The State's case against the YFZ rancheros crumbles like a talc cliff. Now, the CPS has admitted in court that 9 of the disputed 27 "underage pregnant girls" were actually older, it turns out that the 14-year-old in the group isn't actually pregnant.

Super-Kudos to Scott Henson for really staying on top of this whole fiasco. Even the stuff he ( Read more... )

One of the great things about the Eldorado scandal is that the nation gets an opportunity to really look at the Mormons. lupoleboucher, in a recent post, calls the Mormons "America's Holy Warriors". They see America as their holy land and are supremely patriotic, says he ( Read more... )

A recent AP article on FLDS has something very peculiar -- it has some numbers! In addition to trumpeting the "31 underage moms" in a way that makes me think that they don't really have any pregnant girls under 16, they have an actual breakdown of children and ages.

Of the 463 children, 250 are girls and 213 are boys. Children 13 and younger are ( Read more... )

If me and readers of the Salt Lake City Tribune knew this two weeks ago, why did it take Texas authorities so long to figure it out? Two words explain it: Willful neglect.

The man named in the search warrant, Dale Barlow, actually lived in Arizona. He contacted authorities immediately after the Texas raid occurred to say they were after the wrong ( Read more... )

The move has the appearance of a class-action child removal. I've never heard of anything like that.

Jessica Dixon
director of the child advocacy center
SMU law school

Of course, we condemn child abuse and we don't stand up for the perpetration of that, [But] what the state has done has offended a pretty wide swath of the American people with what ( Read more... )

So we find out that the supposed call from the 16-year-old FLDS 'victim' was actually a prank call from a woman in Colorado Springs who has been connected to similar prank calls in Colorado. After careful examination of all of the children involved, not a single substantiated claim was confirmed. But the judge decided that there was still a ' ( Read more... )

About the only thing that has held up, of all the accusations against the FLDS that I've read, is that when a man breaks the rules, his wives and children are reassigned to another man. I haven't heard any specific denials of this practice, and have encountered evidence that leads me to believe this probably is the case. That's so weird!In normal ( Read more... )

Can we call this 'Eldorado-gate' yet? The madness with the Mormons in Eldorado continues with new and interesting twists almost daily. First the kids and moms were moved from the decrepit fort to the San Angelo Coliseum (presumably, one without lions). Then all the moms without kids under five-years-old were given the choice of returning to the YFZ ( Read more... )

Grits for Breakfast has been very focused on this particular misadventure. See more here.
So here's where we stand. The laws the sect are accused of violating were expressly created to target their religious practices. The raid was based on a phone call that may turn out to be bogus. No victim has been identified, and the man alleged to have ( Read more... )

I'm getting this low, thudding migraine that's starting to curl up the left side of my face. Every time I see the letters FLDS all together, or hear the name "Eldorado" the pain slightly increases. I'm so embarrassed to be a Texan. Why must we elect pretentious, xenophobic, provincial busybodies to the state legislature? Why do people have to get ( Read more... )