GOP group seeks help with debt

The Republicans’ senatorial campaign arm, which lagged behind other national party committees in fundraising the past two years, emerged from the Nov. 7 election in debt and is soliciting donations to get out of the red.

In an urgent appeal to donors this week, Sen. Elizabeth Dole, of North Carolina, chairwoman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, beseeched contributors to “help us retire our debt.”

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter, which was confirmed by NRSC spokesman Dan Ronayne.

Ronayne would not divulge the amount of the debt.

Allen, Texas

Man arrested after hit man warns wife

A woman found a stranger in her bedroom, but the man said he was there to warn her that he had been hired to kill her, police said.

“Your husband wants you murdered,” the man told Roxane Sterling on Nov. 21, according to police reports.

He told Sterling, who is eight months’ pregnant, to call police.

Her husband, Albert Jackson Sterling II, was arrested in Alamogordo, N.M., on two counts of criminal solicitation of murder – one for his wife and another for their unborn child, authorities said.

Authorities said the man who warned Sterling was not charged with a crime.

Concord, N.H.

Obama to visit New Hampshire

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who is mulling a presidential bid, will make his first visit to New Hampshire next month.

The Illinois senator will join the state’s Democrats on Dec. 10 for a belated celebration of their big win in the midterm election.

Though still in his first term in the Senate, Obama has attracted national attention for his fresh face, commanding speaking style and compelling personal story. He plans a Friday night appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

Dayton, Ohio

Mother accused of microwaving baby

A mother was arrested on suspicion of murdering her newborn daughter by microwaving the baby.

China Arnold, 26, was jailed Monday on a charge of aggravated murder, more than a year after she brought her dead month-old baby to a hospital. Bail was set Tuesday at $1 million.

“We have reason to believe, and we have some forensic evidence that is consistent with our belief, that a microwave oven was used in this death,” said Ken Betz, director of the Montgomery County coroner’s office. The evidence included high-heat internal injuries and the absence of external burn marks on the baby, Paris Talley.

Arnold’s lawyer, Jon Paul Rion, said his client had nothing to do with her child’s death and was stunned when investigators told her that a microwave might have been involved.