The 400-acre area known as Castle Rocks has been closed off and on to climbers since 2003, and may close permanently sometime this summer. Agency officials say they hope make a decision this month, depending how much feedback they receive from the public.

Mike Courtney, BLM field manager in Burley, said both the Shoshone-Bannock and Shoshone-Paiute tribes consider the land sacred and are worried cultural resources could be destroyed if climbing continues. BLM surveys have determined the region contains important archaeological resources and artifacts, including spearheads dating back thousands of years.

Courtney said the agency spent time combing the trail routes and climbing walls with the intention of finding middle ground with sport climbing enthusiasts. But unfortunately, Courtney said, environmental impact studies showed all the climbing areas posed at least some risk to resources the agency aims to protect.

"We kept running into resource issues with the locations of the trails and the potential climbing routes," Courtney said Friday. "We inventoried the entire area, and a lot of the areas at risk are the most desirable (climbing) areas."

Citing those and other reasons, a report from the BLM dated April 12 proposed closing the Cassia County area to climbers for good, although hikers and hunters would still have access to existing trails. Courtney said the plan targets climbing because soil erosion and vegetation destruction are most severe around staging areas, the spot near rock walls where climbers prepare for their assent.

But the BLM's plan has left regional climbers upset. They argue they've offered less prohibitive proposals that still protect the area's abundant cultural heritage and environment.

"They reversed course really quickly and went from considering the climbing management plan to coming to a decision that banned climbing right away," said R.D. Pascoe, a policy director with the climber advocacy group Access Fund.

Pascoe argues rock climbers are willing to avoid historical or archeologically significant sites, and his organization and local climbers came up with a plan that offered guidelines for when the BLM can close certain routes.

The BLM's most recent proposal, he said, unnecessarily eliminates all climbing access.

Several other routes at the nearby City of Rocks Natural Reserve will remain open for climbers. But Doug Colwell, founder of the Boise Climbers Alliance, said Castle Rocks is considered a national or even international destination by many of the sport's enthusiasts.

"When you go down there on Memorial Day weekend you will see people from other countries because it's a very well-known intermediate rock climbing area," Colwell said. "We believe there are areas we could compromise on."

The Michigan Democrat was a freshly elected 29-year-old on his first day on the job. Members like legendary House Speaker Sam Rayburn all "the real giants" of the House, Dingell says were delivering tributes to his father, John Dingell Sr., who had died recently.

The younger Dingell had just won an election to replace him. Now it was his turn to speak.

"I had to go to the well of the House and express my appreciation," Dingell said in an interview. "Quite frankly, it was a highly emotional moment. It was quite hard to keep from crying."

From that unsteady beginning, Dingell assembled a record that epitomized the power of the legislative branch of government and the changes it has undergone over the last century. And his longevity testifies to the formidable willpower of a man nicknamed "Big John" for his 6-foot-3 stature and his sometimes imperious demeanor, as well as the skill of a politician who won elections in a state he had barely lived in since he was a child.

Few members, even House speakers, can claim the influence or breadth of Dingell, who on Friday will eclipse the late Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia as the person who served in Congress the longest.

He has reigned as a powerful committee chairman, putting his imprint on legislation in areas as varied as air quality, consumer protection, health care, energy and the auto industry. He earned a reputation as one of the sharpest government watchdogs in Washington, famous for his lacerating style of interrogation at committee hearings. And the loss of his chairmanship in recent years marked the end of an era in which senior members ruled Congress without challenge.

"It goes by like a blur," said Dingell, of the period in which he has served with 11 presidents. "This job is incredible. You put in so much, but you get so much more out of it."

Dingell says he has survived by taking the long view_trying never to be angry, even when projecting wrath at bureaucrats he considered dilatory or opponents he thought were wrong.

"John Dingell was the mighty chairman of Energy and Commerce everybody had a little fear and trepidation dealing with him," said former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a Republican from Illinois.

Dingell first saw the House as a 6-year-old boy accompanying his father, a New Deal Democrat who held a seat that represented Detroit's growing auto industry. The younger Dingell joined his father on the floor when President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan. After serving in the Army, he supervised elevator operators at the Capitol during college and law school.

After Dingell won election in 1955, one of his most fulfilling, but also politically dangerous, moments came when he supported the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which eliminated unequal voter registration requirements and outlawed racial segregation in schools, workplaces and public areas.

