On any given day during regular business hours, customers can find Vonda Harris Cade discussing the performance of high quality wheels, inspecting breaks or dealing with distributors. A woman functioning in a male dominated industry, Cade has owned and operated Alpha and Omega Wheels in the Verona/Penn Hills area since 2005.

ON DISPLAY—Vonda and Sponce Cade show off their wheels. (Photo by Rossano P. Stewart)

Known for carrying the largest selection of after market wheels, Cade says people of all ages, gender and nationalities travel from around the area to utilize the services of Alpha and Omega to enhance the appearance of their vehicle.

by Alan Zibel

WASHINGTON (AP)—The number of people who signed contracts to buy homes rose in August for the second straight month but remained far below last year’s pace. The weak economy and fears that prices will fall are keeping many consumers away from the housing market.

The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its seasonally adjusted index of sales agreements for previously occupied homes rose 4.3 percent to a reading of 82.3. That’s still more than 20 percent below the pace in the same month a year earlier.

With more foreclosure filings and few job opportunities for unemployed homeowners, the U.S. Department of Treasury recently announced funding awards for states suffering severe economic challenges. States benefiting will be locales where unemployment rates meet or surpass that of the national average or where the decline in home prices is greater than 20 percent since the housing market downturn. The recently announced funding totals $3.5 billion and will be spread among 19 states.

(NNPA)—“We must demonstrate our capacity to cooperate among ourselves, before demanding cooperation where the resources of others are at stake. Business is the ultimate test of our ability to cooperate. Somehow we must learn this fundamental lesson. It will be costly; there will be some loss in the process, but we must keep it up until we have developed within the race a group of people of definite capacity and unquestioned integrity, who can lead the way to larger achievements for the benefit of the whole race.” -- R.R. Moton, president, National Negro Business League, 1928

It seems so difficult for Moton’s message to sink in and be implemented by many of our business owners. You would think that during the last 82 years since he spoke those words Black folks, collectively, would have built hundreds of business associations, thereby commanding a much higher percentage of business revenues than we do today.