HOLLYWOOD actress Anne Archer presented cheques totalling £50,000 to eight charities at a Saint Hill gala concert on Sunday. The Academy Award nominated star hosted the event, now in its 12th year, on behalf of the L Ron Hubbard Foundation and the Church of Scientology. The concert was headlined by international jazz icon, Chick Corea and covered a wide spectrum of music. Also on stage were Mark Isham, award winning composer; Alexander Markov, virtuoso solo violinist; David Pomeranz songwriter and recording ...

The waiting continues on whether the Church of Scientology will move to Sandy Springs. The City Council on Tuesday deferred voting on a rezoning request by the church until December, despite a packed house of several dozen opponents wearing “STOP” stickers on their lapels and several dozen supporters on hand with a court reporter, taking down all comments. Council members said the latest delay on the issue, which has been bubbling up since last spring, was required so the Planning Commission ...

Union public schools will not participate in a crime prevention program due to its link to the Church of Scientology. Crime Free Missouri, founded by Union veterinarian Dr. Ava Frick, is an anti-drug campaign with the intent to "educate about the hazards and pitfalls and misconceptions around drugs; street drugs, alcohol, inhalants, and prescriptions." The program includes literature and drug take-back programs associated with Crime Free America. Union High School Principal Dennis Lottmann said Union Police school resource officers (SROs), and ...

Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and daughter Suri reunited with John Travolta and wife Kelly Preston – plus over 4000 other Scientologists – at a massive party in England on Oct. 16, Usmagazine.com has confirmed. The stars were surprise guests at the 25th anniversary of the International Association of Scientologists held at Saint Hill Manor in East Grinsted, West Sussex. During nearly two hours of speeches, Cruise, 47, briefly addressed the rapturous, fist-pumping crowd: "Because we never took our eyes off the ...

A CORONER has cleared the Australian Defence Force of contributing to the suicide of a young private who had been bullied by other soldiers. In written findings handed down late last week, Brisbane coroner John Lock found there was nothing to suggest that bullying and harassment in the army was instrumental in Edward Alexander McBride's decision to end his life. Mr McBride, 30, was found hanging from a rope at the Energex substation in Brisbane's Everton Park on February 7, 2007. ...

Expect a showdown over Scientology Tuesday night in Sandy Springs. The City Council is scheduled to decide at its meeting whether to rezone an office building at Roswell Road and Glenridge Drive so the church can move from Dunwoody. More than 500 residents and 16 neighborhood associations have urged the city to deny the request, saying there isn’t enough parking and that the church will add to existing traffic woes. But there is a new twist that the church hopes will ...

Recent studies show drug use in Hawaii is up and the use of narcotics continues to climb. A program recently brought to Hawaii is helping to tackle the problem. Drug abuse and addiction continue to grow by epidemic proportions in Hawaii. “Actually there’s a lot of people coming in for meth,” Bobby Newman Narconon Hawaii executive director said. The epidemic does not only include crystal methamphetamine, heroine and cocaine...abuse of prescription drugs is also on the rise. “Its increasing I would ...

By JUAN McCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: The defense in the trial of former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne rested its case yesterday, after its only witness finished his testimony. Final arguments in the case will be delivered on Monday. And Senior Justice Anita Allen is expected sum up the case and give instructions to the jury on Tuesday. Bridgewater and Lightbourne are accused of attempting to extort $25 million from American actor John Travolta after ...

By JUAN MCCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: An emotional Pleasant Bridgewater yesterday held back tears as she professed her innocence and claimed she was the victim of a set-up by people she trusted, including PLP Senate leader Allyson Maynard-Gibson, who she said told a lie on the witness stand. Bridgewater gave an unsworn statement to the jury from the bar as the defense began submissions in her attempted extortion trial in the Supreme Court. "I maintain my innocence today," ...

A ballot initiative imposing a tax on millionaires to fund mental health services did not violate equal protection, this district’s Court of Appeal ruled yesterday. Reasoning that taxpayers earning more than $1 million annually do not comprise a “suspect class” requiring strict scrutiny analysis, Div. Two rejected a challenge to Proposition 63 by two La Canada Scientologists. Proposition 63 was passed in 2004 and expanded funding for mental health services for all Californians by imposing an additional tax of 1 percent ...

DECLARATION OF ELLIOT ABELSON I, Elliot Abelson, hereby declare and state: 1. I make the following statements out of my personal knowledge and if called to testify thereto could and would do so competently. 2. I am an attorney licensed to practice in the State of California since 1969. I am currently General Counsel for the Church of Scientology International ("CSI") and have held this position since the 1990s. I am primarily responsible for coordinating legal matters for CSI. 3, CSI ...

DECLARATION OF KENDRICK MOXON 1. Kendrick L. Moxon, hereby declare and state: 1. I make the following statements of my own personal knowledge, and if called to testify thereto, I could and would do so competently. 2. I was admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia in September 1984. In January of 1986, I moved to California and was admitted to the California Bar in June of 1987. Since that time I have represented various Churches of Scientology, including ...

