Free Republic

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that births in the USA reached another historic low in 2020. For the sixth consecutive year, the birth rate dropped -- this time by 4%. The average annual drop in the five previous years was 2%. The rate at which American women are having babies is way below the rate necessary to keep the population steady-state -- that is, for the population not to shrink. A steady-state population requires a total fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman. In 2020, it was 1.64. Needless to say, for politicians, there is no problem...

Arizona has resisted national pressure before to its controversial laws. But this time leaders are urging Gov. Jan Brewer to veto a bill that would allow businesses to refuse service to gay patrons. TUCSON — When Arizona took controversial stands in the past — refusing to create a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and enacting a tough anti-illegal immigration law — state leaders shrugged off the criticism from out of state as the meddling of outsiders. But now, after the Legislature passed a measure to bolster the rights of business owners to refuse service to gays and others on the...