Chuck Brown says turning 75 is a wonderful feeling. He's also thrilled about receiving a tribute from the National Symphony Orchestra during a concert next month. He and NSO Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke discuss music with host Michel Martin. Brown even plays some music that influenced his style.

The Federal Reserve chairman delivers a much-anticipated speech Friday morning on additional steps the Fed might take to shore up the economy. Some investors are hoping for another round of quantitative easing, but others warn that a solution can ultimately only be worked out by the president and congressional Republicans.

World No. 1 Yani Tseng of Taiwan has been powering and smiling her way around golf courses — and making history. She has already done something that no one who has swung a golf club has done before: At the relatively tender age of 22, Tseng has won five major championships.

As Hurricane Irene makes it way up the East Coast, it is expected to be felt on New York's Long Island. The area is home to three million people, and there aren't many bridges to get them to the mainland. The Nassau County executive says he'll make a decision about mandatory evacuations soon.

At an East Texas auction, the animals look pitiful. They're standing in 107-degree heat with their ribs showing, stressed out. The heat, and no rain, has forced many ranchers to sell off their stock. Many will retire; and few young ranchers are ready to step in.

Retailers such as Walmart and Home Depot have turned hurricane preparation into a science — one that government emergency agencies have begun to embrace. They've deployed hundreds of trucks carrying everything from plywood to Pop-Tarts to stores in the storm's path.

The unfolding calamity that is the Texas drought has thrown nature out of balance. Many of the wild things that live in this state are suffering.

Former Ambassador Andrew Young contends that President Obama is "doing the best he can," but he complains that Democrats "don't understand what's happening economically." He casts the Tea Party as a "vestige" of white segregationist politics and cautions Democrats not to cede the South in 2012.

The dueling tweets about this week's East Coast earthquake resurrected a great American debate: Which is the coast with the most? Hurricanes versus mudslides. High culture versus hippie. Are there really socio-cultural differences between the two seaboards?

The governors of North Carolina, Virginia and New Jersey have all declared states of emergency as the Category 3 storm churns across the Caribbean. Irene is expected to hit North Carolina on Saturday and then swirl north. Weather experts say the storm is on a "worst-case track" for the East Coast.