Free Republic

Kern County Auditor-Controller-County Clerk Ann Barnett repeatedly tried to avoid licensing and performing marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples, interviews and e-mails obtained by The Californian show. At her request, County Counsel Bernard Barmann filed a brief with the California Supreme Court opposing implementation of the May 15 ruling allowing gay marriage. She tried to resign her elected position as county clerk — while keeping her positions as auditor-controller and elections boss. “She really wanted to get rid of it,” Barmann said. And finally, when the ruling came down Wednesday that she had to license same-sex marriages, she decided to stop...

FILM stars Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, once anointed Hollywood's golden couple, have filed to formally end their four-year marriage. Pitt and Aniston, who were married on July 29, 2000 in a celebrity-studded ceremony in Malibu, ended their divorce proceedings on Friday by quietly filing dissolution papers with a Los Angeles court. "Judgment of dissolution is entered," the papers state. "Marital or domestic partnership status is terminated and the parties are restored to the status of single persons." The papers list October 2, 2005 as the date that the divorce becomes final and note that Aniston and Pitt have reached...