Maryland's jobs picture looked better than expected last month in the face of national economic and housing turmoil. (Economists warn that some of the good performance could be more about statistics than reality, though.) Here's a snippet from my story today:

The jobless rate fell to 3.7 percent, from 4 percent in July, the U.S. Labor Department said yesterday. That's significantly lower than the national rate, which remained at 4.6 percent last month.

Employment grew last month by about 3,300 jobs, according to preliminary estimates adjusted for seasonal variations. Nationally, employers cut 4,000 jobs - the first drop in four years, when the country was still suffering from the effects of the 2001 recession.

Meanwhile, the AP reports about the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs grilling executives from the major credit-rating agencies:

The biggest rating agencies — Standard & Poor's, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings — are under fire from critics who say they failed to give investors adequate warning of the risks associated with mortgage-backed securities. Those securities are now plummeting in value as home-loan defaults soar, particularly among "subprime" borrowers with weak credit histories.

Democratic and Republican senators said they are particularly concerned with a key aspect of the agencies' business models: they get paid by the companies whose bonds they rate.