AP - One of two Missouri hospital emergency rooms reopened Sunday, a day after being shut down under quarantine when eight people sickened by a dangerous chemical's release sought treatment.

AP - The party is drawing to a close at the annual Burning Man festival on the northern Nevada desert.

AP - Ray Nagin's rhetoric was tough — calling Hurricane Gustav "the mother of all storms" — but his demeanor was confident and cool as he ordered the second evacuation of his city in three years.

AP - More than a week ago, at the first hint Gustav could be a threat to New Orleans, police Superintendent Warren Riley issued an unusual order — he gave all the city's 1,485 officers paid time off to get their families to safety.

AP - David Paulison was having trouble with the little things — an agency phone number, remembering what day it was.

AP - Hurricane Gustav charged toward the largely deserted coast of Louisiana early Monday morning, but appeared destined to make landfall to the west of a city still recovering three years after Katrina's devastating blow.

AP - Bruce Springsteen ended his world tour over the weekend, toned down but revved up.

AP - John McCain ordered changes in the Republican National Convention that was to be a four-day celebration of his presidential nomination Sunday, to "redirect our efforts" to reflect the seriousness of Hurricane Gustav as it churned toward the Gulf Coast. President Bush, Vice President Cheney and prominent GOP governors decided to skip the gathering altogether.

AP - A dust storm chased away some participants from the counterculture Burning Man festival before its traditional climax Saturday night on the northern Nevada desert, authorities said.

AP - Cubans returned from shelters to find flooded homes and washed-out roads Sunday, but no deaths were reported after a monstrous Hurricane Gustav roared across the island and into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.