The New York Times‘s investigative series on polluted water continued to get results. The EPA says it will overhaul its enforcement of the Clean Water Act, meaning it says it will actually enforce it.
— Steven Pearlstein looks at the tarnishing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in recent days. Mother Jones found it had been lying about its membership total (by a factor of ten), and its “propaganda” about why it opposes reforms has been laid bare: “a rather straightforward effort to halt abuses by mortgage brokers and credit card lenders is being transformed into a regulatory power-grab that will ensnare butchers and bakers and candlestick makers.”
— About that housing market: Foreclosures in the third quarter jumped 23 percent from a year ago and 5 percent from the second quarter. Some 925,000 households got a foreclosure notice sometime between July and September.
— MSNBC has a nice graphic look at how and where the recession is hitting the country. One-fifth of metros are in technical recovery. The rest are in moderating or full-blown recession.
Ryan Chittum is a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and deputy editor of The Audit, CJR’s business section. If you see notable business journalism, give him a heads-up at rc2538@columbia.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @ryanchittum.