Voter registration books will close Friday in preparation for the Nov. 3 municipal elections.

Eligible residents can register at the Moore County elections office in Carthage during office hours through 5 p.m. Friday. Anyone registering by mail must submit the registration form in an envelope bearing a Friday, Oct. 9, postmark, according to an elections spokesman.

One-stop absentee voting will begin Thursday, Oct. 15, at the Agriculture Center in Carthage. Hours will be 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. Friday and on the final Saturday of the period, Oct. 31, when voting will be available until 1 p.m.

DEM WOMEN -- The Democratic Women of Moore County picked up a series of honors at the annual conference of the North Carolina Democratic Women held at Kitty Hawk Sept. 25-27.

Tonia Camina, the Moore County group's first vice president, received the STAR award for outstanding service. She is a former secretary of the Moore County Democratic Party.

For years, Camina has been in charge of decorating Democratic headquarters for holiday and fundraising events, as well as sites for political rallies. During election campaigns, she obtained donated party paraphernalia and sold them at headquarters, rallies and festivals. She also set up silent auctions and raffles at these events.

She worked phone banks and canvassed neighbors for campaigns, coordinated collections for food banks, toys for Department of Social Services children and gift cards for foster care teens. Camina is presently involved with the Phone Cards for Soldiers program.

The DWMC won awards for communications and public relations and growth in membership.

Jose Camina accompanied his wife to the conference. Also attending from Moore County were Mary Alice Wicker, Juanita Harbour and Wilma Laney.

ZOO SPEAKER -- Steve Gerkin, visitor educator and public programs coordinator for the North Carolina Zoo, will be guest speaker for the Saturday meeting of the Democratic Women of Moore County.

Gerkin will discuss what's new at the zoo, the zoo's conservation efforts, the role of zoos today and upcoming plans. He will display biofacts, such as skulls and teeth and other animal artifacts.

The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. at county Democratic headquarters, 104-A North McNeill St. in Carthage. A spokesman says the meeting is open to the public and all interested persons are welcome to attend. There is no charge.

DOG TRAINING -- The rezoning request for a bomb-sniffing dog training facility is back on the agenda for the Thursday meeting of the Moore County Planning Board.

The board will convene at 6 p.m. at the historic courthouse in Carthage.

The board held a hearing on the request at a special meeting prior to the Sept. 21 regular meeting of the commissioners. However, discussions by the public lasted so long that the board decided to continue the hearing to provide time for more detailed study of the application.

The applicant is K2 Solutions Inc., a Southern Pines-based firm that wants to use a 95-acre tract on McIntosh Road to carry out a contract with the military. The contract calls for the training of dogs to detect bombs and other explosive devices.

The land, located half a mile from the intersection with Union Church Road, is zoned Residential Agricultural-40, and the application calls for changing that to RA-Conditional Use District.

KITCHEN TABLE -- A "Kitchen Table Meeting" has been called by a group of local conservatives.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Office of Alliance for Bonded Term Limits in the Theatre Building, 2nd floor, in downtown Pinehurst.

The meeting is described as "a group of people sitting around discussing issues in an informal but focused manner" and is directed toward "concerned conservatives who want to take action after rallies and parties."

More information is available by calling Eileen McKenna at 295-1871.

TASK FORCE -- The Major Capital Projects Task Force will hold a special meeting at 10 a.m. Friday in the conference room at the Public Works Complex in Carthage.

The meeting is called to review the 100 percent design and development phase plans, according to Megan Owrey, clerk to the Moore County Board of Commissioners.

COBLE -- Congressman Howard Coble took a crack at the national media last week when he took to the House floor to criticize the political organizing group known as ACORN.

The 6th District Republican, who represents Moore County, said the media fell down on the job in investigating ACORN, which stands for Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now.

In his comments, Coble said the media "should report the facts instead of ignoring stories that don't fit their liberal agenda," according to a report in the Under the Dome column in The News & Observer of Raleigh Monday.

ACORN, long the object of criticism by Republicans, recently lost its funding resources and tax-exempt status after a sting operation revealed that ACORN employees were offering advice on tax returns for an illegal business. The sting was conducted by two undercover individuals posing as a prostitute and her pimp.

Despite complaints that ACORN was recruiting registrants in Moore County during last year's presidential election campaign, the Board of Elections was never able to document any illegal activities associated with the organization or to unearth evidence the group was actually operating here.

Contact Florence Gilkeson at (910) 693-2479 or by e-mail at florence@thepilot.com.