I have been dating a woman in Phoenix -- where we both lived -- for the past three years. We were in an exclusive relationship, but not living together because I was going through a divorce when we met. Throughout our time together I have helped "Jackie" with rent and cash gifts.

I have since moved to California,

and Jackie would like to come and live with me.

I thought it would be nice, but a cohabitation agreement would be necessary because I have a lot of assets and she has very few.

After some discussion, she came up with an agreement, but I feel the benefits package she's asking for is too high. She's asking me to pay all living expenses, housing, food, health insurance, a new car with auto insurance and an allowance of $3,000 a month.

I balked on this "deal" because it seems more like a rental agreement rather than a loving relationship.

She maintains that she needs a "cushion" in case the relationship doesn't work out because she'll be leaving her job and friends behind.

If the relationship does not work out, the consequences would affect her financially for the rest of her life.

I had been out of the dating scene for a while, but finally found someone I really like and think would be a good match for me. We get along great and I get the sense there is mutual interest. I have kept matters on a friendly basis thus far because (and herein lies my dilemma) her longtime boyfriend committed suicide a couple of months ago.

I can tell there are some personal issues she is still working out because of it, and I don't want to push anything too soon.

Let things continue on a friendly basis and be whatever kind of friend she needs you to be -- which I suspect, for now, is a buddy to lean on.  When she is ready, I am guessing your relationship with this woman could blossom into the romance you desire.

I'm not sure how to start this, but my husband confuses me. We have been together for five years (married almost three), and in that time we've had the same argument over and over again about "fulfilling his needs."

I've never been a sex kitten and his libido always seems to be in overdrive.

When I give in to appease him, he complains that he's not interested in "mercy sex," but he's too impatient to wait until I'm in the mood.  He normally ends up frustrated and gives me the silent treatment, while I've just become annoyed at this point.

I love him dearly and enjoy his company, but sex just doesn't do much for me, not to mention I have a highly stressful job that leaves me exhausted most of the time.

Humans are widely believed to have arrived in North America from Asia over a land-bridge between Alaska and Siberia during a warmer period. A variety of dates has been proposed and some are in dispute.

I am 37 and got married two years ago.

My wife's children were 6 and 8 at the time.

At first, the kids slept in our bed. I didn't say anything for about a month, but then I said that was not acceptable.

I also catch hell if I try to discipline her son, now 8, when he pouts or plays her to get things his way.

These sleeping arrangements are for the birds, but they are merely indicative of a larger problem.

You might ask your wife how many men she thinks would marry a woman so that four people could sleep in the bed.

Help! I am engaged to a man with three kids -- a 7-year-old girl and 9-year-old twin boys -- and soon to become a stepmom. He has them about half the time.

I like his children, but I have three of my own. One is grown; two are teenagers. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and do not want to start over again raising someone else's kids.

Can I marry this man and not have to raise his kids? Or is that what a stepmother does? I would be happy just being their friend.

Of course you will have a hand in raising those children -- it goes with the territory. If that's not what you are willing to sign on for, you should not marry him.

A controversial proposal to allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages for struggling homeowners is not expected to be included in the compromise measure.

The compromise bill is likely to include a provision that will allow state and local government housing agencies to issue up to $10 billion in tax-exempt bonds to refinance sub-prime loans.

It is also expected to provide more money to counsel homeowners threatened with foreclosure, and a requirement that lenders disclose more information to consumers taking out loans.

"The Senate needs to take steps to help families with distressed mortgages, but without providing taxpayer-funded bailouts to real-estate speculators who took irresponsible risks," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said.

Tuesday's bipartisan agreement was a dramatic turnaround from just a few weeks ago, when Senate Republicans blocked consideration of a similar proposal that included the provision to allow bankruptcy judges to change mortgage terms.

Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said he told Senate Republican leaders that, based on what he heard from constituents, "I did not think that doing nothing was an option."

