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Consumer confidence rose in May to the highest level in nearly five years, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index released Friday.

New home sales climbed 3.3% in April, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

Trucking industry leaders called on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Tuesday to make changes to its safety monitoring system, which they said assigns scores that have little correlation to carriers’ crash risks.

We live in an age of electronic information. Computers, the Internet, iPhones, iPads, GPS . . . all these technological wonders work to make our lives easier, reduce paperwork and give us all more time to do other things.

After carefully weighing the pros and cons in the sometimes overheated debate over whether the federal government should mandate electronic logging devices in heavy-duty trucks, we unequivocally support a requirement for electronic logging to monitor hours-of-service compliance.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said it hopes to significantly reduce truck-related crash fatality rates over the next five years by developing new credentialing and driver safety fitness standards, expanding its regulatory reach to include shippers and other industry players, and creating new programs aimed at weeding out high-risk motor carriers.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has formally withdrawn its regulation that would have mandated electronic onboard recorders for some carriers.

An index of leading economic indicators fell in April following six straight increases, the New York-based Conference Board said Thursday.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ordered two affiliated Alabama trucking companies to stop operating, declaring the carriers “imminent hazards to public safety.”