A Newtown School which teaches Scientology beliefs has received $1.4 million in government funding for less than 50 students. Greens MP John Kaye blasted State and Federal governments for providing the Athena School with $751,519 in ongoing funding until 2012, $135,287 for a new library, $114,713 for classroom refits and $50,000 for other works. According to the school’s website it teaches from The Way to Happiness, written by Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Mr Kaye said responses to questions on notice ...

A MELBOURNE school linked to the controversial Church of Scientology received $300,000 in funding from the federal stimulus package. Yarralinda, in Mooroolbark, is one of two schools in Australia that uses the teaching methods of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently expressed concerns about the Church of Scientology after independent senator Nick Xenophon made serious claims against the organisation under parliamentary privilege. Last week, the State Government told its schools not to distribute materials by a Scientology-funded ...

FEWER than 100 children will benefit from more than $1.6 million in Federal Government subsidies over four years to two schools strongly linked to the Scientology movement. The Athena School in Newtown will receive $751,519 in recurrent funding from the Federal Government for the 2009 to 2012 funding period. It has also been allocated $135,287 for a new library, $114,713 for primary classroom refurbishments and $50,000 for other refurbishments under the Rudd Government's Building the Education Revolution program. The Athena School ...

Utah County sheriff's Lt. Dennis Harris may be the best example of the divide between science, the law and police who say methamphetamine sickened them. Harris spent the past month undergoing a treatment purporting to alleviate symptoms of meth exposure. In the midst of Harris' 30-day effort to sweat out poisons, an administrative judge dismissed his worker compensation claim for lack of evidence. "Physically I feel a lot better," said Harris, 54, whose treatment ended Nov. 19. "Mentally, I feel fantastic." ...

THE PRIME MINISTER, Kevin Rudd, has expressed concern about the Church of Scientology but will provide subsidies worth more than $1 million to a Sydney school that promotes the teaching of the church's founder, L.Ron Hubbard. Mr Rudd said he shared some of the concerns of the independent senator Nick Xenophon, who used parliamentary privilege last week to level allegations of torture, perjury and financial coercion against the church. Newtown's Athena School is licensed by Applied Scholastics International, which is strongly ...

The Utah Legislature continued funding a Scientology-based treatment for police officers exposed to methamphetamine, despite a state-funded study that was unable to find a connection between the drug and officers' illnesses. As lawmakers were slashing funds for other state programs, they sidestepped public debate and appropriated $100,000 – enough cash for about 20 police officers to undergo the regimen of exercise, sauna time and large doses of antioxidants. The funding was added by Senate Republicans in the waning days of the ...

A tutoring agency in Cobb County with ties to the Church of Scientology has drawn critics along with federal dollars. Applied Scholastics pledges to offer only secular lessons. But critics who lodged four complaints last year against the nonprofit — which uses Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s teachings — wrote they feared it wouldn’t keep ideology out of the classroom. State education officials began an annual inspection in February and will observe the group’s tutoring this month. The review will include ...

Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal Journal Staff Writer Second Chance officials pulled the last of their inmates out of the old West Side jail building Saturday, marking an abrupt end to the drug rehab program's controversial two-plus years there. Fewer than 20 inmates had remained as of the end of the week. The remaining inmates were taken back to the jurisdictions from which they had been sentenced, including Grant and Sierra counties. Even after a Journal photographer had taken pictures of ...

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The Director of the Second Chance rehabilitation center is firing back after a News 13 report on Wednesday. Director Joy Westrum is angry after Albuquerque police claimed the facility snuck out 40 inmates ahead of a deadline to report them. The city made a mistake. Those 40 people bussed downtown on Wednesday were from the Albuquerque Rescue Mission which shares a building with Second Chance. However Albuquerque Public Safety Director Pete Dinelli said he's confirmed eight other people ...

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A Sierra County official engaged in major backtracking Friday after her statements the day before threatened to cause big trouble for an Albuquerque drug-treatment program called Second Chance. County Manager Janet Porter-Carrejo told News 13 that she was sending overflow inmates from her jail to the Second Chance rehab center without getting permission from a judge. However on Friday she said she now believes that judges did OK those inmates. She also said a clerical mistake at her ...

LAS CRUCES — The city of Las Cruces is ending an anti-drug program aimed at third-graders after learning it was backed by the Church of Scientology. The Drug-Free Marshal program started in late November. It had been presented to five schools, but was intended to be promoted eventually among all third-graders in the Las Cruces Public Schools. Mayor Ken Miyagishima says it wasn't his intention to promote the religion in the schools. The mayor says he was approached this summer by ...

A controversial drug rehab program on Albuquerque's West Side may be on the verge of losing its state funding. Second Chance has been ridiculed for its expensive carrot juice and sauna approach to cleaning up addicts and now, some people are questioning whether it's a good use of taxpayer dollars. "Lets put that money, especially right now, when were on real hard economic times, lets put that money where we know it has a proven successful track record," said Bernalillo County ...

SANTA FE (KRQE) — A report presented to a legislative committee Monday suggests an Albuquerque drug-treatment program seeking more state money may not be as good as it claimed. Dr. Paul Guerin, who has been studying the program based on the teachings of the founder of Scientology, reported it does not have the success rate it has pointed to in the past. He delivered the results of his study in testimony to the Legislatures Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee meeting in ...

