>> Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

Chicago's budget for police misconduct.

Settlements is almost exhausted just 4 months into the year.

First Amendment concerns on college campuses as the Trump administration revokes some international student visas.

The lake front by right.

belongs to the people.

And Jeffrey Bear gives us a fresh take on the lakefront history.

>> And culture in a new special.

Now to some of today's top stories, Chicago public school teachers have ratified their new contract with the district.

It is the first time in 15 years the 2 sides have agreed to a deal without a strike vote from the teachers union.

And when I say Democratic, we voted on everything.

>> People got an opportunity to touch it, feel it.

See it.

Last Friday.

That's Thursday and Friday.

They boat it.

>> And overwhelming historic levels.

>> To ratify this to a contract and most are still doing.

The Chicago teachers union says 85% of its 30,000 members voted last week of them.

97% approved the contract proposal.

>> Cps says the contract will cost 1.5 billion dollars over the life of the contract, raising teacher salaries, a minimum of 4% annually while also enforcing class size limits and adding teacher prep Time Dist or hers are set to vote on the contract later this month.

a city Gates will join us on went evening for more on that contract.

Governor JB Pritzker says he and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro have been in contact after news broke.

>> All right.

ship heroes home yesterday morning at a news conference today, Pritzker said he and his security team are following the updates.

>> The world has devolved where attacks on elected officials are happening more frequently.

They're mort dangerous and deadly.

This happened on Passover on the first night of Passover, which I don't know if it was related to the attack, but and they're investigating even now.

But I can say Anti-Semitism has been on the rise across the United States for several years now.

>> Local authorities confirmed the man suspected of starting the fire was captured the same day and will face charges of attempted murder.

Terrorism, aggravated arson and at will and aggravated arson.

Family and friends are raising money to support the family of Chicago.

Police Officer Melissa Torres.

Police say Torres died last week from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A GoFundMe page shows Torres leaves behind her husband, Nico and 10 year-old son Mason.

It has already surpassed its $30,000 goal.

In the U.S.

Postal Service is offering up to $150,000 as a reward for helping identify 3 alleged thieves.

The agency shared a new poster today with images of the 3 people suspected of robbing a letter carrier around 7.48, South Francisco Avenue back in January of 2023. as part of Project Safe Delivery, USPS and the postal inspector began increasing reward amounts to combat the surge in mail, theft and violent crimes against letter carriers.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Postal Service hotline.

Up next, the city blows through a major budget item in just months.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part why the Alexander and John Nichols family.

The gym and K maybe family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> Chicago's budget for police misconduct.

Settlements is almost tapped out just 4 months into the year.

That's according to city records.

Analyzed by our own Heather Sharon who joins us now with more.

Heather, how did the city end up spending so much money to resolve lawsuits alleging police misconduct?

Well, the costly U.S. lawsuits fallen to pretty much 2 buckets.

lawsuits filed by people who spent years in prison convicted of murders that they did not can.

They did not commit the other bucket, of course, is the police police pursuits that ended in grade injury or death when those, even though those policies violated CPD policy.

On Wednesday, the city council is set to approve a settlement of 32 million dollars for St. Louis man who was gravely injured as a result of a police pursuit sparked by a team to play since plate covered.

He lost both his legs and his wife was was there when the injury happened.

This tally know it only includes settlements.

City officials approved not jury verdicts well twice in the last 6 months.

Jury verdicts have set new records for those who spent time behind bars convicted of crimes they did not commit first and September 15 million dollars went to a man who spent 10 years behind bars.

But just last month, 60 million dollars went to 2 men each.

We spent a combined 32 years in prison.

Now the city is appealing all of those verdicts.

So they are not yet final and taxpayers haven't yet had to pay a dime.

I should mention a 3rd for, 80 million dollars to the family of a 10 year-old girl who was killed again during a police pursuit.

Okay.

>> And you spoke with covered the AG U.S. he plans to take action.

It Windy City Council meeting to demand answers from city officials.

>> What is his plan while he's going to invoke a rarely used tool to force representatives of Mayor Brandon Johnson to come to a finance committee meeting and asked answer questions about their strategy for handling these lawsuit.

He has a lot of particular questions about more than 200 lawsuits that named one of 3 disgraced Chicago police officers who have uncontested records of misconduct.

That's John Berge.

Detective Reynaldo Guevara and former Sergeant Ronald Watts.

None are active on the force now.

But their legacy still going to be very costly for taxpayers still costing the city for sure.

Heather Sharon, thank you so much.

Thanks.

Brandis.

And you can read his full story on our website.

