Powershell equivalent of bash ampersand (&) for forking/running background processes

Question

In bash the ampersand (&) can be used to run a command in the background and return interactive control to the user before the command has finished running. Is there an

Answer 1

I've used the solution described here http://jtruher.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!7143DA6E51A2628D!130.entry successfully in PowerShell v1.0. It definitely will be easier in PowerShell v2.0.