Divorce

The California Supreme Court on Thursday shifted the balance in fights between divorced parents with a ruling that eases the way for a parent with custody -- usually the mother -- to move away over her former mate's objections. Anthony Yana, a divorced father from San Luis Obispo County, tried to prevent his ex-wife from moving to Nevada with their 12-year-old son, Cameron. The ex-wife, Nicole Brown, who had full custody of the child, had remarried and her new husband had a job in Las Vegas.

AFTER more than two decades of marriage, Jon Lind and his wife had not just one home to split up upon their divorce, but two. She happily took the house in New England. He gladly took the three-bedroom Hancock Park ranch on the double lot. That was the easy decision.

Newly released documents in the divorce proceedings of Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III reveal harsh battles with his former wife, Stacey, over how to divide the couple's $1 billion in community property, his alleged drug use and her relationship with the family's former security chief. The documents show that Stacey Nicholas' recent efforts to force a trial to divide the estate have been complicated by the pending criminal prosecution of Henry Nicholas. Federal indictments have accused Nicholas of distributing illegal drugs to friends and business associates, and of manipulating Broadcom stock options to secretly provide $2.2 billion in benefits to employees of the Irvine microchip company.

Outside her Bel-Air home, Nancy Reagan stood arm in arm with John McCain and offered a significant -- but less than exuberant -- endorsement. "Ronnie and I always waited until everything was decided, and then we endorsed," the Republican matriarch said in March. "Well, obviously this is the nominee of the party." They were the only words she would speak during the five-minute photo op. In a written statement, she described McCain as "a good friend for over 30 years."

A Los Angeles court late Friday unsealed documents revealing details of billionaire Ronald W. Burkle's bitter divorce fight -- records that he went to extraordinary lengths over the last three years to keep private. The 1,200 pages of documents were made public two days after the California Supreme Court rejected Burkle's effort to keep them under seal, which he said was necessary to protect the safety of his children.

Frank McCourt had the breakfast crowd eating out of his hand. The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce honored him Thursday for extending the Los Angeles Marathon to the Santa Monica Pier, and the Dodgers' owner stood up to say thank you. "It's been a very quiet off-season for me," McCourt said, as the room erupted in laughter. McCourt emerged from his self-imposed silence last week, granting his first interviews since his acrimonious divorce proceedings started three months ago, just as baseball's winter shopping season got underway.

During his 25 years of marriage, Thomas Rossi never saw a marriage counselor, never strayed and never doubted a relationship so close that he shared an electric toothbrush with his wife, he said. Then Denise Rossi shocked him by demanding a divorce. And she wanted it in a hurry. Now he knows why: On Dec. 28, 1996--just 11 days before she filed for divorce--Denise Rossi won $1.3 million in the California Lottery. She told no one in her divorce case, and Monday her secret caught up with her.

The battle for Los Angeles' storied baseball team hit the courts Tuesday when former Dodgers chief executive Jamie McCourt filed a divorce petition laying claim to half of the team and other assets she valued at more than $1 billion. In the petition, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Jamie McCourt claimed irreconcilable differences and asked for immediate reinstatement to the job from which her husband, Frank, fired her a week ago. Frank McCourt countered with his own filing, asking the court to declare him the sole owner of the team at once, then handle the larger divorce case later.

On the morning of May 26, 2004, Cassandra Ormiston and her long-time partner Margaret Chambers arose early, hopped in the car and raced across the border into Massachusetts. Then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage, had already ordered some Massachusetts cities to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples who lived outside the state, and Ormiston and Chambers hoped to get to nearby Fall River before the ban took effect there. By afternoon, they were married.

EVERYBODY IN LA JOLLA knew the Brodericks. Daniel T. Broderick III and his wife, Betty, seemed to have a classic society-page marriage. Dan was a celebrity in local legal circles. Armed with degrees from both Harvard Law School and Cornell School of Medicine, the prominent malpractice attorney was aggressive, persuasive and cunning--a $1-million-a-year lawyer at the top of his game.

