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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Monique Rathbun: Hey, Texas court, here’s something to chew on

 It’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything about the Monique Rathbun lawsuit against Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige.

The Texas lawsuit was put on hold when Scientology appealed a March 2014 ruling by Comal County Judge Dib Waldrip denying its “anti-SLAPP” motion. Arguments were made at a hearing before the Texas Third []

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Scientology’s trophy problem: Did David Miscavige lie, or did the IAS?

[Scientologists, admiring the milestones of IAS enlightenment]

 In November, we told you the saga of Richie Acunto. He was the once high-flying Scientologist who owned Survival Insurance in California, but then whose bankruptcy resulted not only in unhappy investors, but also the stunning auctioning off of his Scientology []

LIVE REPORTS: Scientology leader David Miscavige opens “Ideal Org” in Colombia today

Scientology leader David Miscavige is scheduled to open the latest “Ideal Org” today, this time in Bogotá, Colombia, and we have a correspondent on the scene.

It’s been less than three months since Miscavige opened an Ideal Org in Basel, Switzerland, which is a much faster pace than he set the last two years. (There was []

Jon Atack: Looking back on a week of Scientology enturbulation in Toronto

Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He has a new edition of the book for sale, and for more than a year on Saturdays he helped us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that []

Scientology’s billion-dollar slush fund, its slick operators, and how it gets around regulation

Prepare for Jeffrey Augustine to blow your mind as he takes us on another deep dive into Scientology’s finances, this time laying bare the IAS slush fund even more than he did last time. We think you’ll find this is Jeff’s best piece yet!

 As discussed previously, the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) is not a []

How to read a tabloid magazine story about the Church of Scientology: A primer

Four years ago, we set out on this adventure to report about Scientology every day. And one of the results of that experiment is the amazing community that has built up around the Bunker. We set out to create a place where Scientology could be discussed, but without the wild rumors and mistaken myths that []

Is David Miscavige really planning to extend Scientology’s ‘Bridge’?

We don’t always see the newest issue of the Freewinds, a Scientology publication that gets passed around a little less often than Impact or Celebrity or International Scientology News. []

Scientology leader’s father signs a book deal, for ‘IF HE DIES, HE DIES’

Ron Miscavige Sr., 79, the father to reclusive Scientology leader David Miscavige, 55, has signed a deal with major publisher St. Martin’s Press to issue his book about his son and Scientology titled “If He Dies, He Dies.”

The title is a reference to a now infamous story that came out in the Los Angeles Times []

Paulette Cooper back in Clearwater for the first time since the 1982 Scientology hearings

 Mark Bunker got very good video of Sunday’s event in Clearwater. But about ten minutes into it your proprietor knocked his lapel microphone off, and in general the setup wasn’t ideal for sound. But blame us, not Bunker. []

Augustine: Taking a hard look at Scientology’s slush fund, the unlicensed and unregulated IAS

 We’ve been on the road with our appearance yesterday in Clearwater, but thankfully, our friend Jeffrey Augustine sent in another of his deep dives into the weird world of Scientology infrastructure. Take us down the rabbit hole again, Jeff…

 In our last article, we showed that the word “Scientologist” is a collective membership mark used by []