The Indian school on the prairie stands empty once again. Chilocco, once active with American Indian youth learning skills for life now is quiet, its century-old limestone buildings sagging. Tribal leaders know the value of the site north of Newkirk, both cultural and economic, and are trying to find a new tenant. Narconon, a drug-treatment center that uses the teachings of Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, has moved its drug and alcohol treatment center from Chilocco to Arrowhead Lodge ...

The Saturday afternoon church gathering was restful at best. A scriptural reading carried a timely message, warning that when religion declines in society, the state assumes the role as arbiter of public morality, and do we really want that? A little ritual of rapid-fire questions had us focusing on our self-centered tensions as leader Amy Suzuki directed us consciously relax "parts of body that you don't have to police." The setting featured a bust of L. Ron Hubbard, scientist and science ...

Lee Arnold envisions a 17-story condominium and a luxury hotel overlooking Clearwater's waterfront. CLEARWATER — Real estate heavyweight Lee Arnold announced plans Thursday to build an upscale, 17-story condominium and a luxury "boutique" hotel in an $80-million project that could boost downtown redevelopment. The project, which would span 1.7-acres between Osceola and Fort Harrison avenues south of Drew Street, incorporates some ideas voters rejected in a referendum on redevelopment last summer. Arnold, chairman of Colliers Arnold Commercial Real Estate Services, said ...

Tory Bezazian was a veteran Scientologist who loved going after church critics. Until she met the darkest detractor of all. Last year, Church of Scientology operatives received an alarming tip: During the upcoming 2000 MTV Movie Awards scheduled for June 8, a short South Park film parodying Battlefield Earth would feature the character Cartman wiping his ass with a copy of L. Ron Hubbard's sacred text, Dianetics. The tip was erroneous. Cartman would actually be wiping his ass with a Scientology ...

AMID faces gray with grief and grime, theirs are fresh, even smiling. Among blackened uniforms and sooty equipment, their yellow T-shirts are bright buoys. They are clean. At any time, well over 100 volunteer ministers from the Church of Scientology mill around the remains of the World Trade Center. On the day of the attack, they took in food to workers. Since then, they have taken the mind-altering techniques developed by the church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard. When rescue workers stagger ...

"Why Scientology Isn't a Church" is just a provocative title, and the sermon may not even mention Scientology, a pastor says. CLEARWATER — The church marquee faces a busy six-lane highway and announces Sunday's sermon: "Why Scientology Isn't a Church." It's the title of the Rev. Raymond Guterman's message at Northwood Presbyterian Church in Countryside. And along with the marquee, the church also promoted the sermon this week in ads in the St. Petersburg Times. Such a public affront to Scientology ...

HR professionals have been warned to watch out for a mailshot from a psychometric testing organisation that fails to make clear its links to Scientology. People Management followed up a complaint from a reader who had received a letter from Silhouet UK inviting the recipient to complete an enclosed test questionnaire as a "free introductory service". The reader became suspicious after noticing the copyright on the test was for L Ron Hubbard, the founder of the controversial religious group. The letter ...

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 ...

EUFAULA — Narconon Arrowhead, the drug rehabilitation and international training center formerly known as Narconon Chilocco Center near Newkirk, has relocated to Lake Eufaula. The center, considered the with a ribbon cutting and barbecue. The relocation was necessary because of expansion. Narconon now has centers in 29 countries. Its mission is "to eradicate the problem of drug and alcohol abuse internationally through effective rehabilitation and education.' Narconon uses an approach developed by author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard. The Eufaula center, ...

Eufaula, Okla. — An international drug rehabilitation program will more than double its bed space in Oklahoma when it opens in a former state lodge in eastern Oklahoma. Narconon Arrowhead is to open a 230-bed campus Saturday on Lake Eufaula with federal and international drug rehabilitation experts on hand. The center has operated since 1990 as the Chilocco New Life Center with a 105-bed facility in Newkirk. Narconon uses saunas, vitamins and a special diet as part of a three-month program ...

With the Sandcastle and Osceola expansions, the church now has 565 rooms in and near downtown Clearwater. CLEARWATER — The Church of Scientology boasts more hotel rooms and religious counseling spaces in Clearwater than ever before with the completion this summer of $9-million of construction downtown. The church now has 565 hotel rooms in and near downtown Clearwater. In a typical week, about 1,300 visiting Scientologists from around the world lodge there while receiving spiritual counseling and training. The newest expansions ...

A 20-year former Scientologist who now calls it a cult has created a work of fiction that closely resembles the Clearwater group. It's a movie about cults based on fictional characters, says the director. But it's hard to miss the inspiration behind The Profit. The main character is a science-fiction writer who founds a religion. Get it? The leader starts the Church of Scientific Spiritualism. His name: L. Conrad Powers. The full-length feature film was written and directed by Peter Alexander, ...

Newkirk — In 1989, Newkirk residents prepared for a battle to stop the establishment of a drug and alcohol treatment program north of their town. It was an often bitter fight through the court system that lasted almost three years. Then, Narconon International received its certification in 1992 to establish a treatment center six miles north of Newkirk leased from five Indian tribes. Now, Narconon is closing its Newkirk branch in favor of combining the entire treatment site at Arrowhead Lodge ...

It was 2:15 p.m. when Keith Henson and his friend Gregg Hagglund finished picking up contact-lens solution and shaving lotion at a suburban Toronto mall and climbed into their car. Before they could fasten their seat belts, two unmarked vans squealed up, pinning their Mazda economy sedan in from the rear and the passenger side. A handful of emergency-services task-force officers – Canada‘s version of a police SWAT team – spilled out, wearing body armor and carrying submachine guns. As shoppers ...

it’s an unshaven and frazzled-looking Keith Henson who shuffles into the converted jail cell used as a hearing room Thursday morning at the Metro West Detention Centre. He’s in broad-rims, jail-issue orange jumpsuit and blue canvas runners that he’s wearing like flip-flops because they’re too small for his feet. A flap of grey hair is swooshed over a bald spot on the top of his head. The unrepentant Scientology foe was arrested in a parking lot in Oakville by Halton regional ...

Admirers of L. Ron Hubbard have launched a major environmental and morality offensive in Southern California’s beach cities, rankling critics who say the proselytizers have been less than forthcoming about their ties to the Church of Scientology. The controversy first flared when Scientology Surf Club president Rob Hoover asked the city of Malibu to proclaim March 13 L. Ron Hubbard Day, in honor of Scientology’s founder. The request made the City Council agenda, but was withdrawn by Hoover when March 13 ...

Keith Henson, American activist on the run in Canada, thinks the controversial Church of Scientology has made him fair game for dirty tricks Looking back, maybe the joke about the "Tom Cruise Missile" wasn't such a good idea. That online jest, made last year by Keith Henson, a peaceful if persistent critic of the controversial Church of Scientology, has led to his being found guilty of "intimidating a religion," and now on the run from the U.S., hiding out in plain ...

Church members renovate historic Hart Hotel for meeting place. BATTLE CREEK — Jason Blowers scooped clods of dirt and grass from a small area behind the historic hotel once owned by cereal giant W.K. Kellogg. For the past few weeks, the Kalamazoo man had been helping others haul trash from inside the four-story Hart Hotel to make way for a meeting space for the Church of Scientology of the Great Lakes. On this sunny, spring afternoon, Blowers and fellow church members ...

Prosecutors decide to drop a marijuana charge after jurors, concerned about church influence, deadlock. CLEARWATER — When the two-day misdemeanor trial of Scientology critic Jesse Prince ended Thursday, jurors had little doubt he had possessed marijuana as the state charged. What bothered some of them, according to two jurors, was the possibility that Prince had been set up by the Church of Scientology. They heard testimony about how Prince, once a high-ranking church member, was watched, videotaped and trailed for months ...

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Jurors in a misdemeanor marijuana case against a prominent critic of the Church of Scientology were unable to reach a verdict after some on the panel suspected the church had set him up. A hung jury was declared Thursday in the cases against Jesse Prince, who was charged with growing a marijuana plant in his backyard. The jury deliberated for five hours and was split 4-2 in favor of acquittal, jurors said. Pinellas County Judge Michael Andrews declared ...

The defense is bringing the church into the case, saying that the arrest was tied to the church's relentless surveillance of a critic, the defendant. LARGO — Five lawyers helped fill the courtroom Wednesday in a misdemeanor trial that included poster-board-size charts, a video recording, expert scientific testimony, five other witnesses and repeated references to the Church of Scientology. After five hours of courtroom proceedings, the marijuana possession case against strident Scientology critic Jesse Prince still was not over at the ...

Keith Henson, Scientology gadfly turned fugitive from justice, explains his reasons for fleeing the United States. Keith Henson is waging a one-man crusade against Scientology. Arguing that the church threatens to undermine the First Amendment by suing opponents into submission, he has fought the house that L. Ron Hubbard built at every turn. Since 1995, when the church first angered Net users by trying to close down a newsgroup dedicated to discussing Scientology's practices, he has posted documents that the church ...

CLEARWATER — For months, a high-profile attorney for a prominent critic of the Church of Scientology has tried to show the church is behind a minor drug charge against his client. Now, on the eve of Jesse Prince's trial on a misdemeanor charge of growing marijuana, defense lawyer Denis de Vlaming has hit what he considers pay dirt. Pinellas County Judge Michael Andrews still must decide whether jurors get to hear how private detectives working for the church shadowed Prince for ...

A couple of weeks ago computer engineer Keith Henson was found guilty in California of a criminal act related to posts he made in the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology, which contained obviously comical (all right, Sophomoric) references to targeting Scientologists with a nuclear missile. The jury convicted him of interfering with a religion — likely due to his habit of picketing near the cult's properties — but failed to reach a decision on two other patently idiotic charges brought by Deputy District Attorney ...

WASHINGTON – A California jury has convicted Keith Henson, a prominent critic of Scientology, of terrorizing the group through Usenet posts and by picketing one of its offices. Henson, a computer engineer who has been involved in prior legal skirmishes with Scientology, was found guilty on Thursday of interfering with Scientologists' civil rights and now faces a prison sentence of up to one year and a fine of up to $5,000. The charges revolved around posts Henson made in the alt.religion.scientology ...

A group beautifying a Clearwater alley reverses course and will let donors memorialize a church member who died. CLEARWATER – Lisa McPherson will be memorialized in a downtown alley next door to a Church of Scientology building. A group that sold hundreds of engraved bricks to beautify the city-owned alley has reversed an earlier decision, deciding to allow a McPherson memorial brick and two other bricks submitted by Scientology critics. McPherson was a 36-year-old Scientologist who died in 1995 in the ...

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Thomas Penick, who has the unenviable task of refereeing sidewalk skirmishes between the Church of Scientology and anti-Scientology protesters in Clearwater, recently pointed to an arrangement that allows off-duty Clearwater cops to work for Scientology and noted, "They are coming very dangerously close to becoming a private security force for the Church of Scientology." Penick was right to call attention to the uncomfortably cozy relationship developing between city police and the church, which has its spiritual headquarters in ...