Ex-US House Speaker Dennis Hastert starts prison term

Former US House speaker Dennis Hastert arrived at a Minnesota prison on Wednesday to serve his 15-month sentence in a hush-money case involving revelations that he sexually abused at least four boys when he coached wrestling at an Illinois high school. The 74-year-old Illinois Republican — one of the highest-ranking US politicians to ever go to prison — arrived at noon at the facility in Rochester. Hastert wasn’t charged with child abuse because statutes of limitation ran out; he coached at Yorkville High School from 1965 to 1981. Instead, Hastert was charged with and pleaded guilty to violating banking law in trying to pay $3.5 million in hush money to one victim, referred to in court papers only as "Individual A."