Twenty-eight homeless people arrested

Simi Valley police officers arrested 28 homeless people in 20 different locations around the city this past Thursday, according to an article in the Ventura County Star.

The city reported the arrests were made as part of an effort to “eradicate illegal homeless encampments.”

The article reports prior to the roundup, the case manager of the Samaritan Center, a Simi Valley organization which is focused on ending and preventing homelessness, was contacted by the police.

It was decided the case manager would meet with the arrested homeless people to review their options and plans for the future.

ISIS  claimed to have killed 26-year-old woman from Arizona

According to the Washington Post, the Islamic State claimed they had killed a 26-year-old Arizona woman on Friday.

The statement was made after Jordanian fighter plans bombed a building in Syria where she was being held.

The article said ISIS released photos displaying the rubble of a building and said it had been damaged during the airstrikes but included no images of the hostage.

Previously ISIS has held captive numerous hostages from the United States, Britain and most recently Japan.

CNN reports the Jordanian airstrikes on Syria were in response to the killing of Lt. Moath al-Kasasbeh.

The captured Jordanian pilot was shown being burned alive in a video released last week, “enraging Jordan and others around the world.”

Sexual assault investigated at UCLA

A reported sexual assault of a student is currently being investigated at the University of California, Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Daily Bruin reported the attack took place around a stretch of buildings west of the UCLA campus, known to many as the “Fraternity District.”

The reported assault took place between Saturday at 11:15 p.m. and 9 a.m. Sunday, according to Nancy Greenstein of the UCLA Police Department in a statement released last week.

KTLA reported the suspect was described as a white man about 20 years old with dark hair and brown eyes.

Pope Francis declared Archbishop died as a martyr

Pope Francis declared last week that Oscar Romero, the Salvadoran Archbishop, died as a martyr, according to NPR.

The archbishop was shot dead while celebrating mass in 1980 and was known for defending the poor and condemning the violence “perpetrated by the Salvadoran government and funded by the United States at the height of the Cold War,” the NPR article stated.

The Economist reported earlier popes have regarded the archbishop, “who was an exponent of ‘liberation theology,’ as a Marxist.”

Being declared a martyr opens a path towards his beatification, which is the last step before sainthood, according to the Huffington Post.

Christopher Otmar
Staff Writer
Published February 11, 2015