SAN BENITO — Renovation of the old Harlingen police station is the first step in opening a new facility to be called The Bridge Community Outreach Center, which will be a joint program operated by Cameron County, the city of Harlingen, Harlingen school district and a half dozen social service agencies. Programs to combat delinquency, school truancy, illegal drug use and gang activity will be offered at the center, said Tommy Ramirez Jr., executive director of the Cameron County Juvenile Justice ...

HARLINGEN - The grand opening of the new center for the Narconon South Texas Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation and Education Program was held Thursday. The center is at 17697 ABD Road off of Rangerville Road. Gail Thomason, spokesperson for the center, said it has gone from a mobile home to a 17-acre facility. Thomason said in a news release that the Narconon program helps drug addicts "who have hit rock bottom to achieve control of their lives and return to their ...

Harlingen — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit on behalf of former employees of Harlingen Family Dentistry who refused to attend training courses reportedly containing scientology doctrine. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Brownsville, alleges religious discrimination and retaliation against the workers. According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, scientology is "a religious movement begun in 1952 by L. Ron Hubbard which teaches immortality and reincarnation and claims a sure psychotherapeutic method for freeing the individual ...

Being a native of Harlingen, a member of its school board since 1992, a professional in private dental practice for the last 13 years serving my community, I find it deplorable that my hometown newspaper diminishes the good work of its children while allowing one of its reporters to manufacture controversy where none exists. This letter is to clarify the facts which were incorrectly reported in Kate Mewhinney's article which appeared in Monday's edition of the Valley Morning Star. Those facts ...

A news story on the front-page of today's Star concerns a matter of long-standing debate: What should public schools teach our children, particularly in the realm of morals and values? The current debate focuses on the efforts of two Harlingen dentists, one of whom is a member of the Harlingen school board, to make available to teachers copies of the booklet, The Way to Happiness: A Common Sense Guide to Better Living. The booklet is written by L. Ron Hubbard, founder ...

HCISD board member distributes material with Scientologist links in classrooms A coalition of Harlingen minister has taken a stance against an essay contest for schoolchildren based on a book written by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. The Harlingen Ministerial Alliance, which is made up of representatives from about 12 churches in Harlingen, said it is opposed to the distribution of The Way to Happiness booklets as part of the essay contest. "If this group is permitted in classrooms, then ...

NEW YORK (AP) — An unconventional, modern-made religion, the Church of Scientology, is going strong today, in followers, facilities and systematic financing. But it also is having to fight recurrent government interference for the right to pursue its methods. "The road has been rocky," says the Rev. Kenneth J. Whitman, of the organization's Los Angeles headquarters. "But we keep growing because we're helping people." Incorporated just 16 years ago, under direction of its founder the iconoclastic American scientist-thinker [[../scienos/hubbard1.html L. Ron ...