Last updated: June 22, 2012 8:18 pm
Source: www.ft.com
London 2012 Olympics: extra tickets put on sale - Daily Telegraph
From 11am on Friday tickets will be available to buy for gymnastics, tennis, basketball, road cycling, volleyball, beach volleyball, taekwondo and archery from http://www.tickets.london2012.com/.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
O.C. divorce rate one of highest in nation - msnbc.com
Here's a marriage tip: Don't come home and announce, "So, I was talking with this divorce mediator today..."
That is, don't say something like that unless either you're columnist wanting to eat dinner alone or are really serious about breaking up. But if you are serious, you're not alone.
Orange County has one of the highest divorce rates in the nation. On average, 33 people in the O.C. initiate divorce proceedings every day -- including weekends.
That's a lot of broken vows, broken homes and broken hearts.
True, life can be like a country song. Many find happiness after dumping their lyin', cheatin', thievin' spouses.
But as I sit down with a divorce mediator to learn about one of society's most popular rituals, I wonder if this woman is some sort of bottom feeder. After all, she makes a living helping families break apart.
By the time I accidentally freak out my wife, I have new thoughts on divorce.
I'll admit I walk into divorce mediator Lynne Diamond 's office with a bias, a bias I still have when I get home -- really honey!
My take on marriage problems is as simple as a magazine tip I read long ago: Within five years, the problem likely will gone. Of course, there may be a new problem. But there also is a deep richness to having a shared history, a shared future -- and having weathered struggles.
Just as country songs capture the joys and aches of marriage, country roads reflect the realities. Most marriages have rough patches, some are short, some are, well, not so short.
But Diamond, with 17 years as a divorce mediator, explains that marriage for many is rougher than the worst country road. Regardless of her role, the vast majority of her clients are going to get divorced.
For Diamond, who has dual master's degrees from Columbia University in education and counseling, the goals are to reduce the stress, speed the process and keep down costs.
Despite having mediated thousands of divorces, emotions sometimes get in the way. Her most difficult cases? When a spouse hires an attorney.
With a law degree from Concord Law School, Diamond is quick to explain she has nothing against divorce lawyers. But they are costly, and not just for couples.
If you're like me, you focus so much on taxpayer costs for criminal courts, you forget taxpayer costs for family court. As Diamond points out, court fees typically are under $1,000 whether you have a few filings or dozens.
I pour over a six-page list of one couple with 31 court filings. He ended up calling his attorney so she called hers. Attorney fees, Diamond says, totaled $150,000 for each spouse. The cost to taxpayers?
Custody evaluations alone average $10,000.
And those figures don't include the emotional costs most couples face.
The national divorce rate is about 50 percent. In California, it's 60 percent. According to the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, in Orange County it's 70 percent.
I admit that the D-word has floated through our house. "Most couples," says Diamond who has never been divorced, "think about it."
But thinking and doing are a lifestyle apart. Diamond tells of one woman who looked forward to greener pastures on the other side of divorce. "But all she discovered was dirt."
A trained mediator, Diamond doesn't sugarcoat her business. "The impact of divorce is devastating."
A mother of two sons, she explains that the ripple effects of divorce are exactly what led her to launch Divorce Wizards Inc. It was the early '90s and Diamond was a vice president with Merrill Lynch. She left for new beginnings and happened to witness a series of divorces on her cul de sac in San Clemente.
"My heart went out to those children," Diamond recalls. "There were 3-year-olds who didn't know what home to go to."
In 1997, Diamond founded one of the first online divorce sites as an alternative to hiring attorneys. Even with a proliferation of do-it-yourself Web sites, she estimates that today 90 percent of her clients see her in person.
Source: www.msnbc.msn.com
London 2012: Formula One a possibility at the Olympic Stadium - The Guardian
A Formula One race could be staged in and around the Olympic Stadium after it was reported a bid for the future use of the venue included such plans for the showpiece arena of the London 2012 Games.
The Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has long harboured hopes of staging a race in London and he has confirmed the prospective bidders have run their ideas past him.
Intelligent Transport Solutions Ltd, based at Wanstead in east London, is among five bidders who have put forward plans for the future use of the stadium to the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC).
"This is a firm that happened to be bidding for use of the stadium, not to own it," Ecclestone told the Daily Telegraph. "They came up with a scheme whereby Formula One would race around the stadium, inside it, outside it. They wanted to make sure I would be interested."
The LLDC has also received bids from the football clubs West Ham and Leyton Orient, as well as the University of East London, whose bid includes a cricket academy for Essex CCC, and the University College of Football Business, who are an affiliate of Bucks New University.
West Ham had originally been selected as tenants before a legal challenge from Tottenham led to the process being started a second time.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
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