Free Republic

....This state of beautiful mountains and popular ski resorts, once a magnet for back-to-the-landers, is losing young people at a precipitous clip.... Vermont, with a population of about 620,000, now has the lowest birth rate among states....The total number of 20- to 34-year-olds in Vermont has shrunk by 19 percent since 1990. [CLIP] While Vermont's population of young people shrinks, the number of older residents is multiplying because Vermont increasingly attracts retirees from other states. [CLIP] Fewer babies are being born in part because Vermont has few immigrants, who tend to have larger families...There is also a serious housing shortage,...

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., fresh from victory in three online presidential straw polls over formidibale candidates, told Joseph Farah's radio audience today he would run for president in 2008 if no other Republican candidate takes the border issue seriously."I'll tell you what," he said, "if no one else does, I will do it."Tancredo is the head of the House Immigration Reform Caucus and has challenged his own party's president on the issue of insecure border and his proposed "guest worker" proposal.Tancredo said he was encouraged by President Bush's recent meeting with Mexican President Vicente Fox because the U.S. leader told...