BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisianans finally got the chance to cheer on their favorite team and try to put hurricanes out of their lives for at least a few hours. And LSU appeared ready to give its disaster-stricken fans a victory to celebrate, jumping out to a three-touchdown lead in the Tigers’ hurricane-delayed home…

‘Loveable Pets’ owner Judy Payne invited to speak at school ‘Loveable Pets’ owner Judy Payne was invited by teacher Susan Pryor to speak to a group of special school children about the responsibilities of raising and caring for puppies. Ms. Pryor arranged the visit in hopes of giving these children an idea of future careers…

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Nearly 6,000 doctors along the Gulf Coast were uprooted by Hurricane Katrina in the largest displacement of physicians in U.S. history, university researchers reported Monday. How many of those doctors will set up shop permanently in other cities, or decide to retire instead of reopening their practices, remains as unclear as…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Embattled former FEMA director Michael Brown says he was initially unaware of desperate conditions at the New Orleans Convention Center because it was not a planned Hurricane Katrina evacuation site, according to a congressional memo. After learning from television about the thousands of evacuees who gathered at the center, Brown ordered food…

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The on-again, off-again official reopening of New Orleans was back on track as the mayor welcomed residents back to the Algiers neighborhood, where they found a curfew, limited services and no critical care hospital services. A steady line of cars waited 20 to 25 minutes Monday to get through police checkpoints,…

BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — While much of Texas and Louisiana dodged the worst of Hurricane Rita, the damage to some small, rural towns was virtually complete — and the storm was being blamed on new deaths long after it moved away. As temperatures climbed well into the 90s and the heat index was near 106…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Spirits were high during weekend rallies in the nation’s capital, but that’s where the similarities ended, as one demonstration supported and the other opposed the war in Iraq. The anti-war rally, held Saturday at the western edge of the National Mall, drew a crowd of 100,000 or more. Lasting a marathon 12…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Eighty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial, the latest legal chapter in the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools is to unfold in federal court. The Dover Area School District on Monday was to start defending its policy of requiring ninth-grade students hear about “intelligent design” before biology…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Technological innovations on the horizon will improve people’s health and extend their life, yet do nothing about curbing the soaring cost of medical care for older people. In fact, those advances probably will inflate the cost of Medicare, private researchers say. Analysts at the RAND Corp., a nonprofit research group based in…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s crime rate was unchanged last year, holding at the lowest levels since the government began surveying crime victims in 1973, the Justice Department reported Sunday. Since 1993, violent crime as measured by victim surveys has fallen by 57 percent and property crime by 50 percent. That has included a 9…