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

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. ...

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 ...

Just when Tom Cruise was starting to look good again, we hear from the New York Daily News that Cruise's pregnant fiance, Katie Holmes, is supposed to sign on for a "silent birth," without screams or painkillers. Ouch. But is "Quit yellin', it's only childbirth," as the News headline so succinctly put it, the true position of the Church of Scientology, of which Cruise is a member? Not according to Greg LaClaire, vice president of the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre ...

For a moment, you might think you're in 17th century France and glaring up at a Normandy chateau. But you're not - you're peering up at L. Ron Hubbard's towering salute to the artist on Franklin Street in Hollywood. The Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International, a 10-minute drive from USC, is a church, but one like no other. The church caters not only to the spiritual needs of its parishioners but also to its artistic needs. L. Ron Hubbard, the ...

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 ...

Tom cruise calls his religion "extraordinary," but 26-year-old Astra Woodcraft, who grew up in the Church's inner circle, has a different story to tell — about bizarre beliefs, pressured rules and how she finally broke tree to start her life over. On a chilly February evening in 1998, I strode quietly through Los Angeles International Airport, clutching a Virgin Atlantic ticket for London in one hand and a duffel bag stuffed with my clothes in the other. I was drenched, having ...

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 ...

By his account, Tom Cruise owes his cool head, defeat of dyslexia and, in a way, his unstoppable stardom to Scientology. But Scientology has much to thank Tom Cruise for as well. His glowing adherence to Scientology and the initiation of his bride-to-be, actress Katie Holmes, into the off-beat and oft-maligned system of beliefs has stirred a surge of interest. The search engine company Lycos reported that “Scientology” had leaped into the top 50 search terms last week for the first ...

May 9, 1950: "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health" by L. Ron Hubbard is published. June 7, 1951: Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation established in Elizabeth, N.J. May 1952: The Wichita, Kan., Dianetics training center is moved to Phoenix. Hubbard publicly announces the formal establishment of the philosophy of Scientology and the formation of the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International. July 1952: "Scientology: A History of Man" published. February 1954: Church of Scientology founded in Los Angeles. 1956: The church is ...

Did Reader’s Digest sell its soul to the Church of Scientology to get Tom Cruise on the cover of its current issue? According to several sources inside the world’s largest-selling monthly, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jackie Leo, wanted Cruise as her cover boy but was impeded by the magazine’s history with the controversial group. Back in 1991, Reader’s Digest excerpted an in-depth investigative piece from Time magazine entitled Scientology: The Cult of Greed. Among other things, the article asserted that the Church ...

Human beings have come a long way in the past, oh, three million years or so. But while man has now advanced to the stage where he can split an atom and level a city, it’s hard to say he’s made much progress in understanding himself. But according to the Church of Scientology, that is all about to change. Or rather, it already has for those who have opted to come join the Scientologist flock since the Church was first formally ...

After a lifetime playing wholesome, all-American heroes, Tom Cruise has finally discovered his dark side. He's also ditched his publicist, moved in with his sisters and is looking for the third Mrs Cruise. So is Hollywood's leading man having a middle-youth crisis? Interview by Neil Strauss [Picture: "What sinister ambitions lie concealed behind that smile? ... Tom Cruise. Photograph: Domenico Stinellis / AP"] Want to meet my mom?' Tom Cruise asks as we walk through the halls of the Celebrity Center, ...

The Church of Scientology's new Buffalo headquarters is a work of love. A lot of love. When the doors opened on the historic Main Street building last November, it marked both the completion of a cycle for the late-1800s building and a new chapter for the religious order. That both intersect, is in itself, sort of divine intervention with everything lining up the right way at the right time. "You could say we've put the building back to its original use," ...

For a second or so the needle proceeds smoothly along the dial. I watch its progress while clutching two can-shaped metal devices, wired to the small machine housing the dial. Suddenly, the needle jerks violently. 'What was that?' asks Janet Laveau, head of the UK Office of Special Affairs, the Church of Scientology's PR machine. I'm disturbed and temporarily impressed - the needle jumped just as I was thinking of a friend who is seriously depressed. How could the machine 'know' ...

