Clinton, who holds a double-digit lead over Barack Obama in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary race, rolled into town to participate in a roundtable discussion at the diner with middle-class residents from the region and Harrisburg Mayor Stephen R. Reed.

The truckers were among a group of drivers who participated in a morning rally at the state Capitol to protest the increasing cost of diesel fuel they said has hurt their industry.

Clinton stopped to talk to the truckers on her way into the restaurant. She invited "J.B." Michael A. Schaffner of Nocoma, Tex. and rally organizer Mark Kirsch, an independent truck driver from Myerstown, Lebanon County, to participate in the discussion.

"Mark and J.B. are doing what Americans do. They stand up when they're pushed to the edge," Clinton said.

Video/Eric Veronikis

If elected president, Clinton vowed to roll back tax cuts the Bush administration has given to oil companies throughout his two terms in office.

One of the participants in the discussion asked Clinton what she could do to help stimulate the creation of high-paying manufacturing jobs in the U.S. Clinton said tax breaks must be shifted from the oil industry to the manufacturing industry and breaks would not be given to companies that send jobs overseas. The U.S. must invest in environmentally friendly manufacturing, too, she said.

"The Bush administration walked away from manufacturing. We have been outsourcing our manufacturing jobs," Clinton said. "We should be manufacturing wind turbines, solar panels and new fuel-efficient engines."

Reed spoke of the importance of experience in politics. He said Clinton, whose parents are from Scranton, has been fighting for the middle class her entire career.

"She talks about real solutions," Reed said. "Throughout your entire career you have bypassed lobbyists and special interest groups and took the time to speak to real people."

Clinton also touted her desire to lower interest rates on student loans for college. She wants to create more federal grant opportunities, too, she said.

"Students should not be ripped off by student-loan companies," Clinton said. "We will look into ways to expand assistance that doesn't have to be paid back."

Hillary supporters chanted her name when she entered and left the restaurant. There was hardly an inch to move in the place. The restaurant was packed tight.

Michelle Heh, 40, of Hampden Township, teaches English as a second language to students at Cumberland Valley High School.

Heh said she believes Hillary will help make education more accessible and will do away with the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind standards that impose unrealistic expectations, she said.

Housewife Robin Butler, 46, of Lower Paxton Township attended with her husband. She said Clinton understands the needs of the middle class more than any other candidate.

"The economy affects everything. It affects health care, wages and jobs," Butler said. "That's one thing she recognizes more than anyone else."

The convoy paraded along Third and Second streets in Harrisburg, monopolizing the traffic flow and making conversation nearly impossible. The show drew Capitol staff and downtown office workers out into the rain to watch.

"Does everyone think we're getting our point across?" rally organizer Mark Kirsch yelled through a bull horn.

Truckers and their supporters are calling on politicians in Harrisburg, other state capitols and Washington, D.C., to act on the high price of fuel.

Video/Jim T. Ryan

The truckers taped and painted signs on their trucks with slogans such as "Citizens for fair oil prices," "United we stand" and "Enough is enough."

The convoy continued as truckers -- joined by supporters -- gathered on the Capitol steps. A truck driver from Northumberland County and his son wore signs on their jackets protesting the price of diesel fuel which is more than $4 per gallon.

"The high fuel price doesn't only hurt the trucker," said the trucker, who asked to be identified as Spencer. "It hurts all the American people."

Prices paid by shippers are not increasing, yet fuel costs continue to spiral upwards, he said. Last year, Spencer paid $40,000 on fuel alone.

Truckers are demanding more regulation to guarantee fuel surcharges be paid to truckers so that independents and small companies don't go out of business. They also want lower fuel taxes and oppose plans to toll or lease additional highways, such as the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 80, Kirsch said.

Sue Penny's son is a truck driver. She stood in the rain holding a sign and supporting the truckers. She said high gas and heating-fuel prices are hurting everyone.

"Between that and driving, that's all I'm working for," she said.

The truckers and supporters also called on everyone to unite behind the cause. They want politicians to act on the high fuel prices and record profits to oil companies.

"Let's all unite, citizens and truck drivers. I don't care if you drive a scooter!" Kirsch said.

