[...] By winning his third 500 here, Mears joined Louis Meyer, Wilbur Shaw, Mauri Rose, Bobby Unser and Rutherford, one win behind Al Unser and Foyt. It also was the 13th time in 72 races that the pole-sitter emerged the winner. The crashing and the yellow flags started early. Sullivan, Mears and Unser had no more than led the field through the first turn safely than Scott Brayton spun in the second turn, taking Roberto Guerrero and Tony Bettenhausen with him. ...

The Supreme Court Monday expanded its study of whether payments made to the Church of Scientology by members may be claimed as federal income tax deductions. The justices, who last month agreed to review the issue, added other test cases and appeals to their study of the Scientology appeal and are expected to make a ruling next year. Their decision will determine whether fees for educational services of the Church of Scientology can be considerd deductible contributions. Scientologists call the payments ...

THE church of Scientology has been ruled a profit making organisation. In the Supreme Court, Washington DC, last Monday, the cult was refused leave to appeal against a 1984 tax exempt ruling and must now pay $1.2 million back taxes for 1970 to 1972 and $287,614 in penalties for late filing. This will come as a severe blow to the church which has been fighting the Internal Revenue Service since the late 1960's to keep its tax exemption status. The United ...

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 ...

A Federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Henry Holt & Company from distributing additional copies of a biography highly critical of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology. Some 12,500 copies of the book, Bare-Faced Messiah by Russell Miller, were shipped to bookstores on April 27. The court order, handed down yesterday in Manhattan by Judge Pierre N. Leval of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, affects the 10,000 ...

AS the Church of Scientology hits hack at last week's report outlining its "hard sell" techniques, we can reveal that some people were so desperate to raise money for courses that they used the services of a fellow Scientologist who loaned them money at exhorbitant rates of interest. Dozens of people rang to confirm the details of last week's story and some provided documents showing how one wealthy Scientologist loaned his own money to help people pay for the cult's expensive ...

Scientology defended I HAVE several points to make about your last week's coverage of the Church of Scientology. 1. On your front page, you used photographs taken by two men who at the recent May Fayre heckled and abused the two female Scientologists who were giving their help to get the street signs cleaned. In fact these photographs were taken while the heckIing was going on. Thus these men have been "rewarded” for their hooligan antics. 2. You rely almost exclusively ...

The caller dialed in secret access codes to the computer, codes assigned to the building inspectors for reporting inspection results. According to the information the caller dialed into the computer about 11 p.m. April 14, a new art gallery in Clearwater had passed final inspections. But building officials became suspicious. The building inspector who supposedly did the inspections was on vacation when the calls were made. And the inspector had made no final inspections at the gallery. The secret computer access ...

The Supreme Court refused yesterday to review the federal government's decision to strip the controversial Church of Scientology of California of its tax-exempt status from 1970 through 1972. The justices, without comment, rejected the church's appeal of a ruling by a federal appeals court. The court, however, will consider a similar issue next term in connection with another case it has agreed to hear, involving whether Scientologists may deduct from their taxable income money spent on spiritual awareness courses. A spokesman ...

RICHARD BRANSON's Virgin company has been distributing thousands of newspapers and magazines for the Church of Scientology. The publications, containing propaganda and articles encouraging people to buy the cult's controversial and expensive courses, have been packaged at Virgin's distribution centre at Crawley, West Sussex, and sent to homes in Britain and abroad. Virgin won the contract to distribute the publications, Good News and Source magazine, through an agent in Los Angeles who used Branson's cargo company to fly in thousands of ...

As a campaign by members of the church of Scientology to make Britain the first Scientology country gains momentum, we can reveal the cost of the "hard sell" 'religion' which has split families and which last week led one Ashurst Wood couple to the Bankruptcy Court. Our investigations suggest the cult uses high pitch American style sales techniques to trap their hapless "believers" in a never ending web of lengthy courses. Scientology is the religious philosophy which grew out of Dianetics, ...

A MATHEMATICS graduate who founded his own computer company, went bankrupt after he "recklessly and cynically exploited" easy credit from banks, finance and credit card companies to give more than £71,000 in 17 months to the Church of Scientology. Mr Adrian Thomas Hayman, 38, paid £175,000 to the "corrupt, sinister and dangerous" church over 14 years. But he began increasing his average annual payments of £8,000 by borrowing. At a public examination at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, yesterday, he denied a suggestion ...

* Fixed fees paid by member of Church of Scientology for auditing and training rituals are deductible as charitable contributions. (CA 2; Miner, J.; Foley v. Commissioner, No. 86-4026, 4/19/88; Newman, J., dissents) Facts: As members of the Church of Scientology, the taxpayers participate in the rituals of auditing and training, which are the central religious experiences of Scientology. Auditing is a one-to-one encounter between the participant and a church staff member, called an auditor, designed to raise the spiritual awareness ...

L. RON HUBBARD: Messiah or Madman? By Bent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard Jr. (Lyle Stuart, $20.) The Church of Scientology is a bizarre cult, and its founder and leader, L. Ron Hubbard, was a cosmic outlaw, in the words of L. Ron Hubbard Jr. There is little of the son in this book but a good deal of Bent Corydon, who headed one of the Scientology missions in California during the 1970's until Hubbard decided to take over these lucrative ...

Hedda Hopper, Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson and Cecil B. DeMille were all office tenants in a Hollywood landmark that sold a few days ago for about $5 million. The Guaranty Building, on the northeast corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Ivar Avenue, was built in 1923, and was designed by John C. Austin, who also designed the Griffith Park Observatory and Shrine Auditorium. The 12-story building, called "the first major high-rise built outside of downtown Los Angeles" in the Greater L. A. ...

CLEARWATER — In 1975 the Church of Scientology, cloaked in secrecy, made this waterfront city its international headquarters. A lengthy outcry ensued when the public became aware the sect — under another name — bought a Clearwater landmark, the Fort Harrison Hotel. The Scientologists subsequently bought many other parcels of downtown Clearwater property, posting guards to keep the curious at bay. When the public and press asked questions about the aims of the Church of Scientology, sect leaders became mum about ...