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ties to Wall Street.
• Three people with knowledge of the selection said Wednesday that Obama planned to nominate Comey, who was the No. 2 at the Justice Department under President George W. Bush. Comey was general counsel to Connecticut-based

hedge fund Bridgewater Associates from 2010 until earlier this year and now lectures at Columbia Law School.
• Comey would replace Robert Mueller, who has held the job since shortly before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which forced the FBI to transform itself into one of the nation's chief weapons in the war on terror. Mueller's last day on the job is Sept. 4.
• The White House may hope that Comey's Republican background will help him through Senate confirmation at a time when some of Obama's nominations have been facing tough battles. But Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, indicated Comey's confirmation hearing would raise questions about the Obama administration's investigations of Wall Street.
• Grassley said in a statement late Wednesday he had not heard from the White House about Comey's nomination but said Comey possessed a lot of important experience on national security issues.
• ___

• NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- In the operations center on board the USS Stethem, sailors keep watch on a dizzying array of maps, graphics, sensors and radar data -- all focused on North Korea.
• The Stethem, a destroyer, is one of two warships in the western Pacific that are responsible for detecting, tracking and, if necessary, shooting down a ballistic missile launched by Pyongyang. And they represent the first line of defense for U.S. allies and territories in a region that has become increasingly nervous as North Korea has ratcheted up its rhetoric and threats in recent months.
• Thousands of miles away, two more of the ballistic missile defense ships are in the eastern Mediterranean Sea monitoring the threat from Iran while giving the Obama administration the ability to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles at potential targets in Syria, if officials call for military action.
• As the missile threats from Iran and North Korea have advanced in recent years, the U.S. has become more invested in Navy cruisers and destroyers that carry the

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