DECLARATION OF KURT WEILAND 1. I, Kurt Weiland, declare under penalty of perjury that the following is true and correct. 2. I have worked for the Church of Scientology International (CSI) since 1987. Since that time, I have primarily worked in executive positions concerned with the direction, management and supervision of the Office of Special Affairs International, the CSI department responsible for the legal, government and other external affairs of the Church. I am therefore personally knowledgeable and competent to put ...

The director of Milk and the author of American Psycho are to write a film about the lives and deaths of artists Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake [Picture / Caption: Pens at the ready … Gus van Sant and Bret Easton Ellis. Photographs: Focus Features/Everett/Rex Features and Jennifer Graylock/AP] It is a tale of intrigue, paranoia and harassment by unseen forces, one which takes in the rock star Beck, the Church of Scientology and 9/11 conspiracies. It ends with the deaths ...

By JUAN MCCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: Former ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne yesterday told the jury in his attempted extortion trial that "I know that it appears as if we're guilty, but we're not" as he made his unsworn statement from the bar. Lightbourne told the jury that he was confident that he would be found innocent. "I'm not really worried about this trial," Lightbourne said. "If I sound arrogant, I'm not. I'm standing on (God's) word." Lightbourne asked ...

City has spent the money battling lawsuits, researching the issue, drafting and passing ordinance. Group says money is well spent. Newport Beach has spent more than $1.5 million in legal fees in relation to drug and alcohol rehabilitation homes since 2007, and costs are expected to continue to grow, according to City Atty. David Hunt. “Conflict is expensive,” he said. The city is involved in several lawsuits and at least two federal investigations, all stemming from an ordinance it passed in ...

By JUAN McCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: Proceedings in the attempted extortion trial of former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne experienced another delay yesterday as Senior Justice Anita Allen heard legal submissions from attorneys in the matter. The Nassau Guardian understands that defense attorneys Murrio Ducille and Carlson Shurland have been presenting 'no case to answer' submissions to Justice Allen since Thursday. It is also understood that Ducille, who represents Bridgewater, completed his submissions last week. ...

(CNN) – A paramedic accused of plotting to extort $25 million from actor John Travolta after his 16-year-old son died in the Bahamas told a jury Wednesday the boy had been dead for some time before the ambulance service was called. Tarino Lightbourn said in his statement to the Nassau, Bahamas, jury that a doctor told medics to keep administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Jett Travolta despite knowing the teen was dead, and that the ambulance company was told to transport him ...

DESPITE objections from resident and doubts from one councillor, Moonee Valley Council has amended a planning permit to allow up to 600 people to meet at the Church of Scientology's Mt Alexander Road headquarters up to six times a year. The religion's headquarters are under construction at the former site of a Sisters of Mercy convent, opposite the Essendon tram depot. The council had previously granted a permit to allow up to 300 people at the building but the Church of ...

Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction writer and fleeting Aleister Crowley subordinate L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) founded in 1952 as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics. Hubbard characterized Scientology as a religion, and in 1953 incorporated the Church of Scientology in New Jersey. Scientologists believe that anyone who disagrees with their teachings is infected, whether knowingly or not, by evil aliens known as Marcabians. This belief system or “tech” inspires a high ...

By JUAN MCCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: A police detective who was the final witness for the prosecution in the attempted extortion trial of former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne testified yesterday that Bridgewater told her that she burned and discarded the remains of a document at the heart of the extortion case, after she realized that the "situation was about to explode." Bridgewater and Lightbourne are accused of attempting to extort $25 million from American ...

By JUAN MCCARTNEY ~ Guardian Senior Reporter ~ juan@nasguard.com: A firestorm erupted in the trial of former Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne yesterday, as Lightbourne's attorney Carlson Shurland cross-examined an attorney for American actor John Travolta. As Shurland shot a barrage of questions at Michael McDermott, things reached a fever pitch in the courtroom as the two men traded barbs and made commentary during the cross-examination in direct contravention of repeated warnings by Senior Justice Anita Allen. It ...

Moscow, October 8, Interfax – Barnaul industrial district court satisfied a complaint of the regional prosecutor with the request to ban the Dianetics Center city organization. The complaint was formulated after regional administration of the Federal Registration Service and Prosecutor’s Office checked work of the Barnaul Scientologist Center. “The administration officials came across major violations of the acting legislation, including such religious activities as spreading and teaching Scientology religion, non-equal rights of organization members due to the system of donations that ...

By 10 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2007, the temperatures were well on their way to 93 degrees when Jackson Police Sgt. Eric Wall pulled his cruiser into the turn lane on Northside Drive east of Interstate 55, ready to make a left onto Ridgewood Road and head north. That's when he noticed the black Jeep with a man driving and a woman in the passenger seat. "[T]he black Jeep was pulling into my lane of traffic, and the white male driver ...