Augusta GA Divorce Lawyer - Usher And Wife To Divorce
R&B star Usher and his wife are reportedly planning to divorce after almost two years of marriage.
Usher and stylist Tameka Foster have been living apart for the past year, according In Touch.
Divorce papers were filed in Atlanta on Thursday morning.
The shocking news comes just four months after Foster suffered cardiac arrest during cosmetic surgery in Brazil.
At the time, Usher, who flew to be by her side, insisted he had no idea his wife was there for the procedure.
A source close to the couple says, "Usher's primary concern is for his children. He is a great father and just wants to do what is right for them."
The couple has two kids together, Usher Raymond V, 18 months, and Naviyd, six months.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta GA Military Divorce Lawyer - Military Marriages Off the Rocks
Augusta GA Military Divorce Lawyer - Military Marriages Off the Rocks
by Rowan Scarborough
Military marriages are weathering five years of stressful war deployments, as judged by the Pentagon's statistics on divorce.
When two simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan required a flood of repeated overseas duty for the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, the active duty divorce rate stood at about 3.5 percent. Today, five years later, the figure is 3.4 percent.
While divorces in the Army and Marines, who provide the bulk of troops for Iraq and Afghanistan, ticked up slightly, the steady overall rate shows that military husbands and wives are coping with the war on terror. In fact, the divorce percentage for National Guard and Reserves, who have deployed at a rapid pace, is even lower, at 2.7 percent. It was 2.6 percent in 2004.
The consistent divorce trend is attributed to the dedication and quality of today's all-volunteer force. Men and women are joining knowing they will likely spend months away from home.
"The military gets volunteers from Tennessee, not Cambridge, Mass.," said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Media Institute at the Media Research Center. "It’s probably largely due to the makeup of the armed forces of more tradition-minded Americans. The blue states send their share, too, but it’s their traditionalists who go."
The military branches help, too, with counseling events. "There has been an increasing emphasis on these kinds of programs as the stress of repeat deployments has become evident," said Lt. Col. Les Melnyk, a Pentagon spokesman.
The Army, for example, operates "Strong Bonds" a series of chaplain-led retreats where soldiers learn the best ways to communicate with a spouse and handle a crisis. It began in 2001 in a single combat brigade.
It just happened to be packaged well enough at the brigade level that it got a lot of publicity all the way up to the Pentagon level and received money in 2001 for a pilot program," Lt. Col. Carleton Birch, of the office of Army chief of chaplains, told Human Events. "Since then it's expanded every year to the point now we believe there are going to be about 2,600 Strong Bonds events this year for about 160,000 service members and their families."
Events are ordered up by commanders and are often scheduled right before, or after, an overseas deployment.
"Couples learn listening skills, efficacy skills, taking ownership of their feelings, how to talk in a non-destructive way," said Birch, a protestant chaplain. "I don't know why Strong Bonds has been so successful. I think it's meeting a need that's out there."
Birch said the National Institute of Health has begun of five-year study of Strong Bonds and will issue an initial report soon. "I think it will be pretty positive," he said. "Commanders are saying by doing these Strong Bonds programs that relationship training is just as important a part of training our force and keeping our force together to prepare for the missions we need to do as the other training we are doing."
Finances, as well as time away from home, can put pressure on a marriage. The Pentagon told Human Events that in the past seven years basic military pay has increased 37 percent, compared with 27 percent in private sector.
Today, a junior enlisted person with a high school diploma earns about $43,000 a figure that does not include free medical care, retirement, bonuses and special pay.
"Targeted pay raises have now fully closed the pay gap between military and those of the private sector holding equal education and work experience," the Pentagon said.
The Pentagon is now drawing down troops from Iraq. Some brigades are shifting assignments to Afghanistan, where the Obama administration is adding about 24,000 forces. But overall, the Army should be able to extend what is called "dwell time" back home before soldiers gear up for another war deployment. Marines typically serve seven months in the war theater and an equal about of time at home. Soldiers now get only 12 months at home after 12 to 14 months in Iraq or Afghanistan. The Army's goal is 24 months dwell time by 2011.
The Pentagon calculates its divorce rate by tracking the number of divorces among married personnel each year. Of the 754,255 married active duty personnel in 2008, 25,750 had divorced by fiscal year's end on Sept. 30.
Civilian rates are derived by various agencies and research firms in different ways. For example, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports a 3.6 percent divorce rate per 1,000 population.
"If trying to compare these rates to the civilian world, remember that the military population skews young, and that most marriages that end in divorce do so early on in the marriage," Melnyk said.
He said the average age of the active force in 2008 was 28, compared with 32 years in the Guard and reserves.
"That age difference in and of itself must account for at least part of difference between active component and reserve component divorce rates," he told Human Events.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
by Rowan Scarborough
Military marriages are weathering five years of stressful war deployments, as judged by the Pentagon's statistics on divorce.
When two simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan required a flood of repeated overseas duty for the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, the active duty divorce rate stood at about 3.5 percent. Today, five years later, the figure is 3.4 percent.
While divorces in the Army and Marines, who provide the bulk of troops for Iraq and Afghanistan, ticked up slightly, the steady overall rate shows that military husbands and wives are coping with the war on terror. In fact, the divorce percentage for National Guard and Reserves, who have deployed at a rapid pace, is even lower, at 2.7 percent. It was 2.6 percent in 2004.
The consistent divorce trend is attributed to the dedication and quality of today's all-volunteer force. Men and women are joining knowing they will likely spend months away from home.
"The military gets volunteers from Tennessee, not Cambridge, Mass.," said Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Media Institute at the Media Research Center. "It’s probably largely due to the makeup of the armed forces of more tradition-minded Americans. The blue states send their share, too, but it’s their traditionalists who go."
The military branches help, too, with counseling events. "There has been an increasing emphasis on these kinds of programs as the stress of repeat deployments has become evident," said Lt. Col. Les Melnyk, a Pentagon spokesman.
The Army, for example, operates "Strong Bonds" a series of chaplain-led retreats where soldiers learn the best ways to communicate with a spouse and handle a crisis. It began in 2001 in a single combat brigade.
It just happened to be packaged well enough at the brigade level that it got a lot of publicity all the way up to the Pentagon level and received money in 2001 for a pilot program," Lt. Col. Carleton Birch, of the office of Army chief of chaplains, told Human Events. "Since then it's expanded every year to the point now we believe there are going to be about 2,600 Strong Bonds events this year for about 160,000 service members and their families."
Events are ordered up by commanders and are often scheduled right before, or after, an overseas deployment.
"Couples learn listening skills, efficacy skills, taking ownership of their feelings, how to talk in a non-destructive way," said Birch, a protestant chaplain. "I don't know why Strong Bonds has been so successful. I think it's meeting a need that's out there."
Birch said the National Institute of Health has begun of five-year study of Strong Bonds and will issue an initial report soon. "I think it will be pretty positive," he said. "Commanders are saying by doing these Strong Bonds programs that relationship training is just as important a part of training our force and keeping our force together to prepare for the missions we need to do as the other training we are doing."
Finances, as well as time away from home, can put pressure on a marriage. The Pentagon told Human Events that in the past seven years basic military pay has increased 37 percent, compared with 27 percent in private sector.
Today, a junior enlisted person with a high school diploma earns about $43,000 a figure that does not include free medical care, retirement, bonuses and special pay.
"Targeted pay raises have now fully closed the pay gap between military and those of the private sector holding equal education and work experience," the Pentagon said.
The Pentagon is now drawing down troops from Iraq. Some brigades are shifting assignments to Afghanistan, where the Obama administration is adding about 24,000 forces. But overall, the Army should be able to extend what is called "dwell time" back home before soldiers gear up for another war deployment. Marines typically serve seven months in the war theater and an equal about of time at home. Soldiers now get only 12 months at home after 12 to 14 months in Iraq or Afghanistan. The Army's goal is 24 months dwell time by 2011.
The Pentagon calculates its divorce rate by tracking the number of divorces among married personnel each year. Of the 754,255 married active duty personnel in 2008, 25,750 had divorced by fiscal year's end on Sept. 30.
Civilian rates are derived by various agencies and research firms in different ways. For example, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports a 3.6 percent divorce rate per 1,000 population.
"If trying to compare these rates to the civilian world, remember that the military population skews young, and that most marriages that end in divorce do so early on in the marriage," Melnyk said.
He said the average age of the active force in 2008 was 28, compared with 32 years in the Guard and reserves.
"That age difference in and of itself must account for at least part of difference between active component and reserve component divorce rates," he told Human Events.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - Fault should be factor in divorce
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - Fault should be factor in divorce
by Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
State lawmakers took the first steps Wednesday to letting one spouse in a divorce case try to get the financial upper hand by claiming the other person behaved badly in the marriage.
On a 4-2 margin the Senate Committee on Public Safety and Human Services voted to repeal existing laws that require a judge decide issues of alimony and child support “without regard to marital misconduct.” The net result, according to all sides, would be to permit introduction of evidence of everything from domestic violence and cheating to wasting money.
What they disagree on is whether that is a good idea.
Current law allows a judge in a divorce case to order either or both parents to pay “an amount reasonable and necessary for support of the child.”
Judges also can order alimony — known in Arizona as “spousal maintenance” — after considering various factors. These range from the question of whether a spouse can be self-sufficient, contributed to the educational opportunities of the other, or the person is so old that it precludes the possibility of gainful employment.
In both cases, allegations of who was at fault in the relationship are legally irrelevant. This proposal by Sen. Linda Gray, R-Glendale, would change that.
Divorce attorney Todd Franks said there may be merits to allowing a judge to consider questions of misconduct. But he pointed out to lawmakers there is nothing in SB 1052 to spell out what kinds of things that includes.
“So it’s really opening up Pandora’s Box,” said Franks, who is the chairman of the Domestic Relations Committee, an advisory panel to the Legislature.
“Does that mean sex? Does it mean sex outside marriage? Does it mean refusal to give sex in the marriage?” he asked. “Does it mean physical abuse? Does it mean verbal abuse, emotional abuse, drug abuse in the marriage?”
And Franks said it even could be interpreted to include overspending, gambling, denigrating the spouse to children, personal or home uncleanliness or even refusal to grow as a person.
Complicating matters, he said, is the question of timing: when did the conduct occur, was it known to the spouse and does it continue to occur.
“If somebody did something 10 years ago, it’s known that it happened, are we going to let them raise it now in a divorce proceeding?” he asked.
But attorney Maria Lawrence said Franks’ concerns are overblown.
“The notion that we don’t have ‘fault’ in divorce is ridiculous,” she said.
Lawrence, who also handles divorce cases, said judges consider issues like domestic violence when determining who gets custody of the children. And she said questions of misconduct also come up in awarding of legal fees.
She said there is no reason to believe that judges won’t be able to use the same discretion in deciding alimony and child support.
Lawrence also said it’s an issue of fairness.
“I’m going to be a little sexist here, but most people that get divorced, the women suffer more financial hardship than the men,” she said.
“The men have the careers, the men have the years behind them and the earning capacity,” Lawrence continued. At the same time, many women stay home to take care of the children or even to take care of the business without getting paid.
“So the earning capacity is completely different,” she said. “To simply divide what we have at the time of the divorce and say, ‘50 percent goes to you and 50 percent goes to you’ is completely inequitable,” Lawrence said. “It doesn’t work because one party has better earning capacity.”
Lawrence backed her argument with several examples.
One involved a woman married for 25 years who home-schooled five children. Her husband left her for “a younger model of his wife” and she got stuck with half the community debt. The other was a Phoenix police sergeant close to retirement whose wife left him and decided to live with her new lover so she got half of his pension.
But Steve Wolfson, who represents the Family Law Section of the State Bar of Arizona, said making ‘fault’ an issue in child support raises issues of its own. He said it would be “an unfortunate and unintended result” if a woman’s infidelity during a marriage resulted in her receiving less money to care for her children.
Nothing in the legislation would affect whether or not a judge grants a divorce. The sole grounds for dissolving a marriage in Arizona are — and would remain — that the union is “irretrievably broken.”
The measure now goes to the full Senate.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
by Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services
State lawmakers took the first steps Wednesday to letting one spouse in a divorce case try to get the financial upper hand by claiming the other person behaved badly in the marriage.
On a 4-2 margin the Senate Committee on Public Safety and Human Services voted to repeal existing laws that require a judge decide issues of alimony and child support “without regard to marital misconduct.” The net result, according to all sides, would be to permit introduction of evidence of everything from domestic violence and cheating to wasting money.
What they disagree on is whether that is a good idea.
Current law allows a judge in a divorce case to order either or both parents to pay “an amount reasonable and necessary for support of the child.”
Judges also can order alimony — known in Arizona as “spousal maintenance” — after considering various factors. These range from the question of whether a spouse can be self-sufficient, contributed to the educational opportunities of the other, or the person is so old that it precludes the possibility of gainful employment.
In both cases, allegations of who was at fault in the relationship are legally irrelevant. This proposal by Sen. Linda Gray, R-Glendale, would change that.
Divorce attorney Todd Franks said there may be merits to allowing a judge to consider questions of misconduct. But he pointed out to lawmakers there is nothing in SB 1052 to spell out what kinds of things that includes.
“So it’s really opening up Pandora’s Box,” said Franks, who is the chairman of the Domestic Relations Committee, an advisory panel to the Legislature.
“Does that mean sex? Does it mean sex outside marriage? Does it mean refusal to give sex in the marriage?” he asked. “Does it mean physical abuse? Does it mean verbal abuse, emotional abuse, drug abuse in the marriage?”
And Franks said it even could be interpreted to include overspending, gambling, denigrating the spouse to children, personal or home uncleanliness or even refusal to grow as a person.
Complicating matters, he said, is the question of timing: when did the conduct occur, was it known to the spouse and does it continue to occur.
“If somebody did something 10 years ago, it’s known that it happened, are we going to let them raise it now in a divorce proceeding?” he asked.
But attorney Maria Lawrence said Franks’ concerns are overblown.
“The notion that we don’t have ‘fault’ in divorce is ridiculous,” she said.
Lawrence, who also handles divorce cases, said judges consider issues like domestic violence when determining who gets custody of the children. And she said questions of misconduct also come up in awarding of legal fees.
She said there is no reason to believe that judges won’t be able to use the same discretion in deciding alimony and child support.
Lawrence also said it’s an issue of fairness.
“I’m going to be a little sexist here, but most people that get divorced, the women suffer more financial hardship than the men,” she said.
“The men have the careers, the men have the years behind them and the earning capacity,” Lawrence continued. At the same time, many women stay home to take care of the children or even to take care of the business without getting paid.
“So the earning capacity is completely different,” she said. “To simply divide what we have at the time of the divorce and say, ‘50 percent goes to you and 50 percent goes to you’ is completely inequitable,” Lawrence said. “It doesn’t work because one party has better earning capacity.”
Lawrence backed her argument with several examples.
One involved a woman married for 25 years who home-schooled five children. Her husband left her for “a younger model of his wife” and she got stuck with half the community debt. The other was a Phoenix police sergeant close to retirement whose wife left him and decided to live with her new lover so she got half of his pension.
But Steve Wolfson, who represents the Family Law Section of the State Bar of Arizona, said making ‘fault’ an issue in child support raises issues of its own. He said it would be “an unfortunate and unintended result” if a woman’s infidelity during a marriage resulted in her receiving less money to care for her children.
Nothing in the legislation would affect whether or not a judge grants a divorce. The sole grounds for dissolving a marriage in Arizona are — and would remain — that the union is “irretrievably broken.”
