Police arrest man with gun near home of Obama

CHICAGO — A member of a prominent Chicago family faces a felony gun charge after being arrested Tuesday when he approached security barriers outside Barack Obama's home. The U.S. Secret Service said he never posed a threat to the Democratic presidential candidate.

Omhari Sengstacke, 31, of Chicago, was apparently intoxicated but not armed when he was arrested about 6:30 a.m. as he neared the barriers a block from the Obama home, police spokesman Daniel O'Brien said.

Police found a gun and a bulletproof vest in his car nearby.

Sengstacke did not utter any threats against Obama or make any threatening gestures, U.S. Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said.

Sengstacke also is charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing for approaching security barriers near Obama's home. The more serious charge accuses him of possessing a firearm while being a felon.

Omhari Sengstacke is the grandson of John Sengstacke, publisher of the black-owned Chicago Defender for decades until his death in 1997.

Obama was believed to be home at the time of the incident.

Biden trips up in extolling FDR

WASHINGTON — Vice-presidential candidate Joseph Biden said today's leaders should take a lesson from the history books and follow fellow Democrat Franklin Roosevelt's response to a financial crisis.

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened,' " Barack Obama's running mate recently told the "CBS Evening News."

Republican Herbert Hoover was in office when the stock market crashed in October 1929; there also was no television at the time; TV wasn't introduced until a decade later.

FDR was elected when voters denied Hoover a second term.

Biden's spokesman, David Wade, said: "I'm proud to say that we Democrats aren't experts at Herbert Hoover Depression economics like John McCain and his pals."

Also

Some residents of Roxbury, a northwestern New Jersey town, received fliers last weekend that criticized the prospect of Democrat Barack Obama's becoming the first black president. The fliers show unflattering photos of Obama and have text that says: "Black Ruled Nations most unstable and violent in the world." Police Chief Mark Noll said the fliers are signed by the League of American Patriots, a white-supremacist group.

Seattle Times news services