"Damn near lost an election over it," Dingell said, matter of factly. "The Wall Street Journal gave me a one in 15 chance of winning that race."

The black community took note, said Michigan Rep. John Conyers, who served on Dingell's staff before he was elected to Congress in 1964. "He was in the forefront," Conyers said.

As he gradually acquired seniority and clout, Dingell played a key role in the creation of the Medicare program in 1965, and wrote the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act and the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

He has also carefully protected his state's priorities helping secure bailout funds for the auto industry and angering environmentalists by fending off pressure for tougher emission standards.

"That's what's great about him," said Carl F. Brooks, a retired state employee from Ypsilanti Township, Mich., who had just seen Dingell at an Earth Day concert. "He's the kind of politician who's around if you need him."

Dingell, as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee from 1981 to 1994, made the panel one of the most aggressive and wide-ranging in Congress.

The committee's investigations prompted the resignation of President Ronald Reagan's EPA Administrator, Anne Burford, over problems in the SuperFund program and former Stanford University President Donald Kennedy over questionable research expenses charged to the government. The panel laid the groundwork for the criminal conviction of one of President Ronald Reagan's top advisers, Michael Deaver, for lying under oath.

Dingell became known for sharply worded investigative letters dubbed "Dingell-grams" sent to agencies. And he brusquely dismissed witnesses if he didn't like what he was hearing. Nobel Prize winning scientist David Baltimore, a target of a Dingell investigation into his research, complained he felt "hounded" by his committee.

When former Vice President Al Gore testified in 2009 in support of so-called cap-and-trade legislation, Dingell snapped, "Cap and trade is a tax, and it's a great big one."

Dingell's tough style worked, said Republican Rep. Joe Barton, of Texas, who followed Dingell as chairman of the investigative subcommittee. Dingell "always had the most effective oversight in the House and the Senate," said Barton.

Dingell no longer holds such clout, having been dethroned by Democrats pressing for more environmental legislation. And age has taken a toll. Now 86, he walks with a cane or scoots around the Capitol in a motorized cart with a license plate that reads "the Dean," a reference to his status as the longest serving House member.

If Dingell has a reputation for being hard-nosed, he also maintains the old congressional tradition of cordiality with colleagues, friend and foe. He says he's sad that tradition seems to be dying.

"This place has become excessively partisan," he said, adding "there are so many internal pressures and external pressures that make it this way. They want to see angry people."

Dingell likes to regale visitors with stories about his hunting exploits his office is covered with big game trophies and his love of the ballet and classical music. His first date with his wife Debbie a prominent Democratic activist was to a ballet performance.

Dingell said he does not know how much longer he'll serve but he's not ready to leave yet.

"I'm not going to stay around here until people say, 'I knew him when he was a good man, now he's this doddering old fool," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Mike Householder in Ypsilanti, Mich., contributed to this report.

Shai Piron, who is also a rabbi, could not get past the first sentence of his address, on a proposed law against smuggling cell phones into Israel's prisons, before beginning to chuckle. ( http://r.reuters.com/rac68t )

"Mr. Chairman, distinguished Parliament, the aim of this legislation is to deal with a serious phenomenon - the penetration of prohibited objects into prisons," he said during a late night session on Monday broadcast on the official Knesset TV channel.

He briefly recovered but broke down again over the perceived sexual innuendo when the word "penetration" came up in the text for a second time. Legislators in the hall joined in the giggling.

Struggling to continue, Piron wiped tears from his eyes, took a sip of water - and finally went back to his seat, unable to read on.

He later explained to reporters that he had been caught off-guard by the phrasing in the speech, which he delivered at the last minute after a cabinet colleague was called away.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

The new comedy depicts Google as corporate America's equivalent of the Emerald City from "The Wizard of Oz" a colorful place where all the food is free, interesting people and gadgets loom around every corner and dreams can come true for those who think big enough, work hard enough and collaborate as a team to make it happen.

It's a nearly two-hour showcase for Google's idealistic culture and for a product line that's becoming deeply ingrained in people's technology-dependent lives.

"The Internship," which hits theaters Friday, will likely be a hit among Google-loving geeks and fans of feel-good flicks, especially those with an affinity for the riffing and mirthful chemistry between Vaughn and Wilson. The two are back together for the first time since "Wedding Crashers" came out eight years ago.

But the film may not create such warm and fuzzy feelings among Google critics who view the company as a self-interested bully that tramples over copyrights, intrudes into people's privacy and stifles competition by abusing its power as the Internet's main gateway.

All of these concerns have been the focal points of high-profile regulatory investigations and lawsuits. Yet none of that is raised in the movie, which revolves around a couple of 40-something-old guys who become clueless interns at Google after losing their jobs selling a product wristwatches supplanted by innovation.

Everyone enamored with Google Inc. after seeing the movie should keep one thing in mind.

"This is not a documentary on Google where you come in and say, 'This is exactly the way things are done there,'" Vaughn told an audience of real-life Google interns and technology reporters after a screening of "The Internship" in San Francisco.

The biggest misnomer about the movie revolves around Google's summer internship program. As the movie portrays, Google does indeed select about 1,500 elite college students from around the world to participate, but the film conjures an imaginary curriculum for the sake of entertainment.

In the film, the interns are separated into teams that compete in different disciplines to win the ultimate prize: full-time jobs at Google. At one point, the teams even engage in a game of Quidditch, the mythical sport that aspiring wizards in "Harry Potter" play to prove their prowess. None of this is actually part of Google's real-life program, according to the company.

Another scene suggests that Google puts a premium on training employees to work a customer help line a concept that will seem incredulous to anyone who has ever had a problem with a Google service and tried to reach a human being on the telephone. Like many other Silicon Valley companies, Google directs people to look through its own online help articles or ask other users on message boards.

Amid the fictional hijinks, the movie casts a spotlight on Google's ever-growing stable of products beyond Internet search, including YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Chrome Web browser and language translation. Google's driverless cars get a cameo, but its wearable computing device, Google Glass, doesn't appear. Device connoisseurs will notice characters using a phone made by Google-owned Motorola Mobility and devices with Google's Nexus brand. The free advertising came without Google contributing to the film's nearly $60 million budget.

Some of Google's rivals also get screen time. There are glimpses of Apple's iPhone and iPad during the film. Facebook's photo-sharing service Instagram gets a shoutout. Location-sharing service Foursquare gets a passing mention, although not in a flattering way. A character describes Foursquare's tracking ability as creepy, a description often slapped on Google services that monitor people's whereabouts and preferences.

Although the movie does have some good-natured fun at the expense of the intelligent oddballs working at Google, it mostly focuses on the positive side of a company whose motto is "don't be evil."

Likening Google to an Oz-like oasis isn't totally farfetched. The company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., does sometimes seem like a fantasyland a cross between a surreal think tank and a college campus sheltered from the worries and hardship of the world around it.

To make Google seem even more mystical, the movie's director, Shawn Levy, said he filmed the first 15 minutes or so of the movie in dull, bland colors. That way, the bright reds, yellows and greens splattered across the company's headquarters seem even more vibrant.

In some instances, it's not really Google's headquarters. Much of the movie was filmed at Georgia Tech and other parts of the Atlanta area.

Other Silicon Valley companies, most notably Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc., have created their own versions of Shangri-La, but Google's allure stood out to Vaughn a couple years ago when he first began mulling his idea for "The Internship."

"Google was the company that seemed the most interesting to me," Vaughn said. "It was the right complement to this story."

One of the movie's producers, Sandra J. Smith, used to work in the tech industry and tapped into some of those connections to set up the early meetings with Google. The company agreed to help out with the movie, without any veto power over the script, after Levy promised Google officials the movie wouldn't be cynical or mean-spirited.

"In retrospect, the amount of creative autonomy that they handed over to me was excellent, but also it could have really bitten them," Levy said during an interview with The Associated Press at Google's headquarters. "It turned out in a way that we're all happy."

Just as Google didn't pay for its products to appear in the movie, filmmakers didn't pay for Google's assistance or access to its headquarters.

Google's cooperation stands in contrast to Facebook's refusal to participate in the making of "The Social Network," a 2010 film that drew a darker portrait of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. In that instance, Facebook stressed the movie wasn't anything like what really happened within the company.

"The Internship" doesn't directly mention Google's co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, though Brin makes two short appearances playing himself. Brin is seen happily cruising around the Google grounds when the characters played by Vaughn and Wilson arrive to start their internship. Brin also appears near the end of the movie to congratulate the interns.

The first appearance wasn't even in the script, according to Levy. The director said he simply saw a bearded guy riding around Google's headquarters on an elliptical bicycle while wearing clothing better suited for yoga. When someone told Levy who that person was, he asked Brin if he could film him. Brin obliged.

Page, who is Google's CEO and is less outgoing than Brin, doesn't appear in the movie, though he wanted to see it made in hope that it will get more young people interested in pursuing careers in technology.

"The reason we got involved in that is because computer science has a marketing problem," Page said last month during an appearance at a Google conference for programmers in San Francisco. "We are the nerdy curmudgeons."

Page believes the movie's coolest character is a headphone-wearing, mostly silent engineer who ends up playing a key role in the climactic scene. "We are really excited about that," he said.

Although he said he didn't set out to make an ode to Google, Levy leaves little doubt about his admiration for the company.

"I realized what they're about is really a certain quality of personhood that yes, has to do with intelligence, but has as much to do with ethical soundness and compassion and a sense of trying to do more good than harm in this world," Levy told the AP.

While meeting with Google's real-life interns, Levy also hailed a company ethos that has become known as "Googleyness." When asked at the Google screening how he defines that term, Levy said: "It's all the things that make you a complete person beyond being smart."

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this story from Mountain View, Calif.

___

Online:

Official movie site: http://www.theinternshipmovie.com

Google: http://www.google.com

Google phone system: http://www.android.com

Microsoft's criticisms: http://scroogled.com

Consumer Watchdog's concerns about Google: http://insidegoogle.com

Antitrust allegations, privacy complaints against Google: http://googlemonitor.com

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) - Some U.S. religious leaders are cutting ties with the Boy Scouts of America, saying they will no longer permit local troops to meet at their churches in reaction to the group's decision to allow openly gay youth members.

The swift withdrawal of support by some conservative churches in states such as Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky comes after the May 23 vote by the group to end the century-old ban, effective January 1.

Ernest Easley, senior pastor of Roswell Street Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia, said his church will no longer sponsor the troop it has backed since 1945 due to the new policy.

"It is extremely sad," Easley said. "I'd never dreamed that I'd be standing in front of a group preaching on Sunday, encouraging parents to pull kids out of Boy Scouts of America."

The Boy Scouts has deep ties to churches all over the country, with about 70 percent of the group's more than 100,000 units chartered by faith-based organizations.

Leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest U.S. Protestant denomination, said they expect a resolution against the policy to be issued by attendees at the group's annual meeting in Houston next month.

"Baptists have stayed where they should and scouts have left us," said Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee and a former scout. "We believe there is an objective right and an objective wrong."

Not all religious organizations reacted against the new policy. The Mormon Church, the largest sponsor of scouting troops nationwide, with about 430,000 youth members, expressed support for permitting gay scouts. The United Methodist Church, the second-largest sponsor, also plans to continue its role in scouting.

The Boy Scouts left its prohibition on openly gay adult leaders in place.

"We made a decision we would not discriminate against any children," said Wade Griffith, pastor at Liberty Crossings United Methodist Church near Birmingham, Alabama, which sponsors a troop with nearly 50 scouts.

"Any time the gospel is used to hurt the most vulnerable people, like children, or if they are used in a moral battle, it is wrong," Griffith said. "Whether they are gay or straight, the children are going to lose in this."

SEARCH FOR NEW SPONSORS

Boy Scouts of America cannot yet quantify the impact of the amended policy, said spokesman Deron Smith. He said the organization will work with troops to find new sponsors in cases where current supporters choose not to renew their charters.

The chairman of the national scouting committee for the Catholic Church, the third-largest sponsor of scouting troops, encouraged church members to avoid rushing to judgment.

"My hope is that we deal with the challenge in the spirit of Christian charity toward all," Edward Martin, chairman of the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, said in an open letter this week.

Some churches that backed the end of the ban may pick up charters dropped by critics of the policy, said Ross Murray, a spokesman for the gay rights group GLAAD.

"The denominations that sponsor the vast, vast majority of scouting groups are either neutral to positive on ending the ban on gay scouts," Murray said.

In addition to troops chartered by faith-based organizations, 22 percent of Boy Scout units are supported by civic organizations and nearly 8 percent are affiliated with educational organizations.

(Additional reporting by Verna Gates in Birmingham, Alabama; Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Adler)

Asteroids are frightening things. With the approach of QE2, a big one that would end civilization, the galaxy briefly put Earth on notice.

Thankfully, QE2 is slated to miss the planet tonight.

"Scientists have concluded that the asteroid poses no threat to planet Earth," White House spokesman Josh Earneston Friday, reassuring mankind it will live another day. "I never really thought I'd be standing up here saying that, but I guess I am."

But what if an asteroid were headed straight for Earth?

NASA evidently has us covered. In 2005, in a bill authorizing space-program funds, Congress asked NASA for a plan to identify, track and deflect - yes, deflect - all manner of PHOs (potentially harmful objects) that could pose a threat.

The directive, according to NASA, is known as the George E. Brown Jr. Near-Earth Object Survey Act, named after the late Democratic chairman of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, who died in 1999 and didn't live to see NASA's asteroid plan on paper. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., successfully included it in the 2005 bill.

With that congressional prompt, NASA considered many science-reality options, including some that bore resemblance to film plots.

Among the solutions NASA studied were firing a nuclear missile at the asteroid, landing a nuclear bomb on the surface, drilling into the great space rock and exploding a nuclear bomb there (which Bruce Willis attempted to do in the film, "Armageddon"), and all those same strategies with conventional bombs.

The scientists also gamed out some weirder possibilities designed with more warning time in mind.

Those included flying a spacecraft near the asteroid for a long time to act as a "gravity tractor" and pull it off course (deemed ineffective, unsurprisingly); using a large mirror to focus sunlight and "boil off" some material from the asteroid; a spacecraft "rendezvous" with the asteroid to "boil off" some material using a "pulse laser"; landing on the asteroid, drilling into it, and "eject[ing] material from PHO at high velocity"; "attach[ing]" a spacecraft to the asteroid and pushing it out of the way; and what NASA called the "Enhanced Yarkovsky Effect" - altering the reflectiveness of a rotating asteroid and counting on the "radiation from sunheated material" to push the asteroid off course.

NASA charted how effectively each method could push a gigantic space rock off course.

The blue horizontal lines show different scenarios and the momentum change needed to deflect them. The top line (F) shows the amount of momentum change needed to deflect a comet with short (nine to 24 months) warning. The bottom lines, A1 and A2, show two scenarios for "[t]he 330 meter asteroid, Apophis, before its close approach to Earth in 2029."

The winner: nuclear bomb. For a fast-approaching comet, the only recourse may be drilling into it and detonating a nuclear bomb, as the top line in the top graph shows.

But, in general, NASA favored simply firing a missile at a space rock and detonating it nearby. Landing on the asteroid, or drilling into it, would make for a better explosion, but NASA was wary of fragmenting the big rock.

Unfortunately, nuclear explosions in space are banned under a 1 , so other nations would have to sign off on the plan.

From the :

In the impulsive category, the use of a nuclear device was found to be the most effective means to deflect a PHO. Because of the large amount of energy delivered, nuclear devices would require the least amount of detailed information about the threatening object, reducing the need for detailed characterization. While detonation of a nuclear device on or below the surface of a threatening object was found to be 10-100 times more efficient than detonating a nuclear device above the surface, the standoff detonation would be less likely to fragment the target. A nuclear standoff mission could be designed knowing only the orbit and approximate mass of the threat, and missions could be carried out incrementally to reach the required amount of deflection. Additional information about the object's mass and physical properties would perhaps increase the effectiveness, but likely would not be required to accomplish the goal. It should be noted that because of restrictions found in Article IV of the "Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space," including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, use of a nuclear device would likely require prior international coordination. The study team also examined conventional explosives, but found they were ineffective against most threats.

So there you have it: The government's plan if an asteroid approaches is to shoot a nuclear missile at it. The planet has George E. Brown, Dana Rohrabacher and NASA to thank.

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - The International Cycling Union (UCI) was fault free in their handling of the Lance Armstrong doping affair that severely tarnished the sport's reputation and triggered harsh criticism of the federation, UCI president Pat McQuaid said.

Speaking to a small group of reporters at an international sports conference in Russia, McQuaid said the UCI had always been at the forefront in the battle against doping during the American's years of domination from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s.

"I do not think the UCI made mistakes," said McQuaid, who took over as president in 2005, the year of Armstrong's last Tour de France victory.

