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No bond in Obama threat

A federal judge on Friday ordered a Mississippi man held without bond for allegedly threatening to kill President Barack Obama and to blow up a Jackson hospital that refused to do surgery on his wife.

David Williams of Attala County was arrested Wednesday after University of Mississippi Medical Center officials reported the threat.

Williams appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Sanders for a hearing and Sanders ordered Williams held, U.S. attorney spokeswoman Krisi Allen said.

Williams did not make a plea during Friday's hearing. He's being held on a complaint filed Tuesday by the Secret Service. The case will go to a grand jury.

Williams was charged with threatening Obama and using a telephone to threaten to damage a building with explosives. If convicted of both charges, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

A sworn statement by Secret Service agent Ronald McCormick said Williams called the hospital from a cell phone at his home Tuesday to schedule surgery for his wife. Williams was told the hospital wouldn't do the surgery, and he threatened to blow up the hospital and kill Obama, using a racial epithet to describe the president, McCormick's statement said.

Williams is being represented by the federal public defender's office.

His attorney could not be reached.

Jack Mazurak, a hospital spokesman, said privacy laws prohibit him from disclosing details about Williams' wife's ailments.

Jeff Woodfin, acting U.S. marshal for north Mississippi, said Williams was being held Friday in the Monroe County jail, but he could be moved to another location later.

Williams isn't the only person attracting attention recently for allegedly threatening to kill the president.

On July 1, Darryl James Swanson of Portland was arrested after he allegedly made threats in numerous phone calls to federal prosecutors' offices in Oregon and Washington, a county government office in Florida and The Associated Press.

Swanson, 45, is scheduled to be arraigned next month. Meanwhile, a judge has ordered that Swanson be detained and to undergo a mental health evaluation.

John M. Dow » Post Topic » Twenty-five things you didn't know ...

 Is based on a recurring nightmare I had as a child. Except it wasn’t zombies, it was a big dog-thing called “The Bow”. I once got lost in the centre of a roundabout. It was quite a big one, though. I studied Computer Science. I was rubbish at it. I failed my high school geography exam because all my answers were sarcastic. The finale of Careless Talk  on the Gameboy Advance. I deny the existence of Star Wars: Episode 1 and Indiana Jones 4. They never happened, alright? When I’m writing from a character’s point of view, I find it difficult to get back out of their head. That’s why I don’t often write in the first person. It’s scary. I never knew how deeply rooted in Scotland I am until I tried living in Australia. I back up all my writing in about four different places because I’m intensely paranoid about losing work. I once stopped a plane on the taxiway at Heathrow Airport because I wanted to get off. I find it difficult to ‘let a book go’. If I was left to my own devices, I’d constantly be redrafting and never get anything published. I have very little interest in how ‘well’ my books sell. If even one person I don’t know reads it and enjoys it, I consider it a success. I have a tendency to see the funny side of everything. It’s not always appropriate.