Record-low mortgage rates sparked a refinancing boom that started more than a year ago and stretched through 2011. Requests to refinance surged in early December, as mortgage-interest rates dipped below 4 percent for a 30-year, fixed-rated loan, according to weekly data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Sales of new U.S. homes rose in November to a seven-month high, adding to evidence of stabilization in the housing market. Purchases of single-family properties increased 1.6 percent to a 315,000 annual pace, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The gain pushed the number of new homes on the market to a record low.

The firms met last week's deadline to submit a proposal for what is expected to be a broad-based, three-year contract to market the city to residents, potential residents and visitors.

The New American Mainstream Business Summit is one of the first gatherings in the country since the release of the 2010 Census showing historic shifts in the cultural makeup of the economy. It is also one of the largest gatherings of high-level executives willing to share key lessons learned within major organizations that have begun to address these shifts. The more than 50 million Hispanics in the U.S. account for more than one trillion dollars in annual purchasing power.

The New American Mainstream Business Summit will feature presentations, seminars, and in-depth case studies from top business leaders. Designed for corporate business leaders and marketing strategists, this year's conference will focus on addressing this rapidly changing market by improving messaging, sell-through, service and targeting of today's increasingly diverse American marketplace.

“Almost half of the Clark County School District’s kindergartners are Hispanic, and that percentage is expected to grow in coming years, speaking to the vitality of many Hispanic families.

The growing political power of Nevada’s Hispanic population also can be found in the election in November of Gov. Brian Sandoval and a record number of Hispanic state lawmakers. It’s a political, social and economic formula that speaks to a changing, vibrant economic base that has spread to Summerlin, Green Valley and other upper middle-class neighborhoods. Yet even in these recessionary times, hundreds, maybe thousands, of small, medium and large business operators fail to tap into the market.”

After two dreadful years, most sectors of the industry saw revenue begin to recover. With some notable exceptions, cutbacks in newsrooms eased. And while still more talk than action, some experiments with new revenue models began to show signs of blossoming.