Here is one of two guidelines the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services sent to facilities caring for FLDS children.


April 22, 2008
Model for Care For Children from the Yearning for Zion Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Sect

As with all children in care, the goal is to provide the highest level of care and consideration to the children from the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) compound. Every effort must be made to understand, respect, and incorporate their religious beliefs and social practices as much as possible, as the children are gradually introduced into mainstream culture.

According to news reports (AP, CNN), child psychiatrist and state witness Bruce Perry, M.D. states that if the children are allowed to remain in state custody, ''there have to be exceptional elements in place for these children and their families''

In addition, although gradual integration is a consideration, it is important to be mindful that some of the children may eventually be reunited with their parents. It is critical that these children not be exposed into mainstream culture too quickly or in ways that would hinder their success should they reunite with family.

The following guidelines are suggested:

Basic Placement and Care Recommendations:

• Prepare child care staff, using the attached guidelines
Staff should be prepared for possible prejudicial comments and attitudes, and not take them personally. Staff should address these issues slowly and gently with the children

• Place children in large groups, especially with siblings and multiple sibling groups.

• It is suggested that initially FLDS children should be housed together and segregated from other children at the facility; maintain this separation for several weeks, and gradually introduce interaction between groups.

• Prepare specific, age appropriate lessons on diversity and tolerance, and promote these lessons through informal interactions and coaching by staff.

• Maintain a clear and consistent daily routine.

• Include meaningful chores in their daily routine.

• Older children will help care for younger children, but gradually begin helping them develop age appropriate behaviors regarding their role in caregiving.

• Follow dietary needs as recommended in the attached guidelines
o Younger children especially may be interested in snacks, sweets, candy, etc; introduce these slowly and with more limitations than usual.

• Allow for practice of religious beliefs, including prayer time and singing of hymns
o Many have hymn books, and may appreciate having a piano to use.
o Allow for appropriate privacy, but also be aware that respectful adults may observe and interact, and this can be an opportunity to bond with them.
o Further consultation is needed as to whether mainstream LDS clergy can and should be made available to them, and recommendations will follow.

• Ask about their preferences and practices, and follow appropriately as often as possible.
o Be aware of their culture of communal living and acting as a group; this can be an asset at times, but they will also need gradual guidance in independence, decision making, and making choices. These opportunities should be part of their daily routine and should not be artificial or contrived.

• Organized recreational activities should be part of the daily schedule, and can, over time, be a good way to begin integration with general population.

• No television, movies, internet and radio especially at first; introduce gradually, if at all, and primarily use educational programming; avoid cartoons, fantasies, adult dramas, etc.

• When discipline is needed, be aware of the potentially harsh practices children may have experienced and their belief that obedience is important from a religious perspective as it relates to their favor with God and their eternity.

• Use gentleness, praise, and positive-based behavior practices.

• Help children adjust to our expectations even if different from what they are accustomed to.

• When they seem frustrated or confused.
o Help them articulate their thoughts and feelings.
o Validate their feelings.
o Coach them in appropriate expression and wording of their thoughts and feelings.
o Help them identify and use appropriate coping methods (e.g. separating themselves from the group, talking to a trusted adult).
o Do not contribute to any false hope about returning to home/parents, but be empathetic and re-focus on how they can get through this difficult time.

Education Recommendations:

• Use home school model for on-site education for several weeks.

• Plan for slow and gradual integration with mainstream school and population, only after being assured of readiness.

• Minimal outside sources of media including fictitious and fantasy characters, and modify curriculum appropriately.

• Thoroughly assess each child’s achievement level and intellectual potential and offer individualized resource curriculum as needed.

• Be prepared for wide gaps in knowledge and academic skill especially in the area of social studies and history.

Therapy Recommendations:

• Initially, focus on adjustment to placement/separation from home/family.

• Focus short term on possible traumatic reactions to separation and placement; crisis intervention, psychological first aid, brief solution-focused practices to help children make sense of the situation and cope.

• Female therapists may work best for young and adolescent females.

• Young males may respond well to female or male therapists – this needs further assessment.

• Adolescent males may respond best to male therapists, but this needs further assessment.

• Play therapy for younger children that focuses on drawing, playing and storytelling so that children can express their feelings.

• Group therapy may be useful, especially at first and when focused on coping with adjustment to separation and placement, but individual therapy will also be important.

• Make a clear distinction between the role of the therapist and others who are investigating; be willing for trust and rapport to develop slowly, and focus on support and coping rather than exploring personal issues that they might interpret as investigation.

• Offer validation for the positive aspects of the culture, parents’ and children’s love for each other and their faith as strength in difficult times.

• If/when any individual discloses of neglect or abuse are made, address the traumatic reactions individually and in nonjudgmental ways, with focus on coping, resolving, and developing an appropriate sense of self.

• Help them with self-esteem, guilty feelings, shame, confusion about mainstream culture, and learning basic decision making skills.

• Help them think through any confusion that results from the confrontation between what they have been taught about the outside world and what they are experiencing first hand. Help them develop ability to draw their own conclusions (this will be a long term process).

Here is a statement put out today by Buster D. Johnson, a Mohave County, Arizona, supervisor:

The State of Texas has responded to the call for help from inside the polygamist compound in El Dorado. Whether the call was legitimate or not the abuses they have found are real. The media is acting as if this is some new phenomenon. For over a decade I have attempted to get local, state and federal authorities to take these abuses seriously. There has been a small dedicated group I have worked with these years who have continued to fight for the rights of the abused women and children. Ignoring physical, personal and financial attacks, they have continued to fight.

At every level of government we have been ignored and have had our credibility challenged. The latest information out of Texas is that 31 out of 53 under aged girls are pregnant or have had children. That is 58 percent. They are not telling us if the other 42 percent have been sexually abused but with numbers like these I believe some have. Now with these kinds of numbers what do you think the numbers are in Colorado City where these people moved from?

In the past I have called for the Federal Government to step in and put an end to these abuses. Once again I am asking them to do the job that needs to be done in our County. We have had under aged girls being transported across state lines and our international borders for sexual acts. In Mohave County these abusers have not been prosecuted because our prosecutor's state that the rape took place in another jurisdiction. The abusers state that they had sex with the minor in Utah or Nevada, not Arizona and they walk out of the court system to continue their rape of children. Why have prosecutor's ignored our pleas and the pleas of the victims and not sought federal indictments?

I would not be surprised nor would I blame these victims if they sued Mohave County and the State of Arizona for not protecting them. What could be the defense for ignoring the cries of these children?

When the cult opened up their Yearning for Zion compound in Texas, I went with Flora Jessop to meet with law enforcement, local officials and concerned citizens in El Dorado. The impression I got was that they were concerned and would ''live and let live.'' Hard to blame them when only two people out of our great state are telling them of the atrocities taking place in the name of ''god.''

There is a forum being held in St. George, Utah May 8-9. The attorneys general from Arizona and Utah are participating. My understanding is that the main focus is going to be to try and push for the decriminalization of polygamy. The polygamists are also sitting on the panel. It is past time for Arizona to do the right thing. Sitting on panels with those who are violating the law is a slap in the face to the children who have been abused and will continued to be abuse because of inaction and apathy by elected officials.

I spoke with Darrell Azar, a CPS spokesman, yesterday and asked him about the rumor that authorities sedated some children before taking them from the San Angelo Coliseum.

Not true, he said.

Here is what he told me happened when CPS separated mothers from children 13-months and older last week:

''We came in and explained what was going to happen,'' Azar said. ''There were tears all around. Mothers cried, children cried and some of our workers cried. We just allowed them to cry. After about 45 minutes, they cried themselves out and it was a peaceful separation.''

Azar said CPS made no threats or ultimatums, such as telling women that if they went to women's shelter they might be reunited with their children sooner.

He said the FLDS keep making untrue allegations.

''The simple truth is there is a steady flow of misinformation and it is often the case when people who may have abused children and those who never stepped in to protect them will discredit those who move to protect them,'' he said. ''It has been happening in this case.''

There aren't any. Period. This is, finally, one debate we can end.

For the past few years, ex-FLDS members, anti-polygamy activists and government officials have spewed endlessly about the potential of the FLDS for armed violence.

