A young mother in Los Angeles was desperate. A rare form of cancer was ravaging her 5-month-old son. Their doctor said chemotherapy offered the best hope for survival, a 1-in-4 chance. Natalia Campos watched as her baby, Antonio, struggled in pain through the first few treatments. Then she learned of an alternative-therapy clinic that promised a cure, without pain, using a machine called a PAP-IMI. Twice a day at the Bio-Energy Services clinic, Campos held Antonio while the 260-pound machine pulsed ...

A religious booklet sent to his office makes it seem that Winnipeg Mayor Sam Katz officially endorses the musings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Mayor Katz's image and the official City of Winnipeg logo appear on the back cover of the 68-page booklet, which implores readers to observe life lessons such as "do not take alcohol to excess," "don't be promiscuous," "preserve your teeth" and "don't do anything illegal." The booklet, called The Way to Happiness, purports to be "presented ...

Last month, the School Board sent a warning to parents about the “harmful effects” of drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Much of the flier’s information was taken from the Internet, including from a Web site run by a group founded by the Church of Scientology. This week, six national organizations and eight local groups sent a letter requesting that the School Board retract the flier and send a new one stating that ADHD is a disease that requires ...

A settlement has been reached between a local gun range and its members. The $8 million dollar deal ends the class action lawsuit against the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute. I-Team Reporter Colleen McCarty first broke the story about allegations of fraud and racketeering at the resort a few years ago. On Monday morning, in a California federal court, a judge approved the final settlement agreement. Under its terms, qualified Front Sight members will receive a full refund with the total ...

The smiling photo of Gavin Newsom and the city seal emblazoned on a booklet called "The Way to Happiness" sure make it seem as though San Francisco's mayor is heartily endorsing Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's writings. The booklet's back cover even shows a letter of support purportedly written by Newsom that echoes some of the mayor's favorite buzzwords: San Francisco is "a city of innovation" and is "the finest city in the world." But the giveaway is in the second ...

SAN FRANCISCO — The city of San Francisco has ordered a Scientology group to stop using a picture of Mayor Gavin Newsom on its promotional materials. A group called the Way to Happiness Foundation International sent a box full of booklets to Newsom's City Hall office describing some of Scientology's core principles. The pamphlets came emblazoned with the seal of the city of San Francisco and featured a picture of a smiling Newsom with a fictitious letter from him. The president ...

No, Mayor Tom Leppert hasn't made the leap from public servant to spiritual healer. And despite the claims of a booklet that landed on his desk at City Hall this week, he isn't endorsing The Way to Happiness. The booklet, so titled and featuring the writings of Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, was sent to the mayor's office complete with the city of Dallas seal and a ringing endorsement purportedly from Mr. Leppert. The front cover features a painting ...

Attorney General Abbott Charges Foreclosure Rescue Firm With Operating Unlawful Scam Court freezes assets of Foreclosure Assistance Solutions HOUSTON – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today charged a business with operating an unlawful foreclosure rescue scam that targeted struggling Texas homeowners. As a result, the 408th District Court issued a temporary restraining order and froze assets belonging to three businessmen who organized the scheme. According to court documents, the defendants fraudulently advertised that they could save homeowners from imminent foreclosures. The ...

A Belgian prosecutor recommended that the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology stand trial on charges of fraud and extortion, after a 10-year investigation. The prosecutor, Jean-Claude Van Espen, said that up to 12 people from the church should face charges and that his inquiry had concluded that Scientology’s Brussels-based Europe office and its Belgian missions had conducted unlawful practices in medicine, violated privacy laws and used illegal business contracts. The Church of Scientology said it would fight the charges.

The Belgian authorities have indicted the Belgian chapter of the Church of Scientology, the European headquarters of the Church, as well as 12 of its leading members. According to the office of Public Prosecutor Jean-Claude Van Espen Scientology is a criminal organization which has committed several crimes including extortion, fraud, violations of the trade law, violations of the privacy law and the illegal practice of medicine. On 30 September 1999, 120 Belgian police officers raided 25 Scientology offices and seized tons ...

