Thursday news dump

• Albert's tip was good: Philly out of the Olympics race, for this time around, anyway.
  
  
• John Baer adds fuel to the fire of speculation about Brady's mayoral aspirations. Meanwhile, the DN opinion page hopes that this meeting of titans produces something more than talk.
  
  
• An Inquirer piece tries to take the temperature of suburban Rendell supporters, concluding that they'll vote for him, but aren't super enthused.
  
  
• A national Latino group is making a voter-registration push in Pennsylvania and New Jersey this year, claiming that this area's hispanic population is growing and under-organized.
  
  
• Gay rights activists are working voter registration too, in many parts of the state, carrying an anti-Santorum message along the way.
  
  
• Apparently campaign donations from controversial characters are a hot potato, resulting in a Casey gift's being redirected to Philadelphians Against Santorum (much to Ray Murphy's joy).
  
  
• Mayor Street will go live on TV tonight to address Philadelphia's violence problem and describe programs to combat it.
  
  
• The Daily News opinion page applauds the new program to keep guns out of schools.
  
  
• Smerconish thinks that the Boy Scout kerfluffle is an attempted diversion from more serious city problems. Not sure I agree, but I found noteworthy some additional information he provides, including that the scouts have actually been paying quite a lot for the building they've been using:

  In reality, the scouts pay $60,000 a year for maintenance and upkeep of the property. They also made $2.6 million in renovations to the building in the mid-'90s.

  I leave it to better diggers to clarify the discrepancy between this and the $1 rent claim made earlier in the week.
  
  
• Above Average Jane draws us to a Bucks County editorial by Paul Lang, candidate for state Senate, in which he rebutts some of this opponent's claims.
  
  
• A new-to-me regional political blog reports on turmoil within both major parties as stallwarts demand that their leadership represent their beliefs.
  
  
• The new CityPaper has sent a number of its reporters walking around the city, and the cover and several related stories report on their discoveries and rediscoveries along the way.
  
  
• The feds are bringing a heap of indictments against people regionally who were involved in ID theft and related crimes, from check-cashing to false mortgage deals.