Better, but still bad. That was the economic picture last week as moderating temperatures eased energy shortages and allowed most factories in the frozen East and Midwest to resume at least partial operation. Perhaps a third of the 1.8 million employees who had been idled by cold-related shutdowns went back to their jobs. But some workers, such as the more than 3,000 watermen who harvest oysters in Maryland's still iced-over Chesapeake Bay, may have to wait longer to resume earning money, and industries in the Pacific Northwest, confronting a drought that is undermining hydroelectric generating capacity, face power cuts of up...
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