The measure now goes to the full Senate.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - Veronica Lario breaks silence over divorce from Silvio Berlusconi
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - Veronica Lario breaks silence over divorce from Silvio Berlusconi
by Susan Walsh/AP
Richard Owen in Rome
Veronica Lario, the wife of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, has broken her silence over their acrimonious public divorce, saying that nobody knows the "true story" behind the break-up and that she and her marriage have been "brutally besmirched".
In her first public statement since she asked for a divorce at the end of April, Ms Lario said in a brief letter to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, published on its front page, that "during these last weeks I have watched in silence without reacting in the media to the brutal besmirching of myself, my dignity and the story of my marriage".
She added "What is certain is that the truth of the relationship between myself and my husband has not even been touched on, nor has the reason for which I had to turn to the press to communicate with him. It is also certain that I have always loved him, and that I have lived my life at the service of my marriage and my family."
Ms Lario demanded a divorce after her husband had attended the 18th birthday party in Naples of Noemi Letizia, an aspiring model who said she called him "Papi" and that he had "brought me up". Ms Letizia said that Mr Berlusconi, who gave her a €6,000 gold and diamond pendant for her birthday, often phoned her, "and I go to him".
Announcing divorce proceedings, Ms Lario said she could "not stay with a man who frequents minors", and that he was "not well". She was later reported to have told friends that "the problem is not just that girl" as reports emerged of parties at Villa Certosa, Mr Berlusconi's Sardinian villa, involving semi-naked showgirls.
Two years ago Ms Lario demanded — and received — a public apology from Mr Berlusconi after he flirted at a television awards ceremony with Mara Carfagna, a former topless model, saying he would "marry her like a shot" if free to do so. Last year Mr Berlusconi defiantly made Ms Carfagna Minister for Equal Opportunities after winning his third term as Prime Minister.
Ms Lario, a former actress who lives in her own mansion near Milan, is known for her reticence. Her latest Delphic statement appears in part to be a belated reaction to allegations two weeks by Daniela Santanchè, a right-wing former deputy linked to Mr Berlusconi's ruling People of Liberty party, that Ms Lario had long had a "companion", naming him as Alberto Orlandi, her bodyguard. Neither Ms Lario nor Mr Orlandi has commented publicly, though "friends" have told Italian newspapers that the allegation is unfounded.
Ms Santanchè made the accusation in the right-wing newspaper Libero, which has also published photographs of Ms Lario appearing topless on the stage in her early career as an actress, when Mr Berlusconi — married at the time to his first wife — got to know her.
Ms Lario's letter to Corriere della Sera may also have been prompted by Mr Berlusconi's reported remarks to aides this week blaming his wife for a drop in his support in last weekend's European and local elections. He said abstentions were also due to the "plot against me" over Ms Letizia and the Villa Certosa parties, and his unpopular decision as owner of AC Milan to sell the football star Kaka to Real Madrid.
The People of Liberty party comfortably won the European and local elections with 35 per cent of the vote, easily defeating the divided and demoralised Italian Left, which won 26 per cent. However, the vote was seen in Italy as a setback for Mr Berlusconi as he had predicted he would win 45 per cent. Il Giornale, Mr Berlusconi's own newspaper, had said that anything below 37 per cent would be "a failure".
"Berlusconi stopped" ran the headline in La Stampa. It added: "Berlusconi is paying the price for his divorce, the showgirl scandals and his relationship with Noemi Letizia." It said the accusation by Milan judges that Mr Berlusconi had given David Mills, the British lawyer, a bribe to lie for him in court in 1990s corruption cases may also have had an effect.
Mr Berlusconi had emphasised his achievements in cracking down on illegal immigration and crime, responding energetically to the Abruzzo earthquake in April, and his international role as host of next month's G8 summit in Italy. However he was forced publicly to deny having had sex with Ms Letizia, who was a guest at his Sardinian villa when she was 17.
The real winners of the European and local vote were the anti-immigrant Northern League, led by Umberto Bossi, which won 10.2 per cent, up from 8.3 per cent in the national election last year, and the centre-left Italy of Values party led by Antonio Di Pietro, the former anti-corruption magistrate , which won 8 per cent, up from 4.3 per cent a year ago.
The setback may halt Mr Berlusconi's plans to change the Constitution to cut down the number of deputies in Parliament, increase his powers as Prime Minister and eventually introduce a presidential system of government along US or French lines, with himself as head of state.
La Repubblica today reported that Judge Carlo Alemi, president of the Naples Tribunal, had opened an inquiry into why Ms Letizia's father, Benedetto (Elio) Letizia, a Naples council employee, had never been proscuted despite having been arrested in 1993 for alleged corruption. Mr Letizia was investigated, together with other officials, for allegedly taking bribes in connection with the issuing of business licences. No further legal action was taken, however, and Mr Letizia denies the charge.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
by Susan Walsh/AP
Richard Owen in Rome
Veronica Lario, the wife of Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, has broken her silence over their acrimonious public divorce, saying that nobody knows the "true story" behind the break-up and that she and her marriage have been "brutally besmirched".
In her first public statement since she asked for a divorce at the end of April, Ms Lario said in a brief letter to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, published on its front page, that "during these last weeks I have watched in silence without reacting in the media to the brutal besmirching of myself, my dignity and the story of my marriage".
She added "What is certain is that the truth of the relationship between myself and my husband has not even been touched on, nor has the reason for which I had to turn to the press to communicate with him. It is also certain that I have always loved him, and that I have lived my life at the service of my marriage and my family."
Ms Lario demanded a divorce after her husband had attended the 18th birthday party in Naples of Noemi Letizia, an aspiring model who said she called him "Papi" and that he had "brought me up". Ms Letizia said that Mr Berlusconi, who gave her a €6,000 gold and diamond pendant for her birthday, often phoned her, "and I go to him".
Announcing divorce proceedings, Ms Lario said she could "not stay with a man who frequents minors", and that he was "not well". She was later reported to have told friends that "the problem is not just that girl" as reports emerged of parties at Villa Certosa, Mr Berlusconi's Sardinian villa, involving semi-naked showgirls.
Two years ago Ms Lario demanded — and received — a public apology from Mr Berlusconi after he flirted at a television awards ceremony with Mara Carfagna, a former topless model, saying he would "marry her like a shot" if free to do so. Last year Mr Berlusconi defiantly made Ms Carfagna Minister for Equal Opportunities after winning his third term as Prime Minister.
Ms Lario, a former actress who lives in her own mansion near Milan, is known for her reticence. Her latest Delphic statement appears in part to be a belated reaction to allegations two weeks by Daniela Santanchè, a right-wing former deputy linked to Mr Berlusconi's ruling People of Liberty party, that Ms Lario had long had a "companion", naming him as Alberto Orlandi, her bodyguard. Neither Ms Lario nor Mr Orlandi has commented publicly, though "friends" have told Italian newspapers that the allegation is unfounded.
Ms Santanchè made the accusation in the right-wing newspaper Libero, which has also published photographs of Ms Lario appearing topless on the stage in her early career as an actress, when Mr Berlusconi — married at the time to his first wife — got to know her.
Ms Lario's letter to Corriere della Sera may also have been prompted by Mr Berlusconi's reported remarks to aides this week blaming his wife for a drop in his support in last weekend's European and local elections. He said abstentions were also due to the "plot against me" over Ms Letizia and the Villa Certosa parties, and his unpopular decision as owner of AC Milan to sell the football star Kaka to Real Madrid.
The People of Liberty party comfortably won the European and local elections with 35 per cent of the vote, easily defeating the divided and demoralised Italian Left, which won 26 per cent. However, the vote was seen in Italy as a setback for Mr Berlusconi as he had predicted he would win 45 per cent. Il Giornale, Mr Berlusconi's own newspaper, had said that anything below 37 per cent would be "a failure".
