Should the Secret Service have investigated alleged local threat to Obama?

[The Straight Story]

Should the Secret Service have investigated alleged local threat to Obama?

Bill Sekeres of Bakersfield is in a bit of trouble with the U.S. Secret Service.

The 73-year-old retired executive may or may not have threatened to "take out" the president of the United States during idle dinner conversation recently at a Bakersfield restaurant.

Sekeres says he can't recall whether he also included Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in his alleged threat because he isn't sure he made a threat, and if he did make a threat, well, he didn't really mean it.

"Truthfully, I can't remember if I said this or not -- that if I ever get a terminal illness, I'm going to take out Obama and Pelosi," Sekeres said. "I may have. I may not have. I don't know," he said. "If I did, it would have been in jest."

In any case, someone apparently overheard him and took him seriously enough to alert authorities. On Friday, two agents from the Secret Service office in Fresno drove to Bakersfield to have a not so idle chat with Sekeres.

http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/smayer/50632