Polygamous Mormon Church Allowed to Keep Its Police Force

The Marshal’s Office was accused of discriminating against non-believers and ignoring church members’ marriages to underage girls.

Gaby Del Valle

04.21.17 5:00 AM ET

An inter-state police force that serves a polygamous fundamentalist Mormon community won’t be required to disband—despite alleged discrimination against nonbelievers, surveillance of dissidents, and facilitation of child abuse.

Instead, officers in the Colorado City Marshal’s Office will be required to attend annual training sessions to ensure they comply with federal laws and don’t discriminate against the community’s non-religious minority. The Marshal’s Office has been serving the adjoining towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona since 1985.

Together, the two towns make up Short Creek, a 7,500-person community that’s home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamous offshoot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that splintered from the Mormon church when the latter renounced plural marriage at the beginning of the 20th century.

The U.S. Department of Justice called for the disbanding of the CCMO as part of a lengthy anti-discrimination lawsuit against the twin towns that comprise Short Creek that began in 2012. According to the complaint, the community’s powerful FLDS leaders denied non-members access to housing, police protection, and public services including water and electricity.

In March 2016, a jury determined the community’s leadership had discriminated against non-FLDS members and awarded $2.2 million in damages to six Short Creek residents. The Justice Department then demanded the federal government disband Short Creek’s police force, which it claimed was enforcing the church’s discrimination against non-members.

Prosecutors claimed the Marshal’s Office was using its “state-granted law enforcement authority” to “carry out the will and dictates” of Warren Jeffs, the infamous FLDS leader who is currently serving a life sentence for sexually abusing two young girls whom he called his “spiritual wives.”

In October 2005, marshal Fred Barlow wrote a letter to Jeffs, a fugitive at the time. “I want to fill the position that you would have me fill and do the job the way you would like it done,” Barlow wrote. “We will continue to do that directive unless you would like us to do something different.”

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Michael B. Jordan & Michael Shannon To Topline ‘Fahrenheit 451’ Movie At HBO

Creed star Michael B. Jordan and Oscar-nominated Michael Shannon have been set to star in Fahrenheit 451, the HBO Films adaptation that has been in development at the premium network. The latest movie version of Ray Bradbury’s iconic sci-fi novel is being directed by Shannon’s 99 Homes helmer Ramin Bahrani, who co-wrote the script with his 99 Homes co-scribe Amir Naderi and is executive producing.



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Trump wants to make it easier to drill in national parks. We mapped the 42 parks at risk.

Weaker regulations could mean oil and gas pollution and spills in pristine national parks.

Updated by Sarah Frostenson@sfrostensonsarah.frostenson@vox.com Apr 20, 2017, 8:40am EDT

Two oil rigs sit just outside of Theodore Roosevelt National Park near Watford City, North Dakota. There aren’t currently any oil wells inside the park, but the new administration’s lax stance on drilling in national parks might soon change this.

Ken Cedeno/Corbis via Getty Images

It’s no secret that oil and gas companies are on the hunt for new places to drill. But the quest for more fossil fuels could heat up in places you might not expect: our national parks.

With President Donald Trump’s executive order on energy, federal agencies are now reviewing all rules that inhibit domestic energy production. And that includes regulations around drilling in national parks that, if overturned, could give oil and gas companies easier access to leases on federal lands they’ve long coveted.

"This opportunity is unique, maybe once in a lifetime," Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute lobby group, told Reuters. It could also put some of America’s most pristine and ecologically sensitive areas at risk of oil spills, ground contamination, and explosions. 

There are currently more than 500 active oil and gas wells spread across 12 national parks, as you can see in the map below. In 2015, drilling on federal lands made up nearly a fifth of overall US production. 

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Jeff Sessions Doesn’t Understand the Necessity of Science

His decision to kill the National Commission on Forensic Science betrays a lack of understanding about how to assess good evidence.

By Suzanne Bell

 

Science and the law are not natural partners. Science seeks to advance our understanding of the natural world. The law is tasked with ensuring public safety and making sure justice is properly served. Over time, science became another tool available to the legal system to pursue those goals.

During recent years, though, problems with some aspects of forensic science have come to light. Examples include false convictions based on faulty fire-scene and burn-pattern analysis and on bite-mark analysis, incorrect fingerprint identification and instances of misconduct in forensic labs. Recognizing these shortcomings has led to various efforts to propel forensic science forward, helping us recognize which parts of it are scientifically valid, which parts aren’t, and where more research must be done.

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Poll: Most say Ivanka, Jared's White House roles are inappropriate

By Betsy Klein and Kate Bennett, CNN

Updated 1540 GMT (2340 HKT) April 20, 2017

Poll: Ivanka, Jared's WH roles inappropriate 01:52

Story highlights

• About 56% of voters have unfavorable opinions of Donald Trump
• First lady Melania Trump has a 34% favorable rating

(CNN)Fewer voters have unfavorable opinions of the first family than President Donald Trump, but a majority disapprove of the adviser roles of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, according to a Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters published Wednesday.

