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updated 12/15/05 - 1200 EST
hits since 12-16-05
Straight, Inc.: rehabilitation, thought reform, $95 million and the destruction of young spirits.
We shall tolerate no treatment program where children can not talk, in private, with their parents.
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. Abraham Lincoln
They run very close to really performing psychic murder.
Marge Robertson, ACLU

Ambassador
de Sade
Article by John Gorenfeld (r) about Mel Sembler (l). See Gorenfeld's blog for updates.

Montel brings down an ambassador
Within hours after the Montel Williams Show aired a segment on Jan 18, 2005 about Straight with Straight survivor Sammie Monroe, Ambassador Mel Sembler called it quits. video trailer story
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VIDEOS
WATCH WPCO Cincinnati VIDEO on
Kids Helping Kids.
11-14-05 State criminal authorities closed Straight - Cincinnati in the 1980s. Now Kids Helping Kids (founded by Straight's former national education director) operates out of the old Stright facility in Milford.
Related articles:
KIDS1 ...KIDS2
 
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These days, if you want to learn of the abuses of Straight don't turn to Mel Sembler's hometown newspaper The St. Petersburg Times or its Florida Trend magazine--you have to go to the Washington Post or the Italian paper peace reporter; or to a magazine like New Times in Broward County/Palm Beach County, Fl., Orlando Weekly, La Carta in Italy or EXPRESSEN.SE in The Netherlands (we think). Even Bill O'Reilly has problems with The Times.

Letters to the editor
update 11/29/05
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Suicides. What do these three young men have in common. They are among the 40+ known former Straight clients who have committed suicide. suicides
suicide attempts

Mel Sembler and the Great Fairfax County Virginia juvenile suicide epidemic report


Miller Newton
Betty Sembler touts accussed child abuser

Rev. Dr. Miller Newton: Straight's former national clinical director

Photo is Miller Newton entering Tampa's federal courthouse on April 29, 2005. He has acknowledged fraud in his bankruptcy filing.
Dr. Newton settled in New Jersey with clients at KIDS for $11 million for abuse. He settled with federal prosecutors for $45K in return for not being prosecuted for 254 counts of insurance fraud.
New Jersey Law Journal labels his implementation of Straight quackery.
Father Cassian is what he goes by these days. He is featured on Pokrov which tracks abusive priests. Also a special hearing master has told him to remove the cupola from his beach property in Madeira Beach, Fl.
Read the incredible Miller Newton story now.
Latest on Miller Newton.
Nancy Reagan recommends Miller Newton on film.
Betty Sembler has Dr. Newton on her medical forum. In Sept. 2005 in a court deposition for PumpGate she stated [Dr. Newton is] "an outstanding individual . . . [and] a very close and dear friend and a valued one."

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If you believe that, I've got some swampland in Florida I'd like to sell you
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The Sembler clan & the Great Cooper's Point Land Scam
by Wesley Fager

Cooper's Point deal is rotten
St. Pete Times
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Judge George Greer, who pulled the plug on Terri Schiavo, voted for Sembler.

Should Mel and Betty Sembler be imprisoned for what they let happen at Straight?

OR

Should they set national and international drug policy based on what they learned at Straight? STORY
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Suffering Together
by Trevor Aaronson
12/9/04
Read Trevor Aaronson's expose of Growing Together -- a second-generation Straight in Lakeworth, Fl.

RELATED STORIES:

--Judge: Girl's treatment smacks of abuse
--Fornits' LIFE/GT discussion forum
--The Naked Crusader police report

--LIFE, Inc.: Ross & Peterman

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Read the book

A Clockwork Straight

by Wes Fager
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From Arizona Republic

What this site is about and who is behind it
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archieves
after mid July 05
before late July 05 p1
before late July 05 p2
Note: After mid July 05 older articles will either be archieved in an appropriate blog or placed in the general (after mid Jlyl 05) archieve blog.