"The statistics show the UCI was the most advanced in the fight against doping."

Cancer survivor Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life from cycling in 2012 after a report by the United State Anti-doping Agency (USADA) accused him of doping for years.

In January, Armstrong admitted in a television interview that he used banned substances in all of his Tour victories.

"I was fooled," McQuaid said. "I believed the was no way a man so close to death would go and start putting stuff into his body that could be dangerous.

"My experiences as a cyclist convinced me he was real."

Critics accused the UCI of not doing enough to catch the American, who faced several years of doping accusations, while the USADA report also alleged that the body could have done more.

McQuaid, seeking a third term as UCI president, defended his organization by saying the UCI had tested Armstrong 200 times between 1999 and 2005, while USADA had only conducted 12 tests.

The Irishman admitted, though, the tests were no match for the advanced methods used by Armstrong.

"There were no tests available for the products. Ten or 15 years ago the armory (against doping) was weaker. The doping system was weak."

DANGEROUS STUFF

Asked whether he considered resigning over the affair, the Irishman was defiant.

"No, because I firmly believe I am making a difference. I want to eradicate doping. I want to see this thing through. I want to finish what I started."

"There is a change in the peloton. Every little thing I am bringing in is making a difference."

McQuaid said he was still waiting for was an apology from Armstrong and hoped the American would give back to the sport by helping with inquiries.

"I would like to see him jump on his private plane and come to Switzerland (UCI headquarters) and say 'what can I do?'

"He has not apologized to the sport of cycling. Everyone accepts he has not come clean. If he has information that is valuable to the sport he has to come forward."

"He should sit down and work with us ... with USADA and the world Anti-doping Agency (WADA)."

McQuaid said cycling would move past the Armstrong affair as the sport continues to expand into new markets despite the whirlwind of negativity the incident brought.

"We will go beyond it. Cycling has got new champions and it is getting global. It is growing dramatically. I am very positive about cycling and the future," he said.

"Africa, for example has huge potential. It may not have a commercial potential but it has damned good athletes," he said.

"There will be a black African athlete on the podium of a major tour within six years."

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann. Editing by Patrick Johnston)

Los Angeles, the defending Stanley Cup champions, tallied their 14th consecutive win at the Staples Center and have yet to lose at home this postseason.

The Kings will play Chicago or Detroit in the West final. The Red Wings and Blackhawks play their Game Seven decider on Wednesday in Chicago.

Los Angeles took control four minutes into the second period where Justin Williams capitalized on a power play, then added a second goal three minutes later.

The Sharks got on the scoreboard at 5:26 in the third period when Dan Boyle put in a slap shot and threw everything at the Kings in the final moments looking for the equalizer.

However, Kings netminder Jonathan Quick stood firm and delivered some spectacular saves to keep the Sharks at bay and put his team in the conference final.

Antti Niemi made 16 saves for the Sharks, who had been trying to reach their third conference final in four years.

(Reporting by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

Three people with knowledge of the selection said Obama planned to nominate Comey, who was the No. 2 in President George W. Bush's Justice Department. The three people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the selection ahead of Obama's announcement, which was not expected immediately.

Comey became a hero to Democratic opponents of Bush's warrantless wiretapping program when Comey refused for a time to reauthorize it. Bush revised the surveillance program when confronted with the threat of resignation by Comey and current FBI Director Robert Mueller, who is stepping down in September.

Comey's selection was first reported by NPR and was not expected to be announced for several days at least. Senate confirmation will be needed.

The change in leadership comes as the FBI and Justice Department are under scrutiny for their handing of several investigations. Obama has ordered a review of FBI investigations into leaks to reporters, including the secret gathering of Associated Press phone records and emails of a Fox News reporter. And there have been questions raised about whether the FBI properly responded to warnings from Russian authorities about a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. The agency, meanwhile, is conducting a highly-anticipated investigation into the Internal Revenue Service over its handling of conservative groups seeking tax exempt status.

Comey was deputy attorney general in 2005 when he unsuccessfully tried to limit tough interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists. He told then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales that some of the practices were wrong and would damage the department's reputation.

Some Democrats denounced those methods as torture, particularly the use of waterboarding, which produces the same sensation as drowning.