Hollywood, Tel Aviv is right behind you: Artists, businesspeople and middle-class seekers are filling the classrooms of local Scientology centers, hoping to rid themselves of excess spiritual baggage. Opera singer Gaby Sade used to have a very short fuse. If someone cut him off, he was capable of getting out of the car and giving the offending driver more than a piece of his mind. If if did not come to blows, he would at least tell him, in choice language, ...

A Fourth of July celebration at a weapons training facility near Pahrump ended with the death of a young father. According to the Nye County sheriff, the man — identified as Jesus Valencia — Martinez — was sliding down a zip-line as part of the ropes course at the facility. The rider before him had not cleared the hydraulic platform at the end of the line before Martinez began his run. As a result, Martinez collided with the platform. He died ...

WITH the Packer wedding over — and guest Tom Cruise embrolied in a "religious" controversy — Scientology is once again on the agenda, writes Jill Singer. SCIENTOLOGY is being talked about again because of certain prominent supporters. Germany is reluctant to have Scientology's most famous adherent, Tom Cruise, play one of its country's greatest heroes. Valkyrie, the planned film, centres on Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's heroic role in attempting to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The problem for Cruise is that Germany is ...

As the U.S. housing market sinks, billions and billions are still going into risky mortgages. Who's minding the bank? Bryan Zwan, entrepreneur and prominent donor to the Church of Scientology, is now dealing in collateralized debt obligations. CDOs have helped fuel the boom in U.S. housing and are backed by junk bonds, leveraged loans, asset-backed securities (like mortgages), credit default swaps–and who knows what else. Zwan's particular group, Forge ABS of Tampa, Florida, intends to invest half the $1.5 billion it ...

BBC reporter John Sweeney was last week seen losing his temper at the end of a sixmonth investigation into scientology. In 1994, The Argus published a damning exposé of the East Grinsteadbased "religion". Former chief reporter Paul Bracchi, who secretly infiltrated the cult, remembers how its followers relentlessly threatened and pursued him in revenge for criticising their deceptive and manipulative methods. Here Mr Bracchi, who now lives in London, tells the chilling story of how he was stalked and intimidated ...

[Professor David Touretzky appears on the Glenn Beck show to discuss Scientology's increased encroachment into public classrooms. They are attempting to "Safepoint" Scientology which means to get the cult better accepted into society. Let's try to stop that until they reform.]

You've already heard about the invasion of Virginia Tech by a couple dozen "volunteer ministers" from the Church of Scientology. Now comes the mudslinging. Xenuphobes sick of seeing yellow-shirted Scientologists show up to disasters alongside cable news cameras have accused Virginia Tech of inviting L. Ron's minions. An alleged "ministers consultant" named Irmin wrote an all-points bulletin e-mail sent to Scientology volunteers last week stating: "Our [volunteer ministers are] ... working in the student trauma center at the request of the ...

ST. PETERSBURG - Just weeks after opening their first facility in St. Petersburg, Scientologists have irked two of the city's most respected institutions - the Holocaust and Dali museums. Representatives of both museums say they were misled when asked to support a human rights march but not told that the organizers are a rights advocacy group affiliated with the Church of Scientology. The Florida Holocaust Museum has withdrawn its sponsorship of the Human Rights Walkathon scheduled for today in Straub Park ...

A HUMAN rights youth forum at Parliament House in Sydney promoted the views of the Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and was organised by a group linked to the Church of Scientology. In a kit given to students, Hubbard's photograph was more prominent than those of the human rights activists Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Thomas Jefferson. Hubbard's quotes were littered through the material. The Church of Scientology is the major sponsor of Youth for Human Rights Australia, ...

Attorney General Greg Abbott filed an agreed judgment against a Dallas company that was marketing a mothball-like product as a gas-mileage booster. The company, BioPerformance, sold its product with a claim that putting a couple of the pills into an automobile fuel tank could increase gas mileage 30 percent. The state’s investigation revealed that the product had no such power and that its main ingredient was naphthalene, used in making mothballs. The state also found that the company developed a pyramid ...