They claimed a cave above Hildale, Utah, homebase for the FLDS, was crammed full of guns. That FLDS president Warren S. Jeffs moved around with armed bodyguards. That the temple at the YFZ Ranch included an incinerator where sinners were burned up. That sect members would do the ''Jim Jones'' thing rather than surrender to authorities. That bodies were buried all over the ranch. That little babies were being killed and buried back in a plot in the twin cities.

Three weeks ago as a Texas SWAT team prepared to enter the FLDS' temple at YFZRanch, a local reporter told me officials believed the building was booby-trapped and the sect set off bombs once law officers entered it.

Days later, another reporter spread a rumor through the media corps that there were underground tunnels at the ranch and the people were hiding in them.

Apparently he hadn't heard the ranch sits on a 300-feet deep bed of limestone, which begins just feet below ground level.

Here are the facts:

The only thing in the cave were shelves of old bottled peaches.

No armed bodyguards were with Warren Jeffs when he was arrested on I-15 outside Las Vegas and no guns were found in the vehicle, either.

There is no incinerator at the YFZ Ranch temple and the building was not booby-trapped. When a SWAT team prepared to enter the temple, the men engaged in passive resistance. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder around its outer wall and sang sacred hymns.

There were five hunting rifles in a locked safe at the ranch, which the FLDS pointed out to law enforcement in the early stages of the raid.

There was no cyanide poison at the ranch, though that made headlines one day. Evidence taken from the ranch included a document about a ''cyanide poisoning document,'' taken from a first aid manual.

There were two graves found at the ranch. One belonged to a woman who died of breast cancer. The other is that of a 3-year-old child who died when a vehicle drove off a road at the ranch. The other mounds were flower beds.

The children's graveyard in the twin towns is just that: A burial ground for infants who were stillborn or died during childhood. It has been in use since the 1960s.

Here is the latest news posting from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services:


Today, the last of the FLDS children were moved from the shelter at the San Angelo coliseum into foster care settings across Texas. The move was very orderly and calm. One child was transported to a hospital with dehydration as a precaution.

The mass shelter is now being closed.

Moving 462 children into foster care was an important development. It allows the children to live in safe, stable environments while the CPS investigation continues into sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at the FLDS compound near Eldorado, Texas.

While in the temporary custody of the state, all the children will be protected and safe. Caseworkers will be assigned to each child to make sure each receives the medical, psychological, and educational services needed.

All the children were temporarily removed from the compound after an investigation found a number of young teenagers were ''spiritually'' married to mature men, and were pregnant and or had already given birth to children. Investigators also found a pattern of grooming girls from a young age to accept becoming marriage to middle aged men. CPS identified 20 minors and young adult women with children who were impregnated between the ages of 13-16.

CPS allowed 17 adult women with 17 infants under the age of 12 months to be placed together in a shelter. The other children were mostly placed in facilities and other groups settings. Every effort was made to keep sibling groups together. Arrangements will be made to facilitate visitation between the children and their mothers.

No long term decisions or recommendations have been made about where the children will live. Judge Barbara Walther ruled that all the children would remain in state conservatorship for now. Status hearings will begin for each child starting in mid-May.

Some pictures are worth a thousand words. This is one of them.


Photo: Scott Sommerdorf, The Salt Lake Tribune

Texas CPS posted a news update yesterday that described how separation of mothers and children proceeded:


''Before the separation, CPS explained what was going to happen and then allowed plenty of time for everyone to work through their emotions. The separation was orderly and without incident.''

Ruth's face is etched with pain, her voice soft, as she stands on a porch at the YFZ Ranch and describes the way her little boy held on to her skirt and cried when he saw buses pull up at the San Angelo Coliseum on Thursday.

He is just four, but already he has learned what the buses mean: Another move, another separation.

He cried out: ''Mother, quick, there are buses out there. They've come to take me away. I want to stay with you.''

What could she say?

For the second time this week, Texas Child Protective Services separated a group of FLDS mothers from their children -- this time the littlest ones, the group Bruce Perry, the state's expert witness, said would be most traumatized by removal. Apparently he got that right.

Velvet , 31 and mother of a 13-month-old daughter, also spoke at the ranch last night. She said the coliseum was filled with crying children as CPS workers got down to business.

Ruth was combing out her daughter's pigtails when she was called away. ''They said, She's fine, just leave her.''

The state of Texas is mostly silent about what has gone on at the coliseum, keeping the media -- and the public -- as far away as possible.

But here is how they do these things, at least as described by these mothers.

Each child was accompanied by a CPS worker. Other workers shuffled the women forward, away, out.

It is apparently not an easy job to take a child away from his or her mother. Some CPS workers were teary eyed, Ruth and Velvet said, even though they had been warned from the start to show no emotion toward their ''guests.'' Workers were rotated in and out every two days to help them keep their emotions in check, the women said.

Still.

On Thursday, ''Even some of the big tough Texas Rangers were crying,'' Ruth said.

Ruth is 34. She has four children: The little boy, a 2-year-old and twins who are nearly 13 months old -- a couple weeks too old, it turns out.

Until Thursday, Ruth believed she would be allowed to stay with her infants.

But she came up against one of the arbitrary lines drawn by the state of Texas in this human drama: Mothers who are breast-feeding infants younger than 12 months were allowed to stay.

Mothers like Ruth were sent away.

''These twins are premies,'' she said. 'They need extra care.''

Who is caring for those babies tonight? She has no idea. One has a cold, perhaps pneumonia, and an ear infection.

''Some big burly guy came and took him from me,'' she said, ''and wouldn't give me a chance to say goodbye to him.''

It has been cold and drafty in the coliseum the past few nights, the women said.

A spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services told 51st District Judge Barbara Walther Thursday that conditions at the coliseum had become ''untenable.''

''Everybody's been so sick,'' said Ruth. ''The living conditions, the strain, the stress. Everyone of my children has lost weight.''

That four-year-old? Down 4 pounds, she said. At meals, she took turns holding her two older children on her lap to encourage them to eat. Their diet has changed drastically while in state custody.

''They are very traumatized,'' she said.

Nights were awful, Velvet said. The coliseum filled with the noise of crying, coughing babies and children. State workers circulated among the cots, keeping watch.

''The last few days you could hardly walk around the workers were so thick,'' Ruth said. ''If you've heard about a prison, that's what if felt like. They put tags on our arms, branded us like a herd of cattle.''

Mothers who brought babies and young children onto their own cots to cuddle and comfort were told to put them back in cribs, the women said.

The women said they learned from their attorneys yesterday that Walther had relented and asked CPS to let nursing mothers remain with their children. Velvet woke at 2 a.m. Thursday and began making a list of women who were breast-feeding. She gave the list to a lead CPS worker ''so she would know which children could stay with their mothers.''

But there was that dividing line: 12 months or younger, so the list was useless.

Velvet's little daughter fell on the wrong side of the line. She is 13-months-old, and when a CPS worker came to take her away, she held tightly to her mother.

''I kept trying to dodge them,'' Velvet said. ''They kept saying, 'You have to give her to us. ' ''

Her little girl kept calling out, Mama, mama.

''They tried to take her from my arms, but I wouldn't let them. So I handed her to someone I know.''

The women say they were offered a choice: Go home to the ranch or go to a San Antonio women's shelter which, they were told, might improve their chances of being reunited with their children. To some, that sounded like a false choice.

About 40 women took the offer, including some who later had second thoughts and asked to be left off the bus but were refused, according to Ruth and Velvet.

And now?

''We're just anxious to get them back,'' Velvet said.

''They can't be cared for by the people they're with,'' Ruth said. ''They don't understand their care. We've always kept them healthy, strong and well. They haven't been well a day since they've been gone.''

The women are confused and anxious but willing to speak.

''We haven't been allowed to tell the truth, so we're grateful to share it,'' Ruth said.


Photos: Scott Sommerdorf

Nancy Volmer, Utah court administrator, says that a hearing today in the case of State of Utah vs. Warren Steed Jeffs, Fifth District Court Judge James Shumate has denied the motion for a new trial.

John Walsh read my story about the tip sheet given to Texas Child Protective Services workers to educate them about FLDS ways.

Walsh is a religious studies expert whose areas of specialty include the LDS Church and fundamentalist Mormons, in particular the FLDS. He testified during a two-day hearing in which a Texas judge decided 437 FLDS children shoud stay in state custody. He lives in Texas.

But none of that mattered awhit, apparently, to the Texas agency responsible for looking out for the children's best interests.