Earlier in his career, Comey served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, one of the nation's most prominent prosecutorial offices and one at the front lines of terrorism, corporate malfeasance, organized crime and the war on drugs.

As an assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia, Comey handled the investigation of the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers housing complex near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that killed 19 U.S. military personnel.

Comey led the Justice Department's corporate fraud task force and spurred the creation of violent crime impact teams in 20 cities, focusing on crimes committed with guns.

He was general counsel at Connecticut-based hedge fund Bridgewater Associates from 2010 until earlier this year, when he left and became a lecturer and researcher at Columbia Law School.

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he had not heard from the White House about Comey's nomination, but that he was concerned about Comey's hedge fund connections.

"If he's nominated, he would have to answer questions about his recent work in the hedge fund industry," Grassley said. "The administration's efforts to criminally prosecute Wall Street for its part in the economic downturn have been abysmal, and his agency would have to help build the case against some of his colleagues."

Comey was at the center of one of the Bush administration's great controversies an episode that focused attention on the administration's controversial tactics in the war on terror.

In stunning testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2007, Comey said he thought Bush's no-warrant wiretapping program was so questionable that Comey refused for a time to reauthorize it, leading to a standoff with White House officials at the bedside of ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Comey said he refused to recertify the program because Ashcroft had reservations about its legality.

Senior government officials had expressed concerns about whether the National Security Agency, which administered the warrantless eavesdropping program, had the proper oversight in place. Other concerns included whether any president possessed the legal and constitutional authority to authorize the program as it was carried out at the time.

The White House, Comey said, recertified the program without the Justice Department's signoff, allowing it to operate for about three weeks without concurrence on whether it was legal. Comey, Ashcroft, Mueller and other Justice Department officials at one point considered resigning, Comey said.

"I couldn't stay if the administration was going to engage in conduct that the Department of Justice had said had no legal basis," Comey told the Senate panel.

A day after the March 10, 2004, incident at Ashcroft's hospital bedside, Bush ordered changes to the program to accommodate the department's concerns. Ashcroft signed the presidential order to recertify the program about three weeks later.

The dramatic hospital confrontation involved Comey, who was the acting attorney general during Ashcroft's absence, and a White House team that included Bush's then-counsel, Alberto Gonzales, and White House chief of staff Andy Card, Comey said. Gonzales later succeeded Ashcroft as attorney general.

Comey testified that when he refused to certify the program, Gonzales and Card headed to Ashcroft's sick bed in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital.

When Gonzales appealed to Ashcroft, the ailing attorney general lifted his head off the pillow and in straightforward terms described his views of the program, Comey said. Then he pointed out that Comey, not Ashcroft, held the powers of the attorney general at that moment.

Gonzales and Card then left the hospital room, Comey said.

"I was angry," Comey told the panel. "I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man who did not have the powers of the attorney general."

___

Associated Press Writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

In one of the most electric moments since the IRS controversy erupted nearly two weeks ago, Lois Lerner unwaveringly but briefly defended herself before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But she would say no more, citing legal advice in the face of a federal investigation.

Members of Congress have angrily complained that Lerner and other high-ranking IRS officials did not inform them that conservative groups were singled out, even though lawmakers repeatedly asked the IRS about it after hearing complaints from local tea party groups.

The Justice Department has launched a criminal probe of the murky events over the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns, saying it is looking into potential civil rights violations. Top IRS officials say Lerner didn't tell them for nearly a year after she learned that agents working under her had improperly singled out conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.

Under unrelenting criticism most forcefully from Republicans but also from Democrats and people outside politics administration officials from President Barack Obama on down have denounced the targeting as inappropriate and inexcusable.

Lerner, who heads the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status and first disclosed the targeting at a legal conference, has said the same. But she also spoke up for herself Wednesday, sitting stern-faced at the committee witness table.

"I have not done anything wrong," she said. "I have not broken any laws, I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee."

By one lawmaker's count, Lerner was asked 14 times by members of Congress or their staffs without revealing that the groups had been targeted. On Wednesday, lawmakers didn't get a chance to ask Lerner again.

Nine minutes after she began speaking, Lerner was excused, though committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said he might recall her. He and other Republicans say they believe she forfeited her Fifth Amendment privilege not to testify by giving an opening statement in which she proclaimed her innocence, but several law professors were skeptical they could make that stick.

