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Economic activity improved slightly in September into early October, with modest gains in manufacturing and transportation activity, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday.

The consumer price index rose 0.3% in September, the slowest pace in three months, the Labor Department said Wednesday.

Every state receives more in highway funding than it is contributing to the Highway Trust Fund via federal fuel taxes and truck excise taxes, said a new study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The economic outlook for trucking is “muddled at best, with the industry facing softening demand and rising costs,” American Trucking Associations’ Chief Economist Bob Costello said at the group’s annual conference in Texas this week.

Replacement work on the Tappan Zee Bridge across the Hudson River north of New York City could begin as early as next year under a federal program to expedite large infrastructure projects.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s decision to allow a Mexico-based carrier to operate in the United States received praise from U.S. groups whose exports to Mexico will soon be free from retaliatory tariffs.

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s proposal for a $10 billion national infrastructure bank is “dead on arrival,” the chairman of the House transportation committee said last week, and other Republicans on the panel said the bank was unnecessary because its goals could be achieved through other means.

Consumer confidence declined this month, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index released Friday.

WASHINGTON — House Republicans attacked President Obama’s proposal for a national infrastructure bank at a hearing Wednesday, saying it is unnecessary and its goals could be achieved through other means.

Highway safety advocates and the Teamsters union have written to President Obama asking him to “expeditiously more forward” on the new hours of service rule proposed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.