A year ago, Luis Leyva Jr. opened Luis Jr.'s Mexican Food Restaurant in downtown Sacramento. Housed in what used to be a Japanese eatery, Luis Jr.'s is in the Ramona building, a former hotel at Sixth and J streets. "This is my dream," Leyva said last week during an interview at the place bearing his name. "This is what I've always wanted - my own restaurant downtown." But Leyva may soon

When a mysterious buyer expressed interest in the old, bankrupt Gilman Hot Springs resort in 1978, Richard J. Hoag thought it might be a group of expatriates from Rhodesia. Others whispered that maybe the Mafia or the Moonies were moving onto the 500-acre property near Hemet. Only much later did anyone learn that the buyer — which paid $2.78 million and went by the names Scottish Highland Quietude Society and Western States Scientific Assn. — was really the Church of Scientology. ...

Tom Cruise studied intensively at the remote compound near Hemet while becoming a passionate messenger for the church. GILMAN HOT SPRINGS, Calif. — Nearly 30 years ago, the Church of Scientology bought a dilapidated and bankrupt resort here and turned the erstwhile haven for Hollywood moguls and starlets into a retreat for L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer who founded the religion. Today, the out-of-the-way 500-acre compound near Hemet has quietly grown into one of Scientology's major bases of operation, ...

Trementina, N.M. – San Miguel County Sheriff Chris Najar says a Church of Scientology compound near Trementina is designed to hold archives for a thousand years. Najar, San Miguel County Manager Les Montoya, Commissioners LeRoy H. Garcia and Kenny Medina and others recently toured the facilities. The 43-acre compound was built in the 1980s in this high desert community about 40 miles east of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Najar says an expensive archival center stores writings of Scientology founder and late ...

Every year in St. Louis County, on the fourth Monday in August, more than one thousand properties are placed on the auction block. County revenue officials and eager bidders converge on council chambers to divvy up land on which owners have not paid property taxes for three years. The tax-delinquent citizenry are warned in advance that their real estate will go to the highest bidder if they haven't paid at least one year's worth of back taxes. The deadline is auction ...

Secret Flying Saucer Base Found in New Mexico? Maybe. From the state that gave us Roswell, the epicenter of UFO lore since 1947, comes a report from an Albuquerque TV station about its discovery of strange landscape markings in the remote desert. They're etched in New Mexico's barren northern reaches, resemble crop circles and are recognizable only from a high altitude. Also, they are directly connected to the Church of Scientology. (Cue theremin music.) The church tried to persuade station KRQE ...

When the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre moved to Far East Dallas, the neighbors were nervous. Visions of traffic clogging the tree-lined streets and rumors about religious rituals had some homeowners on edge. Now, after spending five years in a salmon-colored mansion at Buckner Boulevard and Dixie Lane, the Scientologists are moving to the suburbs. And many of their neighbors are sorry to see them go. "They've been very friendly," said Jim Depetris, who lives next door to the Celebrity Centre. ...

Another downtown landmark has been sold and targeted for remodeling. But the 76-year-old Ramona building at Sixth and J streets won't become office condos or upscale housing. It's becoming a church - the new area center of the Church of Scientology, known for celebrity members such as Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. The church just completed acquisition of the Spanish-style, five-story building, paying $4.75 million - in cash - to an investment group headed by Harry Gerdes. The Ramona ...

For Maria Guy, renovation of the old Hart Hotel at Washington Avenue and West Van Buren Street has meant "10-to 12-hour workdays" since the Church of Scientology bought the building, gutted it and started turning it into a church facility in 2002. Guy, a petite woman and native of the Dominican Republic who moved to America in 1979, said she and a co-worker just finished installing 123 new windows in the building. The windows cost the church about $750,000. Guy also ...

A HIGHER PROFILE ; CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY OPENING MORE VISIBLE FACILITIES, INCLUDING ONE IN NEW HAVEN FRANCES GRANDY TAYLOR; Courant Staff Writer Hartford Courant 09-09-2005 A HIGHER PROFILE ; CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY OPENING MORE VISIBLE FACILITIES, INCLUDING ONE IN NEW HAVEN Byline: FRANCES GRANDY TAYLOR; Courant Staff Writer Edition: STATEWIDE Section: LIFE Despite such high-profile adherents as Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Chick Corea and Kirstie Alley, the Church of Scientology can seem as mysterious to outsiders as its reclusive founder, science-fiction ...

Exposing some of the unsavory claims that Tom Cruise, John Travolta and other celebrities would rather you didn't know about Scientology For nearly 20 years, Tom Cruise has been Hollywood's Golden Boy. The star of Top Gun," "Risky Business" and, most recently, "The War of the Worlds," Cruise has attributed his vast success to being a follower of Scientology, a self-help movement-turned-religion which claims the ability to "clear" its followers from all their problems. It seemed like the perfect match: the ...

These days you can't turn a corner in Hollywood without bumping into a scientologist. The same, it seems, is true for property owned by the Church of Scientology. The Weekly has connected ownership of more than a dozen properties in Hollywood to the Church, thanks to some help from LA County Assessor's Office Press Deputy Robert Knowles. An exhaustive search would be difficult to conduct, since many of the properties associated with the church are held under names other than the ...

TOM CRUISE's leap of faith into Scientology is a visible example of the religion's hold on its followers — but the Church of Scientology already has a multimillion-dollar grip on Manhattan. The controversial group, now blitzing the media after Cruise became its most outspoken advocate, has a massive city empire used by tens of thousands of devotees. And New York's church president the Rev. John Carmichael said, "Interest is increasing markedly." Its huge seven-story city headquarters was opened last year at ...

The largest private development project planned for downtown could reshape the northwest corner with two condo towers and upscale shops. CLEARWATER — What started as a modest plan for 39 condominiums just north of the Church of Scientology's Sandcastle retreat has gradually blossomed into an ambitious residential and retail development plan that could dramatically reshape the long neglected northwest corner of downtown Clearwater. Triangle Development is now proposing two 15-story condominium towers on the bluffs overlooking Clearwater Harbor. Between them will ...

Petoskey planning commissioners will consider a controversial land use request that would allow a residential substance abuse treatment center to be established on the city's northeast side when they meet Thursday, April 21. The planning commission's regular meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at city hall, 101 E. Lake St. During the meeting, commissioners will take public input regarding Battle Creek-based TIA Corp.'s request for a special use permit. If the planning commission approves the permit, TIA expects to acquire the ...