Issa later said he would consult with others including her lawyer and House attorneys before determining whether to summon her again, hopefully deciding by the time Congress returns from an upcoming recess early next month.

"She's a fact witness with a tremendous amount that she could tell us," Issa said.

By leaving early, Lerner missed out on a six-hour grilling that three other witnesses endured.

The hearing was Congress' third on the IRS controversy in the past week. Taken together, testimony by current and former officials indicates that Lerner's actions were consistent with theirs: Once officials learned that conservative groups were being targeted, they say they made sure the practice was stopped, but they were slow to tell superiors, if they did so at all.

They also didn't tell Congress, until Lerner herself made it public at a May 10 legal conference.

"Think about it. For more than a year, the IRS knew that it had inappropriately targeted groups of Americans based on their political beliefs without mentioning it," Issa said. "There seemed to be a culture of insulation that puts higher priority on deniability than addressing blatant wrongdoing."

The hearings have been notable for what they have not shown as well as what they have. No evidence has emerged that anyone outside the IRS, including the White House, directed agents to go after conservative groups. And there has been no evidence that anyone outside the IRS was made aware that the groups were being targeted until a few weeks before the inspector general released his report on the situation last week.

Still, Obama's top spokesman said Wednesday the White House is facing "legitimate criticisms" for its shifting accounts about who knew what, and when they knew it.

Press secretary Jay Carney first said only Obama's top lawyer knew the IRS was being investigated in the weeks before the inspector general's report was released. Later, he said the chief of staff and other top officials also knew.

"There have been some legitimate criticisms about how we're handling this," Carney said. "And I say 'legitimate' because I mean it."

The report said IRS agents in a Cincinnati office started targeting tea party and other conservative groups for additional scrutiny in March or April of 2010. By August 2010, "tea party" became part of a "be on the lookout," or "BOLO" list of terms to flag for additional screening.

Lerner learned in June 2011 that agents in her division were singling out groups with "Tea Party" and "Patriots" in their applications for tax-exempt status, the report said. She ordered agents to scrap the criteria immediately, but later it evolved to include groups that promoted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

"After that date, Ms. Lerner had 14 opportunities in direct and distinct interactions with the Ways & Means Committee and with this committee 14 different occasions where she could have set the record straight, and she chose not to do it," said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

Lerner, 62, is an attorney who joined the IRS in 2001. She expressed pride in her 34-year career in federal government, which has included work at the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission, and she said she currently oversees 900 workers and a budget approaching $100 million.

She has faced no discipline for her actions, IRS officials said. A new acting commissioner is conducting a 30-day review of the division.

J. Russell George, the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration, has blamed ineffective management for allowing agents to improperly target conservative groups for more than 18 months.

On Wednesday, he hinted that there may be more revelations to come. He told the oversight committee that his office has since uncovered other questionable criteria used by agents to screen applications for tax-exempt status. But he refused to elaborate.

"As we continue our review of this matter, we have recently identified some other BOLOs that raised concerns about political factors," George said. "I can't get into more detail at this time as to the information that is there because it's still incomplete.

Lerner's supervisors said they, too, were kept in the dark for nearly a year. One of those supervisors was Deputy IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, who later became acting head of the agency. He was forced last week to resign.

Miller said he first learned in May 2012 that conservative groups had been singled out. He promptly told his boss, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman.

But for the second straight day, Shulman testified that he didn't tell anyone in the Treasury Department or the White House because he was awaiting the results of an audit by the agency's inspector general. The IRS is part of the Treasury Department.

Shulman stood by that Wednesday, and was pressed once again by lawmakers about why he didn't say anything.

"At the time I learned about this list, I felt I was taking the appropriate actions and that my course was the proper one, and I still feel that way today," Shulman said.

Shulman, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, left in November when his five-year term expired. Miller became acting commissioner when Shulman left.

In the spring of 2012, George told a top Treasury official that the inspector general's office was investigating complaints by conservative groups. George, however, did not reveal any details about what he had uncovered, said Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin, who also testified Wednesday.

"He told me only of the fact that he had undertaken such an audit, and he did not provide any findings," Wolin testified. "I told him that he should follow the facts wherever they lead. I told him that our job is to stay out of the way and let him do his work."

Wolin said he didn't tell any of his superiors at Treasury or the White House about the investigation.

___

AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace contributed to this report.

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap