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The Federal Reserve voted to keep a key U.S. interest rate at a record low and said it would buy $600 billion in government bonds over the next eight months in an effort to shore up the economy.

A slate of proposed amendments to California’s tough heavy truck diesel emissions reduction regulation would save the trucking industry more than $3 billion in retrofits and engine replacements and delay some compliance requirements by a year or more, according to a report by the state’s environmental regulatory staff.

A group of private investors and developers has submitted a proposal to the Virginia Department of Transportation to expand and operate the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the section of Interstate 64 that runs between Hampton and Virginia Beach.

Truck tolls will rise on six of the seven major bridges and tunnels operated within New York City by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, beginning Dec. 30.

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

Manufacturing activity in the Chicago region improved in October, showing continued expansion, the Institute for Supply Chain Management-Chicago said Friday.

California environmental regulators were expected late last week to make public their final slate of proposed amendments designed to help motor carriers ease the financial pain of complying with the state’s tough heavy-duty truck greenhouse gas emissions reduction and retrofitting regulations.

A federal judge last week temporarily blocked a ban on owner-operators at the Port of Los Angeles, granting an injunction sought by American Trucking Associations.

When transport industry leaders gather Nov. 14-16 for the annual TransComp/Intermodal Expo in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., they will be probing for solutions to wide-ranging regulatory, commercial and policy issues, including the Compliance, Safety and Accountability program of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and infrastructure funding.