Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin is touting new measures to increase security for public housing residents in East St. Louis. The federally-funded plan includes installing cameras at six high-rise properties and hiring a new security coordinator.

"We're going to be putting up lighting and fencing," Durbin said. "We're going to move forward to try to make sure the almost 4,500 residents of public housing in East St. Louis have a safer place to live."

Updated 2:14 p.m. with a correction issued by the Associated Press. Corrects Missouri figure to "just more than 2,000," not "nearly 3,000."

An Associated Press survey of the nation's top methamphetamine-producing states shows national lab seizures rose again last year - and Missouri is, again, at the top of the list.

The survey confirmed that Missouri regained the top spot for lab seizures in 2011 with just more than 2,000 busts. It also found that Tennessee came in second with almost 1,700, followed by Indiana, Kentucky and Oklahoma.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster plans to appeal a court ruling that invalidated a state fund designed to offer incentives to science or technology companies.

Even though the recession is over and Illinois' budget is padded with last year's income tax hike, money is still tight in state government. This puts Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn in a difficult position as he lays out his budget for the next year.

The Governor will give his budget address today at noon at the Illinois Capitol and it will be full of gloom.  And he is not even wading into the thick of the fiscal mess.  Illinois Public Radio’s Amanda Vinicky explains.

“The toughest budget we’ve ever faced.”

Ill. Gov to propose closing 14 major facilities in budget address

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn's administration says the cuts and consolidations will result in more than 1,100 layoffs.

The cuts come in all sizes. At the large end is Tamms Correctional Center, a southern Illinois prison that houses about 400 inmates  -- which is just over half of capacity.