You go to places like Nevada or Arizona or Florida, California, their inventory of unsold homes was so high that it is just going to take a whole bunch of years to absorb all that housing stock.

WHITEHOUSE: The Economy and the American Family

The gamblers and risk-takers turned south on the California Trail over the Sierra Nevada, ready to strike it big or not at all.

ECONOMIST: The people's will

The Cinco de Mayo victory was then memorialized through a network of Latino groups called "juntas patrioticas mejicanas, " or Mexican patriotic assemblies, mostly in California but also in Oregon, Nevada and Arizona, with 14, 000 members, Hayes-Bautista said.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS