The Second Chance Center has until Christmas Eve to satisfy the city or face eviction. If the secure rehabilitation facility for drug offenders currently leasing the old West Side jail building from the city doesn't give a detailed accounting of its inmates, what charges landed them at Second Chance, what treatment they are receiving and information about the center's insurance and property taxes, it will most likely be shut down, city officials said. Albuquerque Chief Public Safety Officer Pete Dinelli sent ...

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A Sierra County official engaged in major backtracking Friday after her statements the day before threatened to cause big trouble for an Albuquerque drug-treatment program called Second Chance. County Manager Janet Porter-Carrejo told News 13 that she was sending overflow inmates from her jail to the Second Chance rehab center without getting permission from a judge. However on Friday she said she now believes that judges did OK those inmates. She also said a clerical mistake at her ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A controversial Albuquerque rehabilitation center is struggling with finances, and the secure facility for drug and alcohol offenders could be in violation of the law that allowed it to open by housing overf low prisoners from a county jail . The Second Chance Center uses massage, natural diet, saunas, and some training manuals based on criminal justice research done by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to detoxify and rehabilitate drug offenders. But the program is facing ...

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?)

Just-released tax returns for movie star Will Smith’s charitable foundation show he and wife, Jada, gave $1.3 million in donations last year to a variety of religious, civic and arts groups. Smith’s biggest single contribution was, as usual, Yesha Ministries of Philadelphia. He gave the born-again Christian based organization run by Reverend James Robinson a whopping $250,000. That’s a hefty raise from the $140,000 he gave them the previous year. Another $200,000 went to a Christian ministry outside Los Angeles called ...

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 ...

Tuition and fees for religious day schools are not deductible for federal income tax purposes, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday. The court, for the second time, rejected claims by local residents Michael and Marla Sklar that they received only intangible religious benefits as result of their five children’s attendance in Orthodox Jewish schools, so their school payments should be deductible, at least in part, as charitable donations. The Sklars have been seeking to deduct their payments, going ...

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. ...

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today rejected taxpayers Michael and Marla Sklars’ argument that they were entitled to claim deductions for tuition and fees paid to their children’s Orthodox Jewish day schools, the Justice Department announced. The Sklars sought charitable deductions under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code for portions of their tuition payments made to the religious day schools their children attended, asserting that those portions of the tuition payments were for “intangible ...

RIVERSIDE – Concerned that a proposed anti-picketing ordinance might be too restrictive – and that it did not address the issue that inspired it – the Board of Supervisors Tuesday backed away from the measure, but indicated it may be brought back in different form. “I don't agree we should abandon this completely, but I want us as united on this as possible,” said Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone, who sponsored the measure. “It's not an attempt to limit the right ...

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 ...

Riverside County supervisors Tuesday backed off from picketing restrictions supported by the Church of Scientology that supervisors had preliminarily approved last month. Supervisors stopped final approval of the ordinance and voted unanimously to re-examine its prohibition on picketing within 300 feet of a targeted residence. They agreed to have county counsel and staff retool the ordinance in consultation with the county sheriff's office and Samuel Alhadeff, an attorney representing the Church of Scientology. "I think we may be going too far ...

RIVERSIDE – With two colleagues prepared to vote against the measure, Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone on Tuesday temporarily withdrew his proposed ban on protests that target and take place in front of homes. Stone said that, in consultation with county lawyers, he will try to tweak the ordinance so it lets protesters picket residences for what he considers legitimate purposes, such as when they are home to sex offenders, without trespassing on the constitutional right to free speech. Legal experts, ...

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 ...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – It's a program aimed at getting kids off the streets and away from drugs. But now Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima is saying "not so fast." The program is called the Drug-Free Marshall Program, and it was quite a hit until the mayor found out it was sponsored by the Church of Scientology. Miyagishima said he was originally approached about the program in the summer. He said he liked the purpose and tried it in five different ...

Le gérant du Zellers des Galeries de la Capitale, Gaëtan Verrette, sent qu’il s’est fait « jouer » par des représentants de l’Église de la scientologie qui n’ont pas dévoilé leur identité pour obtenir un stand dans son magasin, hier, provoquant le mécontentement de certains clients. M. Verrette a affirmé qu’un représentant de l’Église l’avait contacté, la semaine dernière, pour louer un stand dans son établissement, mais qu’il n’avait pas dévoilé son appartenance à la scientologie, approche que le gérant a ...

LAS CRUCES — The city is immediately ending an anti-drug program aimed at third-graders after it was revealed it was created and bankrolled by the Church of Scientology. The "Drug-Free Marshal" program, started in late November, had only 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 apologized Saturday and said it was not his intention to promote the religion. The mayor said he was approached ...

A security guard who shot and killed a man wielding samurai swords on the grounds of a Scientology facility in Hollywood will not face criminal charges, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said Wednesday. The decision by prosecutors was in line with the conclusion of Los Angeles police detectives, who determined that the guard, a 64-year-old retired Seal Beach police officer, acted in defense of himself and other guards at the church's Celebrity Centre. A former Scientologist, Mario Majorski, 48, ...