President Barack Obama Monday proposed a two-year freeze on civilian federal workers' pay as the White House struggles to wrestle down the soaring U.S. deficit.

The debate over the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bars gays from serving openly in the military is heating up as a long-awaited report exposes how 400,000 members of the nation's military feel about repealing the restriction.

A Consumer Confidence Index shows that confidence is at its highest level five months. The index increased in November, building on gains in October.

Data through September 2010 show that the U.S. National Home Price Index declined 2.0 percent in the third quarter of 2010, after having risen 4.7 percent in the second quarter.

WikiLeaks plans to release thousands of internal documents from a major US bank in early 2011, Forbes magazine reported Monday.

The European Commission on Tuesday launched an anti-trust probe into Google following claims that Google's search engine manipulates results to harm rivals.

Hispanics are now the largest ethnic minority in the United States and during the past decade, U.S. Hispanic purchasing power has rapidly increased. This report takes an in depth look at how today's Hispanic Economy is transitioning into an economic power in the U.S. Click here for the executive summary and table of contents!

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.

The diversity that we have represents the growth of our business ... we're very proud of that," says Pat Harris, vice president and global chief diversity officer at McDonald's.

Diversity and inclusion programs are proving to have a much broader effect than once thought. "There's no doubt in my mind (spending with minority-owned businesses) has a positive net effect on local economies," says Joyce Ibardolasa, director of diversity and inclusion, PG&E.