Couples

Americans are increasingly saying “I do” to living together before marriage, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, cohabitation is now more common among younger women than living with a spouse or living alone. The report, released Thursday, is based on data from the CDC's National Survey of Family Growth . More than 12,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 took part in the survey between 2006 and 2010. (So did more than 10,000 men, but the new study focuses on the women.)

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, California's most, ah, colorful former first couple, were back in the news this week. On Tuesday, using his own life as an example of the American Dream, Schwarzenegger argued for immigration reform during a panel discussion at his USC institute. Also Tuesday, Shriver announced she would return to NBC as a "special anchor" focusing on women's issues. Which raises the question: Whose reinvention is working out better? Since leaving office in 2011 and being forced to admit he had fathered a child with his family's longtime housekeeper, Schwarzenegger, 65, has tried to recreate himself as the cartoonish movie action hero that brought him worldwide fame.

With more than 4 million people visiting Yosemite National Park last year ? and that number expected to increase this year ? it's no wonder lodging inside the park is snatched up quickly. "We typically sell out during the summer season," Delaware North Cos. spokeswoman Lisa Cesaro said of its Yosemite accommodations (Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, Curry Village and the housekeeping camp on the Merced River; the Wawona Hotel, and in the back country, Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, White Wolf Lodge and the High Sierra camps)

Dear Liz: My husband and I are recovering from a job loss four years ago. We used up all our savings and home equity. My husband is now employed, but we are struggling to keep ahead even with a salary of about $100,000. I was a stay-at-home mom for the first 10 years of our kids' lives and now I work two part-time jobs to help with our expenses. We are trying to follow the 50/30/20 budget plan you recommend, but can't seem to get our "must haves" - which are supposed to be no more than 50% of our after-tax income - down from 80% to 90%. Most of the rest goes for "wants," such as the kids' dance classes and soccer teams and for cellphones.

Americans have long gone to China to adopt babies. In a twist, Chinese couples are now coming here to become parents — through surrogacy. China does not permit surrogate parenting, but that country's rising affluence has given many couples the option of coming to U.S. surrogacy clinics. California, with its large Chinese American community and its courts' liberal attitude toward surrogacy, is a prime destination. Jerry Zhu and Grace Sun of Beijing have so far saved $60,000 toward the expected $100,000 cost of surrogate birth.

Having been born to one of the most famous couples of this century--America's greatest modern writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his talented flapper wife Zelda Sayre--Scottie Fitzgerald was thrust a heavy mantle, particularly as their only child. Add to that the heady cocktail of parental alcoholism, prescription drug abuse, numerous failed suicide attempts and schizophrenia. Talent and tragedy were genetically passed on to Scottie as surely as her blond hair and blue eyes. Until now, very little was known about the Fitzgeralds' daughter beyond her school days.

This week, the United States Supreme Court is delving into arguments about same-sex marriage and doing so with apparent reluctance and unease. Today, the justices will consider the federal Defense of Marriage Act that denies federal benefits to same-sex married couples. On Tuesday, the issue before them was California's Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative that placed a same-sex marriage ban in the state constitution in 2008. A U.S. District Court judge subsequently declared the ban unconstitutional, and in 2012 the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling.

I've gotten so used to seeing Alan Cumming as high-end attorney Eli Gold, fighting cerebral battles for a compromised politician on CBS' "The Good Wife," that he's almost unrecognizable as the vamping drag queen in "Any Day Now. " Cumming's chameleon quality serves him well in this intimate family drama. It centers on rough-around-the-edges Rudy, who barely covers the rent performing in a 1970s-era gay bar and finds himself unexpectedly in love and in a custody battle over a special-needs child.

Exasperated. That's how many marriage partners feel when they can't agree on a home purchase. Spend a little time with couples involved in house-hunting and you'll often hear the clinking of swords as husband and wife fence over the issue, realty specialists say. "We're not marriage counselors, but it sometimes feels like we are," said Dorcas Helfant, past president of the National Assn. of Realtors.

Jon Dodson planned to join his wife and four sons in their new home in southwestern Michigan as soon as he could find a job there. But seven months later, he spends his weeknights in a Chicago apartment while, any day now, Meagan Dodson expects to give birth to their first daughter. The employment prospects for her husband, a computer technician in Evanston, Ill., fizzled after companies that might have hired him started laying people off, Meagan Dodson said.