After reading the tip sheet story, Walsh contacted me by email and said he had offered his services, free of charge, to CPS and the State Bar of Texas before the 14-day hearing took place.

''I told them I was willing to help any of the 500 lawyers involved who felt they didn't have enough understanding about fundamentalist Mormonism and the FLDS,'' he said.

A representative of CPS, he said, sent him an email reply that said thanks, but no thanks: ''Thank you very much for your interest in helping the children in Eldorado, TX. Our number one priority at this time is the safety of these children. As I'm sure you noticed on our website, we are currently still assessing the needs of the children and are not seeking out any additional services at this time. However, because of your area of expertise, I have added your contact information to our list of offers. If additional support is needed as the investigation progresses, we will contact you for assistance.''

Walsh said that is the only response he has received and he finds it odd that ''CPS wasn't interested in even talking to a Texas resident with a PhD with special expertise on fundamentalist Mormonism. If they had said, 'We have so and so of BYU on our team,' then I would have said something like, 'Oh, I think she is pretty good and you guys are set and don't need me in any fashion.' ''

I spoke with Greg Cunningham, a CPS spokesman, a couple days ago and asked who the state had enlisted to help educate them about the FLDS. He said he could not provide a list but that there were numerous people called on.

Well, we know who some of them were because they were identified in court, court documents, interviews and press conferences:

Becky Musser, a former plural wife who was married (voluntarily, at age 19) to Rulon Jeffs, former FLDS prophet and Warren's father. Musser's younger sister is Elissa Wall, whose marriage at age 14 led to the criminal conviction of Warren Jeffs on rape-as-an-acomplice charges. Musser testified as a state witness during Jeffs' trial last fall. Elissa is seeking a multimillion dollar settlement from the church and its property trust in a lawsuit currently pending in court.

Shannon Price, executive director of the Diversity Foundation in Utah, which helps teens and women leave the FLDS sect. A half dozen of those teens filed a civil lawsuit against Warren S. Jeffs, the FLDS church and the sect's communal property trust, which they alleged caused them to be driven out of their homes by their parents. When the FLDS did not respond to the lawsuit, the state of Utah moved to have the property trust placed under court oversight. Now, a court-appointed fiduciary is dismantling it.

Carolyn Jessop, ex-plural wife of Merrill Jessop, who runs the YFZ Ranch. Jessop's scathing memoir about growing up in the group and her 18 years as Merrill's wife is a best-seller and she has shared those views repeatedly as a guest on numerous talk shows and news programs over the past three weeks.

(By the way, a film crew from the Oprah show chronicled Price and Jessop's trip to Texas for a future segment focused on Elissa Wall, who has just written a book about her experiences in the FLDS sect.)

Bruce Perry, a cult expert who assisted the state with children who were brought out of the Branch Davidian complex before it was incinerated.

Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran said he relied heavily on an unnamed confidential informant who is an ex-member of the sect, but has refused to divulge that person's name. It could be Carolyn. It could be Flora Jessop, who first came to Texas in 2004 to educate Doran and others about his county's new residents. Flora also took calls -- and brought them to Texas Rangers' attention -- from a mentally unstable woman in Colorado Springs who has been tied to the calls that appear to have triggered the Texas raid.

Walsh said he looks at the situation this way: ''If I was investigating a Roman Catholic family for child abuse, I think I personally would be more interested in a PhD for background information than I would in someone who had been molested by a priest,'' he said. ''So the whole thing seemed strange and made me question their objectives and tactics. As a citizen, I expect political offices to spin everything to their advantage, but I expect law enforcement and child protective services to be as impartial and unbiased as possible. I am saying I expect the President's press secretary to lack objectivity, but I want the pentagon and attorney general's press secretaries to be free from bias.''

One of the big questions, as yet unresolved, is why there were far more girls at the YFZ Ranch than boys. It isn't just older boys who came up short, either. There appear to be far more little girls than little boys, too.

I was told by one person that 85 percent of the children in state custody are girls.

Are the women not eating enough cereal? Perhaps, according to findings by a group of British researchers. They found that a woman's diet at the time of conception influences gender. Read it here.

I just read a Houston Chronicle story picked up by The Salt Lake Tribune. One quote in particular caught my attention because of a conversation I had Monday with a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

I asked how the FLDS children were occupying their time at the San Angelo Coliseum. She said they were playing with new toys, checking out a nearby football stadium and being given rides on an amusement park-like train.

It's been nearly three weeks since they were removed from their homes. What about school? I asked.

Still working it out, she said.

So here is the quote that caught my eye in the Houston Chronicle story, which raised questions about the quality of the education FLDS children receive because they are homeschooled and the possibility that problems in the group might have been caught sooner if there was more oversight of the Texas homeschool system:

''David C. Berliner, a regents' professor at the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education at Arizona State University whose research interests include school vouchers and classroom teaching, said it's wrong for the state to be hands-off.

''My take on it all is that children are not the personal property of parents,'' Berliner said by e-mail.

''As minors, the state has an abiding interest in checking on their welfare and their education. When the state doesn't do that, it is abandoning its responsibility to take care of those we define as not able to make decisions on their own.

''Walking away from such responsibility is cowardly. Texans should be ashamed of their lack of oversight," he said.

Basketball. It's just a game. Or maybe not.

When the Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets playoff series moves to Salt Lake City later this week, the FLDS story will tag along.

Salt Lake Attorney Robert Breeze says he is mad about what's happening in San Angelo and is organizing a protest to coincide with the playoff games. Breeze has an interesting history when it comes to Constitutional rights.

In 2005, he walked into the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City with a flyer stuffed in his briefcase. He had just been handed the flyer by people protesting a juvenile judge's decision to remove 11 children from the home of plural wife Heidi Mattingly Foster. (An aside: Everything I have ever written about on the polygamy beat seems to be coming together now in a really strange way.)

Sheriff's deputies confiscated the flyer from Breeze's briefcase. He sued the county, arguing an unwritten policy banning political speech from the courthouse violated his free speech rights. The county later settled with him. He got $3,200, most of which he used to pay attorney fees. He gave a leftover $500 to Mattingly Foster.

The county reminded deputies to avoid stomping on the free speech rights of visitors to the courthouse.

Okay. That was then, this is is now: Here is a notice I just received from Breeze:


Protest Rally

Let the children go home!

Event: Utah Jazz vs. Houston Rockets

Dates: 4-24-08 and 4-26-08

Time: 6:30pm – 8:30pm (Right before Jazz game starts)

Place: In front of the Energy Solutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

Make your own signs! Examples: ''Shame on Texas!'' ''You messed up, Texas'' ''CPS = Gestapo'' ''Let the children go home!'' ''Stop Breaking Up Families!'' ''Free the Children'' ''Don't Trample Our Rights'' ''Guilty Before Charged?'' ''Star of David Moot with DNA'' ''CPS = Nazi's'' ''CPS = KGB'' ''CPS plays God again'' or bring your own idea.

Purpose: For nationwide coverage of American Citizens protesting against the civil rights violations of the families in Eldorado, Texas. Houston is coming to town to play the Jazz for the playoffs and will have sufficient coverage to reach the whole nation.

This rally is being sponsored by Bob Breeze, a Salt Lake City Attorney, who is concerned for the civil rights of these families in Texas. He has prepared letters to the Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets demanding they cancel the remainder of their playoff games as a sign of solidarity and respect for the citizens of Texas (former residents of Utah) who have had their homes raided and their children taken.

For more information, contact Bob Breeze at 801-322-2138.

The LDS Church issued a statement today about 51st District Judge Barbara Walther's suggestion that one of its members should be enlisted to oversee prayer sessions organized by FLDS women at the San Angelo Coliseum and Pavilion.

Here is the statement, provided by LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter:

''We only have news reports of what a judge said in court. We have had no contact from judicial officials and therefore no clear understanding of what, if anything, we are being invited to do.

''It would be erroneous to base any request for assistance from members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the basis that our beliefs and practices are close to those of this polygamous group because they are not.

''Neither would such a request necessarily be fair to those of this polygamous community, which long ago chose a different path from ours. In fact, many in these isolated communities view us with some hostility as part of the outside world they have rejected.''

John Walsh, a religious studies scholar who testified last week before Walther, put it this way:

Asking a Mormon to oversee a fundamentalist Mormon's prayer service is like saying, ''The people may be Baptists, but they can pray as long as a Roman Catholic priest oversees them.''

