LISLE, Illinois (Reuters) – Truck and engine maker Navistar International Corp (NAV.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it will partner with oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens’ Clean Energy Fuels Corp (CLNE.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to develop natural gas-powered trucks.

Navistar said it and Clean Energy will work with the company’s commercial truck dealers and fleet customers to deploy natural-gas powered trucks and a natural gas distribution support system.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The percentage of workers represented by a union dipped slightly in 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday, as organized labor came under attack in states once considered union strongholds, including Wisconsin and Ohio.

In 2011, 11.8 percent of U.S. workers were represented by a union, the BLS said, down from 11.9 percent in 2010 and compared to a peak of 28.3 percent of the workforce in 1954.

By James Kelleher

(Reuters) – A Wisconsin judge agreed on Thursday to hear a challenge to the state’s new voter ID law, passed last year by lawmakers concerned about ballot-box fraud but which critics say suppresses voting by the elderly and poor.

The decision clears the way for arguments to be heard on March 9 in the suit, which attempts to overturn the law on the grounds it violates the state constitution.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Americans honored Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday with a traditional day of service as well as a new wave of protests by Occupy Wall Street to promote causes of economic justice.

Across the nation, hundreds of formal events were planned for the federal holiday to celebrate the slain leader’s birthday and legacy, from prayer services to parades to performances.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A respiratory illness that strikes the elderly knocked homicide off the list of the top killers in the United States for the first time in 45 years in 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

In its annual report on U.S. mortality, the CDC said a condition known as pneumonitis had replaced murder as a leading cause of death in the country.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The FBI performed a record number of instant background checks on would-be firearm buyers in 2011 as Americans went on an apparent gun-buying spree, according to new government data.

The FBI said it fielded nearly 16.5 million queries from firearms sellers last year, checking that customers buying guns did not have criminal records or other red flags that made them ineligible to purchase weapons.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Washington will become the first U.S. state to require a minimum wage of more than $9 an hour when it joins seven other states on Sunday in automatically adjusting salaries to keep up with inflation.

More than a million low-wage U.S. workers will see their hourly pay go up after the adjustment but many will remain in the ranks of the working poor in a country where nearly one in six live below the official poverty line, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Washington will be the first state to require a minimum wage of more than $9 an hour when it joins seven other states on Sunday in automatically adjusting salaries to keep up with inflation.

More than a million low-wage U.S. workers will see their hourly pay go up after the adjustment but many will remain mired in the ranks of the working poor in a country where nearly one-in-six live below the poverty line, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

CHICAGO (Reuters) – An Iowa professor said he stands by an article about the Midwestern state that says rural towns are populated with “waste-toids” and “meth addicts,” and has sparked outrage from residents.

University of Iowa Journalism Professor Stephen Bloom’s article was published Friday on the website of The Atlantic magazine, some three weeks before Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses on January 3.

By James B. Kelleher

(Reuters) – The youth charity founded by the former Penn State football coach accused of serial child sex abuse said on Wednesday it was laying off an unspecified number of employees, citing a sharp drop in donations.

In a statement posted on its website, The Second Mile said it had “lost significant financial support” in recent weeks as the allegations emerged. The former coach, Jerry Sandusky, met several of the alleged victims through his work with The Second Mile, according to the charges.