Anxiety and anger are growing among Illinois state employees and retirees who wonder what will happen to their pocketbooks if lawmakers make expected changes to the state's pension systems. Workers spent their careers paying into their pension funds what the law told them to pay. But the state for decades skipped or shorted its required payments.

Top Illinois Democratic leaders, including Gov. Pat Quinn, are urging lawmakers to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines in that state. Quinn, Senate President John Cullerton and state Sen. Dan Kotowski spoke Sunday at a news conference in Chicago with parents of children killed last December in a Connecticut school. Kotowski introduced legislation late last week that would ban the sale, delivery and possession of magazines that accept more than 10 rounds.

Kentucky law enforcement officers are beginning a week of traffic patrols for the Memorial Day holiday focusing on making sure motorists are wearing seat belts. The 2013 "Click It or Ticket" campaign begins today and runs through June 2.  The Kentucky Office of Highway Safety says Kentucky has an 83% seat belt usage rate. The national rate is 86%. 

Kentuckians don't have to worry about an onslaught of noisy cicadas this year, though experts say they're about to emerge in the Northeast. The cicadas, which take 17 years to come out of the ground, are expected to number in the billions along the East Coast from North Carolina to Connecticut. But a chart from the website Magic Cicada dot org indicates Kentucky shouldn't see a cicada emergence until 2021, with others following in 2025 and 2028.

Madisonville sanitation officials say nearly 30% of the city's population is using the city's iRecycle program. In October, the city began the program to keeping garbage collection fees low by reducing the number of tons transported to the Hopkins County Regional Landfill. City Sanitation Superintendent Robert Janes said he hopes 70 per cent of the population will sign on by the end of the next fiscal year. 

  Kentucky's Tourism Secretary, Marcheta Sparrow will retire at the end of this month. Sparrow was one of Governor Steve Beshear's first cabinet appointments, taking office in 2007.

  Fort Campbell leaders have fired an officer in charge of the base's Sexual Harassment and Assault Response and Prevention office for allegedly violating a protection order and aggravated stalking. 

A coalition of western Kentucky businesses and residents has formed in hopes of minimizing the fallout of an electricity rates deal between Big Rivers Electric Co-Op and western Kentucky aluminum smelters.

There have certainly been no shortage of political scandals in Washington, but there has only been one that led to the resignation of a US President. Beginning on this day in 1973, major television networks took turns airing the hearings, starting with ABC. An estimated 85% of Americans tuned in to at least one hearing.

It’s Friday, May 17

There’s a free youth baseball clinic at Brooks Stadium in Paducah on Sunday for kids ages 6-16. Kids can get tips on hitting, throwing, and fielding. The first 100 participants get free T-shirts. Registration begins at noon with the clinic starting at 1.

From NPR: With budgets tight, the court in San Joaquin County, Calif., stopped hearing all small claims cases in September. More than 800 people have since filed claims with no hearing dates in sight. Many other counties nationwide are experiencing similar delays for civil cases as they grapple with spending cuts.