91ÊÓƵ

When James P. Hoffa took office as general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in May 1999, following a tortuous and drawn-out election battle, the trucking community waited with bated breath.

In recounting his first year as general president of the Teamsters union, James P. Hoffa last week cited success in winning better contracts and recruiting new members. And at nearly the same moment that he was painting an upbeat picture, his first re-election opponent was throwing his hat into the ring.

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to add cost-benefit analysis to the Environmental Protection Agency’s rulemaking responsibilities under the Clean Air Act, which is now based solely on health and welfare considerations.

A federal judge in Arizona last week ordered an insurance company to pay more than $3 million to a computer firm for business lost as a result of a power outage.

A law mandating an exit as well as entry visa for aliens crossing land borders of the United States is doomed without ever being implemented.

The state of Washington adopted an ergonomics standard that officials said would help reduce 50,000 workplace injuries and the $411 million in costs attributable to those injuries.

A full year after CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railroad began to dismember and divide Conrail, both companies are still battered and bruised in recovering from a debacle that damaged their reputations, their customer relations and their bottom lines.

Fast delivery of vehicles is a relative concept. For heavy-duty tractors with highly customized spec sheets, fast delivery could mean any time under six months. Buyers of medium-duty walk-in parcel delivery vans, however, are more accustomed to a two- to three-month wait for delivery from the time of order.

The American biodiesel industry, responding to a report that a Belgian study found biodiesel detrimental to the environment, said its soy-based product does not contain harmful ingredients.

The price of diesel fuel fell one-tenth of a cent this week, while analysts continued to warn that inventories are at alarmingly low levels.