AP - An American Airlines jet carrying nearly 140 people is returning to Los Angeles International Airport after apparently blowing a tire during takeoff for Toronto.

AP - Many of the illegal immigrants who have been rebuilding New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina stayed behind when Gustav struck because they were afraid of being arrested if they boarded the buses and trains arranged by emergency officials.

AP - Nervous residents rushed to buy plywood and generators while emergency officials in Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas weighed possible evacuations Tuesday as Tropical Storm Hanna was expected to shift toward a tough-to-predict landfall along the southern Atlantic coast by the end of the week.

AP - With his city spared from major damage, and his husky body surpassing the edges of a narrow cot, Eddie Brown had come to believe Gustav was no longer the villain in this hurricane story: It was this rusted and vacant Sam's warehouse brimming with 3,000 evacuees.

AP - The tropics seem to be going crazy what with the remnants of Gustav, the new threat from Hanna, a strengthening Ike and newcomer Josephine. Get used to it.

AP - A judge has thrown out the first direct legal challenge to the New York governor's move to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, calling the policy a legally allowable stand for fairness.

AP - More than 1,000 Chicago public school students skipped the first day of classes Tuesday to protest unequal education funding, a boycott organizers said would continue through the week with help from retired teachers who will turn office lobbies into impromptu classrooms.

AP - Members of the 1980s rock band whose pyrotechnics sparked a nightclub fire that killed 100 people have agreed to pay $1 million to survivors and victims' relatives, according to court papers filed Tuesday.

AP - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's chances of avoiding a state hearing that could cost him his job diminished by the hour Tuesday as a judge and an appeals court ruled against scrapping the proceedings.

AP - Enter at your own risk, New Orleans. That was the message from Mayor Ray Nagin, who gave residents the go-ahead to return to the Crescent City on Wednesday night at midnight, but with several warnings — many homes were without electricity or working toilets and a dusk-to-dawn curfew would still be in effect.

AP - A terrifying shooting spree that stretched from a small northwest Washington town onto the state's busiest highway left six people dead and at least two more wounded on Tuesday.

AP - Hurricane Gustav didn't barrel ashore as the devastating terror everyone feared, leaving some of the 2 million people who evacuated second-guessing their decision to flee.