The unique event has gone on for 75 years. Organizers weren't going to be stopped by an oil spill, even one that hurt the seafood industry. 'We're going to overcome this,' says the festival king.

After the BP oil spill, the organizers of one of America's more unusual civic celebrations began fielding the phone calls, the ones that invariably asked: Are you really going to have it this year?

Boosting business research and development is part of the president's broader plan for the economy. Other proposals call for increased infrastructure spending and continuing tax cuts for the middle class.

President Obama will ask Congress to pass a $100-billion plan to expand and permanently extend the tax credits for businesses that invest in research and development, part of a larger plan for spurring the economy that he is to unveil in greater detail Wednesday.

Most care more about the bigger struggle to rejuvenate and rebuild their wounded neighborhood.

Politicians have deemed the area around New York's "ground zero" hallowed ground. Protesters have paraded signs proclaiming, "No sacrilege at holy ground," and others have called it the site of a "sacred burial."

Helping businesses that invest in research and development is part of the president's broader plan for the economy. Other proposals call for increasing infrastructure spending and continuing tax cuts for the middle class.

President Obama will ask Congress to pass a $100-billion plan to expand and permanently extend the tax credits for businesses that invest in research and development, part of a larger plan for spurring the economy that he is to unveil in greater detail Wednesday.

He's the first vice president to have an L.A. school named after him, sharing the honor with author Rachel Carson. Fittingly, the campus will be devoted to environmental themes. But there's a catch.

Al Gore has had some tough breaks — like losing the presidency after getting more votes than the other guy — but the noted environmentalist achieved a singular honor last week, becoming the first vice president to have a Los Angeles school named after him.

His unyielding liberal stance, delivered as savage black-and-white harpoons, bedeviled Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and others in power while shedding an uncompromising light on social injustices. He drew for The Times for nearly 30 years.

Paul Conrad, whose fiercely confrontational editorial cartoons made him one of the leading political provocateurs of the second half of the 20th century and who helped push the Los Angeles Times to national prominence, has died. He was 86.

The U.S. unemployment rate will remain elevated for years, experts say, a grim prospect for Americans who have exhausted their benefits.

The U.S. economy will eventually rebound from the Great Recession. Millions of American workers will not.

By ditching the GOP and hewing to the center, Charlie Crist has set up an intriguing three-way Senate race.

It's easy to find people who will say bad things about Charlie Crist.

The link to the adult section of the site is replaced with a black bar that says 'censored.' State attorneys general had said the ads veered close to illegally promoting prostitution.

Craigslist appears to have surrendered in a legal fight over erotic ads posted on its website, shutting down its adult services section Saturday and replacing it with a black bar that says "censored."

The storm, which finally made landfall in Nova Scotia, was much less intense than feared.

In the end, Earl's worst damage in New England was to seasonal businesses hoping to end their summer on a high note.

A Republican takeover of the House — maybe even the Senate — looks less impossible every day. Still, money and message problems continue to weigh the party down.

Two months before election day, the U.S. economy is teetering. President Obama's approval ratings are anemic. Republican voters are pumped. The smart money is betting against Democratic incumbents.

With the replacement of the failed blowout preventer and a cement plug in place, the well's seal is almost permanent, the federal spill response chief says. The final step will be to plug the well from the bottom.

With a new blowout preventer in place and a 5,000-foot column of cement filling its core, the BP well is no longer in danger of leaking oil, the federal spill response chief said Saturday — although he said it must still be plugged from the bottom for the job to be complete.

The first daughters saw the Jonas Brothers and visited L.A. and Niagara Falls. Malia got braces; Sasha went to Spain. But it's all over Tuesday, when school starts.

Malia and Sasha Obama have enjoyed a summer that most American children can only dream of — vacations stretching from Maine to California, with a couple of foreign trips in the mix, and a Jonas Brothers appearance at the White House.

Like previous presidents, Obama is suffering opinion-poll fallout from unpopular conflicts.

No wonder President Obama used only his second Oval Office address to get the Iraq war so publicly off the domestic debate table just nine weeks before his first midterm elections.

BP sprayed chemicals massively in confronting the gulf spill, but scientists aren't sure how much good — or bad — they did.

In the wake of the BP oil spill, gaping questions remain about a key tool used during cleanup: the nearly 2 million gallons of chemical dispersants sprayed over the water or onto the gushing wellhead on the seafloor. Do the chemicals help recovery, hinder it — or neither?

8 p.m. Update

Much of the land of the native Houma people is now underwater, and after the oil spill, one healer's great-grandson fears that the traditional plants once used to save the ill will soon be lost too.

Jason Pitre grew up hearing stories of how his great-grandfather healed babies on the cusp of death using herbs and plants found along Louisiana's bayous. The tribal healer, or traiteur , was known by the native Houma people for his potions and salves that seemed to treat any sickness.

Craigslist appears to have surrendered in a legal fight over erotic ads posted on its website, shutting down its adult services section Saturday and replacing it with a black bar that simply says "censored."

The donation to the Proposition 23 campaign comes from a subsidiary of Kansas-based Koch Industries, which owns refineries and controls 4,000 miles of oil pipelines.

The fight over a November ballot initiative to suspend California's global warming law has escalated sharply with the Koch brothers, oil billionaires and "tea party" backers, making a million-dollar entry into the fray.