Free Republic

From my read the poster was giving examples of things that are considered interstate commerce, not implying that engaging in acts of interstate commerce is a crime.

http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/About/News/2008/2008-04-30_Eldorado_Senate.asp

DFPS Provides Senate Committee With Eldorado Update

The Department of Family and Protective Services provided the Senate Health and Human Services Committee with an update Wednesday, April 30, 2008 on the children removed from an Eldorado ranch. The update included information about some of the key challenges for investigators, the findings to date, and the care of the children.
Challenge in determining family relationships

One of the many challenges that makes these cases unique is that we don’t have any degree of certainty about the identities of the parents of children in our care.

* The women who left the ranch with the children have given multiple names and ages for themselves and the children. In addition, information provided by the women about which children were theirs and other family relationships changed frequently.
* The stories about family relationships continued to change as we loaded buses to move children around the state. We placed the children according to the latest information the women had provided about sibling groups and mother-child relationships. As the buses were loaded, there were instances where women came forward with different information. In one case, a minor who previously had said she didn’t have children begged not to be separated from her baby. We were able to place the girl with her child.
* Cultural issues have made it difficult for children to provide information about their biological parents. The women share parenting duties. They care for, console, discipline and breast feed each other’s children. When we ask a child who his mother is, he will tell us several names because the children think of all the women in a house as their mothers and all the children are considered their siblings
* Based on interviews with the children, we have reason to believe that some of the children in our care do not have parents at the Eldorado ranch.
* Court-ordered DNA tests will be used to determine the family relationships.

Challenge in getting information

These children have been taught to fear those outside their community, and that complicates the investigation and interview process.

* In both San Angelo shelters, we tried to use bracelets to identify children, but the women and children removed the bracelets or rubbed the wording off them.
* Women initially refused to let the children undergo basic health screenings, and many teen girls declined to take pregnancy tests.
* When children tried to talk, women and older children often told them not to speak or coached them on what to say.

Cause for concern

The very first interviews with underage girls at the ranch revealed a pattern of underage girls being “spiritually united” with adult men and having children with the men. Investigators also observed a pattern of deception in those first interviews. Women and children frequently said they could not answer questions about the ages of girls or family relationships. Children were moved from location to location in an apparent attempt to prevent investigators from talking to them. Investigators observed numerous girls who had small children, and girls told us that marriages could occur at any age. When an investigator asked one girl how old she was, she looked at her husband. “You’re 18,” he said. She then answered that she was 18. Other school-aged children and teens would provide only first names and said they didn’t know their birthdates or had been told by their parents not to answer questions.

The investigation is still in its early phases, but we have gathered additional information that is cause for concern:

* There are 27 girls who have indicated that they are 14 to 17 years old. There are an additional 26 girls who have provided conflicting information about their ages, at some points indicating they are minors and at other times saying they are adults. Of these 53 girls, more than 30 have children, are pregnant, or both. Six of these girls have two children, and two have three children.
* Medical exams and reports by the children indicate that at least 41 children have had broken bones in the past. We do not have X-rays or complete medical information on many children so it is too early to draw any conclusions based on this information, but it is cause for concern and something we’ll continue to examine.
* Based on interviews with the children and journal entries found at the ranch, we are continuing to look into the possible sexual abuse of some young boys.

Care of the children

DFPS has moved all of the children into licensed residential foster care.

Minor mothers and their children are being kept together, and other girls are staying in groups with their sisters. We have provided caregivers with information about the lifestyles of the children, including their dietary needs and the clothing they wear.

Adult women have been allowed to stay with children who are 12 months old or younger. We found placements for 17 mothers and their infant children. All other adult women who left the ranch with the children were given the option of returning to the ranch or going to a women’s shelter.

Boys ages 8 and older are being kept together. Two boys have turned 18 while in the state’s custody and have chosen to remain in the state’s care.

CPS: 41 children taken from sect compound had bone fractures

AUSTIN — At least 41 children taken from the polygamist compound in West Texas had suffered bone fractures, some of them multiple times, which suggested a pattern of child abuse, the head of the state’s Child Protective Services told a legislative panel Wednesday morning.

Carey Cockerell, commissioner of the agency that oversees the agency tasked with providing emergency care for youngsters at risk of abuse, said that the monthlong inquiry that followed the seizure of more than 460 children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch near Eldorado has been hampered by a lack of cooperation from both children and adults at the compound.

(snip)

Wristbands used to identify children have been tampered with, several women have claimed to be the mother of the same children and women have shared in the breast-feeding duties of the same children, Cockerell said.

(more at link)
http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/614024.html

It’s a Boy!

http://www.examiner.com/a-1366543~Teen_FLDS_mother_delivers_boy__will_return_to_foster_care.html

Teen FLDS mother giving birth while state officials stand by

SAN MARCOS, Texas (AP) — One of hundreds of young polygamist-sect members taken into custody by the state was giving birth Tuesday while child welfare officials and state troopers stood watch outside the maternity ward.