A large insignia engraved on a dramatic backdrop stood in commanding fashion over a red-carpeted stage. In front rested a sculpted wooden podium flanked by a TelePrompTer. Politicians and celebrities sat among rows of filled white seats, as plainclothes security wearing earphones surveyed the crowd. Meanwhile, hundreds of red, white and blue balloons waited to be released. One could have been forgiven for thinking Vice President Cheney was in Buffalo a day early. Instead, it was the grand opening of the ...

Rebuild it and they will come. Volunteers from around the globe have been hard at work in the Church of Scientology's new three-story, two-mezzanine home at 836 Main St., on the southwest corner of Main and Virginia streets. Members have come from as far as Hungary, Lithuania, South Africa and Italy to work on the 23,232-square-foot building's restoration, scheduled for completion in mid-September. Closer to home, Scientologists from Chicago, Miami, New York City and Hollywood, where the church is headquartered, have ...

NEW YORK CITY — The Church of Scientology New York will renovate and expand its current home at 227 West 46th St. Brennan Beer Gorman/ Architects (BBG) has been selected as the architect to develop the church's concept, which includes a total renovation and expansion to the six-story building. Upon completion, the building will total approximately 46,650 sf. Currently in construction, the project is expected to be complete by spring 2004. The projected cost of the project was not revealed. The ...

The church is buying property, increasing staff and raising its profile with TV ads and special offers. TAMPA — A group of high-ranking Scientologists, concerned the church's Tampa facilities aren't up to snuff, is investing more than $2.5-million to buy a second cigar factory in West Tampa and to lease and renovate a two-story building on one of the hottest corners in Ybor City. The church's three properties, staffed by nearly 100 people, will be the base for Scientology's most aggressive ...

The church of scientology is heading for Harlem. It is building its third Manhattan church in a handsome brick loft building that it just bought at 220 E. 125th St. for $3.45 million. Its two other churches are located on West 46th Street and East 82nd Street. "Our choice of Harlem as a place to expand grows out of the desire of our African-American members to have a service base in the neighborhood," says the Rev. John Carmichael, president of the ...

Buffalo's Church of Scientology, soon to be forced from its downtown church for a new city parking ramp, turned to Erie County prison inmates to help get its new Main Street home ready. A crew of six inmates from the Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden, dressed in orange prison jumpsuits and guarded by corrections officers, spent the last month helping with interior renovations in the new Scientology Church at Main and Virginia streets. The inmate crew arrived before 8 a.m. ...

Parents seeking the removal of Superintendent Joseph Olchefske warned the Seattle School Board last night that they might mount a campaign to defeat two levies next February if he remains. That threat came from members of the Citizens for Effective Administration of Seattle Education (CEASE) during a week in which the teachers union and the principals association are taking no-confidence votes on Olchefske. CEASE member Maggie Metcalf-Hess said the group also might seek to replace School Board members who have supported ...

Greg Bashaw's father respected him and trusted him to make wise choices. Even after he chose to devote his life to Scientology. While the shock and grief of his son's suicide were still fresh, Bob Bashaw read back through their decades-long correspondence, looking in particular for references to Scientology. "I wanted to see what there was here I missed," he says. His son Greg had been a member of the Church of Scientology for more than 20 years. During that time ...

Scientology's largest facility in the world, still more than a year from completion, has altered the Clearwater skyline. CLEARWATER – From arched 31-foot windows to the 1,140-seat dining room, there is much that will be grand in the Church of Scientology's new downtown religious center. It will have 889 rooms, 447 windows, 42 bathrooms. A two-story lighted cross will perch atop the highest tower, 150 feet up. The building even has a hefty nickname, "Super Power." In recent weeks, the building's ...

Critic: Are you guys a cult? Mike Ferris, Public Relations Spokesperson, Church of Scientology of NZ: Depends on what you mean by a cult. Every religion in its forming stage was considered to be a cult, pretty much. Critic: You guys aren't in your forming stages though, you've been around for fifty years. You claim to be the only major religion that's emerged out of the twentieth century. So, are you a cult? Ferris: Not in the derogatory sense, no, we ...

Months of interviews and thousands of pages of court papers show the effect that influential church members had on a Clearwater company that was a darling of the dot-com boom. It was New Year's Eve 1997 when Digital Lightwave's chief, Bryan Zwan, made his biggest deal: a $9-million contract for his signature product, a 10-pound device that tests telephone lines. At 5:30 p.m., Zwan phoned his production staff and gave them a tall order: Ship the 308 units right away. It ...