Newspapers ... particularly community newspapers like we pride ourselves in being here at The Star ... have the annual conundrum of how to cover something that happens every year.

This week our dilemma is the annual Science Fair taking place at the county fairgrounds. We plan to write about it. We do every year. We look to bring something "fresh" to the coverage every year. Part of that (admitedly) is our own sense that we don't want to write the "same story" we wrote last year even though we're probably the only ones who remember that story. And we accept that quite often events like this have entirely new casts of characters each year, which is always fodder for new story angles.

But sometimes it just seems like the same story. Our challenge is to find whatever will make you want to read it ... even if you don't have a direct tie to the event.

So this year we sent staff writer Marjorie Hernandez is search of a story on what impact science fairs have on creating future scientists. The story's not finished yet. But it's planned for Page One tomorrow. We'll see, like you, what it's like.

Weather ... like annual events ... is an assignment that many reporters dread. How many ways can you write a story that says: "It's raining. And it may or may not rain some more tomorrow." But it's the topic that you mentioned among the first three things you said to co-workers this morning. Everybody talks about it. So should we. So we write about the weather and give you the info we can find.

And we'll write about the weather again for tomorrow's paper. I'm not sure yet who drew the lucky straw in the newsroom for that assignment.