The Echo gets ‘Honorable Mention’ at the 2015 California College Media Awards

Paulyn Baens, a sophomore at California Lutheran University, was honored this past weekend during the Associated Collegiate Press Convention.

Baens received an honorable mention by the California College Media Association for a photograph she captured of the fencing club which was published in the Echo last fall.

“I captured one of the members mid-air while dueling his opponent during their practice,” Baens said.

She is currently majoring in communication with an emphasis in public relations. The award banquet was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Universal City.

Man identified for ISIS beheading videos

Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwait-born Londoner in his mid-20s, is suspected to be the man who appears in a string of grisly beheading videos and has come to personify with the extremist group Islamic State, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Known as “Jihadi John” by the media, his identity was confirmed by two U.S. officials and two U.S. congressional sources last Thursday, according to CNN.

However, London based human rights and Muslim advocacy organizations who’ve interacted with Emwazi stated they could not be 100 percent certain it was him.

The Los Angeles Times stated “Emwazi has been on the radar of the British authorities for years before he left for Syria around 2013.”

Metrolink crashed into truck in Ventura

Early last week, Metrolink Train 102 crashed into a truck abandoned on the tracks after picking up passengers in East Ventura and downtown Oxnard, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Four people were critically injured, including a 31-year-old student engineer who was at the controls of the train.

The Metrolink had close to 50 people on board and hit the parked truck at 5:42 a.m. according to the Los Angeles Times.

Christopher Otmar
Staff Writer
Published March 4th, 2015