FIRST LOOK: Many northeasterners still lack power after Irene

Zachary Roth
·Senior National Affairs Reporter

Welcome to Fist Look, our daily roundup of early-bird news:

• More than four days after Hurricane Irene struck, many northeast residents, including 300,000 people in Connecticut, still don't have power. (The New York Times)

• A billing dispute playing out in an upstate New York county courtroom has revealed details about the CIA's secret renditions program. (The Washington Post)

• A deal between a New York regulator and three financial firms, including Goldman Sachs, will require the mortgage industry to end "robo-signing," and clean up other controversial practices. (The Wall Street Journal)

• Despite the weak economy, the jobless rate fell in most U.S. cities in July, the government said. (AP)

• A decade after 9/11, domestic security is the fastest-growing area of study in college classrooms, by some measures. (The Los Angeles Times)

• An Idaho woman is challenging the constitutionality of her state's controversial "fetal pain" law, which bans abortion after 20 weeks. (AP)