Patch Picks Up Orange County Press Club Awards

By Sydney Moyer

Patch sites in Southern California were honored with five awards at the Orange County Press Club awards banquet last month.Two local bloggers from Mission Viejo Patch swept the "Best News/Political Blog" category. Shripathi Kamath, blogger and and resident of Mission Viejo since 1997, took home first place for his contemplative post on the life of Alan Turing. The post reflects on the magnitude of Turing's accomplishments as the father of modern computing and how those accomplishments were diminished because he was openly gay. The judge's comments said Kamath's writing strikes the perfect balance of historical frankness and modern advocacy as he mourns Turing's untimely death and highlights discoveries in the field of computer science.

Patch Blogger Dan Avery took home second place in the category for his chilling post on the investigation of University of California at Irvine Professor Rainer Reinscheid, who wrote down violent fantasies following the death of his son. Dan reflected on the public's rush to declare Reinscheid guilty and cited his own experience with writing down violent fantasies after the tragic murders of his sister and niece years before.

In addition to the Mission Viejo bloggers, Rancho Santa Margarita Patch Local Editor Martin Henderson, who was recently recognized as Online Journalist of the Year by the L.A. Press Club, took third place for "Best Feature Story" for his article on the tragic suicide of a mentally ill man who jumped off a bridge a year after surviving a similar attempt.