Automobiles

Your morning transportation speed-read:

The Federal Aviation Administration is celebrating the 75th anniversary of air traffic control.

Washington Mayor Vincent Gray is the latest politician to come out in favor of an above-ground D.C. MetroRail station at Dulles Airport.

The driver in the latest fatal bus crash in Northern Virginia has pleaded not guilty.

Virginia Sens. Jim Webb (D) and Mark Warner (D) are calling for allowing offshore oil drilling in their state.

The U.S. and Mexican governments signed an agreement Wednesday to resolve a long-running dispute over cross-border trucking.

In Mexico City, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood signed the agreement with Dionisio Arturo Pérez-Jácome Friscione, Mexico’s secretary of Communication and Transportation. The deal will lift heavy tariffs that Mexico placed on U.S. goods and will allow Mexican truckers to drive on U.S. roads.

“The agreements signed today are a win for roadway safety and they are a win for trade. By opening the door to long-haul trucking between the United States and Mexico, America’s third largest trading partner, we will create jobs and opportunity for our people and support economic development in both nations,” LaHood said in a statement.

The deal will have Mexico lift tariffs off more than $2 billion in U.S. goods. In addition, Mexico will suspend 50 percent of these tariffs in the next 10 days. In exchange, U.S. roads are eventually fully opened to Mexican trucks.

The government should pay a higher rate for miles employees drive for work, the National Treasury Employees Union said.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that the Obama administration would "talk to our friends" in Detroit before it finalizes fuel efficiency standards for automobiles.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) is warning central Florida officials they'll have to pay for cost overruns from a commuter railway he's about to decide on.

Singer Patti LaBelle has countersued the Texas man who sued her following an altercation with her bodyguards at Houston's George H.W. Bush Intercontinental Airport.

A passenger at Sacramento International Airport was arrested for having a loaded gun in his bag.

President Obama pushed Congress Wednesday to pass several pending trade agreements by saying they would boost the resurgent U.S. auto industry.

A deal was reached this week to allow a Senate committee to begin debating the agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. During a news conference Wednesday, Obama said the deals would improve sales of American autos abroad at a time when the Detroit-based companies have started to turn around their operations.

"The reason I want to get these trade deals done is because you see a whole bunch of Korean cars here in the United States and you don't see any American cars in Korea," Obama said Wednesday. 

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Lawmakers are expected to approve another short-term extension of the Federal Aviation Administration's funding.

The sun is setting on Florida Gov. Rick Scott's (R) review of a proposed commuter railway in Orlando.

Boeing is facing a $1 billion fine from the FAA.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally has been named 'Chief Executive of the Year' in the auto industry.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is heading to Detroit to visit two General Motors plants.

Vision Airlines is canceling several of its routes.

Officials in New Jersey are increasing security on trains and buses.

The driver of a truck that crashed into an Amtrak train in Nevada has been identified.

Your morning transportation speed-read

A quadriplegic man was forced to leave an airplane in Dallas.

A woman who caused a bomb scare over the weekend at Washington's Ronald Reagan international airport said God made her make the threat.

Men who drive sports cars may not have "Just Married" cans hanging from them any time soon.

More cars are not coming with spare tires.

The American auto companies were in the process of turning around their businesses before the government bailouts they received in 2008, former General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said in an interview Wednesday.

Promoting his new book Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business, Lutz said that the Detroit-based "Big Three" companies recognized their errors and had begun making necessary changes in 2007.

"If we hadn't have had the subprime meltdown in '08 coupled with that sudden doubling of gasoline prices, I think all three companies would have been OK," Lutz said during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

2012 hopeful accused the union of having "bought and paid for" President Obama's last campaign.