The Press-Enterprise:
http://www.pe.com/localnews/politics/stories/PE_News_Local_S_stone24.38a5b2a.html
http://tinyurl.com/c37x6q
[quote]
Riverside supervisor touts sister's pro-bono work for county, pays her
from campaign fund
10:26 PM PDT on Monday, March 23, 2009
By JULIA GLICK [Reach Julia Glick at 951-368-9442 or jglick@PE.com]
The Press-Enterprise
Supervisor Jeff Stone frequently praises his sister as Riverside
County's best bargain because she works full-time as an unpaid volunteer
in his office.
But records show he paid Lori Stone more than $180,000 in campaign money
last year for political consulting and professional services and he
assigned her the free use of a county car with taxpayer-funded gasoline
included.
Over the past three years, Stone's campaign payments to his sister
totaled about $330,000.
In reporting this story, The Press-Enterprise tried to interview Lori
Stone and another staff member. Jeff Stone directed them not to comment
and asked that requests be referred to him.
Story continues below
Lori Stone
Stone then declined to discuss the issues in person or by phone, saying
he wanted all questions submitted in writing by e-mail. The
Press-Enterprise declined. Stone then sent a lengthy e-mail defending
his sister's use of a county car and her volunteer service.
"In addition to Lori putting in 50 to 60 hours a week of her time to
improve the quality of life of women in the 3rd District, she was having
to endure a personal expense of transporting herself throughout the
County to do the fine work she does," he wrote. "I felt it was a lot to
ask of a full time volunteer to not only donate her time to the County
pro bono but to expect her to pay for all her travel expenses."
Stone, who plans to run for state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth's seat in
2010, said his sister's use of a county car as his volunteer legislative
assistant was consistent with county policies.
County spokesman Ray Smith said restrictions on volunteers' use of
county vehicles do not apply to supervisors, only to the department
heads and workers that serve under them.
Roman Porter, spokesman for the state's Fair Political Practices
Commission, said Stone's payments to his sister do not violate any laws
provided they are entirely for political, legislative or governmental
purposes.
But the large amount of money to a sibling raises questions, said Bob
Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies.
Stone paid his sister almost $40,000 more in 2008 than he earned as a
county supervisor.
Stone was re-elected by a landslide in 2008 against a challenger who
raised less than $1,000, a fact that gave Stern pause.
"Campaign consultants do not get almost $200,000 for noncompetitive
races," Stern said, adding: "I don't think any legislative assistant
gets $200,000. The question is what is she doing for her pay? I think
this is case No. 1 for saying relatives should not be paid out of
campaign funds because it's just too open for abuse."
Volunteer Work?
Stern said Stone could legally pay a legislative assistant's salary out
of his campaign funds, but the pay must be in line with the amount of
work and the skill level of the person performing it.
That aside, Stone has repeatedly said his sister works entirely for free
for the county, identifying her as a "volunteer" on his Web Site.
Lori Stone works on homelessness issues, serves on the Riverside County
Women's Commission and was appointed official county spokeswoman for the
Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement team, Stone said in his e-mail. He
added that she has launched and run several successful fundraisers for
nonprofit organizations.
"Replacing her on my staff would cost the county a minimum of $60-70,000
per year in salary not including benefits," he said. "The citizens of
this county are the beneficiaries of her pro-bono work."
County rules would not permit Stone to directly hire his sister for his
staff or directly supervise her.
A county ordinance forbids county officers, including supervisors, from
involvement in decisions to employ, retain, promote or make work
assignments for a sibling or other immediate relative on the county
payroll. The ordinance does not apply to volunteers, county spokesman
Smith said.
County Car
Lori Stone has never been on the county payroll but drives a county car,
a 2000 Ford Explorer. The county purchased the sport utility vehicle in
1999 for its Transportation and Land Management Agency, records show.
In May 2007, the car was transferred to Stone's office, where it was
assigned to Lori Stone, according to fleet records.
The car had almost 105,000 miles on it when it was reassigned and is now
nearing 132,000 miles, according to fleet records. Drivers of county
vehicles rely on county gas pumps and county maintenance services,
officials said.
Bob Howdyshell, director of county purchasing and fleet services, said
supervisors' staff members often seek cars that have been used by other
departments in the interest of frugality. But Lori Stone's situation is
one-of-a-kind because she is a full-time volunteer, he said.
