can't see non-root writes to /dev/console

[Jeff Blank]

I just upgraded a RELENG_7 (amd64) box from 20080714 to "latest"
(which seems to be from a few days ago--no changes from Monday
morning's csup to today's) and can no longer see the effect of writing
to /dev/console as non-root.  When I log in using xdm, my user owns
/dev/console, mode 0622 (-rw--w--w-), and I start an 'xterm -C'.  But
when I, for example,

echo foo > /dev/console

I see nothing in the console xterm.  No error messages, and echo exits
0.  If I su to root and do the same, I get 'foo' in the same console
xterm.  Syslog messages to /dev/console also appear, of course.  All
the above applies to xconsole as well, not just xterm.  I did
recompile xterm from 20080616 ports, but it didn't fix the issue
(didn't expect it to, as xterm clearly has no trouble attaching and
reading).  So my echo is getting lost in the kernel, I guess.

Known problem?  Intentional change?  Something else?

thanks,
Jeff