Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He's written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology's harassment of Paulette Cooper titled 'The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.' He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world from an undisclosed location in an underground bunker he shares with four cats and one of them wrinkly Shar Pei dogs. Despite his super-secret security protections, you can still reach him pretty easily by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you'd like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.) [Header image courtesy John Rickard]
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Lloyd Evans: How to leave the Jehovah’s Witnesses without fear

 One of the things we like about Lloyd Evans is that he’s giving advice from his own experience, and he has so much compassion for others attempting to leave the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion as he []

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Scientology OT8 dentist closes office while patients confront him about their cash

 It was an ugly scene in Severna Park, near Baltimore, on Tuesday as some angry patients shouted at dentist Neil Woods while he was leaving his office with news cameras []

Scientology provides all the proof you need that Narconon is more than ‘tied’ to it

 We’ve seen enough reactions to know that it irks you as much as it does us when a press outfit reports on another Narconon debacle and says that the drug rehab network is “tied” to Scientology, or “supported by” Scientology, like there’s some arm’s-length distance between the []

Here’s Scientology actor Danny Masterson’s legal response to his rape accusers

[Danny Masterson in 2003]

Four women have sued Danny Masterson, the Church of Scientology, and its leader David Miscavige, alleging that since those women came forward to the LAPD with rape allegations against Masterson in 2016, they have been subjected to a harassment campaign in an attempt to silence []

Scientology builds tiny new drug rehab, marking Narconon’s dwindling US fortunes

[Narconon Arrowhead, where Dave’s dream died]

In the year 2000, the Church of Scientology paid $1.9 million for a 256-acre resort in Oklahoma from the Choctaw Nation, which had purchased it in a government fire sale fifteen years earlier for about the same price. The resort had been built by the state in 1965, and it []

Professional ham hock Grant Cardone: I’m giving up the Super Bowl for Scientology

[Grant Cardone]

Some churches require that you give up pork. Others that you give up short pants.

But professional ham hock and OT Scientologist Grant Cardone has announced on a Facebook video that he’s making the ultimate sacrifice for his space-age religion: He’s not going to the Super Bowl today that is being played right in his []

April fools: Keith Raniere and Clare Bronfman sentencing hearings set for cruelest month

[Keith Raniere and Clare Bronfman]

Judge Nicholas Garaufis has announced sentencing dates for Nxivm leaders Keith Raniere and Clare Bronfman in the month April. []

Just what the year 2020 needs: Locusts

 Crises from all over the world seemed to be competing to grab the headlines in January: Australia’s devastating bushfires, the impeachment trial in America, Brexit finally becoming reality, and the coronavirus outbreak in China. But Africa, often starved for attention, has a growing crisis of its own: a swarm of locusts, already the largest in []

What are Valerie Haney’s options after Scientology won its arbitration motion?

[Valerie Haney]

We’re still reeling after Thursday’s court hearing that dealt such a blow to Valerie Haney’s lawsuit. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Burdge Jr. granted the motions submitted by two of Scientology’s entities to compel the case into “religious arbitration,” and stayed the lawsuit []

Scientology’s 2020 Super Bowl ad is just like all the others: A mystery sandwich

 It’s another mystery sandwich this year.

In a 1990s court case, Hana Whitfield testified that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard had said in her presence, “To keep a person on the Scientology path, feed him a mystery []