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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HURRICANE LEAH: ‘The defenses are crumbling. Scientology in Los Angeles is dying.’

 We’re still marveling at the juxtaposition — that the same weekend Leah Remini took home an Emmy award for her A&E series Scientology and the Aftermath, a major hurricane was barreling down on the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida. []

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Ideal and Ideal-er: England org coming soon will be Scientology to the max

 Scientology leader David Miscavige continues to push for new Ideal Org openings around the world, and tells his followers that the new orgs will bring in lots of new public to Scientology. That hasn’t happened, and Miscavige has blamed it on a number of reasons — most recently, that the orgs aren’t staffed up enough. []

Supporting Leah Remini and her show — what’s the risk for viewers who expose Scientology?

 There’s a law firm in Manhattan that struggled this week to cope after it came under a bizarre attack. []

‘Leah Remini’ show prompting more ‘ranch kids’ to come forward with agonizing family drama

[Clarissa and Ethan Adams]

We continue to be amazed at the effect Leah Remini is producing with her A&E series, Scientology and the Aftermath. As her second season progresses, we’re seeing more and more people speak up about their experiences in []

Forced to open its books, one overseas Scientology rehab shows that business is grim

 One of the tough things about reporting on the Church of Scientology is that its tax-exempt status allows it to hide much of its financial information from the public. In some countries, however, Scientology and its front groups have to open their books. Among them is the Netherlands, where once again we’re getting a look []

Scientology’s ultimate prize: For the first time online, the current ‘OT 8’ materials laid bare

 Last night’s episode of the A&E network’s Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath was special in a number of ways. Through the first season and into the second, Leah had said she didn’t want to get into specific Scientology “beliefs,” and she mentioned the Xenu story in particular, saying that it was irrelevant to her []

Missouri school district boots sneaky Scientology front group after Underground Bunker article

 We are happy to give Underground Bunker senior reporter Rod Keller a victory lap this morning after his weekend story about a Scientology front group got quick results. Here’s Rod with the []

Tomorrow on ‘Leah Remini’: You’re going to learn what it’s like on Scientology’s ‘Bridge’

[Bruce Hines]

After three gut-wrenching victim-centered episodes of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath‘s second season, A&E is shaking things up by running a “special” episode that we think is not only well timed, but a long time coming.

Tomorrow night, you will begin your training as []

Scientology’s slick (and bogus) drug education program snares another school district

 Rod Keller once again catches Scientology worming its way into unsuspecting classrooms and police departments with its sneaky front []

Louis Theroux isn’t the first who tried to find Scientology’s positive side and failed

[Rev. Stewart Lamont, photo by Callum Moffat]

Louis Theroux’s My Scientology Movie is now on Netflix, but Jon Atack reminds us that Theroux wasn’t the first investigator who tried to find something positive to say about Scientology, and ended up in a very different []