PASADENA — The last holdout tenant in the Braley Building has come to an agreement with the Church of Scientology, which is now geared up for a speedy takeover of the Old Pasadena landmark. La Fornaretta restaurant owner Cesare DiLorenzo said he closed after coming to a "satisfactory agreement" with church officials negotiating to buy out his 19-year lease. The financial details are "really personal," he said, declining to disclose the amount. "We met halfway," said Di Lorenzo, whose restaurant operated ...

The head of Narconon International says Bouquet Canyon is a great place to open a drug rehab center. But some neighbors strongly disagree, citing state records to back up their opposition. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will have a public hearing Tuesday morning in downtown Los Angeles on plans for the Scientology-based drug rehabilitation program in Leona Valley. Narconon Southern California plans to turn an abandoned boarding school on Bouquet Canyon Road into a rehab center for 66 people, ...

Neighbors' reaction on group's relocation mixed Pasadena — Scientologists will soon have a sizable presence in Old Pasadena. Last week, local members of the Church of Scientology purchased the historic Braley Building, at 35 S. Raymond Ave., and immediately donated it to their church. "We have been looking for a building for quite some time now," said Eden Stein, president of the church's Pasadena branch. "People love beautiful things; this will be a beautiful space for our parishioners to go to." ...

The Church of Scientology is buying Santa Ana's former Masonic Temple. SANTA ANA - Developer Mike Harrah is selling Santa Ana's historic downtown Masonic Temple, which he spent millions restoring as a performing-arts center, to the Church of Scientology. The sale has drawn the ire of some historic preservationists. The building is one of four that Harrah said he's selling to raise money to build his high-rise tower downtown. Church spokeswoman Marie Murillo said the building is being purchased for an ...

The owner of the former Masonic Temple is negotiating with the Church of Scientology. Proceeds will help fund his 37-story office tower. The developer who bought up and then rebuilt much of Santa Ana's downtown is negotiating to sell one of his prized historic buildings to the Church of Scientology. Mike Harrah spent $11 million to restore the four-story building, which features three theaters with ornate moldings, painted ceilings and enormous candelabra. Reborn as the Santa Ana Performing Arts and Event ...

Santa Ana — The Church of Scientology is purchasing the 75-year-old historic Masonic Temple in downtown Santa Ana from entrepreneur Mike Harrah, both sides confirmed today. Escrow should close “within a week or so,” church spokeswoman Marie Murillo said. She declined to say how much the church will pay for the structure, which was restored several years ago and has been serving as a performing arts center. Harrah, who had previously denied he was selling it to the church, said he ...

San Francisco's North Beach, the city's bohemian quarter, has said "no" to chain stores through zoning laws to preserve the quirky, colorful character found in its cafes, clothing shops, bookstores and nightclubs. Now, some merchants and the supervisor whose district includes North Beach are eyeing a new land-use restriction to block a real estate acquisition being considered by the Church of Scientology, whose religious marketing practices strike some as inconsistent with the neighborhood's live-and-let-live ways. "I think it is a real ...

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, ...

A jury trial is slated to start in Los Angeles Superior Court Tuesday in a case in which an attorney who failed to secure a written representation agreement is seeking to recover the reasonable value of her services. So far, that probably seems hum drum. What makes this case worthy of note is that the proceeding will take place in Case No. C332027 — which was filed on July 28, 1980. The name of this 25-year-old case will probably sound familiar. ...

A former Southern California business consultant received a four-month prison sentence for conspiring to obstruct a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of financial advisor Reed E. Slatkin's $593-million investment scam, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Daniel W. Jacobs helped stall the SEC for more than a year by pretending to represent a Swiss brokerage holding hundreds of millions of dollars in funds from Slatkin investors, according to his plea agreement with the government. Jacobs, 63, who pleaded guilty and cooperated extensively with ...

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 ...

Los Angeles city school officials were caught off guard this week by the Church of Scientology's role in an upcoming event at a South Los Angeles high school, which, while not illegal, is considered unusual. On Monday, teenagers from about 25 countries are expected to meet with students at Jordan High School in Watts for a conference on human rights. The gathering is part of a three-day event organized by Youth for Human Rights International — a group with close ties ...

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 ...

After years of conflict, the church and the media seem to have reached a truce. Is it because Scientology has become less confrontational — or because the press is scared? For anyone interested in the Church of Scientology, the May 6, 1991, issue of Time magazine remains a milestone in news coverage. For those who back the church, it ran an outrageously biased account that eventually led to a libel suit by the church — later dismissed — and prompted Scientology ...

[...] Clarification: A story in Sunday's Chronicle about the California Medical Association adopting a resolution supporting schools that have dropped "factually inaccurate approaches" to anti-drug instruction should have more fully explained how the organization arrived at its decision. The process began with the San Francisco Medical Association drafting a resolution supporting school districts that have dropped an anti-drug program provided by Narconon, an organization with ties to the Church of Scientology. The resolution, which concluded that Narconon's program was based on ...

The California Medical Association has declared unanimous support for school districts that have dropped Narconon and other "factually inaccurate approaches" to antidrug instruction from their classrooms, and will urge the American Medical Association to do the same. Nearly 500 California doctors also endorsed "scientifically based drug education in California schools" at the association's annual meeting in Anaheim on Monday. Narconon, a drug education program with links to the Church of Scientology, is offered free to schools and has been used in ...

Narconon program has proven success For years an enemy has insidiously attacked us in Hawaii – drugs and drug abuse. Our keiki, neighbors, co-workers, our ohana have been grabbed by this monster and dragged down into the depths of human experience. No one is immune. It is hard to confront. Confronting a family member strung out on meth, I would not wish on anyone. Watching children get lured by advertising into the clutches of "innocent drugs" such as alcohol or marijuana ...

State Department of Education officials are expected to review a negative evaluation of an anti-drug program that wants to serve Hawaii public school students. Kendyl Ko, educational specialist with the department's Safe and Drug-Free Schools, said he had sent the evaluation on the Narconon Drug Abuse and Prevention Program to Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto and Deputy Superintendent Clayton Fujie. Ko noted that he was concerned about the findings in the evaluation by the California Health Kids Resource Center. He said he was ...

VISTA - The prosecution of a Solana Beach man accused of neglecting his elderly mother's declining health until she died concluded Wednesday with testimony that undercut the defendant's claims of how he treated the woman. Leo Dunckley is being tried for a second time on a charge of elder neglect for the Aug. 12, 2002, death of his 90-year-old mother, Eleanor, in the apartment the two shared for about nine years. A paramedic who responded to the apartment late that night ...

Allow me to correct a few errors in Nan Kappeler's article "The Rich vs. the Addicts" [Dec. 10]: a textual error says Narconon is Narcotics Anonymous. That is not true. Narconon means "Narcotics-None or No Drugs." Narcotics Anonymous is a separate, respected approach to recovery that shares a common purpose to ours—to restore drug-free, ethical, productive persons to their families and society. Since we have been part of the community in Newport Beach for nine years, we have consistently made ...