Curry County Commissioners agreed Tuesday not to pursue a contract with an Albuquerque rehabilitation program aimed at treating habitual drug offenders. [Picture: "Following Tuesday's meeting, officials toured the Special Events Center. Construction on the Special Events Center is about 98 percent complete with more than $31,000 left in contingency, Construction Project Supervisor Randy Kamradt said."] County Manager Lance Pyle told commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting the Second Chance Center has neglected to return a signed contract to the county since the commission ...

Swedish taxpayers have been indirectly supporting the Church of Scientology though local government contracts given to front organizations with ties to the group. According to a Sveriges Television (SVT) documentary set to air on Wednesday, 156 of Sweden’s 290 local councils have contributed more than 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) to the Scientology movement. Much of the money has been channeled through contracts with Narconon, a company which offers a controversial treatment method for drug addicts. According to SVT, Narconon also ...

MENTAL health experts and the State Opposition have called for a rethink of Victoria's public land management with the revelation that a Scientologist-linked drug treatment group has exclusive, rent-free control of one of the state's grand historic properties. Narconon, a drug treatment program based on teachings of Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, operates a secretive and secluded rehabilitation centre at O'Shannassy Lodge, east of Warburton in the Yarra Ranges. The lodge is one of hundreds of properties managed by ...

£5,000 to find council chief’s undefined self A council chief executive is attending a £5,000 self-awareness training course in Germany and Florida to learn to become “more likeable and able to like herself”. Last Updated: 12:12PM BST 23 Aug 2008 Dr Allison Fraser, who is in charge of Sandwell Council, signed up to attend the Avatar Professional Course. The Avatar website claims the course teaches people how to become “more real, authentic”, to “protect themselves against the abrasions of the world” ...

A town hall boss is spending £5,000 of taxpayers money to go on a self-awareness training course in Germany and Florida to teach her to 'like herself'. Dr Allison Fraser, who has been in charge of Sandwell Council in the West Midlands over the last two years, will attend courses in the Avatar Professional Course to learn how to become 'more likeable'. Chief Executive Dr Fraser - who has an annual salary package of £140,000 - has already spent a week ...

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - An Albuquerque rehabilitation program doesn't have nearly as good a success rate as organizers claim, a News 13 investigation finds. The Second Chance program, developed by the founder of Scientology, uses saunas to sweat out toxins and other techniques to try to get people off drugs and alcohol. Judges have sent more than 90 convicts to the facility near the Double Eagle II airport on Albuquerque's West Mesa since it opened in September 2006. The federal government and ...

OREM, UTAH - Officer Terry Sparks says he feels like he was beaten with a sledgehammer. The pounding headache was bad enough, but the surging nausea made it almost unbearable. He gathered his energy and once again entered the nondescript clinic in this rural community south of Salt Lake City. The side effects of his treatment there are a price he is willing to pay to purge his body of toxins he believes have built up in his system after years ...

A proposed taxpayer-funded pilot school linked to an arm of the controversial Church of Scientology has scored a $20,000 grant from a blue-chip Hub charitable foundation, the Herald has learned. The Boston Foundation recently awarded the planning grant to the proposed "Cornerstone for Success Academy," a high school for at-risk students that would base its curriculum on a model created by Applied Scholastics International - the educational arm of the Church of Scientology. The celebrity-backed religious organization is often criticized as ...

[Picture / Caption: Nov. 7: Ailing meth cops sweat it out at an Orem, Utah, clinic.] A controversial Church of Scientology treatment used on World Trade Center emergency responders is being used in Utah to "detoxify" cops who raided methamphetamine labs in the 1980s and 1990s. The Utah Meth Cops Project is treating around a dozen former and current police officers at taxpayers' expense, using a regime devised by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard at a Bio-Cleansing Centers of America facility ...

Meth cops swear they can sweat off toxics Utah officers undergo treatment at taxpayers expense; experts leery Salt Lake Tribune/November 8, 2007 By Nate Carlisle and Lisa Rosetta Orem – The first time Kelly Call stood beside a methamphetamine lab, he felt a burning in his lungs and eyes. He was exposed to dozens of labs over the years and has had short-term memory loss, shortness of breath and trouble sleeping. But he recently began to feel better, and he credits ...

Here's a word problem for you: There are two tutoring programs in a Wichita school. One is very structured, complete with math worksheets and teachers giving direction. The other focuses on helping students explore learning with such techniques as playing with dough. Both are part of a $1 million federally mandated experiment. Which one will be the most effective in raising students' assessment test scores? Answer: No one will know until next year. And that's the real problem, some local educators ...

Help is on the way for Utah police officers exposed to methamphetamine labs. "When Mark Shurtleff announced he was going to test out the New York 9/11 Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, to help the meth cops, Dr. (Jerry) Ross and I met with him," said Mike Phillips, a founder of Biocleansing Centers of America in Orem. "He looked at our program and said he wanted us to stay in business long enough to help those cops." The center, at 555 S. ...

Relief may be on the way for police officers ailing because of exposure to methamphetamine labs. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff's initiative on behalf of scores of sick former narcotics officers will soon open an in-state treatment center offering the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Program. "Within 30 days, we hope to start sending cops through," Shurtleff said. A closed drug-detox facility in Orem will house the program, and a nonprofit corporation is being formed to run the center, he said. ...