Free Republic

Divorce rates have spiked in the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic as couples have been stuck at home for months. The number of people looking for divorces was 34 percent higher from March through June compared to 2019, according to new data collected Legal Templates, a company that provides legal documents. The combination of stress, unemployment, financial strain, death of loved ones, illness, homeschooling children, mental illnesses, and more has put a significant strain on relationships.

Dubai’s highest court has rejected an appeal by the ex-wife of a Russian billionaire to seize a £350 million ($460 million)superyacht in one of the world’s costliest divorce battles, a court ruling last week said. The Dubai Court of Cassation rejected an appeal by Tatiana Akhmedova, ex-wife of oil and gas billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov, to seize the yacht as part of a 453 million pound divorce bill imposed by London’s High Court. The vessel, the M.V. Luna, was built for Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich before Akhmedov bought it in 2014. It has at least nine decks, space for 50 crew,...

Joe Biden and his wife Jill had an affair that broke up her first marriage, her ex-husband told DailyMail.com Bill Stevenson says that their story about how the presidential candidate fell in love with Jill after a blind date is made up The way the Bidens tell their story, Joe saw a picture of Jill in March 1975 — after her marriage crashed — and they went on a date been together since But Stevenson claims he and his then wife met Biden in 1972, when they worked on then-New Castle Councilman Biden's first campaign for the Senate At the...

Ewan McGregor has to give his ex-wife half of the multi-million fortune he earned during his acting career — including his blockbuster “Star Wars” movies, according to reports of their contentious divorce. The “Trainspotting” star agreed to split with Eve Mavrakis any of his royalties from all of the movies and TV shows before their breakup in May 2017 — when the star was seen kissing “Fargo” co-star Mary Elizabeth Winstead — according to a judgment seen by People magazine. It also includes half the $3,000,000 he earned for “Christopher Robin” which came out in 2018, a year after the...

If you are concerned about the possibility of angry Democrats seeking vengeance upon Trump supporters if they return to power in the White House, the words of MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson are not exactly reassuring. In fact he almost guarantees political purges by Kamala Harris who he claims will look into every facet of government to see out anybody who supported Trump and purge them from office. Johnson even went so far as to claim that judges appointed by Trump would be impeached. After a brief setup on Morning Joe by Mika Brzezinski on Wednesday's Morning Joe about Kamala Harris...

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — Divorce, at any age, can be really messy. Studies are showing that the divorce rate in the U.S. has gone down over the past two decades, but for those over the age of 50, it doubled from 1990 to 2010. More people at an older age calling it quits, which is a term coined "gray divorce". "I think divorce is always complicated, but at an older age, there's a lot more variables," says Theresa Benoit, Owner of the Relationship Therapy Center. Benoit says there are generally two peaks of divorce. The first is within the...

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s wife is asking for the couple’s two homes in their divorce and could walk away with them if he doesn’t contest her request. Veteran family law attorneys said it’s too early to determine whether Chauvin’s wife, Kellie Chauvin, is asking for more than half the couple’s assets because divvying up marital assets is a complicated process. She filed for divorce two days after her husband was charged with murder and manslaughter in the May 25 killing of George Floyd, who died after then-officer Chauvin planted his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes...

Elizabeth Jo Shirley, of Hedgesville, West Virginia, has admitted to unlawfully retaining a document containing national defense information and committing international parental kidnapping, the Department of Justice announced.Shirley, 47, pled guilty to one count of “Willful Retention of National Defense Information” and one count of “International Parental Kidnapping.”  Shirley admitted to unlawfully retaining a National Security Agency (NSA) document containing information classified at the TOP SECRET/SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION (TS/SCI) level relating to the national defense that outlines intelligence information regarding a foreign government’s military and political issues.  Shirley also admitted to removing her child, of whom she was the...

The wife of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of a man in custody, has filed for divorce. Chauvin is the white officer who was seen on video kneeling for several minutes on the neck of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man who pleaded for air until he lost consciousness. Chauvin was fired, along with three other police officers at the scene, and has been criminally charged. According to a statement released by a Minneapolis lawyer, Derek Chauvin’s wife, Kellie Chauvin, “is devastated by Mr. Floyd’s death and her utmost sympathy lies with his family, with...

Well informed citizens have been rocked by revelations from recently unclassified documents that clearly show THAT President Obama "was aware of the details of wiretapped conversations of then-incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December 2016." Further, there's a long list of Democrat dignitaries who are also part of the unprecedented spying on an opposition party in an attempt to influence a presidential election and then undermine the duly elected president. The really pivotal fact, however, is that "Obama's knowledge of Flynn being wiretapped raises significant questions about what Obama knew and when he knew...