"Berlusconi stopped" ran the headline in La Stampa. It added: "Berlusconi is paying the price for his divorce, the showgirl scandals and his relationship with Noemi Letizia." It said the accusation by Milan judges that Mr Berlusconi had given David Mills, the British lawyer, a bribe to lie for him in court in 1990s corruption cases may also have had an effect.
Mr Berlusconi had emphasised his achievements in cracking down on illegal immigration and crime, responding energetically to the Abruzzo earthquake in April, and his international role as host of next month's G8 summit in Italy. However he was forced publicly to deny having had sex with Ms Letizia, who was a guest at his Sardinian villa when she was 17.
The real winners of the European and local vote were the anti-immigrant Northern League, led by Umberto Bossi, which won 10.2 per cent, up from 8.3 per cent in the national election last year, and the centre-left Italy of Values party led by Antonio Di Pietro, the former anti-corruption magistrate , which won 8 per cent, up from 4.3 per cent a year ago.
The setback may halt Mr Berlusconi's plans to change the Constitution to cut down the number of deputies in Parliament, increase his powers as Prime Minister and eventually introduce a presidential system of government along US or French lines, with himself as head of state.
La Repubblica today reported that Judge Carlo Alemi, president of the Naples Tribunal, had opened an inquiry into why Ms Letizia's father, Benedetto (Elio) Letizia, a Naples council employee, had never been proscuted despite having been arrested in 1993 for alleged corruption. Mr Letizia was investigated, together with other officials, for allegedly taking bribes in connection with the issuing of business licences. No further legal action was taken, however, and Mr Letizia denies the charge.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - Mel Gibson, Estranged Wife Want Divorce on the Down-Low
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - Mel Gibson, Estranged Wife Want Divorce on the Down-Low
PDT by Breanne L. Heldman and Claudia Rosenbaum
Robyn Denise Moore-Gibson has been granted a request to keep the details of the dueling couple's divorce case confidential.
The protective order covers expert witness reports, tax returns and financial records, as well as videotaped depositions and other family-related material. Team Mel backed the move, which also prevents the Gibsons from discussing the case publicly.
In other words, we won't be privy to all the details, like how much the star is actually worth—reportedly upward of $900 million—and how much his missus is requesting to keep for herself.
The pair signed the agreement in April, but it was not granted by Los Angeles Superior Judge Frederick Shaller and filed by the court until June 5.
Robyn initially filed for divorce from her husband of 28 years in April, admitting that the two had been living apart for nearly three years. Gibson's current girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, is pregnant with the actor's eighth child.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
PDT by Breanne L. Heldman and Claudia Rosenbaum
Robyn Denise Moore-Gibson has been granted a request to keep the details of the dueling couple's divorce case confidential.
The protective order covers expert witness reports, tax returns and financial records, as well as videotaped depositions and other family-related material. Team Mel backed the move, which also prevents the Gibsons from discussing the case publicly.
In other words, we won't be privy to all the details, like how much the star is actually worth—reportedly upward of $900 million—and how much his missus is requesting to keep for herself.
The pair signed the agreement in April, but it was not granted by Los Angeles Superior Judge Frederick Shaller and filed by the court until June 5.
Robyn initially filed for divorce from her husband of 28 years in April, admitting that the two had been living apart for nearly three years. Gibson's current girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, is pregnant with the actor's eighth child.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta GA Divorce Lawyer - Stephanie Seymour Divorce Gets Nastier
Augusta GA Divorce Lawyer - Stephanie Seymour Divorce Gets Nastier
Supermodel Stephanie Seymour was issued a public disturbance summons Saturday night, further dramatizing her bitter divorce from newsprint executive Peter Brant.
According to the New York Post, the former Victoria's Secret angel yanked the keys from a Brant-hired security guard's car and threw them in the bushes. She proceeded to block the driveway of her Greenwich, Conn. home with her Range Rover.
The pair wed in July 2003 -- two months after he ended his six-year run on 'Dawson's Creek.'(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)
Brant's spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, said Brant, who was in Europe at the time, "was disappointed" by his wife's behavior.
This hasn't been the first messy incident in the couple's divorce. According to the Greenwich Time, police have been involved in multiple incidents between Seymour and Brant in the past several weeks. On Thursday, a Brant-hired guard allegedly shoved Seymour into a door while she attempted to enter the house. Seymour has since hired her own separate guards.
Seymour's attorney, Mark Sherman, issued a statement on Friday saying "The situation has escalated to a point where Ms.Seymour is gravely concerned for her and her children's safety."
The couple split earlier this year after 16 years of marriage, though they still share the same mansion. The couple have three children, ages 4, 12 and 15.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Supermodel Stephanie Seymour was issued a public disturbance summons Saturday night, further dramatizing her bitter divorce from newsprint executive Peter Brant.
According to the New York Post, the former Victoria's Secret angel yanked the keys from a Brant-hired security guard's car and threw them in the bushes. She proceeded to block the driveway of her Greenwich, Conn. home with her Range Rover.
The pair wed in July 2003 -- two months after he ended his six-year run on 'Dawson's Creek.'(Note: Please disable your pop-up blocker)
Brant's spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, said Brant, who was in Europe at the time, "was disappointed" by his wife's behavior.
This hasn't been the first messy incident in the couple's divorce. According to the Greenwich Time, police have been involved in multiple incidents between Seymour and Brant in the past several weeks. On Thursday, a Brant-hired guard allegedly shoved Seymour into a door while she attempted to enter the house. Seymour has since hired her own separate guards.
Seymour's attorney, Mark Sherman, issued a statement on Friday saying "The situation has escalated to a point where Ms.Seymour is gravely concerned for her and her children's safety."
The couple split earlier this year after 16 years of marriage, though they still share the same mansion. The couple have three children, ages 4, 12 and 15.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - Pa. man who killed trooper angry about divorce
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - Pa. man who killed trooper angry about divorce
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
NAZARETH, Pa. (AP) — Daniel Autenrieth's life was unraveling. Creditors had sued him over thousands of dollars in unpaid bills. His house was in foreclosure. His wife of 10 years had filed for divorce and then for a protective order, claiming years of physical and mental abuse. He'd lost custody of their three children.
The 31-year-old car salesman and youth baseball coach was angry. On Sunday night, his rage boiled over.
After arguing with his estranged wife, Autenrieth kidnapped his 9-year-old son at gunpoint and led police on a 40-mile chase into the Pocono Mountains, then started a gun battle that killed him and a well-liked state police trooper.
Trooper Joshua Miller, a 34-year-old Marine veteran and married father of three, will be buried Friday after a funeral at Pittston Area High School, his alma mater. Miller, the first trooper since 2005 to be killed in the line of duty, has been hailed as a hero for distracting Autenrieth while other officers whisked the boy to safety.
Court documents filed in connection with a bitter divorce and custody battle show that Autenrieth's behavior was increasingly erratic in the weeks preceding Sunday's shooting near Tobyhanna.
His wife, Susan Autenrieth, a 31-year-old nurse, reported that he threatened to kill her, physically attacked her, repeatedly broke into her apartment, and obsessively called her — more than 100 times in a two-week span.
"The stalking, the threats, the rage are all escalating and I truly fear for my safety," she wrote in mid-May.
Through her attorney, Susan Autenrieth declined comment Tuesday.
"She's dealing with a very tragic situation for three young kids and she doesn't want it to become more complicated than necessary," said the attorney, Kimberly Bennett.
Court records show the marriage had been on shaky ground since at least 2007, when Susan Autenrieth obtained a protection-from-abuse order against her husband, saying he had a cocaine problem and a bad temper. The couple separated this past February and Susan filed for divorce a month later.
Daniel Autenrieth contested the divorce.
"He informed me that I would always be his wife, that he would never let me go," Susan wrote. "He told me that he would make it so no one ever sees me again."
As the couple battled in court, their financial woes mounted.
A finance company and a bank sued Daniel, saying he had stopped making payments on nearly $9,000 in debt. Wells Fargo moved to foreclose on the couple's house.
Autenrieth's friend, Bob Johnson, said he appeared depressed when he last spoke with him on Saturday.
"He said, 'Things are really bad right now, really bad,'" Johnson told The Express-Times of Easton. "He went over the deep end."
On Sunday night, Autenrieth was supposed to drop the children off curbside at his wife's apartment in Nazareth. Instead, he went inside and began arguing with her, then brandished a gun and drove off with their 9-year-old son.
Authorities arrived at the house and a 40-mile chase ensued.
Police said Autenrieth led them on a chase that lasted more than 30 minutes and involved nine police cruisers as he threaded busy intersections and accelerated on major highways with his son in the backseat of a Honda Civic.
Police finally forced his car into a guard rail along Route 611 in Monroe County. As troopers rushed the car, Autenrieth began shooting. Though they were both hit, Miller and Trooper Robert Lombardo, 35, managed to return fire, striking Autenrieth eight times as two other police officers snatched the boy from the car.
Miller, who was shot in the neck and thigh, died at an Allentown hospital. Lombardo was treated for a gunshot wound to the upper left torso.
A viewing for Miller will be held from 1 to 8 p.m. at the high school. The funeral is at 11 a.m. Friday. He will be buried in Laceyville.
The boy escaped injury and has been released to his mother's custody.
"He's still in shock," said Dana Scuorzo, a neighbor who spoke with Susan Autenrieth on Tuesday. "He looked up to his dad."
But when Susan Autenrieth reported in mid-May that she and her children were terrified of Daniel — who stood 6-foot-2 and weighed 230 pounds — her words were chillingly prescient.
"I fear what is next," she wrote.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
NAZARETH, Pa. (AP) — Daniel Autenrieth's life was unraveling. Creditors had sued him over thousands of dollars in unpaid bills. His house was in foreclosure. His wife of 10 years had filed for divorce and then for a protective order, claiming years of physical and mental abuse. He'd lost custody of their three children.
The 31-year-old car salesman and youth baseball coach was angry. On Sunday night, his rage boiled over.
After arguing with his estranged wife, Autenrieth kidnapped his 9-year-old son at gunpoint and led police on a 40-mile chase into the Pocono Mountains, then started a gun battle that killed him and a well-liked state police trooper.
Trooper Joshua Miller, a 34-year-old Marine veteran and married father of three, will be buried Friday after a funeral at Pittston Area High School, his alma mater. Miller, the first trooper since 2005 to be killed in the line of duty, has been hailed as a hero for distracting Autenrieth while other officers whisked the boy to safety.
Court documents filed in connection with a bitter divorce and custody battle show that Autenrieth's behavior was increasingly erratic in the weeks preceding Sunday's shooting near Tobyhanna.
His wife, Susan Autenrieth, a 31-year-old nurse, reported that he threatened to kill her, physically attacked her, repeatedly broke into her apartment, and obsessively called her — more than 100 times in a two-week span.
"The stalking, the threats, the rage are all escalating and I truly fear for my safety," she wrote in mid-May.
Through her attorney, Susan Autenrieth declined comment Tuesday.
"She's dealing with a very tragic situation for three young kids and she doesn't want it to become more complicated than necessary," said the attorney, Kimberly Bennett.
Court records show the marriage had been on shaky ground since at least 2007, when Susan Autenrieth obtained a protection-from-abuse order against her husband, saying he had a cocaine problem and a bad temper. The couple separated this past February and Susan filed for divorce a month later.
Daniel Autenrieth contested the divorce.
"He informed me that I would always be his wife, that he would never let me go," Susan wrote. "He told me that he would make it so no one ever sees me again."
As the couple battled in court, their financial woes mounted.
A finance company and a bank sued Daniel, saying he had stopped making payments on nearly $9,000 in debt. Wells Fargo moved to foreclose on the couple's house.
Autenrieth's friend, Bob Johnson, said he appeared depressed when he last spoke with him on Saturday.
"He said, 'Things are really bad right now, really bad,'" Johnson told The Express-Times of Easton. "He went over the deep end."
On Sunday night, Autenrieth was supposed to drop the children off curbside at his wife's apartment in Nazareth. Instead, he went inside and began arguing with her, then brandished a gun and drove off with their 9-year-old son.
Authorities arrived at the house and a 40-mile chase ensued.
Police said Autenrieth led them on a chase that lasted more than 30 minutes and involved nine police cruisers as he threaded busy intersections and accelerated on major highways with his son in the backseat of a Honda Civic.
Police finally forced his car into a guard rail along Route 611 in Monroe County. As troopers rushed the car, Autenrieth began shooting. Though they were both hit, Miller and Trooper Robert Lombardo, 35, managed to return fire, striking Autenrieth eight times as two other police officers snatched the boy from the car.
Miller, who was shot in the neck and thigh, died at an Allentown hospital. Lombardo was treated for a gunshot wound to the upper left torso.
A viewing for Miller will be held from 1 to 8 p.m. at the high school. The funeral is at 11 a.m. Friday. He will be buried in Laceyville.
The boy escaped injury and has been released to his mother's custody.
"He's still in shock," said Dana Scuorzo, a neighbor who spoke with Susan Autenrieth on Tuesday. "He looked up to his dad."
But when Susan Autenrieth reported in mid-May that she and her children were terrified of Daniel — who stood 6-foot-2 and weighed 230 pounds — her words were chillingly prescient.
"I fear what is next," she wrote.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - Survey: Economy impacting life decisions
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - Survey: Economy impacting life decisions
Business First of Louisville
Marriage, divorce, childbirth and adoption are all being impacted by the recession, according to a new survey by FindLaw.com.
Nearly one in five of those surveyed said they are putting off one or more of those life decisions because of concerns about the economy.
Nearly 40 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 34 are delaying marriage, divorce or having children. A quarter of them said they are postponing having children due to the economy. Nearly as many – 21 percent – said the economy is causing them to put off tying the knot, the survey found.
And the less money people make, the greater the chance such decisions are being delayed.
More than one-third (35 percent) of people with annual income below $35,000 said they are delaying marriage, divorce or having children because of the economy, compared with only 7 percent of those with income of $75,000 a year or more.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Business First of Louisville
Marriage, divorce, childbirth and adoption are all being impacted by the recession, according to a new survey by FindLaw.com.
Nearly one in five of those surveyed said they are putting off one or more of those life decisions because of concerns about the economy.
Nearly 40 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 34 are delaying marriage, divorce or having children. A quarter of them said they are postponing having children due to the economy. Nearly as many – 21 percent – said the economy is causing them to put off tying the knot, the survey found.
And the less money people make, the greater the chance such decisions are being delayed.
More than one-third (35 percent) of people with annual income below $35,000 said they are delaying marriage, divorce or having children because of the economy, compared with only 7 percent of those with income of $75,000 a year or more.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta GA Divorce Lawyer - Barry Bonds strikes out with second wife: Liz Watson files for divorce
Augusta GA Divorce Lawyer - Barry Bonds strikes out with second wife: Liz Watson files for divorce
BY Nancy Dillon - DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
LOS ANGELES - Disgraced slugger Barry Bonds has fouled out with second wife, Liz Watson.
Watson, married to Bonds since 1998, has filed for legal separation in Los Angeles County Superior Court, a court officer confirmed.
The legal papers cite "irreconcilable differences" and request spousal support and joint custody of daughter Aisha Lynn, 10.
The former San Francisco Giant touted the strength of his marriage in a People magazine interview just weeks after his 2007 indictment on charges he lied to a federal grand jury investigating steroid use among athletes.
"She has to know your entire résumé," said Bonds. "We both know each other's flaws and are committed."
Bonds, 44, and Watson, 39, got together after Bonds' nasty divorce from first wife Susann (Sun) Branco in 1994.
