After a hiatus, the Conga Room has returned to Los Angeles in style. Founding partner Brad Gluckstein and many of his celebrity partners, including Jimmy Smits, Jennifer Lopez, Amaury Nolasco, Sheila E., Trevor Ariza, and Will.i.am (who headlined that night's performance), welcomed an appreciative crowd to the new 15,000-square-foot facility. HispanicBusiness.com spoke with Mr. Gluckstein about the Conga Room's reopening event, and his expectations for what's looking to be one of the most exciting venues in the city.

The economic crisis facing the nation presents serious challenges to minority-owned suppliers seeking to land elusive corporate contracts.

Are you thinking about the federal government as a possible place of employment? A career with the federal government may well be the best way to seek refuge from the current economy. The national government has more than 1.7 million jobs and approximately 400 occupational specialties. But which agency is best to work for?

A couple of months back we told you about three of the Web-based businesses we're most anticipating. One of them, Fonolo, has now moved into "public beta" mode, which means that anyone can try it out. Fonolo enables users to manage their customer service/phone bank experience, skipping many steps within a corporation's often-frustrating automated phone menus.

President Bush awarded the Rev. John P. Foley, founder of the Cristo Rey Network, the prestigious Presidential Citizens Medal in a ceremony Wednesday at the White House. The Cristo Rey Network, established in 2002, is an association of 22 schools across the nation. It has adopted a work-study model that has proven successful in helping Hispanic and other minority students gain entrance to college programs.

The number of Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States is expected to grow 41.8 percent in the next six years to 4.3 million, with total revenues surging 39 percent to more than $539 billion, according to new estimates by HispanTelligence. Spurred by growing entrepreneurial trends and affluence among the nation's largest minority population, the increase is expected to come at a robust rate of 8.5 and 8.7 percent, respectfully, over the next couple years.

For more than two decades, the annual Hispanic Business 500 directory has served as a barometer of the U.S. Hispanic economy. A purchase of the 2007 directory provides the top 500 Hispanic-owned companies list in Excel format including: CEO names; company addresses and telephone numbers; e-mail addresses for 375 companies and Web addresses for 430 companies; and company revenue and employees numbers for 2005 and 2006.

In the world of information technology, Hispanic innovators and risk-takers are at the frontier of some of the Web's most dynamic business ventures. They are forging new marketing models and redefining business-to-business relationships in the vanguard of tomorrow's business environment. Hispanic Business magazine recently caught up with three online entrepreneurs who are leading the way.

Part of our Annual Media Report, Managing Editor Michael Bowker asks two renowned scholars to weigh in on what the mainstream media needs to do to better understand white-collar, middle-class Hispanics. Princeton University Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Marta Tienda, and Rutgers University Dean of the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Jorge Reina Schement, offer their views on the complexities of reaching this underserved demographic.

He was young, charismatic, and making great money at a Fortune 500 company. At 23, Detroit-native David Segura was living the good life. But like so many entrepreneurs, Mr. Segura had fire in his heart and a yearning to do something more. He walked away from his job at Ford Motor Co. in search of something more personally enriching. More than a decade later, there's no doubt that he made the right move.