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Trucking industry leaders gathering in New Orleans this week at American Trucking Associations’ annual Management Conference & Exhibition will hear from experts on topics including the current financial turmoil, the upcoming elections, and preparations for next year’s highway bill and the 2010 engine emissions rules.

Factory orders fell 4% in August, the most in almost two years, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

The Bush administration has nominated David Kelly to head the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Associated Press reported.

U.S. manufacturing contracted in September at the fastest pace since the last recession, the Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday.

Construction spending held steady in August, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation plans to impose a speed limit of 65 mph on a 52-mile stretch of Interstate 80 between Laramie and Rawlins for six months, starting Oct. 15, the Associated Press reported.

Nearly a year into the application process, more than half of the estimated 1.2 million U.S. transportation workers have not applied for their Transportation Worker Identification Credential that, beginning April 15, 2009, will be required to gain entrance to all the nation’s ports and other transportation facilities.

In this country and this economy, I, too, believe there’s a lot of unused space moving up and down our highways, creating inefficiencies.

U.S. consumer confidence improved in September, according to the latest Reuters/University of Michigan monthly consumer sentiment index, released Tuesday.