By CNN's Tracey Webb

Your daily scoop of what State of the Union is watching today, August 27, 2014.

1. Steven Sotloff. The American journalist's mother made a plea to ISIS terrorists holding her son hostage. In a video broadcast on Al Arabiya Network, Shirley Sotloff spoke directly to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. "Steven is a journalist who traveled to the Middle East to cover the suffering of Muslims at the hands of tyrants," she said. Steven is a loyal and generous son, brother and grandson. He is an honorable man who has always tried to help the weak." Shirley Sotloff then appealed to al-Baghdadi's self-declared title of caliph of the Islamic State, telling him as caliph, he has the power to grant amnesty to her son. "I ask you to please release my child," she said. Steven Sotloff disappeared while reporting from Syria in August 2013. He was seen in the recent ISIS video showing the beheading of U.S. photojournalist James Foley.

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