Convicted VA Killer to be Executed:  Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced Monday that he will not intervene in the scheduled execution of a convicted serial murderer, allowing the execution to move forward this week.  Tom Jackman of the Washington Post reports that 49-year-old Alfredo Prieto received two death sentences in 2010 for the 1988 murderers of Rachel Raver and Warren Fulton III, and was also linked by DNA to another Northern Virginia murder that occurred that same year.  It is believed Prieto committed nine murders between 1988 and 1990.  He received a death sentence in California for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl.  Prieto's defense lawyers claimed he was mentally retarded in his 2007 and 2008 trials in an effort convince the juries to spare his life, but the juries in both trials convicted him of capital murder.  He faces death by lethal injection Thursday night.

US Failing to Stop People from Joining ISIS:  An extensive six-month review released Thursday conducted by the House Homeland Security Committee found that the Obama administration has failed to stop more than 250 Americans who have traveled overseas since 2011 to join or attempt to join terrorist groups in the Middle East, including ISIS.  Fox News reports that the final congressional report states that of the hundreds of Americans who have attempted to travel to Iraq or Syria, only a fraction have been thwarted by authorities.  It is estimated that over 25,000 Americans have joined Iraqi and Syrian jihadists.  Also noted in the report was the Obama administration's lack of strategy to identify those who try to return to carry out terrorist attacks in the U.S., adding that "several dozen" have managed to make it back successfully.

Toll of Criminal Aliens Revealed:  Government agencies that crunch crime numbers are unable or unwilling to inform the public of how many illegal immigrants are arrested within U.S. borders each year, likely because "these numbers would expose how serious the problem is and make our government look bad."  Malia Zimmerman of Fox News reports that FoxNews.com examined a patchwork of local, state and federal statistics, revealing figures that show illegal immigrants are three times as likely to be convicted of murder as the general population and constitute more crime than their 3.5 percent share of the U.S. population would indicate.  Statistics compiled from agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Sentencing Commission, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Government Accountability Office and the Bureau of Justice Statistics show that of the 11.7 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., account for 13.6 percent of all serious crimes committed - 12 percent of murder sentences, 20 percent of kidnapping sentences and 16 percent of drug trafficking sentences.  To make matter worse, many of these offenders are being released onto U.S. streets by ICE every year:  in 2014, the agency released 30,558 criminal aliens with a combined 79,059 criminal convictions including 86 homicides, 186 kidnappings and thousands of sexual assaults, domestic violence convictions and DUIs.  At least 10,246 more have been released as of August.  "It is no accident that local, state and federal governments go to great lengths to keep the data under wraps," critics say.

Rising Bloodshed in Los Angeles:  This past weekend, a total of 19 people were shot across Los Angeles, five of them fatally, highlighting the rising bloodshed the city is experiencing.  Kate Mather and Nicole Santa Cruz of the LA Times report that the rising violence is fueled mostly by gang-related activity, something the LAPD has been trying to reduce for months by deploying more officers into the streets.  Still, killings continue to rise, with homicides up 11 percent this year compared to 2014.  Officials have been approaching the heightened violence with new strategies, such as focusing their efforts elsewhere if a shooting appears to be an isolated attack in order to prevent further violence and conducting more probation and parole checks.  The department continues to participate in gang prevention and intervention efforts as well as youth outreach, which has been successful over the years in curbing gang-related crime.  An activist who works to curb gang violence, Aqeela Sherrills, says that in order for the LAPD to succeed in combating the bloodshed, the city has to shows it's really committed to community-based solutions, adding that "the response is not more police."