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Coming 2006
Tough Love America [2] by Maia Szalavitz, a book on Straight and other tough love programs
Marijuana, a John Halowach film documentary on national drug policy interviews Wes Fager. trailer windows media QuickTime MPEG-1
Straight Kids, a documentary feature film. view trailer
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Synanon Church
where therapeutic communities started

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Who are they?
Straight officials.
Foundation
officials
Has Straight really closed?
Why Straight is a cult
SAFE video
a 2nd generation Straight
Straight Foundation (DFAF)
a shell corporation to protect Mel Sembler and the money. Renamed (with new, non-treatment mission) in 1995 to its current name--Drug Free America Foundation, Inc.
DFAF: national drug policy
Mel's plan for drug testing teens in order to get a driver's license, or DFAF's growing influence on national drug policy. link2 link3
DFAF: internat'l drug policy
DFAF is a major player behind Drug Prevention Network of the Americas and Global Drug Prevention Network for global demand reduction. link2

Sembler using SLAPP suits?
Incorporated Apr. 22, 1976
ISAC's Insurance fraud report
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Was Mel's daddy a bookie? From 1976 to 1993 Mel and Betty Sembler operated one of the most destructive juvenile drug rehabilitation programs the world has ever seen. Over 50 former clients from their Straight and related programs are known to have committed suicide. We've taken an in-depth look at Straight's board of directors starting with Ambassador Mel Sembler, AO. Was his daddy really a bookie? report


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Scientology™ Illustrated
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Forums
Straight, Inc. Survivors
Straight, Inc. Alumni
alt.religion.scientology
We've been there
The Teen Help Industry
Health fraud Discussion
WWASPS / CCM
Straight-Atlanta
Straight-Orlando
The Seed

Pathway Family Center
Kids of N. Jersey/Bergen
Kids of El Paso
AARC
LIFE / Growing Together
KHK & PU Cincy/Hebron
DPNA/GDPN forum
DPNA/GDPN chat room
direstraigths e-mail signup
Fornits on Elan
CEDU/Amity School
Court TV forum
Joe's Apartment
CloseTheDoorsOfElan

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PicoSearch
We'll have Clearwater Beach, Scientology™ City and Countryside.
Pinellas County, Florida Commissioner Susan Latvala (R).
Hubby Jack is the former director of the Florida Republican Party.
Radio Air America
heard in 84 states
Mel Sembler:
the Democrat's secret weapon
Listen to 12-03-05 interview with John Gorenfeld revealing "the sordid sadistic history of Bush crony Melvin Sembler, aka Ambassador de Sade." AUDIO
contact co-hosts attorneys Bob & Pap

11-26-05 Lawyer Exposed 'Bush Boys' Corruption -- Now Faces Jail Fintan Dunne's interview with Florida attorney Mark Adams on Break for News audio high speed audio dial up discussion

11-28-05 Sembler and Straight came up again last night on Radio Inside Scoop blog

update: 11-28-05 Jeb Bush ends 30 years of separation of the judicial from the executive branch by Wes Fager blog

update: 11-28-05 Jeb Bush selects Pinellas judges: merit or Republican politics? by Wes Fager blog

Parent Advocates' site on Judicial Corruption LINK

11-28-05 Jeb Bush's judicial appointments to date link

11-28-05 Jeb Bush's pending appointments of judges link

11-27-05 Judges Bill Overton and Amy Williams, Bernie McCabe and Anne Borghetti's DUI: the ole' Royal Court's double standard If you want to know about double standards in a court system, read about Judge Williams' former campaign manager's DUI. 6th Circuit

11-28-05 Florida Bar to Investigate Complaints of Improper Questioning of Judicial Applicants link

11-28-05 People for the American Way: Ordering the Courts--Right Wing Attacks on Judicial Independence in Florida in 2000 link

11-28-05 We are not alone We just discovered there are others tracking the political scene in the Sunshine State:

Florida Politics Blog
Florida Politics Web
Florida Politics Discussion
Saint Petersblog

11-28-05 TBRNews: The Corruption Corner Bill Frist, Tom DeLay, Rick Santorum, Grover Norquist, David Safavian, Jack Abramoff and the K Street project--articles by John Byrne and by Matthew Continetti. link

11-28-05 Judge Greer and the Schiavo justices link

11-26-05 British historian to face charges in Austria for denying the Holocaust link

11-26-05 Adult TV cartoon South Park explains the core beliefs of Scientology™ South Park is a cartoon, but this message is right on the money. If you don't know what Scientologists believe, just listen. turn audio on

11-28-05 In Fla., it's Jeb's judiciary by Martin Dyckman, SPT spt

11-26-05 Tom Crusie Kills Oprah using his super Scientology™ powers turn audio on

11-24-05 Letters to the editor I attend J.E.B. Stuart High School and until recently I was not a fan of Riddile. This past year however my views have changed slightly upon actually talking to the guy . . . letters

11-25-05 Sixth Circuit's Charles W. Cope link

11-25-05 Chief Judge Scheaffer addresses the Tiger Bay Club link

11-22-05 Behavior Modification Money Trail, The New Standard by Michelle Chen. This is a significant article. Twelve years ago Straight, Inc. was the biggest, most controversial teen rehab chain in the world. But ever since it was closed, WWASPS has taken on that dubious distinction. Now an independent paper has started looking at the money trail, the Republican Party and the similarities in these two treatment programs and the men behind them. Mel Sembler may have met with mixed success in being remembered in stone, but his grandchildren will surely read about him in print. link

11-26-05 Humiliation remembered project nospank

11-24-05 Sembler wants to build a Walgreens in Safety Harbor, Fl. but that old transportation harbinger surfaces once again story

11-24-05 Another Sembler proposed $100,000 million open air shopping mall--this one in Henry County Georgia link

11-24-05 Sembler Companies in Georgia link

11-24-05 Sembler CEO says that a few $500 contributions is not buying a Florida election--but two were from their Georgia Corporation(s) Earlier this month Sembler CEO Craig Sher defended $500 contributions to local elections from Sembler Companies and family members as not being influential. When we found that a couple of $500 gifts were actually 46 donations and these were only the tip of an iceberg we strongly disagreed in this report tampaindymedia version (blog version). Now we've noticed that two of the gifts were from Sembler Georgia companies. On June 29 SEMBLER ATLANTA DE VI, LLC and SEMBLER ATLANTA, INC. each gave $500 to Charlie Crist's campaign for governor.

11-24-05 Sembler projects under development link

11-24-05 Gay night life being squeezed in Atlanta link

11-24-05 Semblers brought up in discussion forum after 13 year old boy killed during restraint in a state sponsored therapeutic community in Georgia link

11-23-05 At Some Youth ‘Treatment’ Facilities, ‘Tough Love’ Takes Brutal Forms, The New Standard by Michelle Chen story

11-22-05 What killed Jesus Christ? an article on Senator Durbin, Ambassador Sembler and torture by Wes Fager link

11-23-05 Drug Free America Foundation Endorses House 'Medical' Marijuana Bill US newswire

11-23-05 Radley Balko read Ambassador de Sade and had a few choice words for Mel link

11-23-05 These Senators had buildings named for themselves at the appropriations conference they oversaw, but a savvy House laughed them down Matt Drudge

11-23-05 THE TRUTH ABOUT STRAIGHT, INC & TEEN CHALLENGE by Charles C. link

Update: 11-25-05 Gorenfeld/Levine's works on Ambassador Sembler, AO making the Internet circuit Follow the links: Fold, Spindle, Mutilate, Au Lait World Press News, Susan Ohanian Outrages, blogrunner, Project No Spank, ReBelle Nation, Tampa Indymedia Center, Seeing the forest, The Jerry Monaco Politics Archive, Live Journal, Corporate Performance Artists, Nashvilles News, The Rip Post, Stop the Drug War, Let's roll, Orkut media, Jesus' general, Canon Fire, UK: Side Show, Hartmann Watch Watch, HaloScan, Libertarian Enterprise, Left Thought, Our Media, Democratice Underground, Daily Kos, the Treatment Directory, alt.religion.scientology, US MJ Party, Political Hotwire, Idaho Good Politics Radio, GOTV, MajorityReportRadio DeronBauman

11-22-05 Ex-DeLay aide pleads guilty to bribery charge link

11-21-05 Ambassador Sembler comes to the rescue of Vice President for Torture The Chicago Tribune and the AP report that former ambassador to Italy M. Floyd "Buddy" Sembler, AO is among top GOPs who have pledged to raise $250,000 each for the legal defense fund of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. con't

11-17-05 William Earnshaw of ISAC fires a broadside at Straight's former national director Mel Riddile in today's Washington Post (p. VA 10). WP contact reporter Jay Mathews

11-17-05 Earnshaw (ISAC) plugs Straight story in Post last year too WP

11-17-05 News Is Busting Out All Over Former Straightling, now artist, Elizabeth Huey Journal Review

update 11-16-05 Straight, Dr. DuPont and starving kids with peanut butter Many readers know that Straight starved kids by giving them peanut butter choker sandwiches. But less known is that they sent their hired gun former Drug Czar Dr. Robert DuPont (the man who administered the contract to The Seed) around the country to declare in court proceedings that peanut butter was a staple in his own diet! This is a must read. blog

11-03-05 Father Cassian's Nov. 1, 2005 hearing postponed until Nov. 8 at 0900

11-17-05 Radley Balko saw the Kids video and he's concerned link


11-15-05
DFAF Advisory Board member and Chairman of the Board of Operation PAR (Betty Sembler's latest drug rehab) models for Scientology™ Last year Pinellas County Commissioner (Republican) Susan Latvala (whose husband Jack is the former director of the Florida state Republican Party) said, We'll have Clearwater Beach, Scientology City and Countryside." (SPT 7-18-04) Next day she sported a hot pink party dress and a feather boa for a Scientology™ charity. SPT 7-19-04 (with photo of Latvala in party dress) ..and Clearwater VIA

11-12-05 Ambassador de Sade, an Alternet story on Mel Sembler. Who will tell the Tribune? tampaindy

11-13-05 Dick's man in Rome Read Jesus' General's comments on Ambassador de Sade by Gorenfeld link

reprint 11-14-05 Sembler receives Tampa Bay Sour Orange Award for buying his ambassadorship the award... the sales' receipts11-15-05 DFAF's Susan Latvala sure is chummy with them clams link1 link2 link3 link4

11-15-05 DFAF Advisory Board member Daryl Rousson receives TRIBUTE TO AFRICAN AMERICAN ACHIEVEMENT — COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD from Ebony Awakening (a Scientology group™) link

11-15-05 Republicans lending respectability to the Church of Scientologylink

11-08-05 The Bushes knew of Straight's abuses but continued to take Sembler's money and to praise him story

11-04-05 Warning!!! Don't drive while intoxicated. The story of Jacqueline, a truly tragic tale X Winos on Motrocycles

updated 11-13-05 The Conspiracy Theory: Was Straight some sort of Richard Nixon, CIA-NIH mind-control experiment gone awry?

10-26-05 The Italian Connection: What does Ambassador Sembler, AO know about the CIA leak? link1 link2

11-09-05 The Niger Uranium Deception and the "Plame Affair" by Gary Leupp. Ambassador Sembler's name continues to pop up.link

11-09-05 Straight, Inc. abused Karen Norton. Now it appears they defrauded her of hundreds of thousands of dollars as well. story

reprint 11-16-05 Florida's Supreme Court strikes down statue of limitations, allows abuse law suit 20 years later link

Straight no longer treats kids for addictions and is a federally-funded, tax exempt organization called Drug Free America Foundation
There remain many active 2nd-geneation Straights. flowchart abuse at SAFE abuse at Growing Together

reprint 11-16-05 RICO and institutional child abuse link

11-13-05 Sembler's neighbor to handle legislation for gambling despite a gambling junket paid by the industry Florida Senate President Tom Lee said Wednesday he will let [Mel Sembler's neighbor] Sen. Dennis Jones, (R-Treasure Island), who was the beneficiary of a $48,000 gambling industry junket to Canada, handle legislation that will authorize slot machines in Broward County. [Florida's Lt. Governor Toni Jennings, (R-Orlando) is past president of Florida's Senate and is a member of Straight's Advisory Board (under its latest name--Drug Free America Foundation. H. Lee Moffitt, past speaker of Florida's House of Representatives is another DFAF Advisory Board member.] link

11-09-05 A strange alliance: two Christian churches buddy up with the Church of Scientology™ The Scientology cross is essentially a Christian cross with an X through it, prompting many church critics to suggest that Hubbard is crossing out Christianity. link

11-07-05 reprint Excerpt from video deposition of Miller Newton from the Lulu Corter trial video

11-04-05 HEAL reports on Bush's ties to the teen help industry link

Operation PAR: Betty Sembler's latest foray into the drug treatment market PAR

10-30-05 The Sembler's Drug Free America Foundation (formerly Straight, Inc.), America's foremost conservative think tank on drug policy, founded in deceit link

9-21-05 The Florida Holocaust Museum's 2006 Awards Banquest to be protested We have been informed that due to its ties to Straight officials, the museum's annual awards banquest will be protested again in 2006. Read our write-up on why protest the banquet here.

10-1-05 For the first time EVER, a Straight cofounder has been compelled to answer questions about Straight