Senator Biden says today’s leaders should take a lesson from the history books and follow fellow Democrat Franklin D. 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,'” Senator Obama’s running mate told the “CBS Evening News.” Except 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 to the public until a decade later, at the 1939 World’s Fair.

U.S.: NO PROSECUTORS AT POLLS NOV. 4

The Justice Department said yesterday it will not station criminal prosecutors at the polls on Election Day after civil rights groups said minority voters who are expected to turn out in unprecedented numbers because of Senator Obama could be intimidated. The move reverses a decades-long practice that put prosecutors on the lookout for voter fraud, ballot access violations, and other polling problems. “In light of questions we have been asked regarding who will serve as election monitors, I want to inform the public that no criminal prosecutors will be utilized as election monitors on Election Day this year,” acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker said in a statement. She added: “This decision was made as a precaution and is not the result of any instance of intimidation or complaint regarding any specific incident.”

ALLEGED PALIN HACKER AVOIDS INDICTMENT

A federal grand jury ended its session yesterday without indicting a Democratic state lawmaker’s son in an investigation of someone hacking Gvoernor Palin’s personal e-mail. That doesn’t mean the investigation is over. Investigators last week searched 20-year-old David Kernell’s apartment in Knoxville, where he is a student at the University of Tennessee, but no charges have been filed. Mr. Kernell’s father is Democratic state Rep. Michael Kernell of Memphis. The Alaska governor’s e-mail account with Yahoo Inc. was compromised last week by a hacker who gained access to a few personal messages she has received since Senator McCain selected her as his running mate. McCain’s campaign has described the hacking as a “shocking invasion of the governor’s privacy and a violation of law.”

MAN WITH GUN ARRESTED OUTSIDE OBAMA HOME

Chicago police found a gun in the car of a man arrested yesterday near Senator Obama’s home, though the U.S. Secret Service insisted the man never posed a threat to the Democratic presidential candidate. The apparently intoxicated man was not armed when he was arrested as he approached security barriers posted with no-access signs a block from the home in the South Side neighborhood, a Chicago police spokesman, Daniel O’Brien, said. Police later searched his nearby car and found the gun, Mr. O’Brien said. The man’s name wasn’t immediately released because he hadn’t been charged, and a U.S. Secret Service spokesman, Malcolm Wiley, said it did not appear the man would face federal charges. Mr. O’Brien said city police were still considering charges yesterday.

KENNEDY WEIGHS IN ON ECONOMY FROM MASS.

Senator Kennedy, who is weighing in on national affairs with increasing frequency as he recovers from brain surgery, said yesterday that any economic bailout package passed by Congress must include accountability for Wall Street and full disclosure for the American people. The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, forced sale of Merrill Lynch, and bailout of insurer AIG are part of a dizzying array of events “that threaten the economic security of the United States and other countries,” Mr. Kennedy said. The Massachusetts Democrat also praised the Senate for passing legislation aimed at equalizing insurance coverage for those with mental health as well physical ailments. “It is the most important health care legislation that has been passed in recent times,” he told reporters after receiving President Bachelet of Chile at his family’s vacation home on Cape Cod. It was Mr. Kennedy’s first public appearance since a surprise speech in late August at the Democratic National Convention. Ms. Bachelet presented the senator with her country’s highest civilian award in recognition of his opposition to the country’s 1973 government overthrow and work to cut off military aid to dictator Augusto Pinochet.