National: Fugitive former Los Angeles police officer Christopher Dorner is believed to have died in a mountain cabin that later burned to the ground. A body has been found. One sheriff’s deputy was killed as police got into a wild gunfight yesterday in the mountains near Big Bear, CA. A local television reporter stumbled on the scene just as it happened and recorded dramatic sound of the shootout.

 Police said Dorner was driving a carjacked pickup when he got into a car-to-car gunfight with a wildlife officer. Two deputies joined the fight and both were hit, one fatally. Dorner then holed up in a nearby cabin, which caught fire in the afternoon, apparently ignited by teargas canisters.

 Former LAPD officer Dorner was wanted for the murder of a police officer and a young couple shot in their car. It is now believed that since last Thursday he was hiding in a cabin only hundreds of feet from the search command center and the gaggle of journalists covering the story.

SOTU: A roar went up in Congress and President Obama got a standing ovation during his State of the Union address when he called for a vote on tighter gun control and getting rid of “weapons of war”. Pointing out the parents of a 15-year-old girl recently gunned down in Chicago he said, “They deserve a vote. Gabby Giffords deserves a vote.  The families of Newtown deserve a vote. The families of Aurora deserve a vote.”

As Advertised: The Las Vegas Sun reports that the unofficial spokesman for the Heart Attack Grill has died … of a heart attack. The restaurant in which the staff dresses as doctors and sexy nurses offers a 10,000-calorie hamburger called the “Quadruple Bypass”.

World: The death toll in the Syrian civil war is approaching 70,000 according to a United Nations report. In recent developments rebels say they have taken a major air base near the City of Aleppo, and captured the country’s biggest hydroelectric dam.

Nay: A scandal over horsemeat in “beef” products sold in European groceries is spreading. Yesterday the Aldi food chain in England announced that some of its prepared foods contained up to 100% horsemeat … frozen beef lasagna and spaghetti Bolognese bought from a French supplier. Two other food chains that sell prepared foods and an Irish supplier also have been named. Ten million hamburgers were removed from stores last month.

Best in Show: A little fluffy black affenpinscher named “Banana Joe” was named Best In Show at the Westminster Kennel Club in New York. He looks a bit like a Wookie from Star Wars.

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