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U.S. manufacturing activity contracted for the first time since July 2009, the Institute for Supply Management said Monday.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced $30 million for the replacement or repair of rural roads as part of the agency’s most recent “TIGER” grants.

President Obama has nominated Polly Trottenberg to serve as the Department of Transportation’s undersecretary for policy, the White House announced.

Congress was set last week to pass new transportation legislation authorizing highway spending through September 2014, after House and Senate negotiators agreed on a bill that included a mandate for electronic onboard recorders for trucks and a study of the 34-hour restart provision in driver hours-of-service regulations.

UPS said it has completed testing of its “plastic truck,” a composite-bodied vehicle that’s lighter and uses 40% less fuel than its current package cars, and will soon add 150 of the new vehicles to its delivery fleet.

A year after U.S. officials agreed to allow Mexican trucks into the country, only four Mexican carriers are participating, far below the number the United States has said would be needed to judge the safety of Mexican trucks.

The House on Friday passed a transportation spending measure that would block rules requiring electronic onboard recorders on trucks.

Consumer confidence dropped in June to the lowest level this year, according to the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index released Friday.

U.S. Consumer spending was unchanged in May, the weakest reading since November, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The U.S. economy grew at a 1.9% annual rate in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday, holding an earlier estimate.