Tom Green County Judge Barbara Walther signed an order today sending FLDS children to 16 different group homes and shelters across Texas. Hours later, the Texas Child Protective Services began transporting them away from the San Angelo Colesium. I watched as five full buses and a number of empty ones pulled out of the colesium, led and followed by state troopers. Some children on the buses waved at media posted at one gate.

This is the fourth move for the children since they were taken from the ranch on April 3.

The children will be kept in the temporary group homes until their attorneys can find foster homes for them.
Attorneys for the children are scrambling to locate the best foster care possible for them. According to the Texas Family Code -- and state practice -- relatives are to be given preference when placing a child in foster care.

But how will that play out here? No one knows. And that has left many ad litem attorneys in a quandry: What can they do to make sure the children are moved to the best possible environment under the circumstances?

I have heard from several FLDS people who do not live at the ranch as well as former members who would like to provide homes for their relatives' children. One is a monogamous woman with four children but also a sect member. Since the state has made much of the group's belief system, I doubt she will be successful.

One person involved in the placements joked that it might help if a foster home candidate showed up in court clad in a black leather skirt and red bustier. High heels are optional.

A ''help wanted'' ad might look like this:

Need home for two of the healthiest, sweetest children on earth. Prefer a close relative who is not a member of the FLDS church and who can prove that (perhaps with letters from a minister or pastor of a different non-polygamous faith).

Ideal family will have a home sufficient for the needs of the children and be able to take all children from one mother.

May reside outside of Texas.

If interested, please contact the Department of Family and Protective Services at communityengagement@dfps.state.tx.us and ask for contact information for the attorney ad litem for the children to whom you are related.

Today in court Judge Barbara Walther said sure, breast milk is best for babies, and yes, nursing helps them bond with their mothers but in this country mothers routinely go back to work six weeks after delivering a baby.

In other words, toughen up. There will be, Walther said, no concession for the FLDS ladies who are nursing. Once Texas gets its DNA samples from them and their children, the mothers will be sent home. It is hard enough to find homes for infants, the judge said, without adding a mother to the mix.

Proponents of breast-feeding acted swiftly after hearing about the judge's refusal to step in and let FLDS mothers who are nursing stay with their infants and toddlers.

Nicole Hoff of Texas immediately put together a blog site to rally support for the FLDS mothers. And other women helped spread the word. I got an email about Hoff's Web site from Ruth Bell.

Ruth said: ''Separating unweaned babies from their breastfeeding mothers hits a nerve because it is so barbaric and unnecessary. It crosses the line of human decency and compassion and in no way aids the goal of emancipating them from an 'oppressive' society.''

The FLDS people are taking their own message to the masses. Here are two Web sites where the community has posted its own pictures and stories about the raid:here.

And here.

Durng the custody hearing for 416 FLDS children last week, one attorney joked that a Texas CPS investigator must have ''magical'' powers that allowed her to determine someone's age at a glance.

It was one of the lighter moments in the grueling, two-day hearing and came after the investigator, Angie Voss, said she and her staff were having a hard time figuring out the ages of some young women now in state custody. The investigator said that while some girls claimed to be adults, any one who saw them would agree they looked far younger.

The state has given the young women one of those ''false choices'' that psychiatrist Bruce Perry talked about during his testimony. If they say they are under 18, they will get to stay with their children in foster care. If they say they are older, they are going to be sent back to the ranch after the state gets DNA samples from their children.

Figuring out who's who and how old the state wards are has turned out to be a conundrum for Texas. Perhaps one of the benefits of Keeping Sweet is a youthful appearance. It is true: Many of the FLDS women look far younger than they are. I could not believe it when Merilyn, one young woman who took the stand last week, said she was 29.

My magical age radar would have pegged her at 21, tops.

During the hearing, attorneys for parents and children said they had certified birth certificates, social security numbers, Texas drivers licenses and even tax returns that could be used to validate names and ages.

But Voss said the documents would not be acceptable, suggesting some certificates might be forged.

And Judge Barbara Walther agreed.

''How do you know, in today's world of identity theft, a birth certificate is proof of who they are?'' the judge asked.

Attorney Stephanie Goodman asked Voss whether a certified birth certificate would be acceptable proof for her client.

''I can’t say that it wouldn't be,'' Voss said. But she also could not say it would be.

Instead, Texas will use DNA samples to link mothers and fathers to their children. One unknown: Who is footing that tab?

I am not sure how they will sort out the age issue.

While Texas won't accept birth certificates as proof of parentage or age, they were good enough for prosecutions in Arizona.

Arizona authorities relied on birth certificates to convict a handful of FLDS men for sexual misconduct with underage girls. The birth certificates were used as absolute proof in establishing how old the girls were when they had children.

Birth certificates also surfaced in a Utah child welfare case involving Heidi Mattingly Foster, a plural wife of John Daniel Kingston. They are members of a polygamous group that is not affiliated with the FLDS.

The couple was hauled into court after a dispute with their two oldest daughters over ear piercing.

Mattingly Foster's last name was listed on the birth certificates for the couple's 11 children.

At one point in the case, which dragged on for two years, the juvenile judge ordered Mattingly Foster to get new birth certificates for the children that bestowed their father's name on them.

Then, the guardian ad litem for the older girls said they did not really want to use their father's last name because of the public notority associated with it. The judge relented in their case.

The state eventually terminated the couple's parental rights to the two older girls. The rest of Mattingly Foster's children spent 10 months in state care before the judge sent them home.

We received this press release, posted in whole below, from John Walsh this morning . . .

MORMON SCHOLAR ON BED IN TEMPLE: HEALTH ROOM USES

Correction of Quote Requested

SAN ANGELO, TEXAS | 19 April 2008 | Dr. John Walsh would like to correct an error in an AP quote attributed to him about a bed in the FLDS temple.

Dr. Walsh's corrected quote: In 178 years of Mormon history, none of the various branches of Mormonism, including the FLDS, have ever been known to have sexual relations inside a temple. As to why a bed might be in the temple, he said in some Mormon temples, a bed has been used for hospital clinical purposes. People often come to the temple fasting, and temple
rituals last several hours. With hundreds of people participating in such activities, temple operators are prepared for events when those attending the temple fall ill or need medical attention.

Misquote: The Associated Press claimed Dr. Walsh said the bed was used for naps in the temple. In reality, Dr. Walsh was asked what might be the intended purpose of such a bed, with the implication that it was used for sexual intimacy.

Occasion for the misquote: On Fri., April 18, Dr. John Walsh gave expert witness testimony regarding the religious beliefs and practices of the fundamentalist Mormons in the San Angelo, Texas, child abuse case. He was asked a few questions concerning a bed found in the Eldorado temple and its purpose. Unfortunately, the Associated Press misquoted his testimony
on this issue and this incorrect information was distributed to various news organizations.

In addition to his actual testimony: Dr. Walsh notes fundamentalist groups, like the FLDS, generally are very conservative and reluctant to change their religious practices over time. The FLDS, in particular, split from the mainstream LDS Church specifically because they believed the LDS Church was abandoning the original beliefs and practices of Joseph Smith. Since
Joseph Smith did not have temple rituals that included sexual intimacy, it would seem very unlikely for the FLDS to create one spontaneously.

There are not enough hours in the day to get all my Web updates and daily stories done and then blog, too. So I am a bit behind on this one.

Last week, a lead attorney for FLDS parents had William John Walsh testify about Mormon and FLDS practices. He shot down one of the most inflammatory allegations made by Texas law officers about what they saw when they entered the sect's temple two weeks ago.

An affidavit filed in court by a Texas Ranger said that on April 5 an ex-FLDS member who had served as a confidential informant for Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran said there were beds in the temple where ''males over the age of seventeen engage in sexual activity with female children under the age of seventeen."

The ranger said that on that same day, officers entered the temple and saw a bed (later described as on the third floor) with rumpled linens and a ''strand of hair that appears to be from a female head.''

Okay, we bit. And then Walsh offered up an entirely different explanation for the beds-in-the-temple story.

Although he has never been inside the FLDS temple, Walsh said it was likely set up like an LDS Church temple.

LDS Church temples, he said, typically have several beds available in case people doing temple work -- marriage ceremonies, baptisms for the death -- become faint or feel ill.

It is common for members to fast before coming to the temple, Walsh said, and temple sessions often last several hours.

Sounds reasonable.

