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With federal highway funds dwindling, some states are proposing unprecedented fuel-tax increases, while others are considering legalized gaming and boosting sales taxes to pay for roads and bridge fixes.

In the wake of two West Coast bus crashes that each killed multiple passengers within weeks of each other, federal officials have launched a crackdown on unsafe bus operations, in which officers and auditors will investigate high-risk motorcoach companies.

Virginia House and Senate negotiators agreed to a compromise transportation plan Wednesday that would eliminate the per-gallon tax on diesel and gasoline, replacing both with wholesale taxes paid by fuel distributors, the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch reported.

Consumer confidence rose in February, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index released Friday.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), a longtime advocate of transportation safety and infrastructure, will not seek reelection in 2014, he announced Thursday.

The United States and the European Union said they will begin talks for a transatlantic free-trade deal, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

The Virginia Senate has passed a transportation funding bill that would increase the 17.5-cent tax on gasoline and diesel by 5 cents to 22.5 cents, putting the senators at odds with the House and Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, who want to stop taxing gasoline but keep the diesel tax.

The Virginia Senate on Wednesday passed a transportation funding bill that would raise the state’s 17.5-cent tax on gasoline and diesel fuel by a nickel, to 22.5 cents a gallon, after last week rejecting Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposal to do away with the gasoline tax entirely.