The Associated Press

Illinois GOP Chairman Pat Brady says he's stepping down for personal reasons and not because of rifts within the party.

Brady announced his resignation Tuesday in a letter to the state party's central committee.

In a phone interview with The Associated Press, Brady says his wife has been battling "very serious" cancer for two years and he wants to focus on her and their four children.

Legislation is on its way to Governor Jay Nixon (D) that would name the new Mississippi River Bridge being built at St. Louis for the late Cardinals slugger Stan "the Man" Musial.

The Missouri Senate declined to vote on an ethics bill, including a proposal to reinstate campaign contribution limits.

The Senate on Wednesday debated the measure that also would have imposed a 10-year period before lawmakers could become lobbyists. The bill also would've required lawmakers to electronically report contributions of more than $25 during legislative sessions.

The President of the Meramec campus of the St. Louis Community College has resigned.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Chancellor Myrtle Dorsey announced in a letter to faculty and students Monday that she had accepted the resignation of Meramec President George Wasson. The resignation is effective immediately.

The U.S. Department of Defense says one of four Air Force members killed in a weekend plane crash in Afghanistan was a pilot who had been stationed at Scott Air Force Base in southwestern Illinois.

The department says 28-year-old Capt. Brandon Cyr of Woodbridge, Va., died in Saturday's crash of an Air Force MC-12 aircraft.

The cause of the crash is under investigation. The Pentagon says there were no reports of enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash.