With the Oct. 16 special U.S. Senate election looming, Democrat Cory Booker has increased his lead over Republican Steve Lonegan, according to the latest Rutgers-Eagleton poll. The poll shows the Newark mayor with a 58 percent to 36 percent lead over the former Bogota mayor in the race to succeed the late Frank Lautenberg.

Canal Road from Elm Street to Blackwell Mills Road will be closed to all but local traffic from Oct. 15 to Nov. 1, 2013, due to reconstruction work. Detours (Blackwell Mills Road, Van Cleef Road, Amwell Road) will be posted.

By Monica Hines, Angela Barkley, Bernadette Kelly, De Sanders, Cynthia Burwell-Alston, Shanel Y. Robinson and Donna Blackmore. We are Community for Change, an organization comprised of a diverse group of active community members.  At the September 26th Board of Education meeting, we outlined facts as to why we believe that Mr. Ed Seto’s contract should not be renewed.  We cited …

A cell phone worth $250 was stolen from a Hempstead Drive man while it was en route to his home last week, police said. Muhammed Anifowoshe told police that he’d bought an HTC Droid phone online, which was supposed to be delivered to his home by the U.S. Postal Service.

Gemma DiGlorio of Princeton told police Oct. 11 that she was driving north on South Middlebush Road and realized too late that traffic had stopped. Her car rear-ended one driven by Donna Scharnikow of Somerset, which was stopped in traffic. The impact forced Scharnikow’s car into one driven by Sarita Seelam of Plainsboro. §

Now that the bleachers and press box at the Franklin Township High School athletic complex have been officially opened, the district administration is setting its sights on the project’s next phase. School district and township officials gathered on the football field prior to the Oct. 12 homecoming game against Elizabeth High School to formally cut the ribbon on the complex’s …

More than $130,000 in Community Development Block Grant sub-grants to area social service organizations helping township residents were approved at the Oct. 8 Township Council meeting. The money is targeted primarily to groups and organizations serving the township’s minority and low- and moderate-income residents.

Purchases worth nearly $380,000 were approved at the Oct. 8 Township Council meeting. The items the council voted to buy are two utility body trucks for $106,000 and two pickup trucks with snow plows for $78,500 from Beyer Brothers of Fairview, and a backhoe for $106,405 and an articulated wheel loader for $66,680 from Jesco of South Plainfield.

The Somerset County Health Department will offer flu shots from 9:30-11 a.m. on Oct. 10 and Oct. 24 for township senior citizens at the Franklin Township Community Senior Center, 505 DeMott Lane. The shots are free for Franklin residents aged 65 and older.

A 48-year-old Princeton resident killed himself Oct. 7 near the Griggstown Causeway, police said. The man shot himself in the chest, police said.