Clearwater Fire and Rescue responded to a structure fire at 531 Franklin Street, owned by the Church of Scientology, at 3:28 a.m. Saturday. An electrical fire caused $700,000 in damages to a building owned by the Church of Scientology, city officials said. Clearwater Fire and Rescue responded to a structure fire at 531 Franklin Street at 3:28 a.m. Saturday. To put out the blaze the department needed 35 personnel, five engines, two trucks and two rescues. It took firefighters about an ...

After the jump, Leiby's ex-wife, Theresa Defino, responds to Marty Rathbun's allegation that she 'caved' to Scientology in its anti-Leiby efforts. Marty Rathbun has done it again. The top former Scientology figure who left the "church" in 2004 has been gradually releasing damaging information about the organization at his blog, "Moving On Up a Little Higher." Rathbun is working with several other defectors who left in recent years, some of them with ties to Scientology's covert operations wing, the Office ...

In regard to your article, “Scientologists appear before Mono council,” (April 14): I would like to point out that Scientology has a long history of dragging out construction programs. For example, their Super Power building in Clearwater Florida had its groundbreaking in 1998, yet the building has never yet been completed. The church made continuous statements that the project would be done “by the end of the year” and such, but it has never been completed. You can see more such ...

L'église de Scientologie n'aime guère les journalistes, pas plus que la critique, et donne rarement des entrevues. Les responsables ont d'ailleurs refusé les deux demandes que nous avons faites, aux États-Unis et au Québec. Le pouvoir absolu du grand leader David Miscavidge, (qui a succédé à Ron Hubbard après son décès) suscite de la grogne. De nombreux hauts dirigeants ont quitté le mouvement. Ils dénoncent le climat de violence qui y règne depuis l'arrivée de Miscavidge. Une équipe de JE s'est ...

D'anciens dirigeants et scientologues accusent l'Église de scientologie de violence et d'exploitation de travailleurs. Une équipe de tournage de TVA s'est rendue à Clearwater, en Floride, pour réaliser une enquête sur ces allégations. Sa présence a entraîné la colère des dirigeants de l'Église de scientologie. Les accusations visent le grand leader David Miscavige qui aurait instauré un régime de violence et battrait ses collaborateurs. Le FBI enquêterait même sur des allégations de trafic d'êtres humains et d'exploitation de travailleurs, dont plusieurs ...

MIAMI — Rosa Hernandez remembers this about her dentist: He sure could close a deal. She and her husband, Mauricio, had gone to Dr. Rene Piedra with a host of concerns. She had sensitive gums and a paralyzing fear of dentists. He needed bonding. Piedra, dressed in a business suit instead of a dental coat, showed them computerized models of how he would fix their teeth. He offered them a discount because they came in together, and helped them with a ...

Downtown Clearwater is becoming more Italian. A little more Greek, too. Four restaurants are either opening or moving to more spacious digs. That includes two Italian places, a Greek deli and an organic food and wine bar. They're making use of city grants to upgrade their buildings as Clearwater tries to transform its downtown into a gathering place. CLEARWATER — Tony and Jimmy Starova had no idea what to expect when they opened a hole-in-the-wall pizza joint on Cleveland Street five ...

Wake up and good morning. If some of you wonder why the business media is not taking a deeper "what the heck happened" look at the financial meltdown of recent years, take heart. ProPublica, an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. has begun publishing a series about how, in the middle of America's housing bubble, Wall Street bankers perpetrated one of the greatest episodes of self-dealing in financial history. And in the latest part of ...

Laura Dieckman was just 12 when her parents let her leave home to work full time for Scientology's religious order, the Sea Organization. At 16, she married a co-worker. At 17, she was pregnant. She was excited to start a family, but she said Sea Org supervisors pressured her to have an abortion. She was back at work the following day. Claire Headley joined at 16, married at 17 and was pregnant at 19. She said Sea Org supervisors threatened strenuous ...

Sunrise in the humidity of deepest Florida, a hazy mist cloaking the ground as the coolness of the night turns to cloying heat, and a lone individual trudges along an airport runway in a pristine tracksuit. He won't be breaking any land speed records - in fact this version of running barely qualifies as a brisk trot - but at 56 John Travolta is no spring chicken. Consider, however, that his only exercise until recently was lifting double cheeseburgers to his ...

CLEARWATER — Ten-year-old Anais Jean made it out of one the world's worst natural disasters, a magnitude 7 earthquake that killed more than 220,000 people and crippled her Caribbean nation of Haiti. Her father hoped they could rebuild in Clearwater, where they settled after the quake. But tragedy has stricken the Jean family once again. Anais died May 3, four days after she fell from the roof of Mike and Mary Campbell's Chateauwood Drive home, Clearwater public safety spokeswoman Elizabeth Watts ...

In a sleepy beach town in the Bible Belt, a 22-year-old journalist found himself in the middle of what was then considered by some a cult - and is now known as the Church of Scientology. That young journalist was adjunct professor Richard Leiby, one of the first to unearth religious leaders' clandestine activities during his time at The Clearwater Sun in Florida. During his stay at the now defunct Tampa Bay-area newspaper, Leiby was sent to the nation's capital to ...