It is all at W T Tw Dot com slash news.

>> More than 300 international students have had their visas revoked by the Trump administration in recent days.

That group includes students attending Northwestern the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, which has one of the highest international student enrolments in the country.

The White House pushing for more cancellations raises concerns over what it all means for students and higher education.

Joining us now with more is at young cub, that communications director for the ACLU.

Ed, Welcome back.

So it's good to be back.

The Trump administration is citing national security when revoking student visas.

What's your reaction to that argument?

It's not clear what national security cause actually, as with the threat actually is.

>> These are people who are here who are attending school, who are adding to both the the in enriching both the campuses on which they study, but also the body of knowledge that we have in the U.S. and suddenly, you know, they get an email in the middle of the night suggesting that they're kicked out and need to be gone in a short period of time.

I think it's really troubling and there ought to be, you know, much more process and much more transparency about what's actually going on here is the administration citing any other reasons beyond those campus protests from the last year over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza?

Well, thats the part.

I think that's really interesting about this brand you know, we've seen, you know, my mood khaleel and other students who been specifically detained and deported over their speech and what we've heard about these revocations this sort of rash, number of locations that we've seen recently is is that these are not necessarily speech related, but other sort of vague kinds of of things it does raise.

I think the concern about whether or not there's an underlying kind of speech or racial motivation to any of this are exactly what is driving this on the part of the administration.

So, yes, I'd say, you know, there's there's not a lot of other reasons being given, but I think speech and freedom of expression, freedom of association is something that all of us ought to be concerned about with this.

So U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed his reasoning in a cabinet meeting last week.

Here's >> If you come to this country as a student, we expected to go to class and study and get a degree.

If you come here to like vandalize a library, take over a campus and do all kinds of crazy things.

You know, we're going to get rid of these people and we're going to continue to do it.

So when we identify lunatics like these, we take away their student visa.

No one entitled to a student visa.

>> Ed, your thoughts?

I first of all, the idea that the secretary of State of the United States is labeling student says Luna tax without having any information about any of them.

Secondly, if they vandalized something that's a crime and they ought to be charged with a crime.

People are not being charged with crime.

Instead they're being punished for their speech.

You know, recently, ice actually said that they weren't going to let bad thoughts into the United States.

That was something that they actually put on their their social media accounts and then pulled them back.

The reality is, is that, you know, this is an administration that doesn't like people who take a different view than they do.

They don't like people.

They don't like something like a university that could be a center for study that would disprove the kind of wild conspiracy theories that they like the spin around.

And so, you know, universities and the students are easy place for them to punish, but also to eliminate any critics of this administration.

Do international students today have the, you know, the same rights to protest and free speech as American students?

I mean, because like you mentioned if you've and allies library, if you're an American student, then you're charged with a crime.

You're not sent.

>> The president suggested today he may want to send people they'll Salvador who are U.S. citizens.

But let's talk for a minute about those rights.

Think it's a really important point.

The Constitution of the United States says that we have the right to free speech free expression in this country.

We have the right to petition and air our grievances against the government.

Never wants reserves that right to citizens.

Anyone whose present the founders knew when to use the word citizen and when not to.

And they only use that when it was when it was called for.

They do not.

It is not there in terms of the First Amendment.

All of us have the right to free speech.

Weather word, a citizen or not.

Now all of this said, though, universities are still being asked to sort of reckon with their their the anti Semitic attacks that they might be experiencing on campus.

Just today, the Daily Northwestern reporting.

>> Graffiti and fliers being found on campus.

How should schools balance the rights of Jewish students obviously and other marginalized groups to be safe with the rights of other students to to protest and have free speech.

I'm glad you said ballots it because unfortunately we feel we seem to have gotten out of balance where there are students who aren't safe because of Anti-Semitic attacks where there is Anti-Semitism being demonstrated in that way.

>> You know, that's a place where universities have to act because one of their where obligations is to ensure that everyone feels safe campus to make sure that everybody has the experience to be able to learn and grow and mature.

But at the same time, a part of that learning growing maturing is protesting.

And just because somebody is protesting about something that makes you uncomfortable isn't a reason to stop that person for protesting.

But if those attacks become directed at people are personal involve criminal acts, then that is a place where certainly universities need to step in and act.

>> Universities themselves.

They're being very quiet about This issue, many of them not even confirming the number of students on their campuses or in of among their enrollment who being impacted.

What does all that tell you?

>> It tells me that the bullying tactics of the administration aimed at universities and other institutions is working because this is a this thing.

This is that this is a place where we ought to have full transparency.

