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New legislation aimed at giving ports more authority to set environmental regulations is expanding the battle over the Port of Los Angeles’ controversial employees-only clean trucks plan from the courts to Congress.

Congress has passed a short-term extension of the Federal Aviation Administration’s authorization, delaying until after the August recess further debate over a labor provision that has UPS Inc. and FedEx Corp. feuding.

The continuing delay in passing a new long-term highway bill has trucking executives and transportation officials worried about the effects on the U.S. freight network, according to David Abney, chief operating officer of UPS Inc.

Fourteen months into his job as CEO of Daimler Trucks North America, Martin Daum said the truck sales market is still bad — although it is improving — but his real challenge is trying to figure out when sales will return to a robust pace.

Three trucking companies are suing Caterpillar Inc. over the sale of what their legal counsel says are “defective” 13- and 15- liter diesel engines for heavy-duty trucks. The Texas law firm representing the companies now is looking for fleets to join the litigation.

The U.S. diesel average price rose 0.9 cent to $2.928 a gallon last week, the second straight gain, but just the third increase in the past 12 weeks, the Department of Energy reported Aug. 2.

UPS Inc. plans to open two health-care-logistics hubs in Singapore and China to tap rising regional demand for medical devices and drugs, Bloomberg reported Friday.

Navistar Inc.’s top executive and its former finance chief will return more than $2 million in bonus pay to the company as part of a deal to settle federal charges of accounting misconduct.

The U.S. unemployment rate held at 9.5% in July as total payrolls fell, and the trucking industry’s payrolls jumped by almost 6,000, the Labor Department said Friday.