Yes, no surprise here: The nation´s newspapers like the court´s decision. They like it a lot. Here´s Newsday´s take on it. And the Houston Chronicle´s. And the Seattle Times´. And Winston-Salem Journal´s. Collectively, these pieces amount to a communal "Hooray -- our air is saved."

And true enough, if the decision holds and isn´t ultimately overturned, the nation´s air should be more breathable as a result. On the other hand, it will be interesting to see how the public-opinion tide turns once the power giants start tearing down their creaky old plants, putting up new ones, and passing the costs along to you-know-who.

Here´s a good longish story from Saturday´s Los Angeles Times about the never-ending trash-and-debris cleanup in New Orleans. As residents move back in, home-grown volunteer programs are springing up, and as a result, parts of the city are gradually starting to look more like neighborhoods again and less like war zones.

The article also describes the challenges faced by Waste Management of Louisiana, which took over regular trash collection from the Army Corps of Engineers late last month. It´s got to be tricky trying to keep on top of the city´s volatile repopulation, to figure out where people haved moved back in and to map routes and schedule pickups accordingly. Asked about the city´s challenge to keep track of where residents have returned and where the trash is piling up fastest, Mayor Ray Nagin put it succinctly: "We are constantly chasing that dog."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday presented environmental awards to two neighborhood cleaner-uppers. One of the recipients is a 15-year-old high school student, the other a 104-year-old retired toymaker. That´s right: One hundred and four. Amazing what a bowl of oatmeal every day can do.

Let´s end the day with a piece from one of my favorite journalistic cutups, Washington Post blogger-columnist Joel Achenbach. The article has to do with science, loosely speaking. Very loosely. The point, I think, is that science doesn´t have to be dreary and tedious. It can also be demented and silly. The experiments one can conduct with a suit of ultrathick body armor -- well, the imagination reels at the possibilities.

Pete Fehrenbach is assistant managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.