Word: wasco
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...took over the city council, changing the name Antelope to Rajneesh in 1984. Sheela was responsible for the scheme to recruit about 3,500 homeless people for the commune last fall, in what observers believe was an attempt to load the voting rolls against longer-term residents of Wasco County. However, many of the transients later departed. Sheela's latest plan, the bhagwan said, was to build a housing complex for AIDS victims in Rajneesh. His reaction was less than charitable: "I said this is not right. You would be putting the whole of Oregon in danger...
...reportedly declining membership and lawsuits concerning the takeover of Antelope, outsiders did not know what to make of the bhagwan's statements. Neither, evidently, did the six different groups of lawmen that jointly began examining the guru's charges last week: the Oregon state police, the FBI, the Wasco County sheriff, the Dalles police, the state attorney general's office and the U.S. Attorney's office. Wasco County District Attorney Bernard L. Smith said at week's end that his office will coordinate an investigation of the situation. But for the time being, most observers tended to agree with Oregon...
Throughout the incorporated city of Rajneeshpuram in central Oregon's Wasco County, young followers of the Indian mystic Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh bustle about their business. The Bhagwan, who set up the community in 1981, has taken a vow of silence; he tours his 64,000-acre ranch in a $119,000 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur with armed guards. His followers, mostly middle-class refugees from urban living, smile frequently, embrace warmly, and enjoy poker and blackjack in their private casino...
Despite the benign temperament and capitalist success of the group's members, who dress in sunrise colors (orange, red and lilac), the rest of Wasco County has greeted them with an understandable mixture of bemusement, fear and anger. The Rajneeshees have been scouring the country in search of recruits among homeless street people, enticing them to come live on their pastoral spread with promises of vegetarian meals and an unharried atmosphere. While the Rajneeshees have refused to explain their motives in this recruitment drive, their neighbors have come to the not unreasonable conclusion that the aim is to enlarge...
With the cutoff of voter registration for the November election set for this week in Oregon, and with fears growing of a Wasco County coup by the Rajneeshees, County Clerk Sue Proffitt took unusual action. She announced that she was automatically rejecting all new applications for voter registration. Each applicant, she said, could seek a hearing at which his or her eligibility would be decided. She was doing so, she said, to stop "organized efforts to fraudulently register people." The cumbersome process would effectively stall any massive Rajneesh registration...