[mod_python] authenhandler woes

I've created a mod_python authenhandler which sets some session data. 
It works perfectly for the initial request. Unfortunately, all 
subsequent requests hang on the line I marked with a > character. 
Anyone have any ideas?

The behavior  I'm experiencing is as if the handler was waiting for a 
lock to be released on the session dbm file. I'm using mod_python 3.1.3 
with Python 2.3.4

from mod_python import apache, util
from mod_python.Session import Session

def authenhandler(req):
         password = req.get_basic_auth_pw()
         username = req.user

 >        req.session = Session(req, secret="********")

         if req.session.is_new() == True:
                 from RPM.database import connection
                 cursor = connection.cursor()

                 try:
                         cursor.execute("SELECT accounts.id AS 
account_id, users.id AS user_id, people.id AS person_id, 
organizations.id AS organization_id, users.username AS username, 
CONCAT(people.first_name, ' ', people.last_name) AS person_name, 
organizations.name AS organization_name, people.email_address AS 
email_address FROM accounts, users, people, organizations WHERE 
users.person_id = people.id AND people.organization_id = 
organizations.id AND accounts.organization_id = organizations.id AND 
users.username = %s AND users.password = PASSWORD(%s)" % 
(connection.escape(username), connection.escape(password)))

                         req.session.update(cursor.fetchone())
                         cursor.execute("UPDATE users SET last_login = 
NOW() WHERE id = %d" % req.session["user_id"])
                         cursor.close()
                         req.session.save()

                 except(KeyError, AttributeError):
                         req.log_error("Invalid password for %s" % 
req.user,
                                 apache.APLOG_NOTICE )
                         return apache.HTTP_UNAUTHORIZED

         return apache.OK