I've spent the last year-plus deliberately averting my gaze from the extended protester party and the Scilon slow-motion trainwreck. I was busy with stuff and felt a need to avoid distractions. Now I'm ready to come back a bit.

You might like to know that from my perspective Scientology didn't really make "the news" much in this past year-- it didn't hit the news big enough to be noticed by someone on a self-imposed partial news blackout. The only notable exception was they actually ran a bump of commercials a while back. The TomKat breakup really looks like about the biggest Scilon-related news to have come along in the past year or so. Heck, Anonymous made the news more than Scientology, and Project Chanology was just mentioned in passing as one of the activities of the Guy Fawkes brigade.

So, I'm like a born-again noob. Although I'm going to be lurking more, reading up, catching up (and eventually standing on sidewalks again with silly signs), I'd love to hear from y'all what you consider the highlights of the past year or so. What do you think are the big-ticket items I should prioritize looking into in catching up?

It's good to be back.

And here we thought you were off & busy running a kibbutz in Israel or something.

Welcome back, Touchstone.

I guess it has been pretty quiet in the mainstream media.

There has been activity though. It looks like David Miscavige's father and L.Ron Hubbard's granddaughter, who were both at Gold base, are both out now. Lisa Marie Pressley seems to be out, too (she released an album with lyrics that seem to point to her disgust with the church). Kirstie Alley might not be far behind, as she tweeted that she really like Lisa Marie's album.

The biggest news for Scientologists is the defection of Debbie Cook, who was well known as someone who basically ran Flag. She wrote an email about what was wrong with the church, which was sent to thousands of Scientologists.

I am sure there's more, but that's what pops in my head.

Village Voice's 2011 Scientology Story of the Year candidates at
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninsca ... _sto_1.php

Right after Jan 1, 2012, there was much discussion of the Debbie Cook mass e-mail, complaining of extortionary money-raising, sent all at once to hundreds of monied and influential public members.
The French finding of fraud was a juicy story.
Those and other stories pop up if you skim the thread titles at
Opinions and Debate at viewforum.php?f=9
Your Story from Inside Scientology, at viewforum.php?f=3
Media Reports, at viewforum.php?f=11

One of the biggies in my mind is the closing of Narconon Trois-Rivieres.

What's funny to me is the number of big items which have emerged after I resumed lurking, such as the Mission in Israel (Haifa?) going Indie en masse.