Hastert: I Won’t Seek GOP House Leadership

WASHINGTON — Triggering a post election shake-up, Rep. Dennis Hastert announced yesterday that he will not run for leader of House Republicans when Democrats take control in January. “Obviously I wish my party had won,” the House Speaker said in a statement that added he intends to return to the “full-time task” of representing his Illinois constituents. His decision to step down from the leadership cleared the way for a likely succession battle among lawmakers who face the sudden loss of power after a dozen years in the majority. Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, currently the majority leader, is expected to run for leader, and Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana announced during the day he also will seek the post. Rep. Joe Barton of Texas has signaled he may join the field. Mr. Hastert first conveyed word of his plans in a conference call with fellow GOP leaders one day after Republicans lost control of the House in midterm elections.

— Associated Press

N.C. School: Sorry For Pregame Nazi Talk

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Part of a Nazi leader’s speech was played over the public address system before a high school soccer game, prompting an apology by the home team’s principal. Forestview High School Principal Robert Carpenter said neither he nor his team’s coach knew about the speech before the 90-second excerpt was played during pregame warmups Saturday, according to a letter he sent Monday to visiting Charlotte Catholic High School. The speech, by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, was in German. School officials said two players had downloaded the speech off the Internet and that no adult heard it before it was played at the field, the Charlotte Observer reported yesterday.

— Associated Press

Judge Blocks California Sex-Offender Law

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge temporarily blocked a law approved Tuesday by California voters that bars registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or a park frequented by children. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco is sued an order halting the state from enforcing the new law until November 27, saying a sex offender who sued today is likely to succeed on his claim that the re striction is unconstitutional. If required to comply with the law, known as Proposition 83, the plaintiff “will be forced to move from his home and will therefore be irreparably harmed,” Judge Illston wrote in yesterday’s order. She scheduled a November 27 hearing to consider a permanent injunction blocking the law. The plaintiff lives within 2,000 feet of a park or school and was convicted more than 15 years ago of a non-aggravated felony that requires him to register as a sex offender, the lawsuit said. The charges were dismissed more than 10 years ago, according to the suit.

— Bloomberg News

Intent on Voting, Pa. Woman, 95, Calls 911

READING, Pa. — Anna Urban has been voting since Franklin Roosevelt was president and wasn’t about to miss an election. When the 95-year-old Reading resident didn’t have a ride to the polls Tuesday, she didn’t hesitate. She dialed 911. Dispatchers forwarded the call to the Berks County Election Services office, where it was considered a compliment. “To call 911 and ask for help to vote really says a lot,” an election services director, Deborah Olivieri, said. “It meant a lot to everyone in this office; it made us feel what we do is worthwhile.” County Commissioner Judith Schwank immediately picked up Ms. Urban, and Ms. Urban walked to the voting booth at Millmont Elementary School on her arm. “All my life I voted,” Ms. Urban, a Democrat, who cast her first ballot in the 1930s, said. “You need to vote to be a good citizen.”

— Associated Press

Mental Health Problems Double in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS — Mental health problems soared after Hurricane Katrina, just as the city’s ability to handle them plummeted, creating a crisis so acute that police officers say they take some disturbed people to a destination of last resort — jail. Because of the storm damage, only two of New Orleans’s 11 hospitals are fully functioning. What’s more, one of the closed facilities is the sprawling Charity Hospital, which police officers had relied on to drop off people at any hour. “You knew they were safe. You knew they would get the care they needed. You don’t know either of those things now,” a psychologist who commands the police crisis negotiation team, James Arey, said. People who need medication can’t find it or can’t afford it, and the storm’s aftermath has made life more stressful, as well, Mr. Arey said. A federally funded study published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization found that mental health problems in the region roughly doubled in the months after Katrina, to 11.3%.

— Associated Press