PRICE TAG FOR A PRESIDENT: ABOUT $2 BILLION

WASHINGTON -

Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife poured $33 million into "super" political action committees helping former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney in the final weeks of the election.

Adelson's family's contributions to two prominent pro-Romney super PACs bring his total giving in federal races to about $95 million this election cycle. Those donations include $10 million to the Restore Our Future PAC and $23 million to the Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads PAC since mid-October.

Campaign finance filings are due to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday and will detail how campaign organizations for Romney and President Obama - and a slew of super PACs - raised and spent unprecedented sums of cash. That money was expected to push the presidential campaign's total cost past $2 billion.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, a tea-party favorite known for bucking party leaders to back challenges to centrist veterans he didn't view as conservative enough, said Thursday that he was resigning with four years left in his term to take the helm of conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. His office said that his resignation is effective Jan. 1.

"I'm leaving the Senate now, but I'm not leaving the fight," DeMint, 61, said in a statement. "I've decided to join The Heritage Foundation at a time when the conservative movement needs strong leadership in the battle of ideas."

Republican Gov. Nikki Haley will appoint DeMint's Senate successor. She told a Greenville talk-radio station that she plans to pick someone who will fight for conservative ideas.

MORGAN HILL, CALIF. - A Northern California man and woman are accused of luring a handyman to a home, beating him and holding him against his will for about six hours while they forced him to fix a dishwasher and other appliances under threat of his life.

Sheriff's Sgt. Jose Cardoza said that the attack followed a dispute between the handyman and a relative of one of the couple over payment for work he'd done at the relative's house about two months ago.

The suspects lured the handyman to the home in the San Francisco Bay area city of Morgan Hill on Monday morning on the promise of receiving the money he was owed, as well as doing other work. Instead, the suspects threatened and repeatedly punched the handyman, and made him repair appliances, according to Cardoza. They then forced him into his truck, telling him they were taking him to the relative's home to complete the work he'd done there.

The handyman managed to escape and call authorities when the suspects stopped for gas.

NEWARK, N.J. - A federal grand jury has indicted the mayor of New Jersey's capital city on corruption charges. Trenton Mayor Tony Mack, his brother and an associate are accused in an eight-count indictment of extortion, bribery, and mail and wire fraud.

The charges are related to an alleged scheme to accept $119,000 in bribes in exchange for Mack's influence in the development of a garage on city-owned land.

Mack has continued in his position despite a no-confidence vote by the Trenton City Council after his September arrest.

NEW YORK - The Dow Jones industrial average rose 39.55 points to close at 13,074.04. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.66 points to 1,413.94, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 15.57 points to 2,989.27.

The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage ticked up to 3.34 percent, above last week's rate of 3.32 percent. The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage rose to 2.67 percent from 2.64 percent last week.

- Daily News wire services