The murder charges weren't for the white supremacists, even though they'd threatened to kill the Texas prosecutors threatening to put them away; nor were they for the cartels, even though they'd long ravaged law enforcement down in Mexico. Instead, officials in Texas believe a trio of slayings near Dallas boiled down to simple revenge: A disgraced former justice of the peace and his wife stand accused of murdering the Texas prosecutors who ended his career. Eric Lyle Williams, 46, was charged with capital murder Thursday, one day after his wife, Kim Lene Williams, 46, was similarly charged in two attacks that shocked Kaufman County and led to fears of an unprecedented assault on the rule of law in Texas.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court was asked Tuesday to decide who should raise a 3 1/2-year-old girl who was given up by her single mother: the South Carolina couple who adopted her at birth or her biological father, who invoked his rights as a Cherokee Indian to claim his child. The justices spent part of the morning as family court judges, and they did not envy those who must decide such emotionally trying disputes every day. "Domestic relations pose the hardest problems for judges," said Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Few people at Augusta were more surprised to find Fred Couples once more playing in the final pairing on a Saturday at the Masters than Couples himself. Not surprising, unfortunately: The 53-year-old's enduring a second straight Saturday plunge, going from one shot off the lead to a round of five-over 77 and more or less out of contention. It was no slow fade this time, with two disastrous holes undermining an otherwise benign day. "The rest of the holes weren't all that great either," Couples said.

Health insurance for married individuals is complicated enough these days without the pitfalls faced by many same-sex couples nationwide. Silver Lake residents David Michael Barrett and husband Mark Peters were married in 2008 during the brief period in which same-sex marriage was legal in California. And for almost a decade, they considered themselves fortunate to qualify for work-based insurance coverage provided through Peters' employer. But when Peters left his job last month, the couple faced a new round of insurance decisions and questions about eligibility and benefits.

Dear Liz: I try to watch out for my neighbors, a married couple in their early 90s. Two of their three sons, who are both in their 60s, want them to get a reverse mortgage. The couple's house is paid off as well as their cars. They pay all their monthly bills with Social Security and his pension. They have a living trust as well. Neither I nor the couple see any reason or upside but the sons are pressuring. Any input? Answer: A reverse mortgage is typically a last-resort option for elderly people who are strapped for cash and who have few options for generating income other than tapping their home equity.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The course wouldn't be eaten alive again Friday, not by anyone, from the clammy outset and soggy middle to the wind-whipped end. Augusta National again had most everyone under control, and that included the one guy whose force-of-nature runs can turn the place inside out. So there stood Tiger Woods, brilliantly extricated from pine straw along the 15th fairway, staring directly at the pin and full command of the weekend....

Couples who rank money and things as important might be worse off in their relationships than those who aren't as materialistic, a study finds. Researchers discovered that it may be true what they say: Money can't buy happiness. They surveyed 1,734 married couples across the U.S. about their attitudes toward relationship values and issues such as materialism, compassion, communication and the importance of marriage. Among the participants, 58.7% had either high or low levels of materialism.

What is the rational basis for laws that deprive gay and lesbian couples of the right to wed? The arguments that have emerged so far — that same-sex marriage is bad for child-rearing and that it damages heterosexual unions — fall apart under the slightest scrutiny. A judge in Massachusetts recognized this in a case involving the federal Defense of Marriage Act; now the judge in the lawsuit against California's Proposition 8 should do the same. In declaring the federal marriage act unconstitutional last week, U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro noted that when Congress passed the law in 1996, supporters said it would "encourage responsible procreation and child-rearing" and protect traditional heterosexual marriage.

Terrence Malick, as unconventional, esoteric and spiritual as ever, has created an ocean of love in "To the Wonder," filling it with calm seas, treacherous storms, incredible beauty and a god who watches over it all. Love in all its many facets is distilled and dissected by the writer/director from first flame to dying embers, between couples and between mankind and God. There is no new ground, really, the distinction is in the way Malick covers...

The Big Bear couple tied up by former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner thought he had been in their cabin “the whole time” police were searching for him, according to 911 tapes. Karen and Jim Reynolds, told a dispatcher in February that they had arrived at their condo near Big Bear and found Dorner inside. "I'm pretty sure he's been here the whole time," Karen Reynolds said, according to a recording of the call posted online by KPCC-FM (89.3). During the call, Karen Reynolds calmly tells the dispatcher that Dorner tied them up and stolen the keys to their purple Nissan Rogue.