I have never been in a Mormon temple. Can anyone out there validate what Walsh said?

The children stay with the state. By now you know that Tom Green County Judge Barbara Walther came to that conclusion today after two long days of testimony about whether the FLDS culture is inherently abusive to children.

She said yes.

Now, to get their children back parents will, at a minimum, have to submit DNA samples, undergo psychiatric evaluations and agree to safety plans focused on . . . well, who knows at this point. A CPS investigator could come up with no proposals for what parents might do to be reunited with their children.

Still, attorneys made spirited arguments for returning the children, speaking of them by age, name or color. The state divided the FLDS children and young mothers into color-coded groups: blue, pink, orange, brown, grey, depending on their ages and circumstances. Several young mothers were allowed to leave the Colesium or Wells Fargo Pavilion to come to court today; they wore identification wrist bands.

The mothers took the stand this evening and said they would do anything to be reunited with their children: move off the ranch, agree to temporary restraining orders prohibiting contact with their husbands, counseling.

They agreed, you could say, to become single mothers and cut themselves off from their friends, family and faith.

Now, Texas Child Protective Services is apparently arranging to send their 416 children all over the state and even across the country.

Those in the courtroom did not have to wait long for the judge to make her decision -- the recess lasted just five minutes, though I'm sure Walther has been thinking it over since signing the order two weeks ago that led to the children's removal.

Media were assigned to the last row in the Courtroom A, which meant that to see and hear the proceedings I had to stand up. All the rows ahead of me were filled with FLDS members. During the wait, a number of men sat with bowed heads and seemed to be praying.

A young couple sat directly in front of me. The woman, Lori Jessop, 25, is staying in the shelter at the Wells Fargo Pavilion with her three children. She was brought to court today to testify about her marriage and willingness to protect her children.

Her husband is 27. When she arrived at court, she found him among the crowd and slipped into the bench beside him. I realized they had not seen each other in two weeks.

He put his arm around her, held her close through hours of testimony. Her rubbed her back at one point. They whispered back and forth. She is an EMT and told the judge that she would take their children -- ages 4 to 11 months -- and move off the ranch and go to work if she could stay with them.

After the judge issued her ruling, the Steeds stood and stared at one another, a look of shock on their faces.

I have no idea what becomes of her now, whether the state will let her continue to stay with their children. I suppose not.

We heard other complicated stories today. One attorney said she represented a 17-year-old girl who is a Canadian citizen and was visiting her grandmother who lives at the ranch when the raid occurred. Now she is a ward of the state of Texas.

One attorney said he represents a 5-year-old boy who has Down's syndrome and other serious medical problems. What about him? he asked the cult expert who testified for the state. Wouldn't he be better off with his mother?

Linda Musser, 56, said she was in Lubbock where her 29-year-old daughter is hospitalized and undergoing dialysis and treatment for other medical problems. Musser's 13-year-old son was taken away. Musser, who was in a monogamous marriage but is now legally divorced, told the judge she would move off the ranch, perhaps to Lubbock to be near her daughter, if that is what it would take to get her son returned. Her older sons would support her.

The judge decided otherwise, for now.

It is 5:30 a.m. and it's been a sleepless night. I would guess I am not the only one who tossed and turned last night here in San Angelo.

In less than five hours, a district court judge will begin the daunting task of figuring out whether 416 children are better off in the hands of Texas than they were with their parents, members of a controversial religious sect that engages in plural marriage.

What must the children, the innocent cast in this drama, think?

I spent yesterday morning at the YFZ Ranch, listening to more stories about the 2008 YFZ Raid -- at this point it needs a name -- and what happened afterward.

I heard this: State authorities brought cadaver dogs onto the property about two days into the investigation. They had found two marked graves -- one belonging to Barbara, one of Warren Jeffs' wives, who died of breast cancer a few years ago, the other to a 3-year-old boy killed in a car accident on the ranch.

They had also found what were described as ''unmarked graves.'' So the dogs were brought in.

But there were no bodies lying there. The heaped mounds of dirt were flower gardens. The ranch sistes on a solid bed of limestone that extends down some 300 feet. To create orchards and gardens and flower plots, the people on the ranch have to build dirt mounds.

And these particular mounds, a woman named Gwendolyn told me, happened to be where the little girls at the ranch planted flowers.

I asked Gwendolyn, who is 80, what she thought her grandchildren must be experiencing.

''They have to stand for it just like we do,'' she said. ''They know what's right. They've been taught.''

They know about their grandfather, she said. His name: Leroy S. Johnson, who was a spokesman for this group in 1953 when Arizona authorities staged a similar action aimed at removing children from the community.

''He was faithful and true,'' she said. And then, ''I expect those children are mighty anxious to come home.''

Her daughter, whose five daughters are in state custody, told me she cries every once in while when I asked how she was holding up.

''I know Heavenly Father is in control,'' she said. ''We will get our children back, even if it is after the resurrection.''

For more than a week, Trent and I have watched the FLDS women at Fort Concho from afar. We had to put our own interpretation to what we saw: A woman hugging young girls, boys singing and women joining in with them, CPS workers and troopers tracking the people's every move.

Last night, we met those women and got words to go with our pictures.

It was, as you can imagine, surreal to go onto the fabled YFZ Ranch, about which there are two competing storylines: It is a haven built by people pursuing religious imperatives, or a secretive enclave where children are abused.

We did not get to see much. We traveled down a dirt road to a log building, where a group of women stood like a choir waiting to meet the media. We had been warned that they might be skittish since they have never dealt with media. It took a few women time to warm up to us. Just as I was leaving, one woman said she wanted to tell her story. Did any one want to hear it? I listened and will share it on this blog later.

But I want to tell you about the photo posted here, which Trent took a week ago Sunday -- the first day women and children were brought to Fort Concho.

We watched as this woman was greeted by younger women, all hugging her, obviously going to her for comfort, crying. From afar, we had no idea who they were or what they were doing or what the emotions playing out were.

Her name is Janet.

She has five children in state custody, three girls and two boys. The girls are ages 9, 13 and 16. The boys are 11 and 15.

This is what she said about that moment:

I was in the shelter and had girls in the other one. They told me my two girls were running for me and I went across to hug them. Instantly I had eight police men around me. I was just hugging them.

I have not read my colleague Rebecca Walsh's column about dress styles of the FLDS, but I have received some email about it. I can imagine what it says.

A lot of people like to pick on the clothing of the FLDS as backward. I guess you could say the same about the Mennonites, Amish, Quakers or Catholics -- the priests, any way.

Clothing is a statement among fundamentalist religious groups, as much as it is among the pop culture secularists. But that is what freedom is about, right? The freedom to choose how to dress, worship, live, love and work. I drive to work each morning (when I am not in Texas, anyway) and pass by Temple Square and the LDS Church Office Building. I see women dressed every day who could pass unnoticed in Hildale, Utah, or Colorado City, Ariz.

I am a Catholic, so I have grown up knowing there are certain clothes for certain occassions, certain colors for certain seasons and holy days, certain women who don a habit (the black or blue cloak-style dresses that nuns wear) to make a statement. I wore uniforms to school until 7th grade.

To each his or her own.

I can not understand why some people are willing to regard the Amish are quaint and the FLDS peculiar because of their clothing.

So, out of the mail bag, I offer you this from an FLDS woman:


I thought I would send you some ramblings about our fashions. Since much of what is out there is incorrect. And Rebecca Walsh wrote a column about FLDS fashion that presents some misperseptions.

First, the idea that underwear makes you hot. It does not. Your body adjusts to the temeperature changes better with a covering of underwear and clothing. Clothing protects the skin from the heat of the sun. You are actually cooler being covered than being naked when it comes to sunshine. And cold? That extra layer is marvelous in winter. Wearing long underwear is in preperation for our temple ordinances. And we see it as a priviledge.

Clothing is a way of control? Apparently Carolyn (Jessop) thinks so. I am free to dress as I like. I think dresses are romantic. They bring out the femine side in me. Our bodies are sacred. And they are not to display before the world. That is the reason we cover them. Not because we want to be compelled to stick together. What a foolish idea.

