A Chicago dentist has agreed to pay $462,500 to settle federal allegations that he violated U.S. discrimination laws by sexually harassing workers and by forcing employees who wanted to keep their jobs to submit to indoctrination in the tenets of Scientology. The Chicago office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had filed a civil lawsuit against James L. Orrington in September 2007, asserting he had discriminated against 18 employees by subjecting them to sexual propositions, comments and improper touching. The suit ...

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors today temporarily suspended an ordinance it passed last week to limit protests outside a large Church of Scientology compound near Hemet. Protesters show up about once a month outside Golden Era Productions, home to 500 Scientologists, on Gilman Springs Road. In an incident last week, protesters were swarmed by sheriff's deputies trying to enforce the ordinance. After a vigorous debate among supervisors, the ordinance was suspended today. The measure, which was requested by the church ...

THOUSANDS of members of the Church of Scientology may be suffering from untreated mental and neurological conditions, according to a former follower who taught John Travolta, the Hollywood star. Sufferers are told to cure themselves with vitamins and saunas while it is denied that they have problems such as epilepsy or autism, said Tory Christman, now a fierce critic of the church. Christman left after suffering epileptic fits, culminating in a seizure which caused her to fall in the bath, knocking ...

Riverside County supervisors Tuesday fast-tracked and unanimously approved an ordinance that restricts picketing outside homes and a Church of Scientology base near Hemet. Supervisors deemed the restrictions urgent and voted to forgo regular statutory proceedings, which include a second hearing. The ordinance went into effect after its introduction Tuesday despite unresolved questions about exactly how rules will apply to the Scientology base. The new ordinance, backed by the church and Supervisor Jeff Stone, stipulates that pickets must remain at least 50 ...

Lance Hoskins joined the church in the 1970's, and then worked for the Sea Org - the church's management body in the US. (duration: 44?58?)

Delayed for more than a year, the grand opening of the Church of Scientology Mission of Richmond Dec. 14 looked a lot like any old ribbon-cutting ceremony. Big red bow stretched across the doorway at Cary and Nansemond streets? Check. Founder of the church mission indulging his teenage son’s rock-star dreams with a rented public address system and a captive crowd? Check. Plates of holiday cookies and punch? Check. Slightly off-putting future man in black suit, black shirt and bright red ...

Joy Gendusa spins through the converted NAPA Auto Parts warehouse; Lulu, her white Maltese, scampers at her feet in a valiant effort to keep pace. Over the din of ringing phones, she dishes updates about dozens of employees, many of them related. "And that's her stepmother over there," she gestures. "The girl next to her, her mother works here too." PostcardMania, a direct-mail company that prints and ships postcard advertisements on behalf of businesses nationwide, is 10 years old with 160 ...

Miyagishima said when he first initiated his "Drug-Free Marshal" program, he was unaware that it was funded by Scientology. A sticker on the back of badges given to area third-graders identifies them as being "a trademark owned by the Church of Scientology International." The real concern was not so much the badges, but pamphlets that were to have been distributed to fifth-graders. Those pamphlets condemned not only illegal street drugs, but also legal drugs such as Ritalin that Scientologists strongly oppose. ...

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 ...

Le match des vieilles jambes du Canadien et des Nordiques représentait plus qu’une rencontre amicale pour Claude Lapointe. Elle se voulait sa première sortie dans son ancien milieu de travail à quelques semaines de la fin d’une longue cure de désintoxication. Grâce à l’aide et aux outils que lui a remis le centre de réhabilitation pour toxicomanes Narconon, de Trois-Rivières, Lapointe croit qu’il a brisé sa dépendance à la cocaïne, cette poudre blanche qui a mis fin à sa carrière et ...

The Washington Times recently reported the curious appointment by Governor Martin O’Malley of John P. Coale to the Board of Directors of UMMS (University of Maryland Medical System). Coale is a high-ranking Scientologist and trial lawyer who got rich from the “tobacco wars” and has particpated in Scientology’s assault on Ritalin, taking on not only its manufacturer, Novartis, but the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and patient advocacy group CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Defict Disorder). Coale is a member of ...