“There’s been a re-engineering of priorities,” said Dror Bikel, who has had seven clients within the last month request to withdraw their divorce filings. Veteran divorce lawyer Maggie Kaminer said before COVID-19, in two decades she had two couples withdraw their divorce. Now in recent weeks, “I’ve heard from several clients that they want the lawyers to step back and they want to try and resolve the open issues and not litigate.” Some, like a couple in their 20s, began to mend their fractured two-year marriage after the March 20 shelter-in order. “They were moving toward divorce, no kids. But...

Dr. Jen Villavicencio, an ob-gyn and abortion provider in Michigan, sits six feet away from her husband in her living room after another grueling shift. In a small corner by the door lie her work clothes, which she took off as soon as she got home and before immediately showering. She no longer kisses her husband, touches her husband, or sleeps in the same bed as her husband. They use separate bathrooms and try not to occupy the same room at the same time, and she no longer goes into their kitchen. As the coronavirus pandemic worsens, this is her...

BATON ROUGE- Louisiana State University football coach Ed Orgeron has filed for divorce from his wife Kelly after 23 years. Coach 'O' filed the divorce petition Feb. 26 in the East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court. The petition states he and his wife separated Feb. 24 and have lived separately without reconciliation since that date, nola.com reports. They were married Feb. 19, 1997, and have twins, Parker and Cody Orgeron, that were born Feb. 9, 1998, the petition states. Orgeron says he is entitled to have the exclusive use and occupancy of the former couple's home in Baton Rouge, and...

A Canadian businessman and failed mayoral candidate was thrown in jail for 30 days after telling a judge he burned 1 million Canadian dollars in cash -- in two separate bonfires -- to avoid paying his wife spousal and child support as part of their divorce settlement, according to a report published Tuesday. In an Ottawa Superior Court hearing last week, Bruce McConville, 55, told a judge he withdrew about 1 million Canadian dollars -- about $750,000 USD -- in 25 separate withdrawals from six separate bank accounts. He claimed he then burned the cash in two bonfires – $743,000...

David was one of the remarkable men of the Old Testament. He was a capable musician and beloved poet. He excelled as a military leader and king. And as “a man after God’s own heart” he was an exceptional religious leader. Yet, in spite of his illustrious achievements, Israel’s greatest king was not without some grievous faults — not the least of which was his shameful conduct with Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11:1-27). As the Pharisees of Jesus’ day possessed a diabolical skill at twisting the Scriptures to justify their own evil desires, even so, some today are equally adept at...

A Kansas man has asked an Iowa judge to let him engage in a sword fight with his ex-wife and her attorney so that he can “rend their souls” from their bodies. David Ostrom, 40, of Paola, Kansas, said in a Jan. 3 court filing that his former wife, Bridgette Ostrom, 38, of Harlan, Iowa, and her attorney, Matthew Hudson, had “destroyed (him) legally.” The Ostroms have been embroiled in disputes over custody and visitation issues and property tax payments. The judge had the power to let the parties “resolve our disputes on the field of battle, legally," David Ostrom...

Marriage was instituted by God with Adam and Eve, one man, one woman and was given to all races. After the fall of man, marriage got all screwed up, and the devil has been at war on marriage and families ever since. When Jesus came he did something new for those who believed in him. He made marriage a sacrament. If non-Christians get married it is a "natural marriage." It is valid but it is not a sacrament. When Christians get married properly, there is a special kind of power from the Holy Spirit that lands on them and permanently...

Our First Amendment means that, even though the Supreme Court found a constitutional right to same sex marriage, that new right applies only to the government's relationship with citizens. From Obergefell forward, to the extent states and the federal government recognize traditional marriage, they must also recognize same sex marriage. Thanks to the First  Amendment, though, religious institutions cannot be forced to change their doctrines to conform to the Supreme Court’s holding. In the case of the United Methodist Church, the church opted not to recognize (or officiate at) same sex marriages. It also has refused to ordain openly gay people...

The man who fatally shot two people at a White Settlement Church on Sunday before being killed by church security has been identified as a 43-year-old Keith Thomas Kinnunen, a River Oaks man with a criminal record, according to two law enforcement sources. Kinnunen is believed to have been wearing a disguise, including a fake beard, when he stood up, pulled a shotgun from his clothing and opened fire inside the church, killing 64-year-old Anton Wallace, a church deacon from Fort Worth, and 67-year-old Richard White, of River Oaks.

Common life events that can cause homelessness You’ve heard it before: the root cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing. That’s still true. However, anyone can become homeless. Setting aside the structural factors and systemic failures, here are the most common individual causes of homelessness. Because this is a more personal look at the subject, I’ve included examples of someone who became homeless in these various ways. Eviction or Foreclosure Unsurprisingly, losing your home can result in homelessness. It did for William when he lost his Detroit home to foreclosure in 2007 while undergoing treatment for colon cancer....