It took six years for California courts to rule in Bonds' favor over a prenuptial agreement that denied Branco a share of her ex's fortune. Branco, a Swedish immigrant, argued she did not understand the contract, signed a day before their 1988 wedding.
It's unclear whether Bonds and Watson have a prenup.
Watson's lawyer did not return a call seeking comment.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
BY Nancy Dillon - DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
LOS ANGELES - Disgraced slugger Barry Bonds has fouled out with second wife, Liz Watson.
Watson, married to Bonds since 1998, has filed for legal separation in Los Angeles County Superior Court, a court officer confirmed.
The legal papers cite "irreconcilable differences" and request spousal support and joint custody of daughter Aisha Lynn, 10.
The former San Francisco Giant touted the strength of his marriage in a People magazine interview just weeks after his 2007 indictment on charges he lied to a federal grand jury investigating steroid use among athletes.
"She has to know your entire résumé," said Bonds. "We both know each other's flaws and are committed."
Bonds, 44, and Watson, 39, got together after Bonds' nasty divorce from first wife Susann (Sun) Branco in 1994.
It took six years for California courts to rule in Bonds' favor over a prenuptial agreement that denied Branco a share of her ex's fortune. Branco, a Swedish immigrant, argued she did not understand the contract, signed a day before their 1988 wedding.
It's unclear whether Bonds and Watson have a prenup.
Watson's lawyer did not return a call seeking comment.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - Tips For Paying Off Credit Cards After a Divorce
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - Tips For Paying Off Credit Cards After a Divorce
By: Dani Taylor
After a divorce, you’re left with a tangle of emotions to sort out. On top of that, most individuals are also left with a tangle of debt to pay off as well. While it can seem as if you will never get things straightened out, you will! This article discusses important tips and one of the most effective ways of paying off credit card debts after a divorce.
First, Gather Each of Your Credit Card Statements
The first thing you need to do is gather the most current credit card statements you have. Grab a notebook so that you can make notes. Find out which one of your cards has the highest balance. You also want to know which one has the highest APR or Annual Percentage Rate. When you find the one with the highest APR and payment, list it on your paper first. Continue down the line, with the last credit card being the one with the lowest APR and balance. Beside each credit card, list the balance due and the minimum payment amount.
Now, Start Getting Rid of Your Debt
Now that you have established the highest interest rate cards, your job is to pay them off starting with the highest interest rate. Pay more than the minimum payment on the first card – in fact, pay all you can afford to pay without neglecting the other minimum payments. This will help you get the highest interest card paid off first. Once you have that card paid off, you can remove it from the list, cut the card into pieces (optional) and then move onto the next card on your list. By using this method, you will effectively cut through your credit card debt.
What About Once the Cards are Paid Off?
Credit cards are dangerous. It’s just too easy to pay for something that you don’t have the money for, use them when you really, really want something expensive and other situations that can get you into trouble. While most people should probably have one credit card in order to pay for emergency situations or to build credit, there is no need for more than one. If you can’t pay for the item you’re purchasing, don’t purchase it. Getting rid of your credit cards will keep you from accumulating another pile of debt that you just don’t need. It’s up to you whether you want to keep them or get rid of them, but cutting up your credit cards brings a freedom that feels great!
Credit card debt is nasty, nasty business and if you use the tips above, you can effectively get rid of your debt in a way that will save you more money. You can also pay off your credit card debt more quickly and get back to a life of freedom. You will definitely feel more stress free once you’ve paid off your debts and the collectors stop calling and writing letters. Use the tips above to achieve that freedom!
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
By: Dani Taylor
After a divorce, you’re left with a tangle of emotions to sort out. On top of that, most individuals are also left with a tangle of debt to pay off as well. While it can seem as if you will never get things straightened out, you will! This article discusses important tips and one of the most effective ways of paying off credit card debts after a divorce.
First, Gather Each of Your Credit Card Statements
The first thing you need to do is gather the most current credit card statements you have. Grab a notebook so that you can make notes. Find out which one of your cards has the highest balance. You also want to know which one has the highest APR or Annual Percentage Rate. When you find the one with the highest APR and payment, list it on your paper first. Continue down the line, with the last credit card being the one with the lowest APR and balance. Beside each credit card, list the balance due and the minimum payment amount.
Now, Start Getting Rid of Your Debt
Now that you have established the highest interest rate cards, your job is to pay them off starting with the highest interest rate. Pay more than the minimum payment on the first card – in fact, pay all you can afford to pay without neglecting the other minimum payments. This will help you get the highest interest card paid off first. Once you have that card paid off, you can remove it from the list, cut the card into pieces (optional) and then move onto the next card on your list. By using this method, you will effectively cut through your credit card debt.
What About Once the Cards are Paid Off?
Credit cards are dangerous. It’s just too easy to pay for something that you don’t have the money for, use them when you really, really want something expensive and other situations that can get you into trouble. While most people should probably have one credit card in order to pay for emergency situations or to build credit, there is no need for more than one. If you can’t pay for the item you’re purchasing, don’t purchase it. Getting rid of your credit cards will keep you from accumulating another pile of debt that you just don’t need. It’s up to you whether you want to keep them or get rid of them, but cutting up your credit cards brings a freedom that feels great!
Credit card debt is nasty, nasty business and if you use the tips above, you can effectively get rid of your debt in a way that will save you more money. You can also pay off your credit card debt more quickly and get back to a life of freedom. You will definitely feel more stress free once you’ve paid off your debts and the collectors stop calling and writing letters. Use the tips above to achieve that freedom!
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta GA Military Divorce Attorney - For families, toughest times may lie ahead
Augusta GA Military Divorce Attorney - For families, toughest times may lie ahead
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jun 5, 2009 6:22:53 EDT
The wife of the Army chief of staff warned Wednesday that the worst problems for military families may lie ahead.
Sheila Casey, the wife of Army Gen. George Casey Jr., said in testimony before a Senate panel that military families are tough and generally resilient, but the cumulative effects of eight years of war are showing.
“Families are stretched and stressed,” she said. “I often refer to them as the most brittle part of the force. ... We can no longer ask them to make the best of it.”
Her fear that the worst is yet to come is based on her belief that the current stress levels are causing some families to avoid dealing with issues that will resurface when the pace of deployments drops.
“What I hear from people is they don’t have time to divorce,” she said.
A crisis is avoidable if the services put in place strong and fully funded family programs — health, education and employment — that get even more resources when families most need it, she said.
The families that may need help the most are the youngest — those who “don’t enough time together to build strong bonds,” she said.
Casey’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services personnel panel comes at a time when the Obama White House, Defense Department and Congress are all looking at ways to improve family support.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jun 5, 2009 6:22:53 EDT
The wife of the Army chief of staff warned Wednesday that the worst problems for military families may lie ahead.
Sheila Casey, the wife of Army Gen. George Casey Jr., said in testimony before a Senate panel that military families are tough and generally resilient, but the cumulative effects of eight years of war are showing.
“Families are stretched and stressed,” she said. “I often refer to them as the most brittle part of the force. ... We can no longer ask them to make the best of it.”
Her fear that the worst is yet to come is based on her belief that the current stress levels are causing some families to avoid dealing with issues that will resurface when the pace of deployments drops.
“What I hear from people is they don’t have time to divorce,” she said.
A crisis is avoidable if the services put in place strong and fully funded family programs — health, education and employment — that get even more resources when families most need it, she said.
The families that may need help the most are the youngest — those who “don’t enough time together to build strong bonds,” she said.
Casey’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services personnel panel comes at a time when the Obama White House, Defense Department and Congress are all looking at ways to improve family support.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta GA Divorce Lawyer - Fewer divorces during financial gloom?
Augusta GA Divorce Lawyer - Fewer divorces during financial gloom?
LONDON (Reuters) - Fewer British couples are filing for divorce as a sharp drop in property prices makes it hard for couples to sell a joint home, and the credit crunch dampens a desire to fund two separate households, a study shows.
