consistent up2date run-time error

[Robert P. J. Day]

  for the first time since installing severn, i decided to give
up2date a test.  i "rpm --import"ed the appropriate GPG key, but
everything i try regarding up2date gives me:

There was an SSL error: [('SSL routines', 'SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE', 
'certificate verify failed')]
A common cause of this error is the system time being incorrect. Verify 
that the time on this system is correct.


  i've verified that the system time is correct (just how "correct"
does it have to be? :-), so i'm a little puzzled.

  hints?  given that i haven't paid a lot of attention to up2date
lately, this might be an old problem that's been hashed out before,
so i apologize if this is old news.

rday