We ought to know the number of people who been revoked.

We ought to know why they've been revoked.

Not necessarily information about individuals but information about the circumstances under which individuals are having their visas revoked because we want to have a public discussion about it.

One of the things when we talk about free speech and we rarely talk about is unless you and I know what our government is doing, there's no way for us to debate whether those policies are correct.

I think the universities are doing this service to their students but being so quiet.

But they're doing it because they're being threatened and bullied and coerced.

You know, by the administration because the first university, the steps out of line on this is going to be threatened with a cutoff of funding the way that we've seen other universities, you know, deal with those threats that came up earlier in our conversation as well.

And the federal government reportedly checking social media accounts of immigrants.

What do you make of that?

>> I think again, this is one of those things that just a horrible idea.

I mean, the fact notion that somehow in order to become a citizen to get a visa to come here, we're going to have the government rifle through your social media, look who you're associating.

What with look at what kind of account you look at who you follow and who you like.

That doesn't really tell us anything about anyone.

You know, it just so happens on social media.

I follow Donald Trump.

I assure you I am no fan of Donald Trump's, but but somehow they're going to read something into that social media.

The reality is is that this allows for people to make arbitrary and capricious decisions about people based on what they're doing on social media.

That's not how we should handle who we allow into the country and who we don't.

Obviously a lot to keep an eye on here I'm sure we'll have you join us again sometime soon at young Casey, thank we thank you.

Thanks.

Up next, a new exploration of Chicago's crown jewel.

From its many vibrant beaches to the tours and cruises.

It inspires Chicago's beloved lakefront is a defining part of the city's culture and identity.

>> Jeffrey Bears new special touring Chicago's lakefront explores how the iconic shoreline became what it is today.

Take a look.

>> Taste of Chicago.

The Thunder come.

>> Joining us now is the man who gets all the good gigs is the program's host, our very own Jeffrey Bear.

Welcome back.

Jeffrey, you.

I love being here.

So you have been doing these programs 30 years and you've done quite a few lakefront specials, though, in the past.

What's unique about this one?

>> Well, we you know, we have to make these shows again because they become outdated.

We can't rerun them anymore.

our producer, Mike Weston, I really thought this time around, let's do things we've never done before.

So, you know, I go dive a shipwreck.

I'm not a scuba diver, but there's a shipwreck, literally a few 100 yards offshore at 47th Street about in about 8 feet of water.

So you just put on But you know what?

A snorkel mask and you can dive it.

We go to a rodeo at so sure cultural center.

It was my first rodeo You know, just did all kinds of things fishing.

I went fishing for the first time ever in my life.

Fishing is a big thing in Lake Michigan.

So we just decided to do things we've never done before.

Yep, we're gonna come back to some of those first.

What is it that you think makes Chicago's lakefront special so unique?

Well, it I think it truly is unique in the world in the sense that it's been preserved for the people.

Our whole lakefront is a park.

>> And there was a big battle to preserve the lakefront as a park back in the 19th century and in every like literally every other waterfront city.

Think of, you know, at the coastal cities, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, other Great Lakes cities, Milwaukee, Cleveland, the lake front is pretty much given over to industry and our lakefront could have become industrialized as you see in northwest Indiana.

But there were some lawsuits in early days.

We talk about this in the program.

And really we're the only city that I know of in the country, maybe in the world where whole waterfront is public land and its parks.

So as we mentioned, you do a lot of firsts in this program like fishing.

Here's a look at some of >> Well, what do I do?

just got together find my the bottom know if they're there with us for Right here you go real, real, real life >> Why I cannot she's >> I think I got a big >> so many instructions to follow when you're isn't with that fish.

I'm that this is not a fish story like I was the big.

That was the lake trout.

We cut like 12 fish.

>> Have you ever been fishing?

No, no, certainly not.

Unlike Michigan.

No, I have never been fishing.

I said to fishing boat, captain, you I got all these cameras here, you know, in a producer and everything.

>> Are we going to catch the fish?

And he said never come back without a fish.

And we came back with like 12 fish.

It was crazy.

>> So obviously you took them home and like you, you scale took them and all that stuff.

And we we do need them up.

and yeah, I mean, the we looked it up online and the health authorities do say that you that you should limit the amount of fish.

>> That you from Lake Michigan because there are trees, contaminants in the water.

I think.

Certain fish should be one a month.

Certain We want to.

We can you know, so we try to follow those instructions, of course, has more curious about your skills with scaling or do see as the people giving me the advice on the boat?

Do the whole thing?

all the fish while we were on our way back, which was another whole thing to witness.

