"NEW MADRID, Mo. -- After record flooding this year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces an epic repair job on the nation's decades-old flood defenses in the Mississippi and Missouri River basins, and it's already clear that the work won't be completed in time to protect some areas from even run-of-the-mill flooding."

"A strengthening Hurricane Irene eased away from the northwestern Caribbean on Monday, leaving nearly one million people in the dark in Puerto Rico, a billionaire’s mansion torched by lightning in the British Virgin Islands and fears of a dark night of drenching rain and floods across Hispaniola."

"The National Science Foundation has closed its investigation into Pennsylvania State University climatologist Michael Mann after finding no evidence of scientific misconduct related to his research.

It is the latest in a string of investigations to exonerate scientists involved in the so-called "Climategate" email scandal.

"TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Apple growers in the eastern U.S. have a despised enemy known as apple scab — a disease caused by a fungus that forms ugly brown or greenish-black pockmarks on the fruit's skin. A scabby apple is unfit for grocery stores because consumers are notoriously picky about blemished fruit."

"In the American Corn Belt this year, the weather has already felt apocalyptic at times. In the last six months, the Midwest has seen record-breaking floods, devastating twisters, unseasonable cold snaps and late heat waves. Now, add insect swarms to these forces of nature."

"In December, the Interior Department will hold the first oil and natural-gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico since last year’s massive oil spill that devastated the region."

"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving forward on recommendations made by an internal task force studying the Fukushima Daiichi triple meltdown. But it is not moving quite the way its chairman wanted."

"EPA has dropped plans to regulate pollution washing off construction sites for the second time in as many years. The agency slipped the proposed regulation off the table last Friday, eight months after it sent the draft rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review."

"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Puerto Ricans awoke to flooded and debris-strewn streets Monday following the overnight passage of Hurricane Irene, which next took aim at the Dominican Republic on a path that could take the storm to the U.S. by the end of the week."

"Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman is pounding away at rival Rick Perry's skepticism of manmade global warming and criticism of the nation's central banker, saying those stands hurt the GOP and make the Texas governor come off as a not-so-serious national figure."