program,” said Ingrid Wicker-McCree, director of athletics. “Our supporters are a tremendous asset, allowing our program to offer scholarships to the most talented student-athletes and provide them and our constituents with excellent athletic experiences.”

As part of Division I reclassification, schools undergo a review by the NCAA, which encouraged the Eagles to provide more structure to their fund-raising model. This includes a united booster club.

A 20-member committee with representatives from the university, athletics department and individual booster clubs led the effort to unify the clubs through the Eagle Club. It is named for the university’s mascot and a legacy booster organization.

“The committee representatives have devoted countless hours to the Eagle Club while keeping the best interests of our student-athletes and the university in mind,” said John Smith, executive director of the legacy Eagle Club. “I support the merger of NCCU booster clubs. It presents a united front to potential members and provides focus for our organization.”

Campus Notes, the N&O's higher education blog, is now on Twitter.

Check us out: twitter.com/campus_notes.

Durham Public Schools' board of education unanimously re-elected Minnie Forte-Brown and Heidi Carter as chair and vice chair, respectively, for next year. The pair have been members of the school board since 2004.

Forte-Brown is a Durham native and Hillside graduate, who currently serves as coordinator of speech communication and an English professor at NCCU.

Speaking of volunteering, the Volunteer Center of Durham has moved from the old Herald-Sun building to the old Liggett & Myers office building at Fuller and Main streets. (In the new section of West Village.)

And for the time being, the center can't handle walk-in would-be volunteers, thanks to the building's security system. Interested parties should get up with Corinne Everett at 613-5105 or corinne@thevolunteercenter.org to talk about service opportunities.

To talk about the Back to School Supply Drive, Thanksgiving Dinners, Share Your Christmas, and Durham County Social Services programs, contact Tasha Melvin at 613-5101 or tasha@thevolunteercenter.org

To talk general business, call 613-5109.

Durham's First Presbyterian Church and Society of Friends (a.k.a. Quakers) are sponsoring a secular Service Week for high-school students.

According to co-coordinator Rob Lamme, participating kids can work on home repairs for needy families and volunteer at human-service agencies; and get acquainted with some grownups prominent in town and other teenagers they might not otherwise know.

The program is open to any student in grades 9 through 12. Cost is $250, which includes transportation and meals; some scholarship help is available. Contact Lamme at 630-3375, durhamsummerservice@gmail.com; or Christyn Klinck, (919) 402-1951, durhamsummerservice@gmail.com.

Call it "The Land That Time Forgot" syndrome.

The 1975 movie, based on a 1918 Edgar Rice Burroughs (the Tarzan guy) book, puts a group of British sailors on a remote island where dinosaurs still roam. I must have been 14 when I saw it.

So when my friend Liam took me hiking along Ellerbe Creek and we came upon the hulking bontosaurus in the weeds years ago, I couldn’t help but travel a little bit back in time myself.

I think it’s that way with a lot of folks. That’s why so many got so angry at the unnamed vandals who sawed off the dinosaur’s head last month.

And that's why the museum is just as strongly protecting the identities of the kids who did it.

“The Museum has received both strong positive feedback and questions from our community regarding our choice to use mediation rather than pressing charges or litigation,” vice president Julie Ketner Rigby said in a statement.

The museum decision has irked some Durham residents. John Sideris donated money to help repair the statue and added a note criticizing the museum for not being more transparent. That and other comments on the Duke Park listserv made me call Rigby yesterday.

“Not everybody’s happy with the situation,” she conceded.

But the museum --  which started as a children's museum, remember -- is concerned about the safety of the vandals. Some people were so angry they made threats, with at least one person saying somewhere that those responsible should be shot.

“This is not a situation that we’re used to dealing with,” Rigby told me last night. “We’re prepared for a lot of things, but this is not one of them.”

Sideris spoke with Rigby too and said he came away less upset.

“From my perspective the point of consequences is to improve behavior not to mete out vengeance, as much as that might be what we really want.” he wrote. “Jail or criminal charges may not be the best consequence if the desire is to improve behavior.”

Still, the museum receives tax dollars and is asking the public for money to make repairs. Doesn’t it owe the public more details on how those responsible will pay for their “heinous” act, to use the word of neighborhood leader Mike Shiflett?

Rigby said she would talk with the museum President and CEO Barry Van Deman today and get back to us if she can provide any more information.

UPDATE: Rigby called back this afternoon (Wednesday). She said the museum won't say how many kids were involved, how much they paid in restitution or give details of their community service.

Durham's Libertarians will have a presence in this fall's municipal election. Matt Drew, Durham County party chairman, told the News & Observer Tuesday that he plans to file for the city council's Ward 2 seat.

Drew would be running against incumbent Howard Clement, the longest-serving city councilman in Durham's history. Clement has held a seat since 1983.

With Drew's filing, Libertarians would carry on a growing presence in Durham politics. In 2008, three party members challenged Democratic incumbents (unsuccessfully) for the state legislature; Republicans fielded only one candidate.

Municipal elections in Durham are non-partisan. Filing opens at 8:30 Monday for mayor and three ward seats on the city council. Those are the city's only contests for public office this year.

For more on Durham's 2009 election, see Saturday's Durham News.

Following approval for the purchase of land at Scott King Road for a new school, the Durham school board has prepared a list of environmentally-friendly provisions requested by the county commissioners to seal the deal.

While DPS originally wanted to build two schools on the 47-acre site, just north of the Chatham County line, they have now agreed to a single elementary school to reduce environmental disturbance.

Some of Thursday night's approved terms will also leave portions of land that run adjacent to streams and Army Corps of Engineers/NC Game Land undisturbed. They'll also leave the area south of a power line easement undisturbed by cutting back on the number of ball fields.

A portion of the land is designated a "natural heritage area" on the
1999 Durham County Inventory of Important Natural Areas, Plants and
Wildlife. The county commissioners approved the $2.7 million sale at
its May 11 meeting.