Click here for more information on the truckers who are organizing.

"I am running because of what Dr. (Martin Luther) King called the fierce urgency of now," Obama told the crowd, citing the Iraq war and the economy. "People cannot afford health care. Schools are leaving millions and millions of children behind. We can't wait to create good-paying jobs here in Harrisburg and all across Pennsylvania."

Video/Eric Veronikis

Obama was on the third day of a six-day bus tour through Pennsylvania aimed at chipping away at rival Hillary Clinton's lead in the polls. The most recent Franklin and Marshall College poll, released March 20, put Clinton's lead at 16 percent.

A man who identified himself as a veteran schoolteacher asked Obama what could be done to ensure youths buy into the education system. Obama discussed programs to reach at-risk families and said classes should be made more relevant by linking up to career paths. But he also took parents to task, drawing applause.

"Parents have to parent," Obama said. "If your child is misbehaving in school, don't cuss out the teacher."

Obama said children in places such as India and China are outscoring American students because of their hunger to learn, despite having fewer resources.

Fielding a question about why women earn less than men, Obama said society does too little to support families and women often shoulder the cost.

"Women then bear the brunt of child rearing, which puts them in a worse position economically," he said. He called for an expansion of the Family Medical Leave Act and measures to improve child care. Obama also said equal-pay laws should be strictly enforced.

Obama condemned the war in Iraq but linked it back to the economy, suggesting at one point that some of the funds being spent on the war could be used to improve infrastructure in Harrisburg. He also touted his proposals for health insurance and renewable energy. Tax breaks that went to the top 1 percent of income earners during the tenure of President George W. Bush should be replaced with middle-class tax cuts, Obama said.

Obama stuck mostly to discussions of his ideas, but he lashed out at rivals John McCain and Clinton toward the end of his speech.

McCain changed his position on the Bush tax cuts by first voting against them and now supporting their renewal, Obama said.

"The wheels on the ‘Straight Talk Express' came off when it comes to this issue," Obama said, using a recycled line that refers to the nickname of McCain's campaign bus. In another familiar refrain, Obama attacked Clinton's decision to authorize the Iraq war in 2002.

Voters in the audience said they wanted to hear about the economy above all.

Hairdresser Susan Wevodau, 55, said her husband is a masonry contractor who struggles to provide health insurance to his 13 employees. Wevodau also owns her own business, and she said the family's profits have been flat.

"The middle class is being totally sunk," she said.

Mike Mercado, a 24-year-old who works for a temporary-employment agency, also said the economy was his top issue.

"The economy's horrible right now. Anybody who is not filthy rich is really hurting right now," he said.

Michael J. Coleman, a New York-based analyst for the brokerage Sterne Agee, gave Johnson's stock a "hold" rating as he initiated coverage of the Milwaukee-based company. Johnson has a research and production center for air-conditioning systems in York County. The center is part of Johnson's "building efficiency" segment, which provides environmentally friendly building retrofits. Johnson expanded that business with its acquisition of the former York International Corp. in 2005.

Building efficiency will account for almost half of operating profits in Johnson's fiscal 2008, Coleman projected.

"JCI's building efficiency segment is benefiting from robust commercial construction markets in emerging markets as well as a focus on energy efficiency on a more global basis," Coleman wrote.

Johnson also makes interior automotive components and car batteries. The company is a leader in the production of batteries for hybrid cars, according to the note.

Coleman set a $32 price target for Johnson's stock, which was trading at $33.43 as 10:45 this morning, according to Google Finance.

Johnson Controls shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol JCI.

-- DAVID DAGAN

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Results will be published in the Fri., April 4 edition of the Business Journal. Comments may be published. If you wish to comment, please include your name and the county where you live. The deadline to respond is 10 a.m. Tues., April 1.

The plan would change how the government regulates thousands of businesses from the nation's biggest banks and investment houses down to the local insurance agent and mortgage broker.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson unveiled the 218-page plan in a speech in Treasury's ornate Cash Room. He declared that a strong financial system was important not just for Wall Street but also for working Americans.

