DIGEST

• Today's weather: Fog this morning, 94 this afternoon, showers this evening

  Be wary of thick fog in low-lying areas around the metro-east this morning.

• Ill. comptroller announces layoffs, furloughs

  Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes plans to lay off employees and has instituted unpaid days off and a hiring freeze to deal with budget cuts.

• Commuter alert: Traffic construction on numerous metro-east roads

  Traffic around the metro-east Thursday morning:

• Illinois judge denies being drunk while driving

  During a hearing in a Kane County court, former Lake County Chief Judge David Hall admitted he had been drinking alcohol on the night he was arrested for drunken driving.

• Missouri county posts meth lab seizures online

  The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department is posting addresses on its Web site where it has found evidence linked to illegal methamphetamine labs.

• 1 small hitch for FAA, 1 giant mess for fliers

  When a computer system that distributes flight plans nationwide came rolling to a halt this week because of a software glitch, so did airplanes on tarmacs from Orlando to Chicago. The ensuing delays drove home just how easily an apparently isolated problem can trigger network-wide disarray in the country's aging air traffic control system.

• TV cameras OK'd for bikini strangler sentencing; victim was college student from Mo.

  A judge on Wednesday decided to allow TV cameras to record the sentencing of a convicted sex offender for raping a college student from Missouri and strangling her with her bikini top.

• FEMA approves $15.4 million in Ill. flooding aid

  The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved more than $15.4 million in disaster aid to help Illinois residents and businesses recover from this summer's flooding.

• Government warns Simplicity bassinets are deadly

  A government safety group is warning parents not to use a Pennsylvania company's baby bassinets after two babies were trapped and strangled in the product.

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