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Torching suspect: Victim owed him

NEW YORK - A man charged with dousing a woman in flammable liquid and tossing a Molotov cocktail on her in an elevator told police he set her on fire because he was angry that she owed him $2,000, authorities said Sunday.

Jerome Isaac, 47, of Brooklyn, was arrested Sunday on murder and arson charges in the death of Deloris Gillespie, 73. Isaac reeked of gasoline when he entered a police station overnight and implicated himself in Gillespie's death, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.

Gillespie was ambushed in the elevator of her Brooklyn apartment building on Saturday afternoon, Browne said. The suspect had been waiting for her when the elevator doors opened to the fifth floor of her building in Prospect Heights, police said.

Isaac told police that Gillespie owed him $2,000 for some work he had done for her, Browne said. The attack happened shortly after 4 p.m., lasted about a minute, and was recorded by two video cameras, including one inside the small elevator.

- AP

Gingrich: Force judges to explain

ATLANTA - Newt Gingrich continued to level harsh attacks on the judicial branch, saying as president he would consider dispatching U.S. marshals to force judges to appear before Congress to explain controversial decisions.

Gingrich made the comments Sunday in an interview on CBS's Face the Nation.

As he courts conservatives, the former House speaker has stepped up his attacks on the judicial system in recent days as the Iowa caucuses near. Gingrich said Sunday that he is disturbed by the "steady encroachment of secularism through the courts to redefine America as a nonreligious country and the encroachment of the courts on the president's commander-in-chief powers which is enormously dangerous." - AP

Tough times for nonprofits

SEATTLE - As the first signs of an economic recovery make the news, many of the nation's nonprofit organizations are digging in for another three to four years of financial distress, according to researchers who keep an eye on the charitable world.

Some larger nonprofits are seeing donations start to rise again, but most report their income is holding steady at lower, post-recession levels or is still going down, according to a new study from the Nonprofit Research Collaborative.

The collaborative found 59 percent of nonprofits report their donation income is flat or lower than in 2010, which was another down year for most charities. Among those that receive some government dollars - long considered a safety net for charitable organizations - more than half are reporting a decline in income for the year. Forty-one percent of nonprofits have seen their donation income go up in 2011, but most of the nation's smaller charities with less than $3 million in total spending saw donations drop again this year. Food pantries and homeless shelters across the country have reported funding crises this year because of an increase in need coupled with a drop in donations. - AP