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Stars come out for dedication of Scientology's 'Super Power' building in Clearwater

November 17, 2013: Actors Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kelly Preston joined a smaller than expected crowd of Scientologists on Sunday to dedicate what the church calls its most important project ever, its massive Flag Building. Church leader David Miscavige presided in a ceremony that lasted just eight minutes and was marked by a burst of confetti that rained down like golden tickets. His remarks couldn't be understood outside the church's perimeter.

Scientology clergy force a mother to choose: son or daughter

March 14, 2014: The Church of Scientology pressured Sara Goldberg for months to kick her son out of her life. She wouldn't do it. So the church put her on trial one night in a Scientology building in Clearwater. It was scary. Goldberg cried. She had been a devoted Scientologist for 36 years. Now her church was accusing her of committing a crime against Scientology — not "disconnecting'' from her renegade son.

Most, Not All, Items Seized By Church Of Scientology Returned

September 26, 1995: Scientology refuses to comply with court order: Most of the Church of Scientology documents confiscated last month from the homes of two Boulder County men by U.S. marshals were returned yesterday under orders from the federal courts in Denver and the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the courts ordered that "all" confiscated items be returned to Lawrence Wollersheim and Robert Penny, not "most" of the items.

Board To Soften Drug Resolution

November 11, 1999: Members of the State Board of Education indicated they would soften a resolution about the use of psychiatric drugs by schoolchildren. Mental-health advocates appeared before the board Wednesday to counter a presentation last month by people who claim use of psychotropic drugs causes school violence. Mental-health advocates see the latest developments as a new phase in a long-standing assault on psychiatry with strong ties to the Church of Scientology.

City Balks At Church's Figures On House Plan

January 25, 1996: The Church of Scientology was hoping Wednesday to get approval for a plan that would move as many as nine people into individual units at its staff apartment complex and create common lounges for rest and relaxation. Instead, city officials revealed that the numbers for the total population at Hacienda Gardens just don't add up.

The Scientology Papers: Files Show Spy Reported Woman's Intimate Words

January 25, 1980: In one file was a letter dated June, 1974, from Dick Weigand to Henning Heldt, two of the leaders sentenced last month to four years in prison. Included in a review of an operative's past activities for the cult was the observation: Conspired to entrap Mrs. Lovely (code name for Miss Cooper) into being arrested for a felony which she did not commit. She was arraigned for the crime.

Scientologists Lose Court Case

January 24, 1997: A Greek judge has declared an Athens Scientology group illegal, ruling that it had obtained a license to operate here under false pretenses. The ruling was the first in Greece against the Scientologists, a group founded in 1954 by U.S. writer L. Ron Hubbard that says it represents a godless religion whose members strive for spiritual growth and self-improvement. Critics of the group argue that it is a cult that exercises undue influence over its members and bilks them of money.

Ad Offers $100,000 In Check Mystery

January 24, 1984: A private investigator, acting on behalf of a West Coast law firm that represents the Church of Scientology, placed a full-page advertisement that appeared yesterday in The Boston Globe offering a $100,000 reward for information about a $2-million counterfeit check. Eugene M. Ingram of Los Angeles, the private investigator who signed the ad, declined to say whose account the forged check was drawn on because, he said, he wants to screen out crank telephone callers by asking for the name of the account.

The Scientology Papers: Hubbard Still Gave Orders, Records Show

January 24, 1980: L. Ron Hubbard, the former science fiction writer who publicly resigned in 1966 from leadership of the Church of Scientology, continued to give orders to its leaders into 1977, a Washington court has been told. Evidence obtained in 1977 in raids on U. S offices of the cult by the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed there was a detailed program to cover up Mr. Hubbard's involvement in the leadership of Scientology. Called Operation Bulldozer Leak, it was part of the documentary evidence filed by federal prosecutors with the U. S. District Court that last month gave long prison terms to Mr. Hubbard's wife and eight other Scientology leaders for their roles in conspiracies to steal government documents and to obstruct justice by kidnapping an informer. The nine are free pending an appeal of the validity of some of the evidence.

2 Leaders In Britain Still To Face U.S Court In Conspiracy Case

January 23, 1980: Testimony before a U. S. District Court in Washington said FBI raids on offices of the Church of Scientology in 1977 were specifically in search of evidence of conspiracies to steal government documents and obstruct justice. The FBI agents found it, the court was told. Much of the evidence was in the reports of the cult's spies planted in jobs in strategic offices, and in the files that they stole. Thousands of seized documents that helped convict nine U. S. Scientologists named as conspirators also gave the court evidence of other crimes and clandestine activities.

The Scientology Papers: Cult Harassment, Spying In Canada Documented

January 23, 1980: New light has been shed on the Canadian operations of the controversial Church of Scientology by files made public by a U. S. District Court in Washington. The evidence refutes denials by Toronto cult leaders of information I reported more than five years ago in a series of articles based on internal cult documents and interviews with defectors. Other accounts since then of clandestine operations by the cult in Canada are also supported by the files, submitted in court after being seized in Los Angeles and Washington as part of a 2 1/2-year investigation by U. S. authorities. The trial resulted in jail sentences for nine leading U. S. Scientologists, who are out on bail pending another of many attempts to have documentary evidence used in the case ruled illegal.

Secret Ontario Documents Found in U.S. Cult's Files

January 22, 1980: Confidential documents from various Ontario Government offices including an attorney-general's communications about police intelligence operations have been found in U. S. Church of Scientology files. The documents were part of the evidence submitted by federal attorneys in the Washington prosecution of U. S. leaders of the cult on charges of conspiring to steal government documents and obstruct justice by coverups and by kidnapping an informer.

Drop Action Against 5 Albertans

January 22, 1980: The Church of Scientology yesterday proposed to discontinue a lawsuit against five of eight Albertans it says conspired to interfere with and defame the organization. The action follows 3 1/2 years of pre-trial applications involving seven Calgarians and an Edmontonian as the defendants and three Scientology missions in the province. A lawyer for the church refused to say why the action was initiated less than a month before the Feb. 11 trial date. But he ruled out speculation that the church was backing down because it has failed to produce financial records the lawyer for the Calgary defendants says are needed to prepare his clients' defence.

Teacher is Jailed for Sex Offences

January 21, 1994: A schoolteacher was yesterday jailed for five years after he admitted sexually molesting teenage pupils. Mark Kent, 32, of Forest Row, East Sussex, committed a catalogue of offences against boys at Greenfields school in Forest Row, where he worked. Greenfields is a private school which states in its promotional literature that it employs the "educational techniques" of L Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology. The school denies that it is an offshoot of the church, but many of the teachers are members of the cult; and the majority of pupils come from Scientology families.

Scientology's Accusations Are Unfounded: Letters

January 21, 1993: Please set the record straight for your readers. After monitoring CAN for more than a decade, Scientology has been able to find nothing that holds up under scrutiny on CAN's supposed criminality. If it had been paying a little less attention to the cult awareness movement and a little more attention to its own organization, maybe the Church of Scientology of Toronto and its officials would not have been found guilty of spying on government agencies up there. Maybe Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and several other top Scientology officials wouldn't have gone to prison for felony convictions here in the United States.

Firemen Fight Blaze at Church of Scientology

January 21, 1978: Toronto firemen were fighting a fire which broke out in the basement of the Church of Scientology at Avenue Road and Bernard Avenue early this morning. The fire, which firemen described as a two-alarm blaze was still out of control at 1 a.m., an hour after firemen were called. No injuries were reported. Ten fire trucks were sent to the scene.

Scientology, County Deadlock

January 20, 1993: During the past two years, Pinellas County's property appraiser has met intermittently with officials from the Church of Scientology, trying to reach an agreement on the church's multimillion-dollar tax bill. The result of the closed-door meetings: No deal. Now, the matter will go back to court.

IRS Is Seeking Church's Records

January 20, 1990: The Internal Revenue Service is seeking scores of internal documents from the Church of Scientology in Clearwater to determine whether the organization has violated its tax-exempt status. The IRS has sent a summons to the Scientologists asking for internal documents such as bank statements, minutes of Scientology board meetings, organizational charts and job descriptions. The documents could show whether the organization is involved in commercial enterprises for profit.

Hounded by the Church of Stars and Hype

January 19, 1997: Some of Hollywood's biggest names have accused Germany of persecuting the Church of Scientology. But in Britain, the church itself is accused of using dirty tricks to harass its critics. In 1993, leaflets denouncing Bonnie as a "hate campaigner" were handed out and she sued for libel. The church countersued and has since mounted two further actions against them. A private investigator precipitated further proceedings.