"I am not familiar with anyone who is a volunteer and has a long-term
arrangement with a vehicle," he said of the vehicles used in county
departments.
A county ordinance states that volunteers may not use county vehicles
without justification from the relevant department head and
authorization from the county executive officer.
But the requirement does not apply to the supervisors or their staff,
Smith said. That's because supervisors set policy and oversee the county
executive officer and department heads, he said. The requirements do not
specifically refer to supervisors, he added.
Only the board would have the ability to change those rules to include
them and their staffs, Smith said.
Consulting Pay
Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone says his sister Lori Stone is a
volunteer in his office. Meanwhile he has paid her more than $330,000 in
campaign funds for consulting and professional work over the past three
years.
2008
Campaign contributions
$218,696
Payments made
$444,115
Consulting, professional
payments to Lori Stone
$181,000
2007
Campaign contributions
$302,390
Payments made
$266,769
Consulting, professional
payments to Lori Stone
$84,000
2006
Campaign contributions
$342,412
Payments made
$268,009
Consulting, professional
payments to Lori Stone
$67,076
Source: Campaign finance filings
Showing posts with label scientology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scientology. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Scientology Vulture Ministers Scam Exposed
The Scientology corporation's fake "Volunteer Ministers" scam was recently exposed by the BBC as being what everyone already knew -- a criminal enterprise bent upon rooking and swindling money out of people for as much as they can get.
In the aftermath of the September 11'th terrorist attacks, the Scientology crime syndicate tried to deliberately disrupt relief efforts and had to be continually recaptured and "escorted" back behind police lines.
BBC Audio with vulture video
Scientology's actions supported the goals of the Saudi Arabian terrorists who had attacked us.
In the aftermath of the September 11'th terrorist attacks, the Scientology crime syndicate tried to deliberately disrupt relief efforts and had to be continually recaptured and "escorted" back behind police lines.
BBC Audio with vulture video
Scientology's actions supported the goals of the Saudi Arabian terrorists who had attacked us.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Scientology 'Volunteer Ministers' Deliberately Disrupt Relief Efforts
In the past week following the WTC tragedy, we have heard amazing stories of heroism and acts of selfless courage and generousity. Sadly, it has become necessary to warn people of the small number of hucksters, jackals, and scam artists attempting to profit from this terrible event. Recently, one such scam came to light, perpetrated by the Church of Scientology.®
By presenting themselves as "National Mental Health Assistance," they managed to deceive Fox News into running their telephone number across the screen on their broadcasts for five hours. People calling for help unknowingly wound up speaking to representatives for Scientology, a group well-known for opposing the real mental health industry. Intercepted emails from Scientologists in New York City are revealing, it shows that this group is intentionally using deceit to gain access to the vulnerable people still suffering from shock and grief. Moreover, it has deliberately interfered with legitimate mental health practitioners sent there to assist. Below are a few excerpts from these emails, sent out to Scientologists to promote this parasitic behavior by "Lt." Simon Hare, CO, I HELP Canada (in NY). (Note: the "Lieutenant" Sea Org, not to be confused with actual military rank)
"Dear All, For the last two days I have been in New York Org running, with several other Sea Org members, the deployment of Volunteer Ministers into the disaster zone."
The "Sea Org" is the Scientology organization's pretend Navy, and consists of their most dedicated members. These people sign a billion year contract when joining up. Volunteer Ministers have undergone an hour's training in Scientology style disaster training, mostly a technique known as a "touch assist," which is supposed to make one feel better. This was dreamed up by founder L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer and college dropout, a man who's "Doctorate" degree was purched from a diploma mill.
After describing the scene, the Scientologist reporting goes on to say,
"Additionally we are trying to move in and knock the psychs out of counseling to the grieving families and that could take another 100 plus people right now. Due to some brilliant maneuvering by some simply genius Sea Org Members we tied up the majority of the psychs who were attempting to get to families yesterday in Q&A, bullbait and wrangling. They have a hard time completing cycles of action and are pretty easy to disperse. But today they are out in full force and circling like vultures over these people and all of our resources are tied up in the support efforts in the disaster zone at present."
Scientology's greatest perceived enemy on Earth is "the psychs." This term refers to formally trained mental health professionals, from counsellors to psychiatrists. Here they are blatantly admitting to interfering with rescue assistance efforts from that field.
Here we see that distributing food and water is not their main goal in being on-scene, rather, it is access to the victims they are after. By keeping trained mental health professionals away from the scene, they have full access.
The Scientologist goes on to say,
"There is nowhere on Earth right now that hurts like this place. These are brave people and they are the able and they don't know it but they need the Scientologists with LRH's tech to be here right now.
The fire-fighter company down the street from the org lost 14 members on Tuesday. No one can do anything for them or the rest but Scientologists. The other religions here with their ministers have shown their true colors and are working hand in hand with the psychs to give these people as much false data and restimulation as they can.
They HAVE NO TECH and they're not even trying to hide it anymore. They've crossed over and abandoned anything spiritual and to hell with them."
Yes, only Scientologists with L. Ron Hubbard's program can do any good right now. Other ministers don't have Ron's wonderful "tech" and are working with real mental health professionals, threatening Scientology's access to potential victims. They are competition. To hell with them, indeed!
In a later report, this Scientologist describes gaining access to the disaster area. The "Volunteer Minister" found out that their previous secret E-Mail had been leaked to Human Rights activists, incidentally.
"There was a very large barricade there manned by both Police and Military and they absolutely refused to let us though. The SO member in charge of the VM's "snuck" about 5 of us in another way and on the way we gave out cold drinks to tired rescue workers."
Here we have untrained individuals putting themselves and rescuers in danger by their presence. Once inside, they would not leave.
"Anyway, we of course jumped right in and helped by giving out food, drinks, unpacking etc... Soon thereafter we set-up an area for assists right there next to the medical area - outside. We put out 3 cots and we started body routing people in for nerve assists."
What this means is, they staked out a spot next to real medical personnel and began "body routing" victims in to deliver Hubbard's spurious "touch assists." By positioning themselves next to legitimate services, they hope no one will notice that they are merely untrained cultists seeking good PR and potential members.
The Scientologist then goes on to boast about how appreciated and useful they are, how they are one of the few groups allowed through the barricades (having sneaked in to begin with) and what wonderful things the Scientologists are doing to further their own agenda.
After Fox News was made aware that they were referring people to Scientology they removed the crawling banner from their broadcasts. Scientology was able to fool them by promoting themselves as "National Mental Health Assistance," very typical of them to form a front group with a similar sounding name to a legitimate organization. The National Mental Health Association was not amused. This is also done with their Narconon front group, which is often confused with Narcanon.
Copies of the Scientology emails were circulated to the media, resulting in several articles in newspapers and online news sources today. When indications that this was happening was noticed by Scientology on the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup, a site mostly critical of Scientology and its abuses, a further email was sent by the Scientologist pleading for silence.
"This is just going to be a quick communication to the group! As part of a briefing given to a group going to ground zero this evening (some folks from LA), we were informed not to give out any information about what is going on down there via the internet.
However, we are allowed to call people to share the good news, or news in general.
This restriction was communicated as being necessary in that the internet can be infiltrated, and possibly this information could be gotten into the wrong hands, altered, etc.
Therefore I am afraid that I can not give you all the kinds of detailed messages as I have been in the past, and I am sorry for that."
This information did indeed get into the "wrong hands," the hands of people who know the true nature of Scientology and are not afraid to expose them for the fraudulent criminal organization that they are. People who speak out against Scientology have been harrassed, intimidated, and stalked. They have sometimes lost their jobs thanks to Scientology interference. Their pets have been killed. Before the Internet was widespread, Scientology was very successful at suppressing its critics. Today, news of every move the cult makes is quickly spotted and distributed around the world.
The really awful thing about Scientology using this tragedy, is that they are targeting people who have survived a horrible experience. Unlike looting the dead, they are preying upon the vulnerable survivors, people who are seeking help to try to recover from the shock and regain their lives to some extent. The stories that come out of people who finally manage to leave the cult are terrible in their similarity. Years of coercive mental conditioning. Thousands of dollars wasted in pursuit of a fabrication developed by a drug addicted megalomaniac. Years wasted, families torn apart, souls and minds shattered by the relentless totalitarian control of this evil, greedy cult pretending to be a church.
To compound the survivors' suffering by snatching them off the streets for Scientology processing in New York City should be a crime. People have been warned to beware of scam artists using this tragedy to their benefit. Mayor Giuliani has warned that such hucksters will be prosecuted. Scientology and individual Scientologists should be first in line. That they have inserted themselves into this disaster with such a large-scale operation, including deceiving a major network into unwittingly promoting them, establishing a fraudulent "mental health assistance" front, andd interfering with real rescue and assistance operations should not be overlooked when it's time to prosecute those who tried to take advantage of a terrible, tragic event.
The Scientology Organization has seized upon this tragedy in order to profit by it. New information reveals that Scientology is urging every single member to become a Volunteer Minister! Participants of this program will be given websites and little cards saying, "You have been helped by a Scientology Volunteer Minister." What kind of church advertises it's charitable acts? Moreover, the Volunteer Minister participants will be expected to post advertisements in newspapers saying something along the line of, "Troubled? Need Help? I'm willing to listen!" with a phone number for that individual.
This is nothing more than a blatant attempt to profit from the fear and uncertainty caused by the Sept. 11 tragedy.
People need to be made aware that this is a particularly repellant act by the "Church" of Scientology to harvest more victims for it's fraudulent scams!
For all of the intercepted emails and other details about Scientology's "Volunteer Ministers" frauds, watch this blog and also check out The Volunteer Ministers web site.
By presenting themselves as "National Mental Health Assistance," they managed to deceive Fox News into running their telephone number across the screen on their broadcasts for five hours. People calling for help unknowingly wound up speaking to representatives for Scientology, a group well-known for opposing the real mental health industry. Intercepted emails from Scientologists in New York City are revealing, it shows that this group is intentionally using deceit to gain access to the vulnerable people still suffering from shock and grief. Moreover, it has deliberately interfered with legitimate mental health practitioners sent there to assist. Below are a few excerpts from these emails, sent out to Scientologists to promote this parasitic behavior by "Lt." Simon Hare, CO, I HELP Canada (in NY). (Note: the "Lieutenant" Sea Org, not to be confused with actual military rank)
"Dear All, For the last two days I have been in New York Org running, with several other Sea Org members, the deployment of Volunteer Ministers into the disaster zone."
The "Sea Org" is the Scientology organization's pretend Navy, and consists of their most dedicated members. These people sign a billion year contract when joining up. Volunteer Ministers have undergone an hour's training in Scientology style disaster training, mostly a technique known as a "touch assist," which is supposed to make one feel better. This was dreamed up by founder L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer and college dropout, a man who's "Doctorate" degree was purched from a diploma mill.
After describing the scene, the Scientologist reporting goes on to say,
"Additionally we are trying to move in and knock the psychs out of counseling to the grieving families and that could take another 100 plus people right now. Due to some brilliant maneuvering by some simply genius Sea Org Members we tied up the majority of the psychs who were attempting to get to families yesterday in Q&A, bullbait and wrangling. They have a hard time completing cycles of action and are pretty easy to disperse. But today they are out in full force and circling like vultures over these people and all of our resources are tied up in the support efforts in the disaster zone at present."
Scientology's greatest perceived enemy on Earth is "the psychs." This term refers to formally trained mental health professionals, from counsellors to psychiatrists. Here they are blatantly admitting to interfering with rescue assistance efforts from that field.
Here we see that distributing food and water is not their main goal in being on-scene, rather, it is access to the victims they are after. By keeping trained mental health professionals away from the scene, they have full access.
The Scientologist goes on to say,
"There is nowhere on Earth right now that hurts like this place. These are brave people and they are the able and they don't know it but they need the Scientologists with LRH's tech to be here right now.
The fire-fighter company down the street from the org lost 14 members on Tuesday. No one can do anything for them or the rest but Scientologists. The other religions here with their ministers have shown their true colors and are working hand in hand with the psychs to give these people as much false data and restimulation as they can.
They HAVE NO TECH and they're not even trying to hide it anymore. They've crossed over and abandoned anything spiritual and to hell with them."
Yes, only Scientologists with L. Ron Hubbard's program can do any good right now. Other ministers don't have Ron's wonderful "tech" and are working with real mental health professionals, threatening Scientology's access to potential victims. They are competition. To hell with them, indeed!
In a later report, this Scientologist describes gaining access to the disaster area. The "Volunteer Minister" found out that their previous secret E-Mail had been leaked to Human Rights activists, incidentally.
