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U.S. payrolls declined in July as the unemployment rate rose to 5.7%, the highest level since 2004, the Labor Department said Friday.

The national average retail price of diesel fell 11.5 cents to $4.603 a gallon last week, the largest one-week drop in nearly two years and the second consecutive weekly decline, the Department of Energy reported.

The U.S. economic stimulus package and inventory replenishment by customers powered a 5.4% rise in truck tonnage during June compared with last year, the eighth consecutive monthly increase, American Trucking Associations said.

American Trucking Associations last week asked a federal court to block emission-reduction plans by the California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that include concessionaire requirements the group said “unlawfully re-regulated the federally de-regulated trucking industry.”

Declaring the current system irrevocably “broken,” Transportation Secretary Mary Peters unveiled the Bush administration’s final major surface transportation policy initiative — a reform of the highway program that includes unlimited tolling and an increased emphasis on private capital.

Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire said Thursday that it will raise prices by up to 10% on all of its truck, bus, pickup and passenger tires because of higher raw materials costs and persistently high fuel prices.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s second-quarter profit rose to $75 million, or 31 cents a share, from $56 million, or 26 cents, in 2007 as stronger international sales offset a slip in the North American market, the company said Thursday.

The U.S. Coast Guard has begun setting dates when truckers and others who enter ports in ports must have the government-issued Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC, that is meant to prevent terror attacks on the docks.