Over the last several months, The St. Petersburg Times published a series of scathing articles on the Church of Scientology under the rubric “The Truth Rundown.” In 1980, the newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for an investigation of the church’s inner workings. Coverage of Scientology has long been an important story for The St. Petersburg Times, given that the church’s spiritual headquarters is located in nearby Clearwater, Fla. So it came as a bit of a shock when, on Friday, the ...

[...] The Church of Scientology is close to putting its building at 825 15th St. on the market to raise cash for its effort to convert the 58,000-square-foot Hotel Ramona building at J and 6th streets downtown into a new church and Northern California headquarters. The church in 2005 bought the 79-year-old Ramona, which had been converted to office use in the mid-1980s. It is a designated city landmark so there won’t be much change to the exterior, including the hotel ...

The Ramona building, a 78-year-old former hotel at Sixth and J streets, will be converted into Sacramento headquarters for the Church of Scientology. Courtesy of the Church of Scientology Two years after it paid $4.75 million for the downtown Ramona building, the Church of Scientology is about to gain full control of the property. A lease-buyout agreement was recently reached with Luis Jr.'s Mexican Food Restaurant, the last remaining tenant with a long-term lease in the five-story building at Sixth and ...

David E. Root, M.D, has traveled the world on a mission to rid its inhabitants of fat-soluble toxins. From Chernobyl to Ground Zero in New York City, Root has promoted a detoxification program that he claims has helped thousands suffering ailments like radiation poisoning and asbestos exposure. Many medical professionals have criticized the program he uses as ineffective and scientifically unsound, even dangerous. Critics point out that the program’s inventor, the late L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, ...

Dec. 28–The Church of Scientology is eager to move to a new Sacramento address. But 14 months after buying the downtown Ramona building for $4.75 million, with plans of converting it into its new local headquarters, the church has yet to call the movers. "Many things need to get done" before the 77-year-old Ramona is ready to physically accommodate its new owner, church spokesman Mike Klagenberg said last week. The list includes: getting City Hall's permission to begin a planned $3 ...

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

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 ...

Scientology Inc. Publishing executives in Folsom are spreading the word on technology in government. Some employees say it’s actually the words of L. Ron Hubbard that are being spread. By Jim Evans On your very first day as a new hire at e.Republic, you’re given a copy of Speaking From Experience, a management training book written by the late L. Ron Hubbard, who, during his busy lifetime, was a science fiction writer, philosopher, management guru, expert on education, and drug rehabilitation ...

BOSTON — Scientologists, long a target of deprogrammers, have gone to court to try to turn the tables, claiming that they were illegally barred from joining an anti-cult group. In a flurry of lawsuits filed around the nation, dozens of members of the Church of Scientology said they tried to join the Cult Awareness Network but were rejected because of their church affiliation. Many of the lawsuits were filed last week after a federal grand jury indicted three alleged members of ...

SANTA CLARA — Former employees of Applied Materials have filed suit alleging that the Silicon Valley manufacturing firm forced them to undergo Church of Scientology seminars. Trial proceedings began Tuesday as lawyers for both sides argued motions before Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Frank Cliff. In their suit, former employees Steven Hunziker, Virginia Sanders and Kate Schuchmann allege that Applied Materials hired an outside firm to teach workers communication and time-management skills. But the seminar firm, Applied Scholastics of Fremont, ...

[Picture / Caption: Scientologists arrive Thrusday in Old Sacramento in a flotilla from San Francisco. The Tower Bridge had to be raised for many of the ships to pass, tying up traffic on both sides. About 1,000 Scientologists then marched to the state Capitol for a rally. Story on page B1.] Amid chants of "Religious freedom now," about 1,000 seafaring Scientologists docked Thursday in Old Sacramento and marched, single-file, to the state Capitol. They came in boats from San Francisco, completing ...

Question. Who receives more fan mail per week than the Queen of England, Harrison Ford, and Pope John combined? Answer. L. Ron Hubbard. Best known through his books and as the founder of the Scientology philosophy, Hubbard receives an average of 2400 letters a week from his friends and individuals who have been helped through his philosophies. On his 73rd birthday in March, he received greetings from the Governors of 36 states and proclamations from Mayors in New Orleans, Galveston, Houston ...

With $175 and a small box of books under his arm, Martin Samuels brought Scientology to the Sacramento area in the 1960s. He soon built a $10 million empire. The church rated his missions in Davis and Sacramento the best in the world. Then, in 1982, it all collapsed. Samuels left the church with nothing more than a suitcase half full of clothes. Samuels charges in a lawsuit that the Church illegally took it all away from him. The suit, being ...

The Church of Scientology, despite shrinking membership, still wields power in Sacramento — openly through its church and missions, and not-so-openly through other organizations. Some buildings — a church on 15th Street near Memorial Auditorium and branch missions in Carmichael and Davis — are obviously part of Scientology. Other holdings, including a shopping center called Fulton Square that the church bought through another business entity, are less conspicuous. The Flag Service Organization Inc., a Florida branch of Scientology, bought the $1.5 ...

Scientology has been in the limelight over the years: * ln 1979, nine church members — including founder L. Ron Hubbard's wife, Mary Sue — were convicted of bugging, burglarizing and infiltrating government agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service. In addition, church and FBI files show its members have executed, with mixed success, elaborate plots to entrap and discredit reporters and public officials. * Several documents came to light in the 1970s that revealed a church policy of attacking its "enemies." ...

Whereas other religions may hold out promise of salvation, founder Hubbard offers immediate solution to problems Joann Harvey paused when asked why she took her life's savings of $45,000 and turned it over to the Sacramento Church of Scientology. "That's an interesting question," she said with a sigh. "Being in Scientology gave me an anchor point. The philosophy works. I know it." Harvey was nearing middle age and undergoing marital problems when she discovered Scientology. Sacramento businessman Don Pearson, on the ...

Scientology founder hasn't been seen in public since 1976 Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard has replaced the late Howard Hughes as the man of mystery. Hubbard, 73, was last viewed in public in 1976. And he was last seen by any close associate willing to talk about him in March 1980. So where is he? "Somewhere around here," said Bent Corydon, pointing to the bleak desert of Riverside County around the church's compound at Gilman Hot Springs. "He's never more than ...

Church says it's stronger now, while some ex-leaders say end is inevitable First of two parts A hot wind blows through the masts of the $565,000 clipper ship "docked" on a rocky plateau in the middle of a Southern California desert. Down the hill, a car nears a gate guarded by young men in brown shirts. As if with the snap of unseen fingers, members of the elite Sea Org pour from buildings around the ship with cameras in hand, furiously ...