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What to know when hiring a divorce lawyer

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:45 GMT

Q. I’m trying to hire a divorce lawyer and finding it more challenging than I expected.  Appointments are weeks out, I get calls back from paralegals and not the lawyers. All they do is ask questions.  I am hoping to separate over the summer so we can figure out a parenting plan and let our kids get used to things before they go back to school in September.A. Don’t be offended that you are getting return calls from paralegals as opposed to the lawyers themselves.  It is the paralegal’s job to get some background information from prospective clients and pass it along to the lawyers.  Indeed, before talking with a potential client, the lawyer is going to want to know something about the case in order to have a meaningful discussion with you. Do you want to be charged a few to several hundred dollars for the lawyer to ask questions to elicit your biographical / statistical information?  It is far more cost effective to have the paralegals get the background so we know can offer at leas...

For David Wax, all roads lead from Mexico

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:45 GMT

You must change your life.David Wax heard a voice whispering this command to him during a summer trip to Mexico in 2001.“That’s when I first heard Mexican folk music, Son Mexicano, and this particular style called huapango music,” Wax told the Herald. “At that moment, I felt a deep resonance with the music but I didn’t know it would change my life.”Since that first trip, that command has pestered Wax. It nagged him after he graduated from Harvard in 2006 and headed back to Mexico for a yearlong fellowship to study regional folk. It may have nudged him to build with bandmate and wife Suz Slezak a barn in Charlottesville, or pushed him toward his relationship with Slezak.Wax gave the words their due in the title track of new David Wax Museum record, “You Must Change Your Life.” It’s a record that charts his deep love for and complex relationship with Mexican folk.“(After studying music in Mexico) I felt like I could bring all these instruments and influences and rhythms and song struc...

Catalina Sandino Moreno faces fears in new season of ‘From’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:45 GMT

“From” is the hit horror series where anyone who enters a small town discovers they are trapped. They can’t leave and, worse, are at the mercy of murderous monsters who only come out at night.For Catalina Sandino Moreno and Eion Bailey who play trapped, stressed out parents Tabitha and Jim Matthews stuck with their two children Julie and Ethan, it’s no surprise the series continues for a second season Sunday on AppleTV+.With the pandemic, Bailey, 46, noted, “We were all trapped in a place we couldn’t escape when the show started. That’s exactly why I figured this would find some success and go on.  Because this resonates with people. We’ve all felt in the last couple of years, feeling stuck and not knowing what to do, how to get out.“Allegorically, I think the show really fires on all cylinders and I’m not surprised that people connect with it.”Added Moreno, 41, in a joint Zoom interview, “Everyone was scared of this virus that we didn’t quite know what it wa...

To end a war, ask questions

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:45 GMT

Q. My ex is such a liar! He makes up stuff and tells me it happened his way, when I know it didn’t. My friend told me that was “gaslighting” and that was a trait of being a narcissist. What can I do if ex is a narcissist? What’s good ex-etiquette?A. First of all, let’s take a look at what gaslighting is and whether you are truly a victim of it. Gaslighting, from a practical sense, is knowledge that something you are saying is untrue by distorting reality and forcing the other person to question their own judgment and/or intuition. The key to this definition is “the knowledge that something you are saying is untrue.”This is an important distinction. When mediating divorcing couples, most don’t see eye to eye, but that doesn’t mean they are lying, nor does it mean they are gaslighting. It could simply mean they have a different perception of what happened.I often try explaining what happens when two people witness an accident. If you are standing on the north corner of an intersection...

Carlyss Peer back on the case in Season 2 of ‘Dalgliesh’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:45 GMT

England’s Carlyss (pronounced Kar-lease) Peer gets Stateside exposure as a determined Scotland Yard detective with AcornTV’s 1970s-set “Dalgliesh.”Adapted from P.D. James’s 14 critically praised murder mysteries starring the very serious and cerebral Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh (pronounced DAL-gleesh, again played by Bertie Carvel), Season 2, which begins Monday, again offers three separate cases from three of her novels.For Peer, Detective Sergeant Kate Miskin, now a key member of the Special Investigation Squad under Dalgliesh, has been a career changer.In Season 1, the misogyny and racism Miskin routinely faced was blocked once Dalgliesh chose her to be on his team.  “From those first episodes where she’s sidelined by the police force and then seeing her blossom with Dalgliesh with all of his talents, that’s an exciting journey,” Peer, 27, said in a Zoom interview from London.“He sees her potential. She’s delighted to be working with s...

Editorial: US-Mexico must put aside animosity to stop fentanyl

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:45 GMT

A round of indictments against a major Mexican fentanyl trafficking ring recently presents an opportunity to hobble the multinational drug enterprise killing people on both sides of the border — but only if leaders in the United States and Mexico can stop sniping at each other and overcome a rift between them.U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, announcing the indictments against Sinaloa cartel leaders and other alleged drug traffickers, called it “the largest, most violent and prolific fentanyl traffic operation in the world.” But it didn’t take long for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to question the investigation that led to the charges against Los Chapitos, four sons of the infamous drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo and believed to have handed leadership of the Sinaloa cartel to his sons. López Obrador, widely known as AMLO, accused the U.S. government of spying and violating Mexico’s national sovereignty.Such discord is, unfortunately, not unexpected c...

Sports-loving Nicholas wants to be on a team

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:45 GMT

Nicholas is a sweet and polite boy. He loves pets and is compassionate to all who know him. He also has a very funny sense of humor and can joke around easily with others. Being well-groomed and clean is very important to Nick.In his free time, Nick loves to listen to hip-hop music and play basketball. He also enjoys video games but would prefer to be outside being active and burning off his energy. Nick has many friends, is very sensitive to others’ feelings, and tries to help out those who he feels are struggling. He is a role model in his program. When a new kid arrives, Nick takes them under his wing and mentors them. He comforts other kids when they are upset. He is very well-liked by both peers and adults in his living setting. Nick is a loyal friend.He receives support services in school to help with expressive and receptive language and reading. Nick performs very well in math. He recently moved in with a foster family and is doing great in a family environment.Nick wo...

Schoen: Thomas dispute plunges SCOTUS deep into party politics

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:45 GMT

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ failure to disclose his ties to billionaire conservative donor Harlan Crow has further tainted the integrity of the highest court in the land, plunging it deeper into party politics.Justice Thomas has come under fire for neglecting to report that he and his wife vacationed on Crow’s yacht and flew on Crow’s private plane to a resort in upstate New York and a private club in Northern California also owned by Crow. Justice Thomas also failed to disclose that Crow, who funds conservative groups like the Federalist Society and Club for Growth, bought property from him, including the house where Thomas’ mother currently lives.In response to these revelations, Senate Democrats want to investigate Justice Thomas and compel him to appear at a congressional hearing. While this extraordinary step might very well be appropriate and necessary, it would ultimately drag our nation’s “independent” judiciary further into the political fray.Our Founding Fathers...

Dear Abby: Worried as friend becomes widower’s 3rd wife

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:45 GMT

Dear Abby: My best friend, “Laura,” had an affair with a married man for 20 years. He had been married twice before, and both wives died. He’s only 50, so I find it odd that both of his previous wives died. His second wife passed while Laura was his mistress. She is able to be married to him only because of his second wife’s death — he was never going to leave her.I don’t trust this man, but I feel I must because Laura is married to him and so happy. I’m suspicious that he may have had something to do with his wives’ deaths, but I don’t know how to prove it. Am I overly suspicious for thinking this? I’m happy for my friend because she is very happy now. They are both retired and enjoying their lives. I’m just hoping he’s honest and truly loves her.I’m not sure how to feel about this cheater, but it does take two — and Laura stayed with him for 20 years as his mistress. Please advise me. — Suspi...

Police investigating after dead body found in East County

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:12:45 GMT

JAMUL, Calif. -- Authorities are investigating after a dead body was apparently found in the East County neighborhood of Jamul Saturday.The body was found near the intersection of Skyline Truck Trail and Lawson Valley Road, Chula Vista police confirmed to FOX 5.A witness at the scene spotted two CVPD cars, a coroner and two detectives among the responding authorities. Trailer fire in Ramona leaves one dead, one injured CVPD was not able to release any additional details about the incident.There is no information about the decedent or whether law enforcement will be investigating the discovery of the body as a suspicious death.This is a developing story. Check back for updates.