The boxes would keep track of information that could be useful in determining what happened in an accident. 

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A woman landed a plane in Denver with help from air traffic controllers and nearby planes when her pilot husband had a medical problem in flight.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) did not veto a sweep of the state's transportation trust fund that advocates were hoping for.

New York City bus ridership is down, though subway numbers are up.

The Department of Transportation has rejected a proposal to push back the beginning of construction of a California high-speed rail.

Republicans plan to introduce a bill to remove the subsidized agency from contention to develop high-speed rail in the Northeast.

The chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) appears to drive a foreign car, despite criticizing Republican presidential candidates for supposedly favoring foreign auto manufacturers.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), the chairwoman of the DNC, ripped into Republican presidential contenders who opposed President Obama's 2009 bailouts for General Motors and Chrysler.

"If it were up to the candidates for president on the Republican side, we would be driving foreign cars; they would have let the auto industry in America go down the tubes," she said at a breakfast for reporters organized by The Christian Science Monitor.

But according to Florida motor vehicle records, the Wasserman Schultz household owns a 2010 Infiniti FX35, a Japanese car whose parent company is Nissan, another Japanese company. The car appears to be hers, since its license plate includes her initials.

The DNC and Republican presidential hopefuls have locked horns this week over the 2009 bailouts, especially as President Obama has looked to build some political report by taking credit for Chrysler's rebound, to the extent that the automaker was able to pay back the remainder of its loans from the federal government.

"They can try to distract from the issue if they want," said DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan. "But if Republican opposition researchers are snooping around garages, they should know that if Republicans — who said that we should let the U.S. auto industry go bankrupt — had their way, they wouldn’t find a single American made car anywhere."

He added: "Besides, Chair Wasserman Schultz voted in Congress to save the American automobile industry, Republicans would have let it go down the tubes."

-- This post was updated at 6:55 p.m.

Republicans should stop comparing Amtrak to trains operated by the former Soviet Union because Russia is now building more railways than the United States, a labor union said Thursday.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) has made a habit out of calling Amtrak "a Soviet-style operation." But at a hearing of the committee Thursday, AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department President Edward Wytkind said that comparisons of the national rail service to the Soviet Union should go the way the former communist stronghold has gone.

Neither what is left of the former Soviet Union nor Amtrak are the same as they used to be, Wytkind said during his testimony before the panel.

“Many criticize Amtrak and liken it to an old-school Soviet passenger rail system," Wytkind said.  "Those critics aren’t paying attention. Today’s Russia is planning for the future by developing 250 mph service between St. Petersburg and Moscow.  They are investing three times what the U.S. invests in rail as a percentage of its economy. 

A conservative Washington, D.C., newspaper said this week that Texas lawmakers should have stood up to federal officials who threatened to cancel flights to Texas if the state passed a bill to outlaw controversial airport pat-downs.
 
The Washington Times said in an editorial that the Texas legislature "needs to grow a backbone" after state lawmakers there responded to a letter from a U.S. District Attorney saying that flights would be grounded if the bill became law by shelving it.

"A state that prides itself on its independence and the slogan 'Don’t mess with Texas' ought not to be easily cowed as the upper chamber was Wednesday," the paper said in its editorial.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg defended the national rail service, saying privatizing Northeast-corridor rail is not a viable way to go.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Rail-killing Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has taken a nosedive in the polls.

A 500-foot wheel has been approved for the Las Vegas strip by the FAA, which worried it would affect flights at McCarran International Airport.

Wisconsin DOT outsourcing is costing taxpayers millions.

Boeing is considering replacing 737s.

Texas state lawmakers have shelved a bill to outlaw controversial airport pat-downs.

The legislation, which would have made it illegal for Transportation Security Administration agents to perform hand searches at airport security checkpoints unless there was probable cause, was approved by the Texas House. 

But the U.S. attorney general's office threatened to cancel flights to Texas if the bill passed, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported this week, and that was enough to give Texas senators cold feet.

Under the proposed legislation, TSA agents would have been charged with a misdemeanor crime and received a $4,000 fine and one year in jail. If it had been approved and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) had signed it, it would have been the first state law restricting TSA's security techniques.