Government

The U.S. Postal Service ended its 2012 fiscal year with a record loss of $15.9 billion, compared with a loss of $5.1 billion for the same period a year earlier.

The consumer price index rose 0.1% in October, the slowest pace in three months, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The people have spoken. And the answer to the question, “Who will lead us in Washington?” is — depending on your point of view — “all of the above” or “none of the above.”

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced that bus and truck companies no longer will be allowed to request a 10-day extension to resolve an appeal after they are ordered to cease operations for unsafe business practices.

Wholesale inventories increased 1.1% in September, the largest this year, while sales rose 2%, the Commerce Department said Friday.

A group of local governments in southern Virginia announced they have hired an attorney to help them fight the state’s proposal to put a toll on the section of Interstate 95 that runs through the area.

An index of the U.S. economy’s service sector declined in October, the Institute for Supply Management said Monday.

CINCINNATI — Truck and engine makers said that meeting the federal government’s greenhouse-gas standards that take effect in 2017 while still complying with the 2010 emissions rule is a difficult challenge and could result in more “hard programming” of engine settings and fewer choices for fleets in their tractors.

Other than agreement over the need for more infrastructure investment, there has been very little formal discussion of the issue between President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney.