The Wall Street Journal reports:

U.S. Justice Department personnel are disguising themselves as Mexican Marines to take part in armed raids against drug suspects in Mexico, according to people familiar with the matter, an escalation of American involvement in battling drug cartels that carries significant risk to U.S. personnel.

A U.S. official says the marshal's participation was approved by high levels of the Mexican Government. The Mexican Embassy in Washington denies that: [More...]

ISIS has released Issue #5 of its English publication, Dabiq Magazine. You can read it here.

There's nothing in it about Peter Kassig or other ISIS beheadings. It's mostly about the other groups which recently announced their allegiance to ISIS leader al Baghdadi. There's also an article about its new currency and about Kobane. And a four page essay by hostage John Cantlie, titled "If I were U.S. President Today," in which he again criticizes the policy of the U.S. and its allies. [More...]

The Office of the Child Advocate in Connecticut has released its report on Adam Lanza. It's 114 pages and available here. The Daily Mail has this recap. I just finished reading the report. Here are some quotes:

Autism Spectrum Disorder or other psychiatric problems neither caused nor led to his murderous acts.

As to what did cause Lanza's murderous rampage, the report does not have a definitive answer.

The media hype over the grand jury decision in Ferguson is over the top. Except for a few stories about Buffalo and one warning of a cyber attack by China or Russia, CNN aired nothing else this afternoon, except commercials. It was that way on my hour drive to the jail to see a client at noon, and that way for the hour drive back at 4 pm. Wolf Blitzer kept breathlessly announcing "We're expecting a grand jury announcement any moment so stay tuned." It's now 3 hours later and there has been no announcement of the grand jury decision. But the media's non-stop reporting of anticipated violent reactions persist. I learned from CNN that Best Buy is closing its stores for the weekend. Schools have decided to close the whole week. Homeowners in outlying areas are stocking up on guns fearing increased crime. Police are worried. And on and on. [More...]

ISIS has released Episode 6 of prisoner John Cantlie's "Lend Me Your Ears" video messages. In it, he discusses the failed U.S. rescue attempt of James Foley. He excoriates the U.S. and British governments for not negotiating with ISIS, for threatening James Foley's mother with prosecution if she participated in ransom negotiations, and for abandoning him and the other foreign hostages recently executed.

He says ISIS was holding six foreign hostages, presumably referring to Foley, Sotloff, Haines, Henning, Kassig and himself. He doesn't mention the female U.S. aid worker who reportedly is being held by ISIS. Hopefully, she's just being held in a different place.

Cantlie blasts the hypocrisy, arrogance and lies of the U.S. and Great Britain, saying they treated his life and those of the other English and American hostages like a "roll of the dice" while the other hostages all went home. He is not angry at ISIS.

You can watch the video here, but it probably won't stay up long.

More court today (and now Monday and Tuesday as well) and jail visits. I wish I could recoup the hours I spent after court this week at the Apple store (that "new" phone they gave me 3 months ago stopped working. I'm now on my third iPhone 5s) and on the phone with Comcast (the "hunt" feature and caller ID on my phone lines stopped working, and my cable bill jumped $50). All fixed now though.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Republicans are hyperventilating about President Obama's modest immigration reforms. If they had a clue what real immigration reform entails, they'd probably have a collective heart attack. Here are a few reform proposals that go much further than what Obama called for last night: [More...]

Five Guantantamo detainees, four from Yemen and one from Tunisia, have been transferred to Georgia and Slovakia.

Obama has now transferred 100 detainees during his presidency. There are 143 detainees remaining at Gitmo.

Update: Here's the White House Fact Sheet with details of Obama's plan.

Airing now on CNN. Felons, not Families.

Three components:

• More money for law enforcement at the border
• Easier and faster process for skilled workers to stay here
• Temporary relief against deportation for some undocumented immigrants

As to the undocumented, he is offering temporary protection against deportation for those:[More...]

Here's a new open thread, all topics welcome.

The Syrian Arab Army has an official Facebook page in English. Yesterday it posted a response to the ISIS video showing the beheading of 16 of its members. [link removed]

The statement acknowledges that army personnel have beheaded ISIS fighters in the past, but says those were individual acts by a few bad apples. The army, it insists, acts with honor and dignity.

It then says the Army won't be beheading captured ISIS fighters in the future. But, it continues, ISIS fighters will beg to be beheaded, because the Army will not treat them as human beings. [More...]

I'll be in court almost all week. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.