When Scientology attacks?
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July 17, 2008 - 5:13PM

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - The video of two men involved in an altercation outside a Church of Scientology has garnered a lot of hits on YouTube, but it happened right here in West Michigan.

Two men protesting the Church of Scientology got more than they bargained for when a man and a woman from the church came out and confronted them last week. Even though they had the right to stand on the sidewalk in front of the Church of Scientology, the two protesters set up across the street for safety and visability, but Scientology members came across the street to engage them in a physical confrontation.

Newschannel 3's Ranji Sinha spoke to the men in a Newschannel 3 exclusive, and also spoke to the Church of Scientology for their reaction.

The protesters are from a group that calls themselves simply "anonymous" and has been targeting the Church of Scientology for months.

"We weren't even shouting, we were just there, last month we were warned by the police not to shout at cars and whatever, so we were just standing there across the street." said one of the men who claims to be one of the individuals in the video, and who wishes to remain anonymous, fearing retaliation from the Church of Scientology.

Members of the group wear masks, including the Guy Fawkes, V-for-Vendetta mask; a calling card of anonymous members, and want to tell what they see as the truth about Scientology.

"The church has a very simple and very harsh way of dealing with anyone who criticizes them, stalking, framing criminal acts trying to get them to lose their jobs." said one of the anonymous men.

The Church of Scientology gave Newschannel 3 a statement on the incident saying that "it is clear that these two masked individuals were only interested in inciting hatred and harassing members of the church. Some of our other churches have experienced threats and acts of vandalism from other members of the same group. They have no interest in free and open discussions."

The statement went on to say that "the church is not anonymous' only target. They harass people for their own amusement."

Both anonymous members say differently. "I didn't march across the street and rip the sign out of somebody's hands, I didn't get within an inch of their face and try to get them to fight back," said one anonymous man.

The Church of Scientology also says their Battle Creek office has done anti-drug work, and supported the city's fallen officers memorial.

For Some Ohioans, Even Meat Is Out Of Reach
by Yuki Noguchi


A generation ago, the livelihood of Gloria Nunez's family was built on cars.

Her father worked at General Motors for 45 years before retiring. Her mother taught driver's education. Nunez and her six siblings grew up middle class.

Things have changed considerably for this Ohio family.

Nunez's van broke down last fall. Now, her 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job.

Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government assistance and food stamps. Some have part-time jobs, but working is made more difficult with no car or public transportation.

Low-income families in Ohio say they are particularly hard-hit by the changes in the economy, according to a new poll conducted by NPR, The Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health. Two-thirds of lower-income respondents, or 66 percent, say paying for gas is a serious problem because of recent changes in the economy. Nearly half of low-income Ohioans, or 47 percent, say that getting a well-paying job or a raise in pay is also major problem.

'I Just Can't Get A Job'

Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree. She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job. Instead, she and her daughter, Angelica Hernandez, survive on a $637 Social Security check and $102 in food stamps.

Hernandez received her high school diploma and has had several jobs in recent years. But now, because fewer restaurants and stores are hiring, she says she finds it hard to find a job. Even if she could, she says it's particularly hard to imagine how she'll keep it. She says she needs someone to give her a lift just to get to an interview. And with gas prices so high, she's not sure she could afford to pay someone to drive her to work every day.

People tell Nunez her daughter could get more money in public assistance if she had a child.

"A lot of people have told me, 'Why don't your daughter have a kid?'"

They both reject that as a plan.

"I'm trying to get a job," Hernandez says. "I just can't get a job."

Hernandez says she's trying to get training to be a nurse's assistant, but without her own set of wheels or enough money to pay others for gas, it hasn't been easy.

'What's Going To Happen To Us?'

Most of their extended family lives in the same townhouse complex. The only employer within walking distance is a ThyssenKrupp factory that makes diesel engine parts. That facility, which employs 400 people, is shutting down and moving to Illinois next year.

The only one with a car is Irma Hernandez, Nunez's mother. Hernandez says that with a teenage son still at home, the cost of feeding him and sending him to school is rising, and she can no longer pay for the car.

She's now two car payments behind.

"I'm about to lose my car," she says on her way to pick up one of her daughters to take her to Toledo. "So then what's going to happen to us?"

So Nunez and her daughter are mostly stuck at home.

The rising cost of food means their money gets them about a third fewer bags of groceries — $100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries, but now it's more like seven or eight. So they cut back on expensive items like meat, and they don't buy extras like ice cream anymore. Instead, they eat a lot of starches like potatoes and noodles.

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92592545

She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job. Instead, she and her daughter, Angelica Hernandez, survive on a $637 Social Security check and $102 in food stamps.

Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree.

Moscow - Russia's defence ministry on Thursday denied reports that it was considering basing nuclear-armed bombers in Cuba to warn against US plans to base a missile defense shield in Europe, Russian news agencies reported.

'We regard these kinds of anonymous allegations as disinformation,' defence ministry spokesman Ilshat Baichurin was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying.

The report in state newspaper Izvestia on Monday cited an unidentified high-ranking air force official as saying such bombers were sent to Cuba to counter US shield plans.

The United States had refused to comment on the anonymous report but welcomed Moscow's denial of the intentions to resume bomber flights to Cuba.

'That's a very good thing,' said Gonzalo Gallegos, the State Department's acting deputy spokesman.

The United States has failed to convince Russia that plans to site parts of a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic are intended only to guard against rogue states such as Iran. Russia views the shield as a threat to its Cold War nuclear deterrent. The United States maintains the system is far too small to threaten Russia's strategic nuclear-missile fleet.