The teenager was admitted to the Central Texas Medical Center and was in labor, said Rod Parker, a spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He contends she is 18, but state officials have the girl on a list of minors taken into state custody.

State officials raided the FLDS’s Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado on April 3. They took custody of 463 children on the belief that the sect’s practice of underage and polygamous spiritual marriages endangered the children. The children are now scattered in foster-care facilities around the state.

(more)

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iIdMpRHjN4hpNKBhfYyAsR4DDo4QD90BNCD00

http://origin.sltrib.com/ci_9060445

Texas appeals court cancels hearing on relocation of FLDS children
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 04/25/2008 10:20:48 PM MDT

Posted: 10:06 PM- SAN ANGELO, Texas - A Texas appellate court has canceled a hearing set for Tuesday that sought to challenge a district judge’s decision to send children removed from a polygamous sect’s ranch to group and foster homes throughout the state.
The Third Court of Appeals said Friday that Tom Green County Judge Barbara Walther’s order to move the FLDS children beyond a five-county area met statutory requirements. The Texas RioGrande Legal Aid wanted the higher court to stop the relocation of the children, which were completed today.
The court left intact a second petition filed by the legal aid society that argues the judge did not have sufficient evidence or hold proper hearings before deciding to keep the children in custody. The children were taken earlier this month in a raid on a ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The three appellate court judges gave the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services until May 2 to respond to that petition, but has not yet set a hearing date.

www.captivefldschildren.org

The FLDS PR machine keeps rolling on....

http://www.fldstruth.org/

To me this isn't an issue about when Obama will leave his church. I think it is easy to get caught up in moving from one church to another, as a way of addressing (or rather, not addressing) issues of sin a person has become aware of. Instead of taking a stand, such as going to the Pastor and/or Deacons of the church to challenge them concerning their obligation to ensure that only sound and fit doctrine is preached from the pulpit, it's much easier to just leave....move on to another church until the next time the human sins within are revealed, indicating it's time to move on again.

I don't believe this is how Christ intends the church to be. We are accountable one unto another, from the lowliest to the greatest position. I have never sat in my church listening to a leader go astray without then privately taking my concern to that person. If the situation remains unresolved then it is my spiritual obligation to my beloved church body to bring the issue before the Deacons/Elders of the church. We are supposed to face and denounce wrong doing within the church, not just up and leave to let the sin remain a fester within the body.

Thus the important question to me is what Obama did, or is doing, to address this sin within his church body. There's nothing brave or biblical about simply remaining silent (until now that is) in the face of feeling 'pain and anger' in your soul concerning sin. Taking a stand within the church, to cast out the sin, is the right thing to do, anything less is not only unscriptural but cowardly.

I am sitting here typing this post with an adorable and *signed* “Phil Kubicki 2-’82” 6 string electric guitar sitting on my lap. It’s purported to be one of Kubicki’s private use guitars before it came into my families possession (by the way of an art trade). Any idea on the value? Thanks!!

**Preliminary partial results of the Hawai’i Presidential Preference Poll :

With about 40% of Congressional District One reporting, ballots cast in the district are reported as follows:

Barack Obama 4,302
Hillary Clinton 1,542
Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards received votes falling far short of the 15% required to be allocated a delegate.

With about 20% of Congressional district Two reporting, ballots cast in the district are reported as follows:

Barack Obama 1,134
Hillary Clinton 333
Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards received votes falling far short of the 15% required to be allocated a delegate.

No kidding.. I bet she is hoping they update their numbers soon ::snicker::

http://www.hawaiidemocrats.org/

Preliminary partial results of the Hawai’i Presidential Preference Poll :

With less than 10% of precincts reporting, total ballots cast are reported as follows:

Barack Obama 2,258
Hillary Clinton 666
Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards received votes falling far short of the 15% required to be allocated a delegate.

McCain 2008 is like Hope, but different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gwqEneBKUs

I voted in the WA caucus yesterday. After I left I realized that they had counted the ‘sign in sheets’ and reported those results to us rather than the actual count of delegates who were elected by each precinct. I thought it was each precincts elected delegates that would be counted, rather than a counting of every persons personal choice for President whether they were a delegate or not.

McCain 3,468 26%
Huckabee 3,226 24%
Paul 2,799 21%
Romney 2,253 16%
Uncommit 1,729 13%

Real-time Race Results: Updated February 10, 2008 - 1:31 AM (all times Eastern Standard)
Precincts Reporting 87%

I’ll keep hitting ‘refresh’ and posting results for awhile. Have a good night!

McCain 3,239 26%
Huckabee 3,010 24%
Paul 2,655 21%
Romney 2,055 17%
Uncommitted 1,545 12%

Real-time Race Results: Updated February 10, 2008 - 12:38 AM (all times Eastern Standard)
Precincts Reporting 83%

Makes ya wonder, don’t it LOL

It’ll be interesting to see those results!! ;-)