NEW YORK TIMES: Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone. Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble […]

RELATED: At turns disturbing, confusing, disgusting, hilarious, mesmerizing and stone cold beatific, Oddsac is perhaps best explained by clarifying what it is not: it is neither a rock documentary nor a concert film, nor is it the kind of film you would see at the cineplex. There are no stars, no car chases, no dreamy romantic interests who meet cute and live happily ever after. In fact, there is no plot, no linear narrative arc. Instead, there is a series of hallucinatory vignettes: a girl attempting in vain to stanch the flow of black goo oozing out of the walls […]

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Comcast Chief Operating Officer Steve Burke [NOT pictured, above] will succeed Jeff Zucker as CEO of NBC Universal later this year, when Comcast takes control of the broadcaster. Burke, 52, was seen as a likely successor to Zucker. He first joined Philadelphia-based Comcast in 1998 as president of Comcast Cable. He is credited with leading Comcast’s delivery of video on demand, which was introduced in 2003. He has also been president of ABC Broadcasting and president and chief operating officer of Euro Disney SA. Burke inherits a struggling fourth-place network in need of change. The network’s news division […]

INQUIRER: A tow truck driver was killed early Sunday in Philadelphia’s Kensington section after he was struck by another tow truck operated by a driver with whom he had argued, police said. Ray Santiago, 30, a driver for Siani’s Towing, was hit by a truck driven by Glen McDaniel, 25, in the parking lot of O’Reilly’s Pub at Frankfort and Lehigh Avenues at about 2:45 a.m., police said. MORE UPDATE: Following the argument, Santiago drove his truck into the parking lot of O’Reilly’s Pub across the street and McDaniel followed him, Cohen said. That’s when McDaniel ran over Santiago, backed […]

STREET:  [Nutter is] not a black mayor, he’s just a mayor with dark skin. […] I basically gave him a huge opportunity to win over the people of this city, without any interference from me. I don’t think he’s done that. [There is] huge unrest, disgust, and dismay [in the black community] . . . about the performance of the mayor. MORE NUTTER:  It is really astounding to me that at a time of great economic distress, the former mayor, seemingly in an obsessive fashion now, would spend so much time focused on racially divisive comments and statements with seemingly […]

WASHINGTON POST: A Democratic source unearths video of Christine O’Donnell in 2003, answering clearly and unequivocally in the affirmative when asked: “You’re going to stop the whole country from having sex?” At the time, O’Donnell was with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a conservative group she later sued for gender discrimination. The exchange, on Scarborough Country on November 13, 2003, is an argument between O’Donnell and Eric Nies, then with the Moment of Hope foundation, about whether to counsel kids to have safe sex. MORE PREVIOUSLY: Christine O’Donnell ‘Dabbled In Witchcraft’ PREVIOUSLY: The Thirteen Dumbest Things Delaware Senate Candidate Christine O’Donnell […]

INGA SAFFRON: Because of its diminutive size, Sugarhouse’s damage to the waterfront may appear minimal now. But the owners are already wrapping up an expansion plan that will triple its footprint to include more slots and tables, a concert venue, and banquet hall, as well as a 74-foot-tall garage for more than 3,000 cars. SugarHouse will look a lot less benign when its facade is four blocks long instead of merely two. And even after the garage replaces the surface parking lots, the big gap between the casino’s front door and the street will remain. Although SugarHouse is the region’s […]

DAILY NEWS: Denise Merget, the Upper Darby cat hoarder who allegedly pulled a .38-caliber revolver on ASPCA officials this month when they tried to confiscate her 55 cats, was apparently running some kind of kitty morgue out of her mother’s house, police say. Police and health officials searched the Ardmore Avenue house on Wednesday and found 20 frozen cats in a freezer. The house happens to be right across the street from an alleged brothel that was shut down last week. The cats, which were wrapped in plastic bags, were various ages, but mostly babies, police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said. […]

Eastern State Penitentiary,  5:40 PM, Tuesday by JEFF FUSCO