Obama to Pick Former Bush Official to Lead F.B.I.  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to nominate James B. Comey, a former hedge fund executive and a former senior Justice Department official under President George W. Bush, to replace Robert S. Mueller III as the director of the Federal Bureau …

Bachmann Won't Seek Re-election Next Year  —  Representative Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican who made an ill-fated run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, announced Wednesday that she would not seek a fifth term in Congress next year.

Letters Threatening Mayor and Referring to Gun Control Test Positive for Ricin  —  Two letters that contained threats to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg — one addressed to him, the other to a lobbyist who works on his gun control campaign — have tested positive for the deadly poison ricin, the authorities said on Wednesday.

I was a liberal mole at Fox News: From Bill O'Reilly to Roger Ailes, here's all the inside dope  —  Inside the beast: O'Reilly hates Hannity.  Producers know what's acceptable.  Everyone fears a call from Roger Ailes  —  Excerpted from “An Atheist in the FOXhole: A Liberal's Eight-Year Odyssey Inside …

TV Ratings: MSNBC Falls Below HLN in May, Rachel Maddow Hits Lows  —  Fox News Channel maintains a handsome lead in primetime and total day, while primetime runner-up CNN continues a healthy climb from the lows of 2012.  —  “The Rachel Maddow Show”  —  HLN's wall-to-wall coverage …

Sources: Lincoln Chafee to switch parties  —  Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has notified senior Democratic Party officials that he intends to switch his party registration and join the Democratic Party, multiple sources familiar with Chafee's decision told POLITICO.

The GOP and abortion legislation  —  All of the new Oklahoma laws aimed at limiting abortion and contraception are great for the Republican family that lives in a gingerbread house with a two-car garage, two planned kids and a dog.  In the real world, they are less than perfect.

Adam Levine caught on hot mic: ‘I hate this country’; Responds to backlash with douche-tweets … Yes, yes he did.  On “The Voice” Tuesday night, a hot mic picked up coach Adam Levine saying, “I hate this country,” as one member of Team Adam advanced and two others were voted off the show.

Schlafly Encourages GOP to Ignore Latinos, Focus on White Turnout  —  Eagle Forum's Phyllis Schlafly is riled up about comprehensive immigration reform, and she has hardly been hiding the reason why.  Last month, Schlafly predicted that comprehensive reform would be “suicide for the Republican Party” …

Confirmed: Polk County, FL schools conducted iris scans on students without permission  —  Florida parents are right to be outraged at the outrageous privacy violations that took place late last week in at least 3 Polk County, Florida schools.  —  I just got off the phone with Rob Davis …

Working women should be molested: Saudi writer  —  Writer campaigning against moves to bring women into mixed-gender work environments  —  Abu Dhabi: A Saudi writer has urged his Twitter followers to sexually molest women hired to work as cashiers in big grocery stores …

LePage renews claims of State House censorship  —  ‘The minute we start stifling our speech, we might as well go home, roll up our sleeves and get our guns out,’ the governor says.  —  AUGUSTA - Gov. Paul LePage is still upset about being silenced during a recent meeting …

McAuliffe leads in lesser of 2 evils race  —  PPP's first look at the race for Governor of Virginia since January finds that as voters get to know the candidates better...more are becoming undecided.  That's not the normal trend, but it's also not normal to have an election where voters dislike both candidates five months out.

Conservative groups sue Holder, IRS over Tea Party targeting  —  An organization representing 25 Tea Party and conservative groups on Wednesday sued the Obama administration over the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups.  —  The American Center for Law and Justice …

AP EXCLUSIVE: RISE OF AL-QAIDA SAHARA TERRORIST  —  You are here  —  Home » Osama bin Laden » AP Exclusive: Rise of al-Qaida Sahara terrorist  —  DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — After years of trying to discipline him, the leaders of al-Qaida's North African branch sent one final letter to their most difficult employee.

Missing man found, walks up to WMTW News 8 crew  —  Robert McDonough, 73, safe after 14-hour ordeal  —  A 73-year-old Limington man who had been missing for more than 14 hours was found Tuesday morning after he walked up to a WMTW News 8 crew.  —  Robert McDonough approached WMTW News 8 …

Why the Clinton Scandals Were a Bigger Deal Than the Obama Ones  —  Or, how to tell a personal scandal from a policy controversy  —  President Obama visited the Jersey Shore Tuesday, where Gov. Chris Christie presented him with a stuffed bear at an arcade and the two declared the shore open …

Masterworks for One and All  —  AMSTERDAM — Many museums post their collections online, but the Rijksmuseum here has taken the unusual step of offering downloads of high-resolution images at no cost, encouraging the public to copy and transform its artworks into stationery, T-shirts, tattoos, plates or even toilet paper.