Word: salem
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Jeff Dover, SALEM...
...Salem may have been where witches were once tried and executed by puritans, but - thanks to the magic of branding - it has since become a mecca for witches and others involved in the occult arts, as well as for tourists. Around a hundred thousand tourists descend on the town every Halloween season...
...fact, the new regulatory changes are an indication of growth in the witchcraft industry. In 1998, the last time the town addressed the issue, it had legislated a quota allowing only one professional fortune-teller per 10,000 Salem residents. That amounted to roughly three psychics, although another nine or so were grandfathered in. The city council also licensed some psychic stores, which were allowed to subcontract to five fortune-telling workers apiece...
...Sylvia Martinez, owner of The Goddess's Treasure Chest, several of the merchants complained to the council that the fairs stole their business during "haunted happenings season." They asked it to shut down unlicensed psychics and draw up guidelines of psychic ethics and quality. ("What are the criteria?" the Salem News reported a baffled councilwoman as asking.) One Salem police officer testified about a scam whereby adepts detected a "dark aura" around a tourist and then charged as much as $5,000 to remove...
...everyone is happy about the revision, and passions run high. Laurie Cabot, whom then Governor Michael Dukakis once named the "official witch of Salem," has reportedly made common cause with some of the store owners in complaining that the new rules will increase the quantity and decrease the quality of psychics. In the period between the last public meeting about the statute and its passage, the Salem News reported that someone had left a raccoon skull and intestines in front of two of the stores, a gesture many involved in the controversy seem to think was part of an attempt...