Our hair: Women need long hair. Our mothers in Heaven have long hair. This was revealed by the Prophets. It is our desire to be like these mothers that makes us not want to cut our hair. Hair left hanging is hot on the neck. It keeps the heat against the skin as much as a layer of insulation would. That is why most women braid their hair or put it up in a bun or twist. The wave? ''...the higher the wave, the more righteous the woman...''?! What a silly notion that a high wave makes a good woman. The wave hairs are seperated out and a little backcombing creates bulk so the hair will stay in the wave shape. Then the hairs on the front of the seperation are combed over toward the back of the head. And the wave is formed. Just clip and braid and you are in style. A higher wave just means a little more backcombing.


Makeup: Women should have a natural beauty. Not the blended look of five layers of make up used to create a ''natural look.'' And beauty should come from within, not the outward painting of a pretense of beauty. Virtue and sweetness are more prized than beauty. Is not a holy woman beautiful? This is what we believe.

''Ugly orthopedic shoes''?! It is true that some women wear ''orthopedic shoes'' because they need the comfort on their feet. Especially the elderly women need those type of shoes. But, most of our women wear nice, attractive shoes. Sketchers and Nikes are popular. As are some other popular brands. Some women prefer sandals or pumps, depending on the occasion. All are chosen for comfort as well as style. I can't say the same for the spike heels most women in the world wear.


Colors: "Color choices are limited to pastels (the spirit of God cannot reside in anything colorful).''?! We choose pastels because they are peaceful colors. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Peace. And we desire to be a peaceful, calm people. However, the Lord has made all of the colors of the rainbow, and His Spirit is upon all of his creations. Even the brightest, red poppy.

Our motive is not isolation but simplicity. And that is beautiful to me.

Here is a press release I received this morning about a press conference and humanitarian effort by a polygamy advocacy and education group in Salt Lake City.


PRESS RELEASE
April 12, 2008
Contact:
Principle Voices:


Press Conference:
Date: Monday, April 14, 2008
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Location: City and County Building, 450 South State Street, Salt Lake City, UT.
(front, west steps)

The raid on the FLDS Texas YFZ ranch sent shockwaves through our communities. In response, Principle Voices and the Principle Voices Coalition were inundated with calls from concerned individuals eager to offer a helping hand to the FLDS women and children currently in the custody of the state of Texas.

We have collected hundreds of care packages to be sent to the FLDS children of all ages, and to their mothers who are staying with them.

Among the items received are:

Heartfelt, compassionate letters of comfort from children of all ages, and some for their mothers.

Notebooks, pens, pencils, colored pencils, crayons, paper and binders for journaling or letter writing (along with 400 blank envelopes, some of which have been postage-stamped).

Toys, horse-shoe sets, balls, stuffed animals, paper airplanes.

Towel sets, baby sets (rattles, teethers, diapers, bibs, hats, baby wipes, “sippy” cups)

LDS hymns and Children’s songbooks on cassette tapes, CDs and Church choir books.

Books for children of all ages that meet FLDS values and standards.

We have also set up a bank account on behalf of the FLDS children. Anyone desiring to donate can do so at any Wells Fargo Bank, 'Donate For the Children' (in care of Mary Batchelor, Director of Principle Voices).

Donations continue to pour in and we anticipate sending additional packages as needed.

Earlier this year, the Utah Legislature agreed to fund a new coordinator for the state's Safety Net Committee.

At the moment, as I sit here in a hotel room in Texas, that it is looking like a really good idea.

The committee is a coalition of parties that works to ensure people involved in or wanting to leave polygamy. Paul Murphy, spokesman for Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has filled the position for the past five years. The job is too much, given all his other duties. So, here is the job description.

Perhaps it is just the career change you have been looking for:


Safety Net Coordinator

Description: Oversee, coordinate and maintain a Safety Net program to support individuals involved in or seeking to leave polygamy, ensuring they have equal access to justice, safety and services.

Accountable to: Family Support Center Executive Director

Responsibilities:
Coordinate and maintain information, collaboration and services among multi-disciplinary teams to assist those involved in polygamy.

Convene and conduct regular meetings of the Safety Net Committee and organize community events, ensuring that government agencies, non-profit organizations and interested people are invited.

Establish and expand nonprofit victim services to child, youth and adult victims in Utah and Northern Arizona.

Provide support, training and technical assistance to providers of domestic violence and child maltreatment victim services.

Develop and distribute provider's manuals, brochures and other materials.

Provide training, develop and distribute manuals, brochures and other materials to create public awareness in and about the target population.

Implement strategies to increase awareness and reduce risk factors in order to improve the safety and well-being of women and children in the target areas.

Conduct outreach to members of polygamous communities.

Develop and distribute materials that will help those in polygamous communities recognize and identify domestic violence and child abuse.

Convene support groups for members of polygamous communities where education and assistance will be given in accessing supportive services.

Provide culturally sensitive, supportive discussions in support groups, which are attended only by members of the target population.

Hold events, such as fairs or exhibits, where government agencies, faith-based groups and non-profit agencies will describe the resources available to the target population.

Provide support and technical assistance to regional domestic violence program administrators.

Participate as an ex-officio member of the Utah Domestic Violence Council.

Plan, manage and monitor the Safety Net budget, including revenues, expenditures and budget projection.

Represent the Safety Net with federal, state and local government units, in the media or with private organizations.

Develop, direct and /or evaluate programs. Create reports as requested by Executive Director.

Attend all relevant meetings, including weekly supervision with Executive Director.

Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:
Master's degree and licensure in Social Work or related field; excellent communication skills, verbal and written; interact comfortably with others of diverse backgrounds; working knowledge of advocacy, accessing government, social and special-need resources; working knowledge of community building, domestic violence and child welfare; awareness of the multiple social, educational, psychological and financial needs of people from various cultures; ability to multi-task; familiarity with business administration; computer literate; able to create and maintain spread sheets; Word, Excel, Power Point.

Salary:
This is a full time, fully benefited position. Salary $48,000 annual.


To apply for this position, fax resume to (801) 562-9347, attention Bonnie Peters or email it to bonnie.peters@familysupportcenter.org

Speaking of mail, I have been receiving a number of emails from readers unhappy that the Tribune refers to those who believe in the tenet of plural marriage as ''fundamentalist Mormons.''

Alrighty then, let's talk about it.

Way back in 1935 or so, Mark E. Peterson, an apostle in the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, used the term ''fundamentalists'' to refer to the renegade church members who were continuing to live in polygamous relationships.

Those groups and individuals adopted the term and made it their own generic label. Now, within the fold there are different sects -- the Kingstons, the Apostolic United Brethren, the TLC and, yes, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. There are a handful of smaller groups and lots of individuals who are independents and belong to no group at all.

Years ago, one man who'd left the FLDS when Warren Jeffs came to power, told me he'd always been taught that the family believed in ''Mormonism'' and that he was a Mormon.

The big church disagrees vehemently. LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley emphatically distanced the church from the splinter groups on Larry King Live some years back.

Hey, this is guy who knew how to work the PR machine and was admired for his media savvy.

Hinckley told King that there is no such thing as a fundamentalist Mormon.

That's the point this reader made:

You guys have one article about the LDS church trying to keep people from confusing the FLDS story with their church, and then you have another article calling the polygamists fundamentalist Mormons.

This is grossly inaccurate. Come on guys. You're the Salt Lake Tribune. You of all people should be the experts on this issue. Members of the FLDS church are different than fundamentalist Mormons.

The term ''Mormons'' in any form refers only to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. ''Fundamentalist'' Mormons still refers to members of that church - just as you can have fundamentalist Catholics or fundamentalist Lutherans.

Here's the problem. Academics use the term fundamentalist Mormons. The people themselves use the term. We've decided to do likewise.

If we called them fundamentalist polygamists, would Christian polygamists protest? (Yes, there are some right here in the U.S.A.) Identifying these people only as fundamentalists would beg the question: What kind?

But go ahead. Let's argue this out. What do you think?

Dear Editor,

Texas has rounded up teenage ranch girls impregnated by older men who believe in God. Shouldn't the next step be to round up teenage girls in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio impregnated by older men who don't believe in God?

Perhaps these others have not been targeted yet because they live in cities and have more acceptable beliefs ... like faith in professional basketball players.

Just to be fair, I think the Texas Welfare Department should station officers at the gates of the big arenas during the NBA playoffs and sweep up some more sad stories.

I always did think mainstream Texans were far too morally perfect to tolerate the riffraff of the world. One former state governor, for example, has decreased the number of Islamic funny-believers in Iraq by a hundred thousand or so.

