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Manufacturing levels in the Philadelphia region contracted in January, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Thursday. It was the 13th month of contraction in the last 14 months.

Transport Topics Online will be closed Monday, Jan. 19, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and Tuesday, Jan. 20, due to the presidential inauguration. Please check back on Wednesday, Jan. 21, for the latest trucking and freight transportation news.

Anything Trucker, an Internet retailer of truck and trailer accessories, said Jan. 5 it had launched the Freight Auction Network for less-than-truckload carriers.

A California legislator has introduced a bill to put a moratorium on digital advertising displays on highways until studies determine whether the billboards are safe.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator-designate Lisa Jackson said she was “open to discussion” of a carbon tax to limit greenhouse gas emissions and would immediately begin a review of the Bush administration’s denial of California’s request to regulate those emissions from automobiles.

The U.S. economy weakened across almost all regions at the end of last year, hurt by a lack of credit and declines in retail sales, the Federal Reserve reported.

Business inventories fell 0.7% in November, the third consecutive month of decline, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

Initial jobless claims rose last week by 54,000 claims, to 524,000 for the week ended Saturday, the Labor Department said Thursday.