The study, published by Grant Thornton accountants, showed that almost half of all surveyed matrimonial lawyers believe the numbers of divorces has slumped -- and will continue to do so -- because of the financial squeeze.
"Lawyers believe they will see less couples filing for divorce during the credit crunch," said Robert Kerr, partner at Grant Thornton's Forensic and Investigation Services.
"Reasons vary but certainly the financial carve-up that follows a divorce settlement will be at the forefront of a couple's minds when contemplating divorce," he added.
Data published by the Office for National Statistics earlier this year showed that the number of people getting divorced fell from 12.2 per 1,000 couples in 2006 to 11.9 in 2007, and is currently at a 26-year low.
The survey also found newlyweds are increasingly eager to settle financial agreements ahead of tying the knot, and are steering away from pre-nuptial "lump sum agreements" which do not take the falling value of assets into account. "I can only imagine that this trend will continue to rise particularly in an economic downturn when people feel increasingly vulnerable about their financial position," said Kerr.
The number of couples that cite financial problems as a factor in their split has more than doubled in the past two years, but still lags behind other reasons including extra marital affairs, abuse, mid-life crises and other family strains, the study found.
"There is also an increasing number of people who decide to co-habit but not marry," Grant Thornton spokeswoman Suvra Datta said, but was unable to comment on whether this was down to people being less able to afford the cost of a wedding.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
LONDON (Reuters) - Fewer British couples are filing for divorce as a sharp drop in property prices makes it hard for couples to sell a joint home, and the credit crunch dampens a desire to fund two separate households, a study shows.
The study, published by Grant Thornton accountants, showed that almost half of all surveyed matrimonial lawyers believe the numbers of divorces has slumped -- and will continue to do so -- because of the financial squeeze.
"Lawyers believe they will see less couples filing for divorce during the credit crunch," said Robert Kerr, partner at Grant Thornton's Forensic and Investigation Services.
"Reasons vary but certainly the financial carve-up that follows a divorce settlement will be at the forefront of a couple's minds when contemplating divorce," he added.
Data published by the Office for National Statistics earlier this year showed that the number of people getting divorced fell from 12.2 per 1,000 couples in 2006 to 11.9 in 2007, and is currently at a 26-year low.
The survey also found newlyweds are increasingly eager to settle financial agreements ahead of tying the knot, and are steering away from pre-nuptial "lump sum agreements" which do not take the falling value of assets into account. "I can only imagine that this trend will continue to rise particularly in an economic downturn when people feel increasingly vulnerable about their financial position," said Kerr.
The number of couples that cite financial problems as a factor in their split has more than doubled in the past two years, but still lags behind other reasons including extra marital affairs, abuse, mid-life crises and other family strains, the study found.
"There is also an increasing number of people who decide to co-habit but not marry," Grant Thornton spokeswoman Suvra Datta said, but was unable to comment on whether this was down to people being less able to afford the cost of a wedding.
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - The Right to Divorce
Augusta GA Divorce Attorney - The Right to Divorce
By MARCELLE S. FISCHLER
WHEN C. C. married C. M. in Massachusetts in 2005, they expected the marriage to be forever. The lesbian couple, who lived together on the Upper East Side, had been in a relationship for five years.
“We had an incredible relationship,” recalled C. M., 39. “We had a very strong foundation.”
A year after their marriage, C. M. gave birth to a daughter, now 2 years old, and her partner adopted the baby. They asked that their names not be published to protect their daughter’s privacy.
But tensions set in, straining the marriage. There were health and financial issues, and the “stress of a same-sex marriage.”
Misery replaced wedded bliss, and in December 2007, C. C., now 34, moved out.
At first it wasn’t clear how hard breaking up would be. They sought legal advice for how to handle custody, child support and maintenance. New York does not allow same-sex couples to marry within its jurisdiction, but its governor has issued an order requiring state agencies to recognize such marriages legally performed elsewhere. (Also, on May 12, the State Assembly passed a bill to legalize it and the bill now awaits its fate in the State Senate.)
But last October, in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Justice Rosalyn H. Richter granted C. C. and C. M. a divorce (using their initials in the documents), making it the first such dissolution of a same-sex marriage in New York of a couple who had married in the United States. The decision recognized that the marriage was valid in Massachusetts, where it was contracted.
The divorce came on the heels of a decision in February 2008, by Acting Supreme Court Justice Laura E. Drager in Manhattan, allowing the divorce proceedings in another same-sex case to move forward, requiring the recognition of a same-sex marriage that had taken place in Canada. There has since been a trickle of gay divorces in New York.
So with the attention long focused on the rights of gays and lesbians to marry their partners, the couples often don’t consider the dark side: What happens if it doesn’t work out? said David L. Mejias, a matrimonial lawyer in Glen Cove, N.Y.
In New York, a six-month residency is required for a divorce, if the marriage was performed legally elsewhere.
Susan Sommer, the director of constitutional litigation at Lambda Legal, a gay rights organization, said that while divorce is “a painful and sometimes bitter process, having access to the structure of laws determines how you pull apart one of the most financially intertwined relationships and also gives you a neutral arbiter, a judge, to help navigate.”
C. M. said it was “devastating that we couldn’t marry in New York but could divorce here.”
“Why shouldn’t we be as miserable or as happy as the rest of the world?” she asked.
Nancy Chemtob, the lawyer who represented her, said “it was really like doing a heterosexual divorce.” Among the issues were life insurance, child support, alimony and visitation rights, and agreeing on schools.
Other states that don’t allow gay marriage have been struggling with whether to grant divorces for marriages performed in states that do. In February, a judge in New Jersey ruled that gay marriages performed outside the state are recognized in New Jersey in the case of divorce. But courts in Rhode Island and judges in Oklahoma and Texas have refused to grant divorces. And last month, the California Supreme Court upheld the state’s ban on gay marriage, but the ruling said the 18,000 existing marriages of same-sex couples can stand.
Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said those couples continue to be “entitled to be treated as married in every respect, including being able to go to court and dissolve their marriage.”
Meanwhile more states are legalizing or considering legalizing same-sex marriage. It became legal in Iowa in April, and Vermont will be the latest of the New England states to permit it when its law goes into effect Sept. 1.
David Greenan, a psychologist, family therapist and an assistant professor at Teachers College at Columbia, said that a more formal divorce process can be psychologically beneficial for a couple who choose not to continue their relationship and “helps to create a ritual of separation, a ritual for disengagement.”
That same-sex couples can’t marry but can divorce is “an incredibly negative destabilizing message,” Dr. Greenan said, that “somehow you don’t have equal rights.” He added, “Inadvertently the message is ‘We’ll help you to separate; we just won’t help you to get together.’ ”
Before Tom Hroncich of Islip, N.Y., could marry a second time in January, he had to get a divorce from a previous longtime partner, whom he declined to identify to spare him further grief. The couple had legally married when same-sex rights were extended in Canada in 2004.
Their enthusiasm over the fact that they could marry was not matched by what was happening in their private lives. “It wasn’t so blissful,” he said. He thought the sanctity of an official marriage would “help the relationship.” When it didn’t, they separated.
Not long after, Mr. Hroncich, a lawyer and the publisher of Outlook-Long Island, a monthly gay magazine, met John Malanga. Soon after, they moved in together.
When Mr. Malanga asked Mr. Hroncich to be in a committed relationship, there was a hitch. Mr. Hroncich was still married.
That marriage was dissolved on Dec. 3 in the New York courts.
He and Mr. Malanga were then married legally in Mystic, Conn., on Jan. 3. Mr. Hroncich, 41, who took his partner’s surname, is now known as Tom Malanga.
Tom Malanga said the ability to get a divorce “was an enormous help” in sealing his relationship with his new spouse.
C. C., who has custody of her daughter one night a week and every other weekend, said she didn’t consider marriage with the thought that “one day I will get divorced.”
