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The Department of Transportation will issue $1.5 billion for 51 projects across the country as the final piece of the Obama administration’s stimulus program, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Feb. 17.

The chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, along with representatives of state transportation departments and contractors, urged the Senate to pass a scaled-back version of a jobs bill that would include infrastructure funding, when Congress returns from recess this week.

The transportation and logistics industries must do a better job of recruiting employees and upgrading the skills of current workers to meet the increasing needs of shippers, said several leaders in those industries.

A year into the Obama administration, American Trucking Associations President Bill Graves said the trucking industry’s challenges are primarily regulatory, rather than legislative, because of the gridlock that has enveloped Congress since last year.

Diesel prices slipped for the fifth week in a row, dropping 1.3 cents to a national average of $2.756 a gallon, the U.S. Department of Energy said in its weekly fuel report.

U.S. Class 8 retail truck sales eked out their first year-over-year gain in 13 months in January, inching up 0.2% compared with January 2009, WardsAuto.com reported.

Manufacturing levels in the Philadelphia expanded in February at a highest pace in more than five years, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Thursday.

An index of leading economic indicators improved for a tenth straight month in January, the New York-based Conference Board said Thursday.

Prices paid to U.S. producers rose 1.4% in January, the Labor Department said Tuesday.

The Department of Transportation’s freight transportation services index for December fell 4.1% from a year earlier but did not change from November, DOT said Thursday.