On the heels of the resignation of Rosario Marin from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Cabinet amid a controversy over speaking fees, Carrie Lopez, the director of California's Department of Consumer Affairs, has also stepped down after a review revealed expenses charged to taxpayers that included transportation to a Justin Timberlake concert.

Paralleling the ailing economy, secondary homes -- vacation and investment homes -- all saw a significant sales decline, accounting for 30 percent of all transactions in 2008, a 3 percent drop from 2007. The National Association of Realtors' study also found that about a third of non-primary homebuyers opted to pay with cash.

Fox News, whose ratings are skyrocketing after a brief tumble during the 2008 presidential campaign, launched a new Web site this morning called The Fox Nation. The cable news station is riding a populist wave of Obama skepticism, and the new Web site appears to be milking the sentiment.

Attention quarter collectors: It's time to make room in your displays for the latest 25-cent piece. With the recent completion of a 10-year mission to roll out new quarters for each of the 50 states, the U.S. Mint is poised to release the first of five quarters commemorating the U.S. territories, starting with Puerto Rico.

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.

The Top 10 Hispanic-Owned Investment Advisory Firms

From credit access to health care, the new administration faces colossal challenges.

The issues are large for Hispanic-owned small businesses, which are seeking to be a priority in the president's new administration.

In this report, Hispanic Business spotlights the Top 25 Supplier Diversity Companies and minority-owned businesses that are battling to keep their contracts as virtually every industry downsizes its operations. From retail and automobile to construction and technology, the decline of traditionally strong industries has rattled the economy and upended the American work force.