A study of about 9,000 people over a period of several years concludes that divorcees and never-marrieds are a bit more physically fit than married couples.

According to treadmill performance testing and physical examinations, both men and women experience a decline in cardiovascular wellness during marriage.

Men who divorced during the study improved their fitness level. Women, who represented a much smaller segment of the population studied, did not exhibit the increase in fitness upon divorce. But other variables can explain that.

The study does not demonstrate causality between marital status and fitness. It is believed that social factors are the driving forces: dating singles pay greater attention to their physical fitness and settled couples tend to be more relaxed about it.

Women who were single throughout the study tended to become more fit over time. Both married and single men’s fitness diminished over time, but more so for married men.

Scientists conclude that people must be mindful of how life changes affect fitness and plan accordingly.

Read more in this Reuters article: Is marriage bad for your physical fitness?.

UK Husband and Wife divorce.

Husband, a multi-millionaire, allegedly “overlooks” some assets in his required disclosures … about 2 million pounds’ worth.

Such as three gold bars smuggled out of Austria in the 1930s, and offshore bank accounts.

Husband claims not to have the “overlooked” assets.

The divorce court doesn’t buy that.

And awards Wife 2.4 million pounds.

Husband appeals.

The appellate court dismisses Husband’s appeal of the divorce trial court’s property award to Wife.

Husband now lives in Florida …

Read more in this UK Daily Mail article: Wife wins battle of the Nazi gold: £2.4m divorce payout after husband hid assets.

A family court judge in Canada was presiding over a divorce involving a minor Child.

This divorce court judge apparently found that:

1. Wife tried to run Husband over with a van.

2. Wife’s relatives have made threats against Husband.

3. Husband is verbally abusive.

4. Wife has alienated Child from Husband.

5. Husband has no clue how to parent.

This family court judge has served on the bench for fifteen years.

And this particular case appears to have gotten to him.

So much so that he wrote a scathing thirty-one page opinion taking both Husband and Wife to task for their behavior toward each other and their Child.

On a roll, the divorce court judge even has at the Canadian family court legal system.

The lengthy vent may have improved this family court judge’s mood, but it did not conclude Husband and Wife’s case.

It would be interesting to know whether it made any impression on Husband and Wife.

Read more in this [Canadian] Globe and Mail article: In family court, a judge turns to ridicule to defuse the rage.

Michigan Husband and Wife are going through a divorce.

They have three Sons ranging in age from 5 to 9 years old.

Husband has the Sons for timesharing on Thanksgiving.

Afterward, Husband does not return Sons to Wife, variously claiming that he handed the boys over to a woman he knows through the internet or to an “organization”.

Husband reportedly tries to commit suicide the next day.

Husband insists that Sons are OK but that he is protecting them from Wife, who he asserts is sexually abusing Sons.

Husband is arrested on charges of parental kidnapping, a misdemeanor.

Read more in this Toledo WTOL CBS TV 11 news article: Father of missing Morenci boys arraigned in Michigan and this CBS TV News article: John Skelton Waives Right to Key Hearing.

Some New York children don’t get to see their fathers regularly.

It’s not because their parents have divorced, or voluntarily parted company.

It’s because their fathers are incarcerated.

For these dads and their children, the New York Department of Corrections has launched a program called “Daddy and Me”.

The program gets fathers reading children’s books, and recording the stories for their children.

At the conclusion of the program, the children will come to the jail and their fathers will present them with the CDs the dads recorded for their children.

The program’s primary, stated purpose is to promote literacy.

But it offers the implicit additional fringe benefit of fostering parent-child bonds.

Read more in this New York Times article: ‘Daddy, Read for Me’.

A couple marry in Massachusetts. The couple adopt a child.

The couple move to Texas. One partner files for divorce.

The divorce culminates in a two day trial deciding proerty division and parenting of the couple’s child.

