Crystal L. Windham, 35, has been appointed Director of General Motors North American Passenger Car Design, as of November 1. In her new position, Windham will head the interior design for GM North America’s: Global Midsize Car, Global Compact Car, and Global Small Car.

WASHINGTON–The nation’s unemployment rate bolted to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent in October as another 240,000 jobs were cut, far worse than economists expected and stark proof the economy is deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid pace.

In today’s economy, most business owners are thinking about survival. However, many successful entrepreneurs will point to previous economic downturns as the launching pad for explosive growth of their business.

A Black-owned business built from a homemade recipe now has all of its products available to the public after expanding its distribution agreement with major grocery store chain. New dessert items from ComfortCake LLC, a Chicagobased dessert company, is now available at 65 Chicago area Jewel Food Stores, just in time for the holidays, said Amy Hilliard, founder and president of ComfortCake.

WASHINGTON–The government has cleared the way to ship out $125 billion this week to the country's largest banks, beginning the biggest government bailout in history. "The money will go out the door for those institutions early this week," predicts Assistant Treasury Secretary David Nason, one of the chief architects of the rescue plan.

CAMARILLO, Calif.-A national survey shows gas prices continue to decline, tumbling nearly 53 cents a gallon in the last two weeks.

The Chicago Defender’s 2008 class of Newsmakers is a stellar group. John Rogers, the founder and CEO of Ariel Capital Management, has built his company into one of the most respected money managers in the business, and he is still growing.

The bursting of the real estate bubble has created an oversupply of vacant and abandoned homes. Housing values have tumbled and today, it’s a buyer’s market. I asked Linwood Smith, a real estate agent with McMullan Realty in Cleveland is this the time to buy real estate as an investment? “It’s a good time, if you have cash and you know what you are doing.

There are only so many choices a high school graduate can make if college is not an option. One choice, aside from joining the military, is learning a trade. That’s what Project Upgrade, a 14-year-old program, aims to do with its students.

An out-of-work money manager in California loses a fortune and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide. A 90-year-old Ohio widow shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to evict her from the modest house she called home for 38 years.