Lawmakers cracking down on 'Lost Boys' issue

State lawmakers have passed a bill that appears to crack down on child abandonment in the fundamentalist communities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz.

It appears aimed at the phenomenon of the so-called "Lost Boys" — teens who have been ousted from the Fundamentalist LDS Church. HB23, sponsored by Rep. Lorie Fowlke, R-Orem, makes child abandonment a form of child abuse, and makes it a third-degree felony for anyone or any enterprise to encourage child abandonment.

"We're really focused on the organizations who force these parents to throw away their children in order to be able to to continue to remain part of the community," Fowlke told the Deseret Morning News on Thursday.

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Warren Jeffs renounces leadership of FLDS

Polygamous sect leader Warren S. Jeffs renounced his role as prophet in January, telling family and select followers the Lord considered him a ''wicked man'' for immoral acts as a young man, according to a court document released Tuesday.

In a series of telephone calls, Jeffs said he had been immoral with a sister and a daughter and, since the age of 20, had not held the priesthood in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He made a similar statement a day later in a jailhouse visit with a brother.

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