If you have a shopping trip planned to Carolina Premium Outlets in Smithfield this month, here's a deal you might want to consider.

Make a $10 donation to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and receive a special savings card filled "25 percent off a single item" coupons at several stores, including Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, J.Crew, Jones New York, Nautica, Polo Ralph Lauren, Talbots and Tommy Hilfiger.

The promotion, which runs the entire month of October, starts today. The savings cards are available at the outlets' information center. Donations will go to support breast cancer awareness, outreach, research, and treatment programs.

Facing budget cuts of more than $2 million, Legal Aid of North Carolina plans to eliminate about 30 positions and close its offices in Smithfield, Boone and Henderson by the end of September.

Those three offices have served about 2,000 households a year in Johnston, Harnett, Sampson, Allegheny, Ashe, Avery, Mitchell, Watauga, Wilkes, Vance and Yancey counties.

The nonprofit looked at furloughs and salary cuts but the reductions in funding were too great, said George Hausen, Legal Aid of North Carolina's executive director.

Legal Aid's total budget was around $20 million a year before the cuts.

By closing rural offices, Legal Aid hopes to maximize the number of poor people it serves at its current funding level.

"We serve poor people, and in the rural areas we have to travel a much greater distance to serve fewer people," Hausen said.

"In order to keep the numbers high and serve as many poor people as we possibly could we decided that we needed to circle the wagons in the big, urban offices."

Playing in its annual Wood Bat Tournament at Orange High School, the OHS baseball team led Smithfield-Selma 1-0 with two out in the bottom of the second inning Friday nigh when play was suspended due to severe rain and lightning in the area.

The Scholastic Summer League baseball game will resume this afternoon, with the winner advancing to play East Chapel Hill in the championship game at 7 p.m.

East Chapel Hill defeated Bunn, 6-4, in Game 1 of the tournament Friday.

Down 7-0 after two innings in Pittsboro, a deficit that ballooned to 14-5 by the top of the sixth, North Chatham came back Thursday night to win Game 1 of its American Legion playoff series with Clayton by a 16-15 score.

That puts North Chatham one up versus Clayton at 7 p.m. tonight for Game 2 of the best-of-three series. The game will be played at Smithfield-Selma High School.

Saturday, if necessary, Game 3 will be back at Northwood High School's Donald Horton Baseball Complex at 7 p.m.

The Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield was recently ranked No. 2 in the country.

Livability.com, a website that rates quality of life in towns across the U.S., featured the downtown museum in an article on the "Top 10 Fun and Unusual Museums." The website's editors wrote that they "went digging for these weird museum gems in dynamic cities across the U.S."  and the hometown homage to Gardner  came out near the top.

The museum ranked just ahead of the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, and the Great American Dollhouse Museum in Danville, Ky. But the National Museum of Roller Skating in Lincoln, Neb., edged out the Ava Museum for the top spot.

Click here to read what the website had to say about the museum.

Screenings of six short films about Smithfield and Johnston County are scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12, at the Neuse Little Theatre, 104 S. Front St., Smithfield. Admission is free, but seating is limited.

The films are:

“Post 518: Johnston County, N.C.,” by Jessie Landerman. The film explores how military service affects race relations and how small-town veterans cope with the reality of racism in America.

“The Banks of Smithfield,” by Wendy Redfield. This film tells the story of the Bank of Smithfield, now First Citizens Bank, and the roles its historic buildings have played in Smithfield and in five neighboring communities.

“Percy’s Run,” by D.L. Anderson. Joshua Percy Flowers was a moonshiner and foxhunter. This film attempts to cover the ground between the two pursuits and reveal a picture of the man apart from the legends.

“The Red Dog,” by Sara Washington. Since 1941, Carolina Packers has made what many describe as “the best hotdogs in Eastern North Carolina.” This short documentary takes a look at the people who work hard to make the hotdogs.

“The Smithfield Rescue Mission,” by Brooke Shuman. This short film shows a typical day at the Smithfield Rescue Mission men’s shelter with words from current residents.

"Tobacco Culture in Smithfield," by Maggie Smith. Residents share their memories and thoughts on the importance of tobacco culture in Smithfield and how things have changed over time.

Is another Josh Hamilton waiting to emerge from the Triangle's baseball ranks?

He might get some help from an Eastern North Carolina baseball family.

On Jan. 8, the Narron family and friends will conduct a free skills clinic for players in the seventh grade.

SMITHFIELD - Harnett Central took a step back in the right direction Friday night, snapping a two-game losing streak by blasting Smithfield-Selma, 41-8, in a Greater Neuse 4-A Conference matchup.

Smithfield officials want residents to know there's no shortage of water for its utility customers.

Folks might easily get confused, given the amount of publicity surrounding Johnston County's water restrictions that went into effect Monday. Apparently, there was a TV crew that used Smithfield's water plant on North Second Street as a backdrop for their report.

That plant isn't part of the county's system, though it's been providing water to the county as they cope with the shortage.

Smithfield utilities director Earl Botkin offers an update on how Smithfield's dealing with the extra demand:

"Our production rate was well over six million gallons yesterday afternoon (we actually exceeded our permitted quantity for a short time)," Botkin wrote in an e-mail Tuesday morning. "Ray [Peal, plant manager] says that he was not able to get our tanks completely full last night, so we will monitor everything very closely. We will make every effort to help the county through their tight water situation, but if a severe capacity problem looms, we will have to ask them to cut back."

I'll admit I can't be too smug about the TV folks' mistake, since I had to look up where the county's own plant is located. Turns out, it's out by the Neuse River near Wilson's Mills.

Senior golfers in the Triangle have several choices for tournament competition.

Among the options is the Down East Senior Amateur Tour, which finally
had some good weather Monday to get its season going with a tournament
at Southern Wayne Country Club in Goldsboro, tour organizer Bill Stone
reported. (Top finishers are below.)