A man who became a brief Internet sensation for shouting down his Democratic congressman last week during a forum on health care told Fox News today that he was visited later that night by liberal "thugs," and that if it happens again, he will use "lethal force if necessary."

Charles Perez, the news anchor from Miami who last week accused his station of firing him for being gay, wrote in a guest column for today's Daily Beast that he was told by higher-ups at WPLG-ABC to avoid having kids or getting married.

A Florida TV station has fired openly gay anchor Charles Perez, just days after he had filed a discrimination case against the company, in which Perez said he was demoted for reasons tied to his sexual orientation.

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.

With 2007 marking the start of the worst recession since the 1930s -- and with the annual Fortune 500 list recently reporting its worst slump ever -- it would be fair to expect the HispanicBusiness 500 suffered the same fate. But they didn't.

Vicious malware. Faulty, exploding batteries. An unfortunate incident with an in-flight beverage service. Sure, if you're careful, these are unlikely. But any one of these could ruin your day by fritzing out your computer when you need it most. Say, on a business trip, when you are carrying crucial digital presentations in that laptop. Backing up your files used to be a laborious process. No longer. Just push that button on the SanDisk Ultra Backup.

Amid a recession and unsteady markets, HispanicBusiness' Top 10 Energy Companies have found ways to cope and thrive. For the first time in the 27-year history of the HispanicBusiness 500 list of top Hispanic-owned companies, HispanicBusiness Magazine is highlighting a new sector: energy.

On the occasion of HispanicBusiness' 30th Anniversary, our graphics department has arranged for two special online photo galleries. One, an account in pictures of photographer Matt Graves' visit to the facilities of Venoco, which tops our new list of largest Energy sector companies. The second, a sampling from the past 27 years worth of HB500 covers.