The family court in Austin, Texas grants the couple’s divorce. Subsequently, the Texas Attorney General intervenes to challenge the divorce.

The couple are lesbians. And Texas does not recognize homosexual marriages.

Where there is no legally valid marriage, there can be no divorce. Or so the Attorney General maintains.

And so an appellate court in Dallas concluded on similar facts. But that was Dallas.

Once the intermediate level appellate court in Austin rules, the losing party will likely take the case to the state’s supreme court.

Read more in this Austin Statesman article: Court urged to void Travis County gay divorce.

Fourteen member nations of the European Union have agreed to adopt special rules governing divorces of international couples. The new rules will go into effect in a year and a half.

International couples are couples where each partner is from, or lives in, a different European Union nation.

About thirteen percent of the European Union’s one hundred twenty-two million marriages involve international couples.

Under these rules, the couple can agree upon which nation’s rules will control their divorce, provided that the couple has a strong connection to the chosen country.

If the couple can’t reach agreement, then the new rules determine which nation’s law will apply to an international couple’s divorce.

The claimed purpose of the new rules is to squelch the filing spouse shopping for the most advantageous country to file in and then racing the other spouse to file first.

The new procedures have some glaring omissions though.

No country will be required to end a marriage that its own law does not recognize as valid.

Further, the choice of law really only applies to grounds for divorce and/or separation, as the case may be.

The new rules do not apply to legal capacity, annulment, property division, parental responsibility, child support or spousal support.

It’s not clear that the new rules will really thwart shopping for the nation with the most favorable divorce laws, but they may be a first step in that direction.

Read more in this European Parliament press release: Divorcing international couples can choose which law governs their break-up.

As the song says, breaking up is hard to do.

In fact, it is dreaded so much by so many, that one stalwart soul has decided to offer to do it for pretty much anyone who doesn’t want to do it themselves … for a nominal fee, of course.

So, operating under the says-it-all trade name “iDump4U”, said stalwart soul will be the bearer of the following bad breakup news:

• you want to end a casual dating relationship

• you want to call off your engagement

• you want a divorce

For between $10 and $50, your unpleasant message is delivered with, uh, style … by someone who is … not you …

Via video and/or phone call.

Many people do obsess over how to broach the subject of divorce with their spouse.

For some of them, this may be an option to consider. Or not …

Read more in this [Northern] Kentucky Post article: Website offers break-up services.

Husband recently filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and his unsecured debts (such as credit card debts) were discharged (canceled).

Now Husband and Wife are unable to pay their mortgage.

Husband and Wife apply for a mortgage modification.

Their Bank puts them on a trial loan modification reduced payment schedule while it reviews their loan application.

Husband fears that, if their application is denied, they will have accumulated a significant delinquency on their mortgage.

Can Husband file bankruptcy again, this time for a repayment plan rather than to discharge his debts?

According to a bankruptcy advisor, if the loan modification is denied, Husband can indeed file for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy and thereby reduce his and Wife’s monthly payments on their mortgage delinquency.

And Wife doesn’t have to file bankruptcy along with Husband to accomplish it.

This is an increasingly common strategy among the many people in need of mortgage modifications.

Including those going through a divorce, or planning to divorce.

Read more in this Bankrate.com column: Second bankruptcy may spare home, spouse.

Husband and Wife’s four year old Child is in foster care, placed with Wife’s ex-boss.

Husband and Wife are now seeking custody of Child.

Child is in foster care because Wife pleaded guilty to statutory rape.

Because Wife became pregant with Child when she was in her thirties … and Husband was fifteen years old.

And that is when Husband and Wife married, despite the twenty-two year difference between their ages, and Husband being a child under the law.

(The marriage was allowed under Georgia law – at that time – due to Wife’s pregnancy. The law has since changed, reportedly.)

Husband and Wife’s efforts to gain custody of Child are denied. But Husband is awarded greater timesharing with Child.

Read more in this UPI article: Judge nixes custody request of teen, wife.