"There was a very large barricade there manned by both Police and Military and they absolutely refused to let us though. The SO member in charge of the VM's "snuck" about 5 of us in another way and on the way we gave out cold drinks to tired rescue workers."
Here we have untrained individuals putting themselves and rescuers in danger by their presence. Once inside, they would not leave.
"Anyway, we of course jumped right in and helped by giving out food, drinks, unpacking etc... Soon thereafter we set-up an area for assists right there next to the medical area - outside. We put out 3 cots and we started body routing people in for nerve assists."
What this means is, they staked out a spot next to real medical personnel and began "body routing" victims in to deliver Hubbard's spurious "touch assists." By positioning themselves next to legitimate services, they hope no one will notice that they are merely untrained cultists seeking good PR and potential members.
The Scientologist then goes on to boast about how appreciated and useful they are, how they are one of the few groups allowed through the barricades (having sneaked in to begin with) and what wonderful things the Scientologists are doing to further their own agenda.
After Fox News was made aware that they were referring people to Scientology they removed the crawling banner from their broadcasts. Scientology was able to fool them by promoting themselves as "National Mental Health Assistance," very typical of them to form a front group with a similar sounding name to a legitimate organization. The National Mental Health Association was not amused. This is also done with their Narconon front group, which is often confused with Narcanon.
Copies of the Scientology emails were circulated to the media, resulting in several articles in newspapers and online news sources today. When indications that this was happening was noticed by Scientology on the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup, a site mostly critical of Scientology and its abuses, a further email was sent by the Scientologist pleading for silence.
"This is just going to be a quick communication to the group! As part of a briefing given to a group going to ground zero this evening (some folks from LA), we were informed not to give out any information about what is going on down there via the internet.
However, we are allowed to call people to share the good news, or news in general.
This restriction was communicated as being necessary in that the internet can be infiltrated, and possibly this information could be gotten into the wrong hands, altered, etc.
Therefore I am afraid that I can not give you all the kinds of detailed messages as I have been in the past, and I am sorry for that."
This information did indeed get into the "wrong hands," the hands of people who know the true nature of Scientology and are not afraid to expose them for the fraudulent criminal organization that they are. People who speak out against Scientology have been harrassed, intimidated, and stalked. They have sometimes lost their jobs thanks to Scientology interference. Their pets have been killed. Before the Internet was widespread, Scientology was very successful at suppressing its critics. Today, news of every move the cult makes is quickly spotted and distributed around the world.
The really awful thing about Scientology using this tragedy, is that they are targeting people who have survived a horrible experience. Unlike looting the dead, they are preying upon the vulnerable survivors, people who are seeking help to try to recover from the shock and regain their lives to some extent. The stories that come out of people who finally manage to leave the cult are terrible in their similarity. Years of coercive mental conditioning. Thousands of dollars wasted in pursuit of a fabrication developed by a drug addicted megalomaniac. Years wasted, families torn apart, souls and minds shattered by the relentless totalitarian control of this evil, greedy cult pretending to be a church.
To compound the survivors' suffering by snatching them off the streets for Scientology processing in New York City should be a crime. People have been warned to beware of scam artists using this tragedy to their benefit. Mayor Giuliani has warned that such hucksters will be prosecuted. Scientology and individual Scientologists should be first in line. That they have inserted themselves into this disaster with such a large-scale operation, including deceiving a major network into unwittingly promoting them, establishing a fraudulent "mental health assistance" front, andd interfering with real rescue and assistance operations should not be overlooked when it's time to prosecute those who tried to take advantage of a terrible, tragic event.
The Scientology Organization has seized upon this tragedy in order to profit by it. New information reveals that Scientology is urging every single member to become a Volunteer Minister! Participants of this program will be given websites and little cards saying, "You have been helped by a Scientology Volunteer Minister." What kind of church advertises it's charitable acts? Moreover, the Volunteer Minister participants will be expected to post advertisements in newspapers saying something along the line of, "Troubled? Need Help? I'm willing to listen!" with a phone number for that individual.
This is nothing more than a blatant attempt to profit from the fear and uncertainty caused by the Sept. 11 tragedy.
People need to be made aware that this is a particularly repellant act by the "Church" of Scientology to harvest more victims for it's fraudulent scams!
For all of the intercepted emails and other details about Scientology's "Volunteer Ministers" frauds, watch this blog and also check out The Volunteer Ministers web site.
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