Democrats also want the bill to include $4 billion for local governments to buy and renovate abandoned properties, a provision that could benefit California, which has been hard hit by foreclosures.

Explaining the sudden stampede to take up the bill, Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) said, "Everyone was home for a couple of weeks, and if they heard what I heard in Florida, I think that they realize this is a serious, serious problem."

Democrats sought to ratchet up pressure on Republicans to act by pointing to the Fed's rescue of Bear Stearns.

Congressional action comes as foreclosures skyrocket across the country. In California, 31,676 homes were seized in foreclosure in the fourth quarter of 2007, a 421% increase over the same period a year earlier.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is proposing billions of dollars a year Wednesday to keep jobs from being shipped abroad as she appealed to blue collar workers in Pennsylvania, the next big primary contest where she hopes to trim rival Barack Obama's lead.

But the former first lady showed no signs of quitting as she focused on job creation and challenges to the U.S. economy at campaign appearances across Pennsylvania, which holds the next primary contest on April 22 with 158 delegates at stake.

At an economic summit in Pittsburgh on Wednesday organized by her presidential campaign, Clinton was expected to propose the elimination of tax breaks for companies that move jobs to other countries and use the savings to provide $7 billion a year in tax incentives to persuade companies to "insource" jobs in the United States

Pennsylvania and other states holding upcoming primaries, including Indiana and Kentucky, have suffered the loss of manufacturing jobs in recent years and have yet to transition to new industries and other ways of expanding their economies.

Clinton's plan would offer new tax benefits for research and job development. It would also create "innovation and research clusters" and provide $500 million annually in investments to encourage the creation of high-wage jobs in clean energy.

"Senator McCain has been saying I don't understand national security, but he's the one who wants to keep tens of thousands of United States troops in Iraq for as long as 100 years," Obama said.

"One hundred years in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 may make sense to George Bush and John McCain but it is the wrong thing to do," Obama said, drawing applause at the town-hall session.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said Obama's remarks showed his "complete lack of preparedness to be commander in chief."

"His attempt to paint McCain's position as something else is nothing but the disingenuous, old-style politics that he claims to reject," Bounds said.

Clinton assaulted McCain as a candidate who would stand back and watch as the U.S. economy spiraled downward and blamed Bush for the nation's deepening financial difficulties.

She announced support for a plan to create 3 million new jobs to rebuild the U.S. infrastructure.

Obama latched onto the same theme, promising to create jobs by using $60 billion he said would be saved by ending the Iraq war.

In a series of advertisements in newspapers and business journals that portray California in cartoons, the Nevada Development Authority is trying to lure California enterprises across the state line.

The ads crow that Nevada, long a haven for businesses seeking refuge from taxes, has no corporate income tax, no personal income tax and no inventory tax -- plus, it has lower workers' compensation rates and a pro-business attitude.

The move by Nevada officials, who say they will spend about $1.5 million placing the ads in publications and on billboards, has been met with some annoyance among California lawmakers.

"Businesses are here because they appreciate the powers of this economy," said state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles), who is among the Democrats arguing for a tax hike. "I suspect Nevada wishes it could be ranked as among one of the top economies in the world."

The campaign includes at least seven ads, most labeled "More Tales of the California Tax Bear…" In one, the bear has a leash around a businessman's neck and orders him to "keep dancing." In another, the animal is greedily devouring a pot of honey labeled "profits."

One of the ads doesn't include the bear at all, but instead takes direct aim at the state's movie-star governor. A giant hand snatches the wallet out of a businessman's pocket; under the quote: "I'll be back!"

The Public Policy Institute of California last year released a report that said California's relatively high tax burden and intense regulatory environment had not sparked an exodus of businesses from the state. It found that 11,000 jobs per year were relocating outside of California, fewer than the number of jobs being created in a state with more than 18 million jobs.