Now Texas has made San Angelo as safe from religiously-challenged people as the Green Zone is in Baghdad.

And we can add the child Welfare Act to the Patriot Act as the next great Texas tool for cleansing the planet of claptrap.

Congratulations Texas, the eyes of Utah are upon you.

Sincerely,

Kimball Shinkoskey

I watched yesterday as state troopers -- 10 of them, as best as I could tell -- questioned an FLDS man and woman in a parking lot across from Fort Concho, where 416 children and 139 from the sect are being held.

As the man spoke with one plainsclothes officer, he gestured animatedly. He appeared to be in his late 20s or early 30s. The officer and the man shook hands for a long time afterwards.

The woman, who was questioned separately, looked to be the same age. She was calm. At one point the officers gave her a bottle of water.

The conversation lasted about 10 or 15 minutes. The couple then got back in their white extended passenger van and drove slowly out of the parking lot.

A trooper later told a few reporters who witnessed the interaction that the van had been pulled over in a traffic stop. Asked the nature of the violation, the trooper repeated it was a routine traffic stop.

All week, law officers guarding and patroling the fort have been pulling over vehicles driven by people who appear to be from the FLDS community.

The van had a Nevada plate. I don't know why the pair came to Fort Concho.

But if they are among the unknown number of FLDS parents trying to claim children taken from the ranch while they were elsewhere on business, it may be a frustrating week.

Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has confirmed that parents are arriving and seeking to be reunited with their children. But among the many legal documents filed so far in this case, the state says that any one -- man or woman -- who wants to assert parentage of a child now in its care will have to submit to a genetic test to prove their claim. The policy apparently also applies to the women at Fort Concho and the men at YFZ Ranch.

For now, Texas officials are turning away so such parents and telling them they will have to wait until a hearing next Thursday, when 51st Judge Barbara Walther will begin making decisions about what to do with the state’s new wards.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective services now has information on its Web site about the FLDS investigation. It answers all your questions about donations, foster homes and provides a nice chronology of how the investigation unfolded.

You can find it here.

I have had a lot of emails about this. Here is a sampling:

--How can we help the situation? What do these women and children need from us?

--I am a foster parent in California and am interested in helping by providing a home for a child who was removed from the polygamist's raid in Texas. I am of the Mormon faith and I know that our conservative stable family would make for an easier adjustment than a non-conservative family.

--That sounds like a large amount of people to care for and so few to do it. I was wondering if there is a need for any volunteer assistance or you could point me into the direction of someone that would know if there was a need to help.

DFPS Spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said the outpouring of compassion has been overwhelming.

We were told today the children are doing OK, considering the circumstances. They have received health checks and 12 were found to have what looks to be chicken pox. They have isolated those children (with their mothers, hopefully) to avoid a bigger outbreak.

And this is nice: They have new toys to play with.

UPDATE: The link below is now fixed.

The description of the unidentified gir's call that led to the raid on the YFZ Ranch is being questioned by some people. One person told me this morning the call sounds like ''bunk.''

Why? Much of the verbage is wrong for the FLDS sect. For example, they don't refer to ''the outsider's world.'' Non-FLDS members are ''gentiles,'' the caller pointed out. And the caller had a question: Wouldn't a doctor who treated a girl for broken ribs have been required to investigate whether the injury was accidental or the result of abuse?

Here is a blog that is raising similar questions .

The Dallas Morning News spoke to an unnamed law officer who was at YFZ Ranch as investigators swept the compound owned by the FLDS Sect.

The source described women being loaded onto buses that carried them away from the ranch. They sang, the newspaper said, to calm their children. The song? ''Sweet Spirit of Prayer.''

It's original title is ''Sweet Hour of Prayer'' and its hymn used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You can hear it here .

As he did with many LDS songs, Warren Jeffs change the title and some verses of the song to ''Sweet Spirit of Prayer.''

Why? Because prayer shouldn't be confined to an hour, an FLDS woman told me this morning.

The woman's family was able to speak to a brother at the YFZ Ranch in the early days of the raid. The brother told his family that as law officers entered their home, his children began to sing the ''songs of Zion'' -- not a particular song, but various hymns.

By singing, the people are making a statement. Members of this sect were forewarned in 1953 that Arizona authorities planned to raid their community, then known as Short Creek. It lies at the Utah/Arizona border and today is known as Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. They set up lookouts on Berry Knoll, who ignited dynamite sticks to announce a long line of vehicles making its way to the community at 4 a.m. on July 26.

The people gathered around a flag pole at the schoolhouse and they sang ''God Bless America'' as officers arrived.

The woman spotted another, younger brother in one of our photos of a group of teens playing soccer at Fort Concho. He is 17, she said, and is married to a woman his own age. They have one child and she is due to give birth in August.

In a brief phone call made to family in the past few days, her brother began to cry. He said he has seen his wife across the grassy field at the compound but hasn’t been able to speak with her.

Marleigh Meisner, spokeswoman for Texas' Child Protective Division, said Monday that ''absolutely'' no decision has been made on whether to permanently remove 401 FLDS children from their mothers.

Two points.

1. They already have been separated from their fathers.

2. The first step in removing them from their mothers has been taken by placing the children in temporary legal custody of the state.

Marleigh was asked yesterday at a press conference what specific conditions the state has found to take that first step. She gave two broad examples: risk of abuse and the environment in which the children were living.

What does ''environment'' mean exactly? The children we've seen look healthy, clean, well-fed, happy. State officials themselves describe the children as ''very'' polite, quiet and well behaved.

Environment apparently means isolation, a word that several people have used in describing what they see as wrong about the FLDS: They live in isolation.

It may mean other things but that is not how officials and other people who support the children's removal explain it when they talk to me.

I was asked last night if the women at Fort Concho are aware of the process now in play. I have no way of knowing. One thought:

The new search warrant signed by Judge Barbara Walther on Sunday gave authorities permission to take cell phones capable of storing images. I was told that the women and children had cell phones initially and were in contact with their family back at the ranch and with each other. I have no way to know if that is still true, but it seems unlikely given the judge's new order. The cell phones might have been an avenue for them to get a broader picture of what is happening around them.

Looking at the women and children across the wide expanse of grass at Fort Concho, it is hard to know exactly what you're seeing. You can't hear anything or ask any one about what they are doing or why.

So I can only describe what I saw and what impression it left me with, and yesterday I saw this: A group of maybe a dozen or two younger girls pressed against a fence and waving repeatedly and strenuously at someone.

I couldn't see who they were waving out at first because my view was blocked by a building. So I moved to get a better view. I could see the older woman that so many of the younger girls had gravitated to the day before. She stood on the edge of a porch of a building some distance away from the girls. She made no moved to go over to them.

Are the older women being kept from these girls?

Another thing we've seen as we try to get glimpses of the FLDS women and children: they always appear to be accompanied -- watched? -- by one or two CPS workers.

Look again at our pictures, at least the ones that are not tightly cropped. You'll see it, too.

As those girls pressed against the fence and waved, a CPS worker stood directly on the other side of the fence, feet away, watching them.

On Sunday we stood in front of the First Baptist Church in Eldorado and witnessed the loading of three buses with FLDS members who had been removed from the YFZ "Yearning for Zion" Ranch. These are their faces.


For those of you looking for relatives or friends you haven't seen in a while, clicking on the photo will bring up a larger version.

So much for a slow Sunday.

Our big plan today was to get up and attend services at the First Baptist Church. We were interested in seeing how the congregation might be feeling after three days of hosting the FLDS members taken off the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado.

I have never been to a Baptist service, either.

But that plan got scrapped before I even got out of bed. I got a call from a Utah woman who had flow into town to help provide ''cultural competence'' training for the Child Protective Services workers interviewing the FLDS women and children. Less than an hour later, we were in town.

During events like this, authorities don't announce their plans. You have to pick up what is happening by watching. And luckily, that is easy in a little town like Eldorado.

We spotted buses driving in from San Angelo around 9 a.m. while we waited to meet someone at the corner of County Road 300. By the time the sixth bus had rolled by, we were rolling too. We followed them to the government center, figured out they were staging to take the women and children to San Angelo and went to the church to wait and watch.

I don't know how this thing is going to end or even all the reasons authorities went into the ranch. I suspect there is more to this than we currently know. I don't know what they’ve found up there; I don't know what they have heard from the people they've detained. I don't know what they’ve seen.