Frank McCourt had the breakfast crowd eating out of his hand. The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce honored him Thursday for extending the Los Angeles Marathon to the Santa Monica Pier, and the Dodgers' owner stood up to say thank you. "It's been a very quiet off-season for me," McCourt said, as the room erupted in laughter. McCourt emerged from his self-imposed silence last week, granting his first interviews since his acrimonious divorce proceedings started three months ago, just as baseball's winter shopping season got underway.

Dear Amy: When my husband and I divorced more than two years ago, I gave him nine months to move out of my house. He's still here. He claims that he has no money, and he doesn't. He gambled it all away in the stock market after our divorce. My ex-husband is rude. He belittles me and trashes me. He is manic-depressive. He wakes me at 3 a.m. to berate me about my shortcomings. He pays very little in living expenses; he just buys some groceries and pays the cable bill.

Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons and his estranged wife reached a divorce settlement Monday, quashing a potentially embarrassing public trial, but the couple's protracted -- and messy -- legal battle may have irreparably damaged his chances for reelection. The settlement, which resolved 18 months of sparring over alimony and shared property, spared Gibbons four days of testimony about his finances, and possibly his fidelity, in a city once renowned as America's divorce capital. Though Nevada is a no-fault divorce state, Dawn Gibbons, in a series of court filings, had accused her husband of using her to further his political career and of having at least two affairs, one with a former Playboy model.

As the media frenzy enveloping Tiger Woods found new life Thursday with unidentified sources saying that his wife was poised to file for divorce, the Woods saga shifted to questions of how the couple would divide not only custody of their two young children but one of the biggest fortunes in professional sports. And the outcome likely would depend on several factors, including where the case is filed and the language of any prenuptial agreement between the world's No. 1 golfer and his wife, Elin Nordegren, experts in family law said.

As a May 24 trial date was set to determine who owns the Dodgers, the lawyer for Jamie McCourt called into question Frank McCourt's bookkeeping and promised "bombshell" allegations against him. "Mr. McCourt is not spending all of his income on his family and on the team," attorney Dennis Wasser said at Tuesday's hearing. Wasser declined to elaborate, other than to say he intends to present those allegations to debunk McCourt's claims that he is low on cash. Wasser opened his statement by saying that Frank McCourt had contracted RAIDS: "recently acquired income deficiency syndrome."

Divorce: Meghan Daum's column Thursday said that supporters of an initiative banning divorce were seeking to get it on the ballot in March. The election is in June. Rights : An Op-Ed article Monday on the Bill of Rights said it was ratified 118 years ago. It was ratified 218 years ago.

Not to dump the gory details of my life on you, dear readers, but I recently married. This occasion had been preceded by many years and many manifestations of commitment phobia, not least of all the persistent if irrational thought that, despite all evidence to the contrary (I am nearing 40), I was simply too young to get hitched. FOR THE RECORD: Divorce: Meghan Daum's column Thursday said that supporters of an initiative banning divorce were seeking to get it on the ballot in March.

Frank and Jamie McCourt have "amicably resolved" the issue of how much money the Dodgers owner should pay to support his estranged wife for now, his lawyers said in a court filing Tuesday. The filing did not specify how the issue had been resolved. Jamie McCourt had asked for $488,000 per month in temporary spousal support. The "interim support" settlement would postpone a hearing scheduled for Tuesday, and clear one hurdle toward resolving the major legal question: Who owns the Dodgers?

In the latest filing in his contentious divorce, Frank McCourt said his personal account was low on cash, raising new questions about the team's ability to sign top players and retain the core of the National League West champions. Responding to his estranged wife Jamie's request for monthly financial support, McCourt said his checking account had fallen as low as $167,000 in recent weeks, before he received $1 million from a quarterly distribution. In a separate filing, Jeffrey Ingram, chief operating officer of the McCourt Group, said McCourt's annual income from the team is capped at $5 million under a credit agreement with Bank of America.

Commissioner Bud Selig said the Dodgers were "in good hands" for now but refused to offer assurances to fans worried that the McCourt divorce saga could compromise the future of the club. Baseball's owners held their quarterly meetings here today, with Jamie McCourt absent from sessions she had attended regularly. Frank McCourt last month fired his estranged wife as chief executive, and she cannot continue to serve on ownership committees so long as she is not involved in club management, said a high-ranking baseball official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of pending legal proceedings.