Schwarzenegger administration officials say other states can't compete with California, which has an economy roughly the size of Italy's. They say policies championed by Schwarzenegger, including state support for [embryonic only] stem-cell and alternative-fuel research, have made California increasingly attractive to corporations.

To view the Nevada advertisements, go to www.latimes.com/nevadaads

District officials are investigating an incident in which a substitute teacher allegedly reprimanded a student inappropriately, authorities said Friday.

Police were called to South Pasadena Middle School on Wednesday following a report that a teacher had assaulted a child, said Cpl. Craig Cooper of the South Pasadena Police Department.

After investigating, police closed the case, determining no abuse had occurred, Cooper said.

The teacher "used the tip of her finger and patted (the student) on the forehead," Cooper said. "She was all, `Come on, you, you can do better than that."'

School officials, who also made a complaint to Los Angeles County child services representatives, are continuing to look into the case, said South Pasadena Unified School District Superintendent Brian Bristol.

"There was a substitute teacher that engaged in conduct that we consider to be physically and verbally assaultive," Bristol said, declining to confirm details about the alleged forehead-tapping.

The incident was reported by students to other teachers, who told school administrators.

"She made a poor choice, and we do not tolerate that. Such conduct is unacceptable," Bristol said of the teacher, adding that she will not be allowed to teach in the district again.

Bristol declined to give the names of the teacher or student involved, citing privacy.

An Oregon [woman] is five months pregnant, according to a national magazine.

Thomas Beatie, who used to be a woman, appeared in the most recent issue of The Advocate, a magazine for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender readers, Portland, Ore., television station KPTV reported.

Beatie wrote the article, which includes a picture of [her] while [s]he was 22 weeks pregnant. According to the story, [s]he went through a sex change, but decided only to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy.

Beatie, who lives in Bend, wrote he was once pregnant with triplets, but the pregnancy was life-threatening and [s]he lost the fetuses.

Now, Beatie said [s]he and [her] [“]wife[“], Nancy, are expecting a little girl in July.

In the article, Beatie described some of the challenges [s]he and [her] [“]wife[“] have faced -- they said doctors won't treat them.

Whether or not the government bails out homeowners, it must institute extensive regulations on American indebtedness.

Companies buy and package shaky mortgages to use as collateral for securities to be sold to companies that borrow money to buy them; this money is also borrowed from companies that have borrowed money to lend. This inverted pyramid of paper balances precariously on mortgages taken out by the John and Jane Does who cannot afford them if the housing market corrects, as it did and will again.

We also should institute regulations on the credit card business, which works in ways analogous to recent mortgage lenders, encouraging precarious debt with severe penalties for inevitable defaults.

We seem content to continue to live in a fantasy land in which debts never come due. And, by the way, as a renter who did not irresponsibly buy a house he couldn't afford, I'm pretty ticked off at the notion that my tax dollars might be used for the purpose of inflating housing prices.

I have saved all my life and now depend on interest income to support my retirement. The Federal Reserve has been reducing interest rates; my income will fall by about 20% in 2008. These reductions were made solely to bail out the sub-prime fiasco and benefit all those who have overextended themselves foolishly. Why should I have to pay for this? I have acted responsibly and now have been hit.

My husband gets aggravated with romantic commercials on television -- the ones where men do sweet things for their wives, like putting jewelry on them while they sleep, or pulling out that special gift at the dinner table.

He says the commercials try to make men feel guilty because they aren't like the ones portrayed.

I have tried telling him that men are, indeed, this way, but I couldn't think of any examples other than my brother and my father, who are very romantic.

Don't most men know how to sweep a woman off her feet?

Gifts are not the only way to make someone special feel loved.

Commercials are created in order to manipulate the public into buying, and if the amount of consumer debt being carried by U.S. households is any indication, that strategy has been extremely successful.

While diamonds may be "a girl's best friend," most women know that a life partner who gives them attention, affection, praise and assistance when they need it is a jewel more precious than any stone could ever be.