Hunter trains: There is a good service on the Central Coast and Newcastle line and the Hunter line.

Hunter weather: Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers in Newcastle (23 degrees), possible chance of showers and clouds about in Raymond Terrace (23 degrees), partly cloudy, possible chance of showers and a thunderstorm in Maitland (28 degrees) and possible showers and chance of a thunderstorm with clouds about in Scone (28 degrees).

Hunter beachwatch:  Once again it’ll be partly cloudy with the slight chance of a shower but overall it should be an okay beach day. The wind will be mainly light starting from the north-west before heading to the north-east in the afternoon with the swell from the south-east around half to one metre. Wave conditions will be a touch uneven with the cleaner surf during the morning. Around town try the Cowrie Hole, Newcastle, Bar reef, The Cliff, Merewether and Redhead. To the south try Hams, North Catho and Soldiers. At Port Stephens try Samurai and Birubi. A few tricky edges will persist so only swim in the patrolled areas. The water temperature is 19 degrees.

► DONALD Trump burst apart at about 4pm, in piñata form, a chocolate coin-filled effigy pouting and swinging from the ceiling as Tessa Brown swished and cracked with a black rod. Ms Brown, 25, had worked in the kitchen at Newcastle’s FogHorn Brewhouse throughout the day as the US election poured from projectors onto wall-mounted screens and became Trump’s. More here.

► NEWCASTLE City Council refused to speak to Surf Life Saving NSW about a “landmark” report aimed at preventing drownings at the city’s beaches, but will not say why. More here.

► IT was a split-second decision to throw a drunken punch at a mate that had devastating consequences.  But just how devastating the long-term prognosis is for victim Peter Small, 46, will determine how long his former “best mate”, Jeffrey Paul Drysdale, will spend in jail, Newcastle District Court has heard. More here.

► NEWCASTLE Jets players will treat Melbourne City maestro Tim Cahill with respect but not reverence in Thursday night’s showdown at AAMI Park. More here.

► Kim Tuckwell was just as surprised as police to learn the snake that he had been keeping in his Singleton Heights backyard was a boa constrictor. He was even more surprised to learn that it had apparently eaten a dog and tried to kill him. More here.

► The Newcastle suburb of Lambton has links to the English aristocracy. The suburb was named after Lambton Colliery.  As reported in the Topics column in Wednesday’s Newcastle Herald, Thomas Croudace named the colliery in the 1860s after his family friend and former employer from England – Lord Lambton, Earl of Durham. More here.

► GORDON Allerton of Auto Lock Newcastle is off to Canberra to complain about repeated losses of telephone services he says are ultimately caused by problems with the National Broadband Network. More here.

► CADEN Chapman fit a lot of life into five years with his beloved family. Bec and Beau Chapman’s late son was imaginative, cheeky, charismatic and adored zooming his toy cars around the floor with friends. More here.

► At 11 am on November 11, 1918 the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years continuous warfare during World War I. In November the Germans called for an armistice in order to secure a peace settlement and their eventual unconditional surrender. More here.

► Police are calling for the public’s help after an attempted armed robbery and a spate of break and enters in the Central Hunter last month. The first incident occurred between midnight and 3am on Thursday October 13, when entry was forced to a registered club at Cessnock and money was taken from a number of gaming machines. More here.

► MAITLAND will moo again. Groovin’ the Moo has locked in an April return to the Hunter, once again arriving on a long weekend. More here.

► An Aberdare man won $686,000 from a bet placed on Melbourne Cup day… but not in the way you might think. After three trifecta losses on the horses, the man decided to buy a ticket for Saturday’s Lotto draw. More here.

► RATHMINES thespian Louisa Newton makes her directorial debut with Stooged Theatre’s production of Words, Words, Words at Newcastle’s Civic Playhouse this week. More here.

► PARTS of Mount Hutton and Jewells could formally shift into Eleebana and Windale on new maps. A section of Jewells along Doongara Close will be reclassified as Windale under the Geographic Names Board proposal. More here.

► THIS was supposed to be a story about Peter Cullen and The Bay Hotel’s long-time support of Variety, the children’s charity. But the more people we spoke to at Mr Cullen’s popular Bonnells Bay hotel, the more story leads we received. More here.

► IT was traffic bedlam of a different kind on Saturday when the Westpac Rescue Helicopter, like cars below, was forced to make a detour as fires flared. More here.

