Joan Lowy Posts

The Senate is set to take up legislation to keep federal highway money flowing to states, with just three days left before the government plans to start slowing down payments. The House passed a $10.8 billion bill last week that would pay for highway and transit aid through the end of May 2015 if transportation spending is maintained at current levels.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it has granted the first permission for commercial drone flights over land, the latest effort by the agency to show it is loosening restrictions on commercial uses of the unmanned aircraft. The BP energy corporation and drone maker AeroVironment of Monrovia, California, have been given permission to use a Puma drone to survey pipelines, roads and equipment at Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, the agency said. The first flight took place on Sunday.

Safety regulators have quietly placed two extra conditions on construction of TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline after learning of potentially dangerous construction defects involving the southern leg of the Canada-to-Texas project.

The Transportation Department is issuing an emergency order requiring that railroads inform state emergency management officials before moving large shipments of crude oil through their states. The department also is urging railroads to use the most protective type of rail tank cars to ship the oil and to avoid, when possible, using older model DOT-111 tanks cars. Those are easily punctured or ruptured in accidents, even at slow speeds.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fell victim to the government shutdown last week, leaving motorists lives in danger. The agency is responsible for overseeing car recalls and monitoring safety issues.

With the blessing of an influential advisory panel, federal regulators are closer to letting airline passengers use their smartphones, tablets, e-readers and other electronic gadgets during takeoffs and landings.

Despite a rash of deadly train crashes, the railroad industry's allies in Congress are trying to push back the deadline for installing technology to prevent the most catastrophic types of collisions until at least 2020, half a century after accident investigators first called for such safety measures. It's a prime example of the way lobbyists can work in Washington, even after a law is passed.

With disgruntled passengers complaining about airline flight delays, Republican lawmakers and the airline industry pounced on the Obama administration. The glitch was invented by the White House for political reasons, they charged, and officials waited until the last minute to warn Congress and the airlines of the impending upheaval.

They were wrong on the first count and partly right on the second.

Air traffic controller furloughs scheduled to kick in on Sunday could result in flight delays of more than three hours in Atlanta, as well as significant delays in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York-area airports, federal officials said Thursday.

Airports in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Charlotte, North Carolina; San Diego, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, as well as Chicago's Midway Airport, are also expected to experience significant delays, the officials said, although they didn't provide estimates on how long those delays might be.

Virgin America did the best job for its customers among leading U.S. airlines last year, a report said Monday, as carriers overall had their second best performance in the more than the two decades since researchers began measuring quality of service.

The report ranked the 14 largest U.S. airlines based on on-time arrivals, mishandled bags, consumer complaints and passengers who bought tickets but were turned away because flights were over booked.

The closings of control towers at 149 small airports, due to begin this weekend because of government-wide spending cuts, are being delayed until June 15, federal regulators announced Friday. The Federal Aviation Administration said it needs more time to deal with legal challenges to the closures.

The first 24 tower closures were scheduled to begin Sunday, with the rest coming over the next few weeks. Obama administration officials have said the closures are necessary to accomplish government-wide automatic spending cuts required by Congress.

The new policy permits folding knives with blades that are 2.36 inches or less in length and are less than 1/2-inch wide. The policy is aimed at allowing passengers to carry pen knives, corkscrews with small blades and other knives.

Passengers will also be allowed to bring onboard as part of their carry-on luggage novelty-sized baseball bats less than 24 inches long, toy plastic bats, billiard cues, ski poles, hockey sticks, lacrosse sticks, and two golf clubs, the agency said. The policy goes into effect on April 25.

Box cutters, razor blades and knives that don't fold or that have molded grip handles will still be prohibited, the TSA said.