"The Obama administration is taking on Cheerios. And popular cold remedies and swimming pool drains and rhinestones on children's clothing."

"Under rules to be proposed this week, the Department of Veterans Affairs plans to add Parkinson's disease, ischemic heart disease and hairy-cell leukemia to the growing list of illnesses presumed to have been caused by Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant used widely in Vietnam."

Allegheny Energy's Hatfield's Ferry coal-burning electric power plant finally reduced its air pollution by installing scrubbers. But the scrubbers dump many tons of wastewater and pollutants into the Monongahela River, which provides drinking water for 350,000 people.

"In a sign that a deal addressing California's longstanding water supply problems may be near, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger convened a special session of the Legislature on Monday to revisit a package of water bills."

"A tidy village dedicated to the future of green, solar-powered living has taken over the heart of the National Mall, where 20 teams of college students are vying to see who can build the most appealing energy-efficient home."

"A house capable of floating atop rising floodwaters made its debut [Oct. 6] in New Orleans."

"Prisons probably aren't the first place you'd expect to find organic gardens or beekeeping. But in some prisons in western Washington, inmates are being taught new skills and getting involved in conservation work."

A bipartisan op-ed in the New York Times, penned by Sens. John Kerry and Lindsay Graham, set off a new round of speculation about the prospects for a climate bill. GOP support may be attracted by fast-tracking new nuclear plants, more offshore drilling, and subsidies for fossil fuels.

"As U.S. Air Force officials marked the 50th anniversary of the deployment of nuclear missiles to sites in the rural United States this past week, residents in some of these communities are still grappling with another legacy — groundwater pollution from chemicals used to clean and maintain the weapons."

To get to the root of the obesity epidemic, one Canadian reporter went in search of a junk food farm. There were no fields of Dorito bags waving in the breeze. "What you do see are vast operations growing the raw materials for junk food: soybeans and corn."

New York "is asking local government agencies to regulate key aspects of the natural gas industry, raising yet more questions about who will pay for manpower to oversee multinational energy companies setting up shop in Southern Tier's backyards."

Cancer stories "are numbingly familiar to people who live in the vicinity of Tonawanda Coke Corp. The coke foundry recently was found by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to be emitting benzene, a carcinogen, up to 75 times higher than recommended guidelines. Those levels were up to 2ù times more than what the company reported to regulators."

"As sea temperatures have risen in recent decades, enormous sheets of a mucus-like material have begun forming more often, oozing into new regions, and lasting longer, a new Mediterranean Sea study says."

"The Department of the Interior has frozen oil and gas development on 60 of 77 contested drilling sites in Utah, saying the process of leasing the land was rushed and badly flawed."

"President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize today in part for what the award's organizers said was a 'more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting.'"