► NOVOCASTRIAN Stu Adams has been forced to surrender his stranglehold on the Red Bull Dune Dusters event at the end of a close-fought contest. More here.

► WILLIAMTOWN'S status as the home of the Joint Strike Fighter is set to be further enhanced after the federal government announced a major maintenance contract for the planes is set to come to the base. More here.

► For several days a group of amazing people have been leading the charge against several bushfires across the Hunter. The RFS, NSW Fire and Rescue and all emergency service workers have pushed on to save our homes and our lives. More here.

In a stunning late surge in the early hours of Wednesday, insurgent Republican Donald Trump amassed just enough voter support to push him through the door of the White House.

"I just received a call from secretary Clinton. She congratulated us on our victory and I congratulated her and her family on a very very hard fought campaign," Trump said as he began his acceptance speech. "I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for everyone". Read more here.

More coverage:

Need a national news snapshot first thing - well, we have you covered. 

► KATHERINE: The NT Department of Health dropped the bombshell Wednesday morning, saying Katherine’s town water is contaminated with chemicals as well. It came the day after the Department of Defence said it had found worrying contamination levels in a bore and surface water surrounding the Tindal RAAF base. More here.

► NEWCASTLE: It was a split-second decision to throw a drunken punch at a mate that had devastating consequences. But just how devastating the long-term prognosis is for victim Peter Small, 46, will determine how long his former “best mate”, Jeffrey Paul Drysdale, will spend in jail, Newcastle District Court has heard. More here.

► MT LYELL: Two West Coast miners would not have plunged to their deaths if their employer had spent just $1787 on a safer work platform, a court has heard. More here.

► SINGLETON: Kim Tuckwell was just as surprised as police to learn the snake that he had been keeping in his Singleton Heights backyard was a boa constrictor. He was even more surprised to learn that it had apparently eaten a dog and tried to kill him. More here.

► BUNBURY: Staff at the Dolphin Discovery Centre are keeping a close eye on Lego the octopus's eggs which hang in a lacy curtain at the back of her cave. Now that she has laid eggs, her days are numbered. More here.

► TASMANIA: Denison independent MHR Andrew Wilkie has compared Tasmania’s salmon industry to the state’s troubled forestry industry in a speech to Parliament. Mr Wilkie came under fire last week for proclaiming that he would boycott state salmon products, and encouraged others to do so, following a Four Corner’s expose on the industry and its environmental impacts. More here.

► WODONGA: Swimmers and water sport lovers rejoice: the likelihood of another blue-green algal bloom along the Murray River is unlikely this summer. Wodonga-based CSIRO scientist Darren Baldwin said given Lake Hume was almost full, the chance of another bloom was negligible. More here.

► BENDIGO: About 100 permanent residents of a Bendigo caravan park will be left no choice but to relocate after the business’ owners were unable to negotiate an extension of their lease. More here.

► Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has sought to reassure Australians its alliance and deep relationship with the US will continue after the shock election of Donald Trump as its next president. More here.

► Crime figure Hamad Assaad was stealing drug rips with a well-known Hells Angels bikie before he was killed in a hail of bullets outside his south-west Sydney home. More here.

► A man who only wants to be known as "Tim" has admitted he was part of a team that flew a drone to pick up a sausage from Bunnings and deliver it to a friend waiting in an outdoor spa in Sunbury. More here.

► Labor is claiming the Turnbull government has broken its pre-election promise to review a car industry agreement on data-sharing that could push down car repair costs. More here.

► BALI: A teary Sara Connor told a panel of judges she was innocent at the opening of her murder trial over the death of Bali police officer Wayan Sudarsa. More here.

► INDONESIA: A 20-year old man from the Netherlands has broken the Rubik's Cube world record, solving it in 4.74 seconds - that's less than the time that it takes most of us to even begin. More here.

“FOR some reason I have a death wish and want to put my body on the line!”

Jodie Mullinger is explaining why she plays the position of ‘jammer’ in roller derby, which is arguably the most hard-core role of the bunch.

Richmond locals might recognise her from behind the counter at the Beta-Care Pharmacy on Windsor Street, where she works as an assistant.

But when she’s playing roller derby, she is Chemical Fog - an alias or ‘player name’ coined from an amalgamation of her chemist background and her nickname back at WSU. Read more here.