Whatever it is, I hope it justifies all this.

As it is, I feel I am watching history unfold -- and repeat itself.

Allegations of child abuse/neglect and underage brides were raised way back in 1953 when Arizona authorities took over 250 women and children out of Short Creek, the community now known as Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

They're being raised again now.

In 1953, Arizona authorities monitored the people for a few days in the community, feeding them in a chow line set up in a field, and then loaded them on buses for a long drive to Phoenix.

Women were allowed to stay with their children, but the men were separated out.

The women and children were kept in state custody for two years.

Can't say ''ditto'' yet, but it appears no one is going home any time soon. A spokeswoman said today that Child Protection Services has 30 days to finish its investigation.

And the state has already taken legal custody of 18 girls -- exactly why, no one is saying. Are the teens in danger of being married off? Are they pregnant? Have they been abused, neglect, deprived of an education?

The media corps, me included, are getting restless for specifics -- particularly from law enforcement.

Some people are describing this as a kinder, gentler action than happened in 1953.

I don't think that description works when you're talking about young children -- and there are hundreds of them involved here -- who've been taken from their homes and made to stay in a church hall or civic center and then military outpost, all in the space of three days. And they face the prospect of other moves to strange locales, too.

Trent's photos of the joy and sadness a group of women showed earlier this evening when reunited at Fort Concho in San Angelo show the stress these people are under.

We were told Friday there would be a court hearing Monday. Now no one seems to know whether there will be a court hearing at all.

We have heard nothing about what may happen to the men at the ranch, but you have to wonder if they will need to hold them, too, while they figure out whether any one has been abused or neglected.

So, the news from Texas? No end in sight yet.

I spent most of the day parked along a road watching for shuttle buses to ferry people out of the FLDS sect's YFZ Ranch. Trent and I came up with a plan. If we saw the vans, he would hop out of the car and start shooting. I would whip the car out ont to the highway, getting us pointed in the right direction so we could tag along and see where it went and hopefully, who it was carrying.

Everything went according to plan and he got a pretty good shot of two women taken out of the ranch earlier today as they were transferred to another vehicle at the Schleicher County Civic Center.

Other highlights: a press conference where we learned how many people -- 183 women and children -- the state has removed from the property; and seeing some of those women and children recreating in a backyard.

Now it is 9:45 p.m., and the day is far from over yet. I am sitting in a car parked on County Road 300 in Eldorado, waiting. For what? Not sure.

I can see the temple on the YFZ Ranch, a bright spot on the horizon four miles away. A helicopter, red lights flashing, is circling over the temple.

We were told some hours ago that after asking for days to be let in the temple, authorities plan to force their way in some time tonight.

We can only imagine the scene up there. Are the people ringing the building, blocking the doors? What is going on?

Earlier this evening, an ambulance and several fire trucks went up to the ranch. The fire trucks left, but the ambulance is still up there as far as we know. Just in case.

The faithful FLDS consecrate -- bless-- their homes; they believe that allowing outsiders to enter their homes defiles them.

Obviously, the temple is an even more sacred space for them. I spoke with an FLDS woman I know from the twin towns this evening about the situation. Remember Nauvoo? she said.

That was the second LDS Church temple. Today the LDS and Fundamentalist Mormons like the FLDS have nothing to do with each other.

But way back, they share this common history.

So Nauvoo. When the Mormons were driven out of Nauvoo, they walked away from the temple. It later burned to the ground, the woman said. Her point? Once authorities enter the temple, the people will consider it defiled.

But authorities want to check every building on the ranch, and that, they say, includes the temple. We have had no confirmation that authorities have identified the girl whose complaint of physical abuse triggered the raid.

Do they think she is in the temple? Or, that other people are hiding there?

The media speculation here at the Eldorado base camp includes the groundless rumors that have swirled around the temple since its construction.

Let's just say it's been a long day under a hot dry sun.

The bad thing about this wait is we may never know what happened. Authorities are under a gag order that prevents them from talking to the media.

Journalism is all about timing and tonight our timing was perfect.

After a long day of travel, Tribune photographer Trent Nelson and I finally reached Eldorado just about 10:15 p.m. We didn't expect to see much, given the late hour.

As we drove into town, we saw law enforcement vehicles blocking two different back roads leading to the FLDS Church's YFZ Ranch, which authorities raided earlier today.

The raid was apparently triggered by a call a day or so ago from a 16-year-old girl at the FLDS sect's ranch who said she'd been abused. Authorities also are apparently looking for Dale Evans Barlow, 50, one of eight men prosecuted two years ago in Arizona for having fathered a child with an underage girl. He allegedly has done so again, this time with a 16-year-old girl with an 8-month-old daughter that court documents say was fathered by Barlow.

So authorities entered the ranch Thursday about midnight and set about interviewing children. I heard men, women and children were separated into different groups and questioned. This afternoon vanloads of children were transported off the ranch. Authorities have taken at least 52 children and are housing them at the local Civic Center and at the First Baptist Church.

As we entered Eldorado, we didn't expect to see much. At the local Catholic church, which sits on the main road to the ranch, we saw a few television satellite trucks and television crews finishing live reports. We drove into town and decided to go by the First Baptist Church. I had been told that either law enforcement or some of the children might be staying there for the night. We just wanted to see where the church was, see if anything happened to be going on there.

As we drove up, we spotted a couple volunteers unloading supplies -- boxes of diapers, six gallons of milk, cases of water, peanut butter, bread, tomatoes, trail mix bars and so on. Trent hopped out of the car and began shooting pictures. I hung back a bit, not wanting to make the volunteers uncomfortable. They asked him to shoot without identifying them, which he did.

As we stood there, a church-owned shuttle bus pulled up. I noticed a few law enforcement cars surrounding it. Trent positioned himself near the walkway to the building. A deputy came out and began scanning the grounds. I could see FLDS children on the bus.

I hung back a bit, again letting Trent get in so he could unobtrusively shoot photos. A deputy walked over to him and asked a few questions, like he wanted to keep Trent occupied. Trent kept shooting, without a flash, so it wasn't distracting. We were the only media on the spot.

The children got off the bus in four groups and walked silently into the building. A few seemed to be aware the photographer was there. Trent kept clicking off shots, which you can see on the Tribune's Web site.

They are worth a thousand words.

There were about five older teenage girls, perhaps twice that many little girls, two babies and about five little boys. They were silent, stoic -- if that is a word you can use for children. Some appeared to be carrying coloring books, others had pillows and blankets.

Inside the hall, I could see law enforcement and volunteers setting things up. The children were taken into the middle of the building, where they appeared to be standing in a line. The older girls grouped together, talking to one another.

I stepped away to call my editor and Trent went to our rented car and began sending the photos back to the office.

Some moments later a deputy approached Trent and I and asked if he had all the photos he needed.

We thought we did. He said he was going to be leaving soon and he just wanted us to know the people there were agitated about us. He couldn't vouch for what might happen if we continued to agitate them after he left. We got the message and left.

We drove by the Civic Center, where children also are being housed. It was heavily guarded by law enforcement. We couldn't see much other than that.

A lot of people I spoke with today, those who support and those who oppose polygamy, brought up the 1953 Short Creek Raid. That's when Arizona authorities entered the community now known as Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., and took nearly 263 women and children into custody. They remained in custody for two years, and then returned to the border towns.

Those children are now adults; some of them live at the YFZ Ranch.

Breaking news out of Texas. Law officers apparently surrounded the YFZ Ranch and then raided it, with Child Protective Services Workers. See link below to read more.


http://www.myeldorado.net/

Sterling and William Harker sued the UEP about three weeks ago as part of their attempt to assert their stock claim in the Harker Farm in Beryl.

That didn't go over too well with UEP fiduciary Bruce R. Wisan, who wants to sell the farm to the mens' nephews.

He fired Sterling, who had been working on the farm, and gave both men eviction notices. I heard they had until today to move out.

The two brothers were trying to prevent Wisan from selling the farm to their nephews without first acknowledging their ownership interest in the farm. They also asked for lifetime estates in the homes they've occupied at the farm for decades.

Wisan said he had empathy with the men and tried to work with them, but they refused.

The farm had been operated by the Harkers for decades, and provided income, food and jobs for members of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Wisan was able to foreclose on the farm in partial payment of a $8.8 million judgement he won against the trust's former managers, whom the state alleged were misappropriating assets.