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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It’s simple: we get to kill exotic animals because we are the superior species

 At some point, all of the defensive posturing by trophy hunters that they are conservationists with the best interests of animals in mind really does get old and it’s time they came []

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NXIVM: Kathy Russell argues prosecutors hid evidence of her guilt, so she should go free

[Kathy Russell and Clare Bronfman]

An interesting new document from Nxivm bookkeeper Kathy Russell’s attorney hit the court file today. It’s a memo supporting her motion to dismiss charges against her, and it argues that she was taken advantage of by prosecutors when they asked her to testify to the grand jury last []

Jehovah’s Witnesses learn that scaring children in Sweden comes with a price

[From the Metro investigation]

What an interesting and odd story coming out of Sweden today. We were alerted to it by a Lloyd Evans tweet, and then spent part of the morning reading translations of articles from the Swedish version of Metro, the free daily []

A stunning Scientology call to arms for our politically divided times on this dirt ball

 It’s not too often that we’re treated to a broadside like the one Scientologist Jeff Pomerantz shared with his fellow Hubbardites []

Sly Baboon hilariously takes the wheel on safari — oh, wait, it’s dead

 Trophy hunters are so tragically misunderstood. No matter how much they explain to people that they are dedicated conservationists, supreme lovers of animals, and not people suffering crippling inadequacy issues, there’s another side to these champions of the natural world that rarely gets the credit it deserves: Their sense of []

Can you be impartial about allegations of sex slavery? Take the Nxivm juror questionnaire!

[Keith Raniere and the Dalai Lama in Nxivm’s happier days]

Jury selection starts Monday in the Nxivm trial, and the court file now includes a 37-page juror questionnaire that we thought you’d like to see. []

NXIVM: Lauren Salzman’s guilty plea included admitting to imprisoning a woman for 2 years

[Lauren Salzman and Keith Raniere]

Frank Parlato and the NY Post are reporting that when Nxivm defendant Lauren Salzman entered a guilty plea on March 25, she recited a chilling list of crimes, including keeping a Mexican woman as a slave for two []

Thetans in the Jungle: Scientology in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands

[Boys from the village of Napamogona. Photo by Charles Fourtree.]

Chris Owen provides yet another startling look at Scientology history that you probably haven’t heard []

Woman who went viral as giraffe hunter reveals mindblowing taxidermy

 Last year, a photo of Kentucky woman Tess Thompson Talley pointing skyward as she posed with a large, black-coated giraffe she had shot in South Africa went viral and brought her a worldwide wave of media []

Jehovah’s Witnesses leader encountered buying a haul of Scotch on a Sunday morning

Lloyd Evans revealed a surprising bit of video that came in from a tipster who had filmed a Jehovah’s Witnesses governing body member, Tony Morris, shopping for Macallan Scotch at a liquor store at 11 am on a Sunday morning in Ramsey, New Jersey.

Lloyd explains just how rare it is to run into a governing []