What was that like, though?

You know, 30 years of doing these and a whole bunch of other lakefront specials.

And this is finally here first time getting to do something like that my head.

A little bit of remorse.

Actually, when I caught the fish, you know, I eat fish.

So I don't have any right to, you know, complain.

But but, you know, the thing was fighting for its life and I'm going let you know, so and the first mate went in the show.

He says, you know, a lot of people feel that way.

But he talks about how it's very sustainable to eat fish that you catch yourself versus fish that are store-bought that, you know, were caught like less sustainable practices.

So there's a good argument for, right?

Yeah, some people might have feelings about that, too, about the different ways that fisheries Exactly.

What are some of the other things that you did in that you've never done before?

You mentioned a few of those visited of Northerly Island.

You know, people will remember that as Meigs field.

you know, Mayor Daley story there, yes, famously, we talk about it in the show.

Famously dug up the runway there.

But middle of the night in the middle of the night, right?

Well, here, we've that this is diving the shipwreck.

So this this this shipwreck was from 1914, was called the silver spray.

All that's left of it is the boiler and the propeller.

There it And look, I'm I'm wearing scuba gear.

And you and here I am at my first rodeo when early as I mentioned So this rodeo is amazing.

This is an African-American guy.

There he is rumored AAC the man with.

>> No first name and he has a 41 away the service and he'd always loved horseback riding and you couldn't do it.

There were no horseback riding opportunities anymore in the city when he came back from the sir and he wants to share this with largely young African-American kids.

should see what you will.

If you watch the show these kids go tearing around the arena at breakneck speeds with these horses and it was really something amazing to That's impressive.

Looking forward to that.

you also you interact with various experts.

Community members important to bring those voices oh, I think, you know, when I first started doing these shows 30 years ago, I was like a tour guide.

And it was just me who talked, you know, and in recent years we've brought all kinds of other voices into the Shawnee.

Just think it makes the show so much richer.

And I love these people.

We met a guy down Calumet Fisheries, which is this a holdover from the days commercial fishing on Lake Michigan's down and the and this sort of under the Skyway and the Calumet River.

And he showed me, you know, they're smokehouse and he gave me a taste of their smoked fish.

There.

This has been there for generations and he does a young guy and he just knows the whole history of the fishing.

So proud of it.

You feel the sort of pride in these people when you interview them and it's wonderful to have them the show.

Definitely worth the trip to kind fish or is if you have been also for those votes.

There's also some debate, though, a lot of debate about how the lakefront should be used if it's being overrun.

>> What did you learn about that?

Yeah, I mean, you know, we talk about Grant Park in particular, which we saw in the very first clip you >> Lollapalooza taste of Chicago and now NASCAR.

And, you know, a lot of people feel that that's really running afoul of Daniel Burnham's and our our our city's vision of the lakefront is forever open, clear and free.

Talk about building a new football stadium on the lakefront.

It's an ongoing debate.

Daniel Burnham himself who who plant, you know, really created the plan of the lakefront in his plan of Chicago 19.

0, 9, The field museum is sitting where Buckingham Fountain is today.

And so he was not as strict in his view of no buildings on the lake front as other lakefront advocates like Montgomery Ward have been over the years.

So there's there's division of opinion on that.

And before run of time, you know, the lakefront also had some turbulent history tells a little bit yelling.

That's another one of the voices we have in the show.

Of course, the not 1919, race riots started at a beach on the lakefront when a rock was thrown by a white racist who who killed an African Americans treat child and it's part of the race riots we don't shy away from talking about those things in the program.

always important part of history.

15 seconds.

What he want folks to take away from the special.

The Lakers are one natural feature we don't have.

A mountain range were built on a swamp, you know.

And and so I would hope that people would see the lake as the precious and fragile treasure treasure.

That is and be inspired to use it but also protect.

All right, Jeffrey Bear, congrats on the new special.

Thank you so much.

>> And you can be sure to check out our website for more information on the lakefront, including a guided bike tour invasive species in the area and an introduction to people who swim in Lake Michigan all year that and much more at Www dot com slash lakefront in while you're there, you can watch the full program or you can catch it tonight.

Right here at 7 o'clock on W T Tw.

And that's our show for this Monday night.

Be sure to sign up for our free email newsletter.

The Daily Chicago and at W T Tw Dot Com Slash newsletter and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10, the city Council advances a plan to transform the financial district into a residential neighborhood.

That and more in spotlight politics.

Now for all of us here in Chicago tonight.

And greatest Friedman, thanks for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> Closed captioning is made possible.

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