Mich. Letters Taunt Obama; Racist Vandals Strike Sign

The Secret Service is investigating anti-Obama letters sent to a local Democratic office and a business in south-central Michigan, the AP reports, even as authorities in Pittsfield Township, about 40 miles west of Detroit, say an Obama billboard was defaced with swastikas and Klan symbols overnight. One letter declares a wish Obama “gets a bullet,” while the other threatens a business supporting the campaign.

A kindergarten teacher notified police after seeing the privately owned billboard—with the words "KKK," "Rebel," swastikas and racial slurs spray-painted in black—during her morning commute, the Ann Arbor News notes. State police have called in tracking dogs and are investigating what the Obama campaign says is the first large-scale act of racist vandalism. (More Barack Obama stories.)