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will have to return to the campaign trail almost immediately to run for a full term.
• Booker, 44, defeated conservative Steve Lonegan on Wednesday after an aggressive two month race to finish the term of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died in office in June at age 89.
• The Newark mayor takes to Washington a national profile -- boosted by a strong social media presence, frequent television appearances and his status as an Obama surrogate during the president's 2012 re-election campaign -- just as the federal government begins functioning again after a 16-day shutdown.
• "That's why I'm going to Washington -- to take back that sense of pride," Booker said in his victory speech. "Not to play shallow politics that's used to attack and divide but to engage in the kind of hard, humble service that reaches out to others."
• Booker, a supporter of gay marriage in a state where the issue is the subject of a court and legislative battle, talked about needing to improve America's schools and making the Senate "more accessible to all of us."
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• OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- San Francisco Bay area commuters will see transit trains running as usual Thursday morning after the two sides in long-running labor contract talks agreed to keep meeting, forestalling a major strike yet again.
• In a message to hundreds of thousands of anxious commuters, a federal mediator said that the transit system will continue to run Thursday as unions and management agree to keep talking.
• "Negotiations are continuing under our auspices. Progress is being made," mediator George Cohen said in an email press statement late Wednesday night. "Trains will be running all day tomorrow,"
• Commuters are getting used to such announcements -- they've endured seven strike deadlines, sometimes staying up past midnight waiting to hear if the trains will run in the morning..
• The contentious labor talks between the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit agency and its two largest unions have dragged on for six months -- a period that has seen a chaotic dayslong strike, a cooling-off period and frazzled commuters wondering if they'll wake up to find the trains aren't running.
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