ISIS Growing Faster than Al Qaeda:  A former top CIA official told Congress Tuesday that the Islamic State (ISIS) is gaining affiliates "faster than Al Qaeda ever did," testifying that the number of militant groups now swearing allegiance to the terrorist organization has grown to cover 20 countries, from nearly nothing just one year ago.  Fox News reports that Michael Morell, President Obama's former deputy and acting CIA director, told the House Armed Services Committee that ISIS poses a "significant strategic and lethal threat" to the U.S. and Europe, warning that the group is "almost certainly" working to wage attacks on U.S. targets, as they have successfully done in Europe.  Another U.S. intelligence official says that over 36,000 foreign fighters, at least 6,600 of whom hold Western passports, have traveled to Syria from at least 120 countries to train and fight alongside ISIS, up from an estimated 20,000 foreign fighters last year.  Morell's testimony came after an ISIS-affiliated suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a tourist-heavy area of Istanbul, killing 10 people, nine of whom were German tourists, and wounding 15 others.

Jury Sentences CA Double Murderer to Death:  After just one hour of deliberation on Monday an Orange County jury unanimously decided to sentence a double murderer to death for killing two friends in a plot to steal their savings to pay for his wedding.  Kelly Puente of the OC Register reports that 31-year-old Daniel Wozniak, a local actor from Costa Mesa, was found guilty on Dec. 16 of murdering his 26-year-old neighbor and Army veteran Samuel Herr and 23-year-old Juri "Julie" Kibuishi in 2010 to steal more than $60,000 in savings Herr had earned from combat service in Afghanistan to bankroll his wedding.  In May 2010, Wozniak lured Herr to the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, where he shot and killed him, returning the next day to cut of his head, hand and forearm before tossing the body parts in a park and heading to a Fullerton theater to perform in a musical.  The following day, Wozniak used Herr's cell phone to lure Kibuishi to Herr's apartment, fatally shooting her and pulling her pants down to make it look as if Herr had sexually assaulted and killed her.  Wozniak's ex-fiancée, Rachel Buffett, who played a role in the murders, pleaded guilty to felony charges of being an accessory after the fact for lying to Costa Mesa police detectives.  Wozniak's next court appearance is March 11, where Superior Court Judge John Conley will decide whether to follow the jury's verdict of capital punishment or sentence Wozniak to life in prison without parole.

Illegal Immigration Surges Again:  New Border Patrol numbers show that in just the first three months of the fiscal year, almost 40,000 illegal immigrant families and unaccompanied minors from Central America have been caught at the southwest border.  Stephen Dinan of the Washington Times reports that in December alone, almost 9,000 families were apprehended, a 38 percent increase compared to November and the highest total ever for the last month of the year.  Additionally, 6,800 unaccompanied minors were caught in December, a 21 percent increase over November.  In response to the latest flood of illegal immigration, extremely unusual during this time of year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began conducting a series of raids earlier this month in an effort to track down and deport some of the women and children caught in 2014, who have been ordered deported but are refusing to leave.  The White House stands by DHS's decision to conduct the raids in the hope that seeing deportations will discourage others in Central America from making the trip to the U.S.  These latest numbers mark the largest number of families and unaccompanied minors in a single month since late spring 2014.

CA City Sees Uptick in Gang Violence:  A man shot Tuesday afternoon in Santa Ana, Calif., marked the 27^th shooting or stabbing in the city since the start of the new year, and police say most of the incidents are gang-related.  Greg Lee of ABC 7 reports that Santa Ana Police Chief Carlos Rojas says the uptick in gang violence is "a real big concern for us at the police department," noting that the amount violence and handguns are proliferating. The Santa Ana Police Department Gang Unit plans to utilize compliance sweeps more often than in the past to combat the increased gang violence, while officers will "do what it takes to curb the violence one gun and one arrest at a time."  Many of the known gang members on probation in the city fall under AB 109, or prison realignment, the 2011 state law that releases  so-called "low-level" offenders from prison.