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Fog in Washington strands New England senators in Boston

Severe fog and airport instrumentation issues in Washington stranded several New England senators in Boston today, part of the impetus for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to postpone all votes until Tuesday.

Senator Scott Brown and his wife, Gail Huff, were delayed, as were Senators John F. Kerry and Jeanne Shaheen. Senators from elsewhere in the country were also prevented from arriving on Capitol Hill for a scheduled 5:30 p.m. vote because of flight delays and cancellations. It was instead pushed to 2:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Kerry monitored the situation from his Beacon Hill home after reporting for jury duty, an aide said, while Shaheen read the newspaper and chatted on her cell phone in the US Airways shuttle terminal at Logan International Airport.

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"It happens when you're dependent on the weather," Shaheen told a Globe reporter. "Hopefully, we're eventually get there."

She had been on two cancelled flights and was facing a four-hour delay on her third, before being rushed onto a plane around 3 p.m.

Typical of the situation: the 2 p.m. shuttle to Reagan National Airport in Washington was rescheduled to 6:10 p.m. Compounding the fog there was an earlier instrument-landing lighting issue, US Airways gate agents told passengers.

Similar delays affected flights into Dulles International Airport in Virginia and Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

Fog also cancelled President Obama's Marine One flight from the White House to Joint Base Andrews in suburban Washington.

Instead, the president traveled by motorcade to the Maryland base, before boarding Air Force One for a flight to Michigan.


Glen Johnson can be reached at johnson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globeglen.