Our pal Linda Holmes over at Monkey See knows much more about these types of things than we do, but we do want to take a quick break from natural disasters and other heavy news to note that megastar Beyonce Knowles apparently stole the show at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards by cleverly revealing to the word that she and Jay-Z are expecting a child.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Companies drilling for oil and natural gas in shale formations in Ohio might soon face new air pollution limits.

The new practice of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," in pursuit of gas can require multiple wells on a single site, creating a concentration of equipment that can leak hazardous airborne compounds. An Ohio Environmental Protection Agency spokesman tells The Columbus Dispatch that's causing concern about the pollutants the drilling operations might be releasing into the air.

CLEVELAND (AP) - Some Ohio teachers are missing the first days of classes in August to avoid penalties to their retirement payments.

The Plain Dealer in Cleveland reports state law requires full-time teachers who retire and are rehired to forfeit retirement payments for the month if they return less than 60 days after retiring. If an employee works in June, the Ohio's State Teacher Retirement System considers the retirement date to be July.

Colin Powell isn't a fan of Dick Cheney's new memoir.

On CBS News' Face the Nation this weekend, former Bush administration secretary of state Powell said that Bush-era vice president Cheney takes some "cheap shots" and "overshot the runway" in the book that goes on sale this week.

It was a big story when former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Republican, endorsed Democrat Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign.

So it's news that this weekend on CBS-TV's Face the Nation, Powell said he hasn't decided if he will vote for the president in 2012.

Good morning.

Residents from North Carolina up through New England are beginning the long process of recovering from Hurricane Irene, which we followed through the weekend and earlier today.

We'll keep an eye out for more stories about the storm and its aftermath. Meanwhile, other major news of the day includes:

Hurricane Irene is gone, but she won't be forgotten anytime soon.

As NPR's Larry Abramson said today on Morning Edition, "Irene did not turn out to be the storm of the century" and many beach towns "were stunned by how lucky they were."

The remnants of Hurricane Irene moved north Monday into Canada, leaving behind a path of destruction after raking the mid-Atlantic and northeast, where residents faced damaging floods triggered by hours of torrential rains.

While Irene's maximum wind speed might not compare with other legendary hurricanes, the storm had tremendous reach. A couple of days after it beat up on North Carolina, it still had enough strength to pummel Vermont and other parts of New England.

As kids head back to class the dreaded back-to-school bugs begin to spike. Sniffles and sneezes are inevitable, but there are also stomach bugs.

And parents may never have considered how one part of the morning routine may increase their children's odds of getting an upset stomach. It's the packing of lunch with just typical foods.

Cities have been tearing down crumbling, vacant houses for decades. The money for municipal demolition bills usually comes out of city budgets, but in Cleveland the housing crisis has started to change that equation.

Bill Beavers has lived on Cleveland's Dove Street since 1967. But on a frecent sunny morning, Beavers is sitting on a neighbor's front porch, watching something he has never seen on his block before.