1. U.S. Fertility Rate Hits All-Time Low
The
fertility rate in the United States fell to a record low for the second
year in a row in 2012, new figures from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention reveal.
And for the fifth consecutive year, more than 40 percent of babies born in the country were born to unwed mothers.
The
fertility rate is the number of births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44.
According to the CDC's report "Births: Final Data for 2012," the rate
was 63, breaking the record low of 63.2 set the previous year.
The rate in 2007 was 69.3. It fell to 68.1 in 2008, then to 66.2 in 2009. It continued to fall in 2010, reaching 64.1.
Rates
declined 1 percent for non-Hispanic white and Hispanic women, and were
essentially unchanged for non-Hispanic black women from 2011 to 2012.
The U.S. fertility rate has declined 46.6 percent since 1960, when the rate was 118.
The
CDC also disclosed that the fertility rate for teens aged 15 to 19
dropped to 29.4 in 2012, down 6 percent from the previous year and the
lowest rate ever reported.
The mean age of a mother at first birth rose to 25.8 in 2012, up from 25.6 in 2011.
Of
the 3,952,841 births registered in the United States in 2012, 40.7
percent were to unmarried women. The percentage first reached 40 percent
in 2008, and has remained over 40 percent every year since then.
The
percentage of babies born to unwed mothers has more than doubled since
1980, when only 18.4 percent of babies were born to unmarried women.
While
the U.S. fertility rate has been steadily declining, America's birth
rate — the number of births during a year per 1,000 persons — is
actually higher than that of 74 other nations and territories.
The
U.S. rate was around 13, according to the CIA World Factbook's figures
for a recent year. The lowest rate was in Monaco, 6.85, and the highest
in Niger, 50.06.
2. North Dakota, Arizona Best for Job Growth in '14
The
United States is projected to create 2.6 million new jobs this year, up
from 2.2 million last year, due largely to the strength of the
healthcare, energy, and high-tech sectors, Stateline reports.
At
the end of 2013, the nation had regained about 85 percent of the 9
million jobs lost during the recession, creating around 200,000 new jobs
a month.
The national unemployment rate was at its lowest in five
years, 7 percent, down from the 10 percent peak in October 2009,
according to Stateline, a publication from the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The
strongest job growth will be in North Dakota, thanks to the ongoing
boom in oil and natural gas production. The state's growth rate is
expected to be 3.57 percent.
Arizona will be second in job growth
at 3.08 percent due in part to a boost from the high-tech sector. Apple
and Intel are both opening new job-creating facilities in the state.
Texas will be next at 2.75 percent, followed by Colorado at 2.6 percent. Florida will see a surge of 2.34 percent.
Rounding out the top 10 are Georgia, South Carolina, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah.
The
slowest job growth will be in Illinois — an increase of just 0.98
percent — followed by Maine (1.02 percent), Vermont (1.11 percent), and
New York (1.12 percent). Other slower-growth states are Alaska,
Massachusetts, Tennessee, New Hampshire, and New Mexico.
In
raw numbers, Texas will generate the most new jobs, an estimated
308,000 in 2014, followed by California with 264,000 new jobs. Florida
will add 176,000 jobs, many of those in construction and tourism, and
Arizona will generate 77,000 jobs.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at
Moody's Analytics, predicts that the American economy will reach full
employment, estimated as a 5.75 percent jobless rate, within three
years.
But even as the economy improves, Stateline observes,
"State lawmakers may be under increasing pressure to do more to help the
nearly 11 million Americans who are still unemployed.
"Republicans
likely will continue to press for tax cuts as a way to create jobs,
while Democrats will try to boost job training and education programs
and push for increases in the minimum wage."
3. Christian Pastor Freed in Iran After Christmas Arrest
An
Iranian pastor who was previously sentenced to death for embracing
Christianity has been released from jail after being arrested again on
Christmas Day.
Youcef
Nadarkhani, in his early 30s, spent nearly three years in prison before
being freed from death row in 2012 when apostasy charges were dropped.
But he was taken into custody again on Christmas and spent 14 days behind bars before his release, CNS News reported.
This
would have been the first time in three years that Nadarkhani, who
embraced Christianity at age 19, spent Christmas with his family,
according to The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).
"The
ACLJ welcomes his release from this unjust and illegal imprisonment,"
the organization said in a statement. "Iran must not be allowed to
persecute individuals because of their faith.
"His re-arrest on Christmas Day shows Iran's intent to make an example of Pastor Youcef to intimidate people of minority faiths.
"Pastor Youcef's release is a direct result of people across the world standing up and demanding his freedom."
Mohabat
News reported that Iranian police and security officials raided a
private home in Tehran where "approximately 50 newly converted
Christians had gathered to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and the
occasion of Christmas."
The group included Nadarkhani and a pastor of Armenian descent, Vruir Avanessian, who suffers from kidney disease.
The
British Foreign Office said in a statement that the arrests "show the
depths of intolerance with which the Iranian government treats its own
citizens."
The ACLJ pointed out that while Nadarkhani has been freed again, American pastor Saeed Abedini remains in prison.
As
the Insider Report disclosed earlier, Abedini is serving an eight-year
sentence on charges of endangering national security. But supporters say
he was in Iran working to build an orphanage with permission from the
Iranian government, and his wife maintains he is being punished for
converting from Islam to Christianity.
