A showdown at a shipping warehouse in the red light district led to the arrest and breakup of a religious cult accused of sacrificial practices late last night. Nearly 40 police officers and several K-9 units burst onto the scene of a cult meeting, searching for a missing 12-year-old child. The child was found bound and gagged but otherwise unharmed.
Authorities seized a stash of prescription drugs, guns and $75,000 in cash. Police also found gold coins, silver ingots, German marks, Swiss francs, Canadian dollars, and bank records that reflected accounts kept around the world. Many experts have noted that not only has the number of groups called "cults" has grown substantially in the past twenty years, they have also gained considerable momentum and influence within the United States.
The warehouse at 401 61st St. is owned and operated by Flint & Royce Shipping Co, discovered to be a front for the G'harne Muthlimum cult. The sale of the warehouse is expected within the next month. [note: sold to Crescent Interlude, Inc. in October]
A local resident wants to know if anyone else has seen fast moving balls of fire in the sky above Jackson Park in recent months.
Lisa Hallam says she's witnessed the sight on three separate occasions -- including Monday night -- as well as August 18, 2004 and January 31, 2005.
"The first time I saw this intensely red ball of fire was last August 18 above Jackson Park, just off Ness Avenue where I live," said the 35-year old Hallam, describing the object's size as about four times the size of the brightest star in the sky.
She said another strange thing at the time was the electronics in her home "started acting funny. We'd lose the TV signal and the screen would go green, and the VCR and DVD player turned themselves on and off," said Hallam, who's a CNC student.
"I thought I was losing my mind, so thank goodness my mother saw it, too. "(On Monday) night I was coming home about 6:30 p.m. along Lakeshore Drive and there it was again, travelling northwest above Cranbrook Hill acting in the same manner as the others. It moved pretty fast. It's so intensely red."
When Hallam reached home she continued to watch the sky, and said there were two other unique sights.
"Above Cranbrook Hill there was a circular shaped blue green hue that appeared both in front of and behind the clouds, and then I saw a long, rectangular hue of light-green light. It resembled the northern lights, but moved horizontally instead of up and down. My neighborr saw the bar-shaped hue, also."
That same day, Lisa's mother, Cheryll Hallam, said the electronics "went wonky" again. Gil Shelton, vice president of the Chicago Astronomical Society, said there had been no reports of the lights described by Hallam. "Right now Venus is brilliant due to its location in its orbit high in the western sky. It sparkles like a jewel", said Shelton, who said he never discredits reports by people, but instead, tries to explain the likely causes.
Shelton said there are many explanations for lights in the sky - refracted light from aircraft, electrical phenomenon in the sky, fireballs, meteorites, and electrical discharges from time to time.
UFO expert Brian Vike of Houston said: "I have no explanation for the sighting, but I am going to check out a few things regarding it and a few more sightings in the Jackson Park area."
The "Fellowship of Friends," led by Robert Burton is selling wine around California and many buyers don't seem to care that it's produced by cult labor. Sniffed the "Wine Director" at the San Francisco Ritz Carlton, who sells the stuff at $10 per glass, "There is value and quality and I never took into consideration anything else about them." Maybe the hotel should take advantage of the "value" provided by "quality" goods made through child labor and sweatshops?
One apparently more concerned buyer concluded, "While their quality is good, there are a lot of other wines out there and I just don't want to work with a winery that has all that excess baggage." Sounds like principle won out over profit with at least one businessman.