“It is just like every other relationship,” she said. “We are not in fairytale land. It’s real. Sometimes it doesn’t work out.”
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
By MARCELLE S. FISCHLER
WHEN C. C. married C. M. in Massachusetts in 2005, they expected the marriage to be forever. The lesbian couple, who lived together on the Upper East Side, had been in a relationship for five years.
“We had an incredible relationship,” recalled C. M., 39. “We had a very strong foundation.”
A year after their marriage, C. M. gave birth to a daughter, now 2 years old, and her partner adopted the baby. They asked that their names not be published to protect their daughter’s privacy.
But tensions set in, straining the marriage. There were health and financial issues, and the “stress of a same-sex marriage.”
Misery replaced wedded bliss, and in December 2007, C. C., now 34, moved out.
At first it wasn’t clear how hard breaking up would be. They sought legal advice for how to handle custody, child support and maintenance. New York does not allow same-sex couples to marry within its jurisdiction, but its governor has issued an order requiring state agencies to recognize such marriages legally performed elsewhere. (Also, on May 12, the State Assembly passed a bill to legalize it and the bill now awaits its fate in the State Senate.)
But last October, in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Justice Rosalyn H. Richter granted C. C. and C. M. a divorce (using their initials in the documents), making it the first such dissolution of a same-sex marriage in New York of a couple who had married in the United States. The decision recognized that the marriage was valid in Massachusetts, where it was contracted.
The divorce came on the heels of a decision in February 2008, by Acting Supreme Court Justice Laura E. Drager in Manhattan, allowing the divorce proceedings in another same-sex case to move forward, requiring the recognition of a same-sex marriage that had taken place in Canada. There has since been a trickle of gay divorces in New York.
So with the attention long focused on the rights of gays and lesbians to marry their partners, the couples often don’t consider the dark side: What happens if it doesn’t work out? said David L. Mejias, a matrimonial lawyer in Glen Cove, N.Y.
In New York, a six-month residency is required for a divorce, if the marriage was performed legally elsewhere.
Susan Sommer, the director of constitutional litigation at Lambda Legal, a gay rights organization, said that while divorce is “a painful and sometimes bitter process, having access to the structure of laws determines how you pull apart one of the most financially intertwined relationships and also gives you a neutral arbiter, a judge, to help navigate.”
C. M. said it was “devastating that we couldn’t marry in New York but could divorce here.”
“Why shouldn’t we be as miserable or as happy as the rest of the world?” she asked.
Nancy Chemtob, the lawyer who represented her, said “it was really like doing a heterosexual divorce.” Among the issues were life insurance, child support, alimony and visitation rights, and agreeing on schools.
Other states that don’t allow gay marriage have been struggling with whether to grant divorces for marriages performed in states that do. In February, a judge in New Jersey ruled that gay marriages performed outside the state are recognized in New Jersey in the case of divorce. But courts in Rhode Island and judges in Oklahoma and Texas have refused to grant divorces. And last month, the California Supreme Court upheld the state’s ban on gay marriage, but the ruling said the 18,000 existing marriages of same-sex couples can stand.
Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said those couples continue to be “entitled to be treated as married in every respect, including being able to go to court and dissolve their marriage.”
Meanwhile more states are legalizing or considering legalizing same-sex marriage. It became legal in Iowa in April, and Vermont will be the latest of the New England states to permit it when its law goes into effect Sept. 1.
David Greenan, a psychologist, family therapist and an assistant professor at Teachers College at Columbia, said that a more formal divorce process can be psychologically beneficial for a couple who choose not to continue their relationship and “helps to create a ritual of separation, a ritual for disengagement.”
That same-sex couples can’t marry but can divorce is “an incredibly negative destabilizing message,” Dr. Greenan said, that “somehow you don’t have equal rights.” He added, “Inadvertently the message is ‘We’ll help you to separate; we just won’t help you to get together.’ ”
Before Tom Hroncich of Islip, N.Y., could marry a second time in January, he had to get a divorce from a previous longtime partner, whom he declined to identify to spare him further grief. The couple had legally married when same-sex rights were extended in Canada in 2004.
Their enthusiasm over the fact that they could marry was not matched by what was happening in their private lives. “It wasn’t so blissful,” he said. He thought the sanctity of an official marriage would “help the relationship.” When it didn’t, they separated.
Not long after, Mr. Hroncich, a lawyer and the publisher of Outlook-Long Island, a monthly gay magazine, met John Malanga. Soon after, they moved in together.
When Mr. Malanga asked Mr. Hroncich to be in a committed relationship, there was a hitch. Mr. Hroncich was still married.
That marriage was dissolved on Dec. 3 in the New York courts.
He and Mr. Malanga were then married legally in Mystic, Conn., on Jan. 3. Mr. Hroncich, 41, who took his partner’s surname, is now known as Tom Malanga.
Tom Malanga said the ability to get a divorce “was an enormous help” in sealing his relationship with his new spouse.
C. C., who has custody of her daughter one night a week and every other weekend, said she didn’t consider marriage with the thought that “one day I will get divorced.”
“It is just like every other relationship,” she said. “We are not in fairytale land. It’s real. Sometimes it doesn’t work out.”
Alexandra Gonzalez-Waddington is an Augusta GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Augusta Georgia domestic mediator. She is an Augusta military divorce lawyer, GA child custody attorney , and Augusta Georgia child support attorney. She offers mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
Savannah GA Divorce Lawyer - Richmond Hill Military Divorce Attorney
Economy may delay, but not halt divorce
Updated: 06/07/2009 12:21:52 AM EDT
On the day a couple promises to love each other for eternity, the future appears bright and idyllic; the reality that one or the other might someday want out seems remote.
Still, national statistics indicate some 40 percent of all marriages end in divorce. Even with the recent tough economy, the divorce rate has remained relatively steady.
The notion that couples will simply endure misery rather than go their separate ways is not what several local attorneys say they have witnessed. Couples may delay the decision because of its economic consequences, or they may opt to share living quarters longer than they might wish.
Ridgefield lawyer Norman Voog said the economy has slowed the leap from marital malaise to divorce in some couples, particularly those who have children and whose discontent is at least manageable.
The notion of greener pastures is tempered by fears of less income or having to move, so they figure they stay together until the economic tide shifts, he said.
"Starting a divorce, candidly, is like jumping off the cliff," said Voog, who witnessed about a 35 percent slowdown in his divorce business this year.
"It's hard to get back up the cliff once you jump off. So if people are debating whether they want to stay in a marriage, they are less likely to jump in this kind of economic climate than they would perhaps in other times.
But if a couple thinks they need to break up now, local lawyers say they will find ways
to make it happen.
"People definitely do not want to live in misery. That point is very clear," said Danbury divorce lawyer Deborah Grover.
Grover said she witnessed a slowdown in divorce filings in her practice at the beginning of the year, the typical time when prospective clients file.
Between January and May in 2007 and 2008, she had 28 and 29 cases respectively. So far this year she's had 32, only seven of them in January and February, and only six more in March.
The bulk of her cases came in April and May. Most years, March is her busiest month.
State divorce statistics suggest similar trends.
Overall, Grover said her case load has stayed relatively flat over the past two years, which is also consistent with state statistics.
The state Judicial Branch numbers show a slight divorce rate drop between 2006-07 and 2007-08: 13,859 to 13,621. The statistics for this year have yet to be compiled.
What the economy has fueled in some couples is a willingness to be more reasonable about financial demands, so assets can be divided without accumulating major debt just to pay for the divorce, area lawyers said.
People also tend to be more realistic about the personal and financial sacrifices that will be required, including the sale or buyout of the family home, lawyers said.
Savannah GA divorce lawyer & Georgia Military Divorce Lawyer Savannah Georgia domestic mediator. Savannah GA military divorce lawyer, Richmond Hill GA child custody attorney , and Savannah Georgia child support attorney. Mediation for divorce, child custody, and child support.
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