Wall Street Journal Top Online Stories: Fri 11/12/10

The Wall Street Journal lead headline online early Friday morning says "Watchdog Planned for Online Privacy." The paper says the Obama Administration is preparing a stepped-up approach to policing Internet privacy that calls for new laws and a new position to oversee the effort.

The paper says an agency that investigates deadly chemical accidents said it was being thwarted in its probe of the Deepwater Horizon disaster by a joint federal team of agencies.

It says in the auto industry's race to be greener, many of the fastest superluxury cars have trailed the pack. It says now, Ferrari, Porsche, Bentley and other makers of exotic models are starting to respond to customers who want more torque with less guilt.

The paper says defense giant Northrop, anticipating leaner Pentagon budgets and a shift in battle tactics, is moving to exit shipbuilding and to focus on robotics and surveillance equipment.

It says a presidential panel's draft overhaul of the tax system could hit higher earners hard, largely by wiping out deductions and investment breaks that tend to especially benefit those who make enough money to itemize their taxes.

And the most popular story says the leaders of a White House commission laid out a sweeping proposal to cut the federal budget deficit by hundreds of billions a year by targeting sacrosanct areas of U.S. tax and spending policy, such as Social Security benefits, middle-class tax breaks and defense spending.