The administration's plan was already drawing criticism from Democrats that it does not go far enough to deal with abuses in mortgage lending and securities trading that were exposed by the current credit crisis.

The plan, which would require congressional approval for its biggest changes, seeks to trim a hodge-podge collection of overlapping jurisdictions that date back to the Civil War. –The Associated Press

Corn prices have skyrocketed in recent years, helped by the burgeoning ethanol industry, which turns the crop into fuel, and rising worldwide demand for food. The higher prices have hurt poultry, beef and pork companies, who use corn to feed their animals.

Farmers are expected to plant 86 million acres of corn this year, the government predicted today, down 8 percent from 2007, when the amount of corn planted was the highest since World War II. The decreased supply could drive corn prices even higher -- a cost for food producers that could be passed on to consumers.

According to the agriculture department, corn planting is expected to remain at historically high levels but could be down this year because of the high expense of growing corn and favorable prices for other crops, such as soybeans. –The Associated Press

In remarks both personal and philosophical, McCain recalled ancestors buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and mused about "the honor we earn and the love we give when we work and sacrifice with others for a cause greater than our self-interest."

A prisoner of war in Vietnam at a time his own father commanded all U.S. forces in the Pacific, McCain said, "He prayed on his knees every night for my safe return. ... Yet, when duty required it, he gave the order for B-52s to bomb Hanoi, in close proximity to my prison."

The Arizona senator spoke at Mississippi State University near a naval air field named for his grandfather. It was the first stop on a weeklong tour that his campaign called a "Service to America Tour," an attempt to introduce him to the public as his party's candidate for the fall campaign. –The Associated Press

The contractor, ICF International of Fairfax, Va., revealed the extent of the overpayments when it issued a March 11 request for bids from companies willing to handle "approximately 1,000 to 5,000 cases that will necessitate collection effort."

The bid invitation said: "The average amount to be collected is estimated to be approximately $35,000, but in some cases may be as high as $100,000 to $150,000."

The biggest grant amount allowed by the Road Home program is $150,000, so ICF believes it paid some recipients the maximum when they should not have received a penny. If ICF's highest estimate of 5,000 collection cases -- overpaid by an average of $35,000 -- proves to be true, that means applicants will have to pay back a total of $175 million.

One-third of qualified applicants for Road Home help had yet to receive any rebuilding check as of this past week. The program, which has come to symbolize the lurching Katrina recovery effort, is financed by $11 billion in federal funds. –The Associated Press

A key adviser to Iraq's prime minister, meanwhile, said military operations in an oil-rich southern city besieged by nearly a week of fighting will end within days.

Sami al-Askari also said most of Basra, where the government attempted to crack down on militia fighters, was "under control" a day after Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took his Mahdi Army off the streets.

Fighting between al-Sadr's followers and Iraqi and coalition troops raged since Tuesday, when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki began military operations against the group and vowed to remain in Basra until the mission was accomplished. The battles there sparked violence in other southern cities and in Baghdad. –The Associated Press

Rice's comments came after she held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the end of a three-day Mideast mission with the goal of achieving an agreement before President Bush leaves office next January. Earlier today, Rice met separately with both the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Israel and said that she was impressed by the seriousness of their work.

"I think it's all moving in the right direction," Rice said at a news conference with Abbas, saying that things are proceeding toward the goal of reaching some sort of peace agreement by 2009 that would lead toward the creation of a Palestinian state.

"I fully believe it is a goal we can reach," Rice said.

Asked, however, about Israel continuing to approve construction of new housing in contested territory, Rice criticized the close U.S. ally.

"Settlement activity should stop - expansion should stop," Rice said. –The Associated Press

A police officer patrolling the K.C. Lounge parking lot Friday morning in the Dayton, Ohio, suburb of Riverside spotted out-of-state license plates on 46-year-old Craig Rhodenizer's car.

The FBI and New York authorities had been searching for Rhodenizer, who disappeared Wednesday after telling his wife he was getting his computer fixed at Best Buy. He is the pastor of a church in Lyndonville, N.Y.

Detective Matt Sturgeon said Rhodenizer was disoriented when confronted by police and said he felt "emotionally guilty." –The Associated Press