Ivanka Trump recently assumed an official role in her father's administration. She moved into a West Wing office and obtained a security clearance in late March.

About 53% of respondents said the first daughter playing a significant role in the White House is not appropriate, compared with 36% who said it was appropriate and 10% who did not have an opinion.

Ivanka Trump walks with her husband, White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, toward Marine One while departing with her father President Donald Trump on February 17, 2017 in Washington, DC.

Kushner, her husband, also has a broad portfolio within the West Wing, where he has an influential purview over a range of foreign and domestic policy issues. He is heading up the Office of American Innovation, a new White House office aimed at reforming the federal government through private-sector solutions.

About 53% said his role was not appropriate, compared to 32% of respondents who said it was appropriate and 15% who did not know.

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Kleptocracy?: How Ivanka Trump & Jared Kushner Personally Profit from Their Roles in the White House

 Story April 20, 2017



Are Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner personally profiting from their official roles in the White House? According to the Associated Press, Ivanka Trump secured three new exclusive trademarks in China the very same day she and her father, President Trump, had dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The China trademarks give her company the exclusive rights to sell Ivanka-branded jewelry, bags and spa services in China. The New York Times reports Japan also approved new trademarks for Ivanka for branded shoes, handbags and clothing in February, and she has trademark applications pending in at least 10 other countries. Ivanka no longer manages her $50 million company, but she continues to own it. Ivanka also serves in the Trump administration as an adviser to the president. So does her husband, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. For more, we speak with Vicky Ward, New York Times best-selling author, investigative journalist and contributor to Esquire and Huffington Post Highline magazine.

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Watch the Sahara Fertilize the Amazon

Protesters in Detroit say male circumcision should also be outlawed

A Detroit area physician faces federal charges for allegedly performing female genital mutilation on multiple 6- to 7-year-old girls as part of a religious and cultural practice at a medical clinic in Livonia. Detroit Free Press

A key distinction between male circumcision and female gender mutilation is the latter has more serious side effects.

(Photo: Elaine Cromie, Detroit Free Press)

Protesters outside of the U.S. federal courthouse in Detroit today argued to  outlaw circumcision of boys in the wake of last week's announcement of a highly publicized criminal case of female genital mutilation. The demonstrators say such mutilation doesn't just happen to girls, and that boys need protection, too.

The protest came as Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, 44, of Northville, appeared in court for a detention hearing at which she was ordered to remain locked up without bond  on charges she mutilated the genitals of two Minnesota girls. She was charged last Thursday with genital mutilation following an FBI investigation into allegations that the two girls came to metro Detroit in February with their mothers and had their genitals cut at a Livonia clinic by Nagarwala.

While the case has triggered international headlines and sparked public outrage,  the protesters said that boys also need protection from this type of procedure, as they likened circumcision to genital mutilation.
“All babies should be protected and be able to keep their whole bodies,” said Julie Colon, 26, who attended the protest with her toddler son on her back. “There’s just no reason for any child to be altered at birth or really anytime.”

Jody Farrugia, 35, a registered nurse at the Detroit Medical Center, said she has long been opposed to circumcision and tries to talk new parents out of it, but nobody seems willing to listen. “I see the risks and harms daily. I always encourage mothers to keep their sons intact but they don’t think twice. They think it’s gross, they think it’s cleaner.”

“I still hear their screams from down the hallway. It haunts me.”

►Related:More genital mutilation victims likely out there, feds say
►Related:What is female genital mutilation?

Faruggia said circumcision can cause a certain number of health complications, including too much skin being taken off, which can lead to painful and tight erections as an adult. It can contribute to male erectile dysfunction and sometimes a jagged cut means repeating the surgery, she said.
She was holding a sign that said ‘Only quacks cut healthy children.’ She noted that her son has not been circumcised and he is healthy.

Another protester was Jerry Boor, 70, of Rochester Hills, who believes both science and the Bible are against circumcision.

He noted that his mother had him circumcised but he chose not to circumcise his son after researching the issue and concluding it wasn’t a medical necessity. “I love her but she didn’t know any better,” he said of his mother.

According to organizers of the protest, the genitals of 49,000 baby boys are cut in Michigan every year at the request of parents, denying a boy's right to intact and normal genitals. They say they are upset that doctors are legally allowed to cut the genitals of boys, without any medical necessity, but that a federal law prohibits cutting the genitals of girls and makes it a 5-year-felony.

"The genitals of both girls and boys needs to be protected from the harm of any genital cutting practice," says Norm Cohen, executive director of NOCIRC of Michigan, a nonprofit, consumer-rights advocacy group that researches circumcision effects. “Michigan has one of the highest rates of circumcision in the world. This unnecessary custom violates a child’s right to bodily integrity and normal functions.”

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