In
November, Abedini was transferred from a prison in Tehran to another
jail considered one of Iran's most brutal, and penned in a
10-foot-by-10-foot cell with five inmates who were likely imprisoned for
murder or rape.
The ACLJ has been sharply critical of the Obama administration for not doing more to secure Abedini's release.
4. Israel Naming Anti-Missile Facility for Sen. Inouye
Israel
will name an Arrow anti-missile facility after Daniel Inouye, the
longtime Hawaii senator who was a strong supporter of the Jewish state.
It
will mark the first time that Israel has named a military facility for a
non-Israeli. The naming ceremony will take place on Jan. 14.
Democrat
Inouye, who died in December 2012, served in the Senate for 50 years.
At the time of his death, he was president pro tempore of the Senate and
chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
Inouye sold State of
Israel bonds in Hawaii in the 1950s before becoming a lawmaker, and
championed Israel as a top appropriator during his long tenure in
Congress.
For a time he even considered converting to Judaism, according to the Jewish Daily Forward.
His
interest in Israel reportedly stemmed from learning the fate of Jews
during the Holocaust after he served in Italy in a unit of
Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Marshall
Wittmann, spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,
declared: "The naming of this site after the late Senator Inouye is very
appropriate since he deeply understood the importance of the
U.S.-Israel relationship, and he worked tirelessly and effectively to
ensure that America's ally Israel had the necessary resources to defend
her people, particularly in the area of missile defense."
5. U.S. Ranks Low for Traffic Congestion
Los
Angeles may be notorious for its crowded freeways and traffic tie-ups,
but it doesn't even rank in the world's top five urban areas for excess
time spent traveling due to congestion.
In fact, of the 24 most
congested urban areas in high-income countries, just four are in the
United States, according to TomTom International, an Amsterdam-based
automobile navigation services company.
For its recently issued
TomTom Traffic Index, the company analyzed data for 122 urban areas in
the United States, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand,
including nearly all urban areas with more than 1 million population.
"It
might be expected that the 'sprawl' of U.S. urban areas, and their
virtual universality of automobile ownership, as well as the paucity of
transit ridership in most metropolitan areas, would send the U.S. to the
netherworld of worst traffic congestion," NewGeography observed in a
report on the Index.
"This is not so, and not by a long shot."
Surprisingly,
the nation with the most traffic congestion in its urban areas is New
Zealand, where the average excess time spent in traffic was 31.3 percent
in the second quarter of 2013. This means the average trip that would
take 30 minutes without congestion would take about 40 minutes.
Australia ranks second at 27.4 percent, followed by Canada at 24.8 percent, and Western Europe at 22.2 percent.
The United States ranks fifth with an average of 18.3 percent.
"Residents
of the United States benefit because employment is more dispersed,
which tends to result in less urban-core-related traffic congestion.
Lower density and employment dispersion are instrumental in the more
modest traffic congestion of the United States," according to
demographer Wendell Cox, an adjunct scholar with the National Center for
Policy Analysis and author of the NewGeography report.
Among the
largest urban areas in high-income countries, Marseille, France, and
Palermo, Italy, have the most traffic congestion, with a TomTom Traffic
Index of 40 percent, followed by Vancouver, Rome, Paris, and Stockholm.
Los
Angeles ranks at No. 7 with an excess travel time of 35 percent. The
only other U.S. urban areas in the top 24 are San Francisco at No. 11
(32 percent), and Honolulu and Seattle, tied at No. 20 (28 percent).
Of
the 122 urban areas in the index, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Detroit,
Columbus, and Birmingham are the least congested metropolitan areas,
with an index of just 14 percent.
Rochester, N.Y., Salt Lake City,
Louisville, and Oklahoma City also have an index lower than any
non-U.S. city, ahead of Seville, Spain. And six other American metros
rank in the top 22 for the least traffic congestion.
6. China Buying More GM Cars Than America
General
Motors sold more cars in China last year than in the United States —
nearly 3.2 million vehicles compared to 2.78 million in America.
GM
sales in China were up 11.4 percent in 2013 compared to the previous
year. The company sold an average of one vehicle every 10 seconds and
nearly 9,000 a day, according to a report from MSN's Detroit Bureau.
Most
GM cars sold in China are manufactured locally by GM and its 10 joint
ventures there. The first China-built GM car, a Buick, was produced in
1998, and the Cadillac was introduced in 2004.
Buick
sales in China rose 15.7 percent, finishing 2013 at an all-time high of
809,918 vehicles, while Cadillac sales were up 66.6 percent to a record
50,005 vehicles.
But
rival carmaker Volkswagen is expected to outpace GM in China sales. Like
GM, Volkswagen sells more cars in China than in its home market of
Germany and the European Union.
One
of GM's joint ventures, Shanghai GM, sold a record 1.512 million
vehicles last year. The company has broken ground for a new Cadillac
plant.
China now has 4,250 dealerships nationwide.
"GM
maintained good growth momentum in our company's largest market,
despite a modest slowdown in demand for commercial vehicles," said Matt
Tsien, president of GM China. "We expect sales to remain robust in 2014,
driven by ongoing strong demand across China for personal four-wheel
transportation."
Sales of Ford Motor Company vehicles also surged last year, rising 49 percent to 935,813 units, while Toyota sold 917,500.
Postscript: GM began making Chevrolets in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1993.
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