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Future U.S. economic vitality depends on an adequately funded rural road system that can accommodate heavier trucks, a South Dakota trucking company president told a Senate committee last week.

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood an-nounced last week he will take steps to try to further curb distracting driving activities such as text messaging or using a cell phone or a Global Positioning System device.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s decision to cut the maximum allowed stopping distance for large trucks by 30% will increase truck buyers’ costs somewhat, but will not force a widespread shift to new technology such as air disc brakes, industry groups and manufacturers said.

Finance and leasing industry officials said a proposal to reclassify equipment leases as a form of debt or asset, rather than an expense, would be difficult and costly for most companies to comply with.

Iteris Inc., which makes lane-departure warning systems for the trucking industry, said Thursday its fiscal first-quarter profit decreased from a year ago.

Harbor commissioners at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., are expected to approve a plan next month to spend $46.5 million in new grant funding from the state to fast-track the purchase of up to 500 new liquefied natural gas trucks, officials with both ports said.

Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier, plans to pay Ericsson AB as much as $5 billion to manage its networks, offloading the expense of running its own systems.

HOUSTON — During the second half of 2007, when the U.S. economy and stock market were at their respective peaks, a colleague of James Crane said he was — for a brief while — bitter and unhappy. But as gross domestic product and the value of stocks, housing and other assets fell dramatically, the smile returned to Crane’s face as he realized the comfort of cash — hundreds of millions of dollars of it.