After years of sparring with the townsfolk and veiling itself in secrecy, the Church of Scientology has succeeded in turning Clearwater into its spiritual mecca. Scientologists quietly run teen nightclubs, schools, day-care centers, management consulting firms and other businesses, records and interviews show. Now the strategy of the organization, longtime observers say, is to confront controversy, gain converts and make money - lots of it. Scientology's Clearwater operation brings in $1.5-million to $2-million a week, say church watchers who include Clearwater ...

Usted ana de esas personas interesadas en conocer mas acerca de si mismo? (Are you one of those people interested in knowing more about yourself?) That's the nice, clean, formal Spanish that begins, innocently enough, a four-page text (pink with black ink) stuffed between the news and sports sections of a recent issue of La Opinion. Such inserts are not uncommon — they're great marketing ploys. What with everyone jumping on the hot "Hispanic" market these days, we suppose no one ...

SAN FRANCISCO — In a major ruling on the separation of church and state, the California Supreme Court held Monday that a religious organization may be sued for fraud for allegedly "brainwashing" unknowing recruits into joining the church. The justices ruled 6 to 1 that two former members of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church can proceed to trial with claims that they were tricked by recruiters who denied they were church members and then used subtle "mind-control" techniques to ...

The 'Big League Sales' Church AS the perpetrator of the supposed 'hooligan antics' against the Concerned Businessman's Association at the May Fayre, could I reply to the Scientology Public Relations officer's allegations? Worried by the Courier's recent story on the tactic of luring children into Scientology via front groups, I stopped by at the Concerned Businessman's Association stand to find whether they admitted any link to Scientology. Asked the question, one of the scientologists on the stand said 'yes', the other ...