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TTNews.com will be closed Friday, Dec. 23 and Monday, Dec. 26. Please check back on Tuesday, Dec. 27, for the latest trucking and freight transportation news.

This afternoon's headlines: U.S. Trucking has big 3Q loss; FedEx completes tender offer for AF stock; new economic reports reveal slow U.S. growth; and more.

Today's technology headlines: IBM inks supply chain software deals; online traffic reports get more sophisticated; Euro-Log, Transentric form transatlantic freight-tracking venture; and more.

Congress passed an omnibus appropriations bill last week that provides long-awaited funding for the Automated Commercial Environment system for the Customs Service, and the agency has already started searching for a contractor.

Contract talks are progressing between the Teamsters and Overnite Transportation Co. and could be wrapped up by early in 2001, union officials said.

The California Air Resources Board saw its authority to regulate truck emissions challenged in the state courts, which returned mixed verdicts for the environmental regulatory agency in 2006.

With no mechanism to provide seamless insurance coverage for trucks crossing the southwestern border, the American Insurance Association has vehemently denounced a recently issued North American Free Trade Agreement panel report regarding the entry of Mexican trucks into the United States.

In the news this morning: OPEC officials set price limit for oil export cuts; rail intermodal traffic near 1999 levels; GM to idle six plants after New Year's Day; and more to come.

Today's technology headlines: Asian electronics market wrestles with supply chain management; small movers get online with reverse auctions; suppliers, manufacturers embrace electronic supply chain systems; and more.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules on diesel were met with skepticism by the trucking industry, and frustration by the refining industry.