L.a. Cops: It's Official - Dorner's Dead

ASSOCIATED PRESS The new CaponeThe Chicago Crime Commission considers Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman - seen here in 1993; he escaped from maximum-security prison in 2001 and is still at large - even more menacing than Al Capone because he's the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, which supplies most of the narcotics sold in the city. So, the Mexican drug kingpin, who has never set foot in Chicago, has been named the city's new Public Enemy No. 1 - the first since Scarface at the height of the Prohibition-era gang wars.

GALLERY: ASSOCIATED PRESS The new CaponeThe Chicago Crime Commission…

Posted: February 15, 2013

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. - Officials said Thursday that the burned remains found in a California mountain cabin have been positively identified as fugitive former police officer Christopher Dorner.

Jodi Miller, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County sheriff-coroner, said that the identification was made through Dorner's dental records.

Miller did not give a cause of death.

The search for Dorner began last week after authorities said that he had launched a deadly revenge campaign against the Los Angeles Police Department for his firing, warning that he would bring "warfare" to LAPD officers and their families. His murderous quest, which took four lives, ended Wednesday in the cabin inferno.

Fire-sale price for Trump Plaza

ATLANTIC CITY - Trump Plaza, the Boardwalk centerpiece of Donald Trump's onetime Atlantic City empire, was sold Thursday to a California company for $20 million in the cheapest of a series of bargain-basement deals for distressed gambling halls in the struggling New Jersey seaside resort.

The Meruelo Group of Downey, Calif., plans to close the deal by May 31. It is the lowest price ever paid for a casino in Atlantic City.

The company has not decided on a new name for the casino-resort, but said it will not continue to use the Trump name.

NYC puts a lid on pot busts

NEW YORK - New York City plans to stop booking and arraigning many people arrested on low-level marijuana-possession charges. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday that the change will take place next month.

People who get picked up on charges of having a small amount of marijuana will be released with desk-appearance tickets if they have ID and no open warrants.

Bloomberg said that "it's the right thing to do." He adds that it will let police use their resources where most needed.

In brief:

* WASHINGTON - Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., a staunch advocate of gun control and public infrastructure and a champion of the Amtrak railroad system, announced Thursday he will not seek re-election in 2014. Lautenberg, at 89 the oldest senator and the Senate's last World War II veteran, has had health problems in recent years.

* WASHINGTON - The Justice Department has closed an investigation of a proposed merger between Penguin and Random House and will take no action to stop the deal that would create the world's largest publisher of consumer books. The proposed publishing house would have around a quarter of the consumer book market.

* NEW YORK - Billionaire Warren Buffett, the most closely watched investor in America, is putting his money in ketchup, agreeing to buy H.J. Heinz Co. for $23.3 billion in the richest deal ever in the food industry.

* NEW YORK - Stocks ended little changed on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average fell nine points to close at 13,973. The Standard & Poor's 500 edged up one point to 1,521. The Nasdaq also rose a point to 3,198.

- Daily News wire services