Source: Brattleboro Reformer Howard Weiss- Tisman July 10, 2010 Westminister, Vt – The state is alleging that members of the Twelve Tribes violated Vermont air pollution control regulations when they burned the remnants of the former Oonas restaurant on their farm in Westminister. The religious group was also cited for illegally operating a solid waste…
The San Diego Union Tribune January 18, 2010 Tanya Mannes Twelve Tribes Facts (Sidebar) * Former high school guidance counselor Gene Spriggs founded the group in the early 1970s in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is now called Yoneq and he is the undisputed leader. …
Island Pond, Vermont – July 16, 2009 Featured Videos The Island Pond Raid: 25 Years Later, Part 2 Police lead Jeremiah Whitten out of his Island Pond home in 1984. Jeremiah Whitten – Today Island Pond, Vermont – July 16, 2009 Jeremiah Whitten remembers like it was yesterday the morning he awoke to…
Source: WCAX.com-2009-Vermont Featured Videos The Island Pond Raid: 25 Years Later, Part 1 Island Pond, Vermont – July 15, 2009 Island Pond is a small village within the town of Brighton; a quiet area where moose seem to outnumber people. But in the late 1970s, Island Pond’s population began to grow quickly when a community…
Clara Rose Thornton June 11, 2009 An African American woman sets out to learn organic farming and gets more than she bargains for Bellows Falls – From a balcony overlooking the pristine flow of water at the base of rolling Fall Mountain, I observe a swirl of colors and register a happy cacophony of sounds….
Promoting a boycott of the Mate Factor restaurant on the Ithaca Commons and raising awareness about the beliefs and practices of the Twelve Tribes religious cult. March 6, 2009 John Sullivan In Ithaca many people consider the consequences of how and where they spend their money. My wife and I have friends who can tell…
Brattleboro Reformer, Vermont/December 5, 2008 By Howard Weiss-Tisman Rockingham – The Basin Farm is in violation of the town’s zoning bylaw and stands to be fined $100 a day for its failure to renovate the former Oona’s restaurant in downtown Bellows Falls. The Rockingham Zoning Board of Adjustment on Wednesday rejected the religious group’s appeal…
Source: SentinelSource Posted: Saturday, June 7, 2008 12:00 am By WILSON RING MONTPELIER, Vt. — Before dawn on June 22, 1984, 90 Vermont State Police troopers and 50 social workers descended on the Island Pond homes of about 400 people belonging to the Northeast Kingdom Community Church to investigate allegations of child abuse. Authorities had…
By Dave Gram Source: Boston Globe September 25, 2007 (through Bishop accountability.org) GUILDHALL, Vt. — Molested as a child, a 23-year-old man wept in court Monday as he confronted the former church teacher who abused him when he was 11, telling him: “Don’t you ever do it to anyone else.” John W. Thomas, 37, of…
Source: Ithacans opposed to the Twelve Tribes cult He was looking to serve God with like-minded people. He thought communal living could be spiritually lifting, a way of life rare enough to spark his interest in his quest to serve God. And members of the Twelve Tribes, with their smiles and façades of happy living,…