New Orleans escaped Gustav … but there is still plenty of clean-up to do.  According to the New York Times, over 1.4 million residents are without power. City officials are asking the 2 million residents who fled the city to hold off on returning until hurricane debris can be cleaned from the streets. Hurricane season is clearly at full strength, as a new storm, Hanna, is forming off the Atlantic coast and is predicted to make landfall between Miami and North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

Is Palin toast? If the international betting public is good at reading the tea leaves, then maybe so. Bloomberg News reports bookmakers were offering 20-1 odds that John McCain’s VP pick Sarah Palin would leave the ticket before news broke yesterday that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant. Since then, odds of her leaving have dropped to 8-1.

Coup No. 19 coming? Anti-government protesters in Thailand showed no regard for Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej’s state of emergency declaration, and thousands marched in the streets of Bangkok. Pro and anti-government groups have taken to attacking each other with sticks, swords, slingshots and firearms. The declaration allows the military to step in to preserve order, but the army chief said he views emergency military rule as a last resort. Thailand’s hold on democracy has been tenuous since the country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932 - since then there have been 18 military coups.

Health briefs: Women usually get heart disease much later than men, but smoking lowers that advantage. Norwegian researchers found women who smoked suffered their first heart attack 14 years sooner than women who didn’t. Children born to older fathers are more likely to have bipolar disorder, according to Swedish researchers. Fortunately, Levi Johnston is only 18.

In a world with no Don LaFontaine … there is certainly less gravitas in our movie trailers. The voice-over master died today at age 68, according to the Associated Press, after recording the voice-over for more than 5,000 movie trailers and hundreds of thousands of TV spots.