04/18/08

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Sect girls pregnant as young as 13. Raucous hearing over fate of 416 children seized from polygamist ranch. After hours of lawyers popping up with similar objections and questions, a custody hearing for 416 children seized from a polygamist sect finally turned to whether they were abused: A child welfare worker said some women at the sect’s ranch may have had children when they were minors, some as young as 13. The testimony came late Thursday, the first day of a court hearing to determine whether the children, swept up in a raid on the ranch two weeks ago, will remain in state custody. Child welfare officials claim the children were abused or in imminent danger of abuse because the sect encourages girls younger than 18 to marry and have children.

The quake — one of the strongest ever recorded in Illinois — occurred just before 4:37 a.m. and was centered six miles southeast of West Salem, Ill., and 45 miles west of Evansville, Ind.
Initially pegged as a 5.4 earthquake, the U.S. Geological Survey revised its estimate to give it a value of 5.2.Two aftershocks during the next three hours measured 2.6 and a 2.5, the agency reported.The strongest earthquake recorded in Illinois was in 1968, a 5.3-magnitude temblor centered near Dale in Hamilton County, about 75 miles southeast of St. Louis, according to the USGS. Minor damage was widespread, but there were no serious injuries or fatalities.
West Salem is in Edwards County, and dispatcher Lucas Griswold said the sheriff's department received several calls about the earthquake but only reports of minor damage and no injuries