In February 1980 in Hemet, California, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard sat down on a mattress that his driver, John Brousseau, had put in the back of a van. Hubbard reached out his hand and shook Brousseau’s and said goodbye as a young couple, Pat and Annie Broeker, got into the van and then drove […]

[Dan Koon and Mariette Lindstein]

Jeffrey Augustine is back with part two of his interview with former Scientology executive Dan Koon. This time, the two get right into some accusations that have been made about the book that Dan co-wrote with Ron Miscavige, Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me. […]

[Dan Koon and his wife Mariette Lindstein]

Here in the US, we’ve started our long weekend celebrating Labor Day and unofficially ending the summer. And we’re getting the weekend going thanks to our longtime contributor Jeffrey Augustine, who is back with another […]

 We learned yesterday that next week, Gawker will shut down. For some of us who toiled in the trenches of New York journalism of a certain era, the news is hard to believe. Gawker had a big effect on the way online journalism is done (not all of it positive, some will tell you), and […]

Once again our great tipsters come through, and we just want again to express our gratitude. We’re deep into several big projects that we expect to turn into good things down the road, so for now we appreciate all the help we get from our great correspondents. (Speaking of big projects, these dog days of […]