California's New River was once the most polluted in the country. As Ruxandra Guidi reports from the Fronteras Changing America Desk, government officials now say it's much cleaner because of greater investment in border environmental issues.

There was a 1.4 percent increase in sales of existing homes in October from September, the National Association of Realtors reported this hour.

At its 4.97 million annual rate, the pace of sales was up 13.5 percent from October 2010.

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh has been brought in to be a "special investigative counsel" for Penn State's internal look into how its officials handled reports that former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky might have been sexually abusing young boys.

Full disclosure: We're not even close to being qualified to figure out who's right and who's wrong on this one.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Superfailure Looks Likely; Then What?.

-- Death Toll Rising In Cairo After Crackdown In Tahrir Square.

"Dutch police say Seattle Mariners outfielder Greg Halman has been stabbed to death and his brother has been arrested as a suspect," The Associated Press reports from Rotterdam. He died earlier today.

Halman, 24, is Dutch-born. In the past two years with the Mariners, he appeared in 44 games — hitting at a .207 average, with two home runs and nine runs batted in.

The death toll from three days of clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square has risen to at least 24, a morgue official tells The Associated Press. (Note at 8:25 a.m. ET: Earlier, the official told the AP that the toll was 35; now, he says 11 of the deaths were unrelated to the violence.)

The second annual Boring Conference was held over the weekend in London. It began as a joke but tickets sold out this year. Organizer James Ward worried his event might be too interesting.