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

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

Governor Pritzker is preparing for a political showdown in DC where he'll testify about the state's protections for undocumented immigrants are spotlight politics team on what to expect.

Cook County for gives more than 600 million dollars in medical debt for residents.

A look at the impact it's having.

>> And now to some of today's top stories, immigrant advocates are rallying in Chicago today as the city joins other major cities across the country taking action in solidarity with Los Angeles.

Local activists demonstrated this afternoon near the Chicago immigration court with another protest this evening in Federal Plaza.

Now this comes as President, Donald Trump's and Marines and National Guard troops to LA in response to protest over immigration rates.

Despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom, California has since filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its use of the National Guard, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul issued a statement today in support of that lawsuit.

Thousands of demonstrators are expected in Chicago this Saturday for a no Kings protest.

It's the same day Trump will hold a military parade in DC for his birthday.

An undocumented immigrant in Wisconsin is being released on bond now that a federal assassination case against him has fallen apart in late May.

The Department of Homeland Security accused 54 year-old Ramon Morales, Reyes of sending a handwritten letter to an ICE officer threatening to assassinate President Trump.

Secretary Kristi Noem shared the a legislator and photos of Reyes in a post on X.

But in a Chicago courtroom today, those claims on rattled as authorities quickly learned that Mirallas Reyes who doesn't speak or write very well in English was framed.

A judge ordered his release from a Wisconsin prison, but he still faces deportation.

Hiring freeze budget reductions and cutting merit salary increases are a few of the steps.

Northwestern University is announcing today to adjust to its new financial reality in a letter sent to the northwestern community, President Michael Schill and other leaders named several federal changes creating these fiscal challenges.

Among them, a substantial increase in the endowment tax, cap on international student enrollment in the likely reduction in overall federal research funding.

In part, the letter reads, quote, We hope and are reasonably optimistic that these efforts to restore federal funding will bear fruit.

But we have asked our deans and other academic leaders to work with us to plan for a variety of scenarios.

In case they do not.

Disgraced R and b singer R Kelly is asking a judge to release him from prison just 3 years into his 30 year sentence in court documents filed today.

Attorneys for Robert Kelly claimed his life is in danger after officials from the Federal Bureau of Prisons plotted to murder the singer attorney Bob Bradley argues the plot was to cover up alleged theft, a privileged attorney client, communications that were used to help convict Kelly.

He's asking the court to allow him to be released on home detention.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons declined to comment.

Kelly is currently being held at a federal prison in North Carolina.

The Chicago Police Department is preparing for Anti-Trump rallies planned for this weekend.

Our Spotlight politics team on that and much more.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part by the Alexander and John Nichols family, the gym and K maybe family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation and the support of these donors.

>> Governor JB Pritzker prepares for a political showdown in DC Chicago braces for more protests against the Trump administration's immigration policies and the end of the line for the Illinois politician once known as the Velvet Hammer here with all that and more is our spotlight.

Politics team had a Sharon and Bloomberg welcome backing.

So amid, of course, we've got these heightened tensions after the Trump administration's decision to send the National Guard as well as the Marines and response to these immigration protest in Los Angeles this week.

We've got Governor JB Pritzker testifying before Congress on Thursday, along with governors, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Kathy Hochul of New York defending their state's sanctuary city policies.

Heather, what is at stake for the governor of Illinois?

Well, the stakes are very high.

We all know that Governor JB Pritzker Pritzker is an ambitious politician.

He may run for president in 2020 18 may run for a 3rd term of in governor and he has cast himself as a leading opponent of President Trump mincing no words about the president's policies, likening them to Nazism and calling on residents to sort mobilize signaled their opposition to the president.

So this will give him a clear opportunity to stake out more of that ground.

>> And make it clear to Democrats were looking for a politician who is prepared to take the fight to Republicans.

He will get a chance to do just that and establish that that ability right next to potentially maybe a competitor in Tim who, of course, was the vice-presidential nominee with Kamala Harris and the 2024 saying next to each other should be fun to look it.

Nic Pritzker has said that he will defend the Illinois Trust Act.

Exactly.

What does that law do?

That's right.

The trust blocks law enforcement from honoring federal immigration detainers or warrants unless they are signed off on by a judge also blocks law enforcement from making any >> stops are doing searches are making arrests solely based on someone's immigration or citizenship status.

You know, the idea here is to make sure that that residents feel comfortable calling 9-1-1 in an emergency so that they have, you know, relationships with their local police and fire departments if needed.

Also to ensure that that local law enforcement are not tackling federal issues like immigration.

is the legislation that, you know, gives us locally colloquially called being, you know, a sanctuary state largely mirrors what Chicago has its own welcoming city ordinance.

Now, it's interesting is that the trust act was signed into law in 2017 by Pritzker's predecessor, former Governor Bruce Rauner, who, of course himself was a Republican.

I'll be very curious to see whether that gets any mention in the hearing this week, although certainly the the folks in the GOP Pritzker will be going for our different breed of Republican.

They've been Yeah, not the same kind.

Exactly.

Heather Mayor Brandon Johnson.

He made the same trip, of course, as we mentioned back to Capitol Hill in March.

>> What do you think the governor has learned can learn from the mayor's experience?

Well, the mayor's stayed on message.

He had a series of sort of talking points that he was there to deliver.

And he did.

he talked about how much crime was down in Chicago and how, in fact, the city's welcoming city ordinance does not stop ICE agents from executing those judicially authorized warrants.

So somebody is accused of a crime and that has been signed off after due process, nothing stands in the way and at least a couple of Republicans were caught off guard by that because there is a lot of misinformation and some misunderstanding about what it means to be a sanctuary city and sanctuary state.

I would imagine are the governor is going to look to sort of fix, you know, exploit that sort of thing.

And we will see if he's able to do that and probably deliver a few clips along the way of the zingers.

We'll be watching for those for So there were some ice raids and detentions here just last week causing clashes between federal agents and protesters, some of the city's alderman as well.

Mo, more protests, as we've mentioned, are planned for tonight.

The big No Kings rally, which is anti Trump protests planned for the weekend.

Nick, the last time Chicago was bracing for such large-scale protests like this was, of course, during the Democratic National Convention last summer.

What experience or what did that experience teach the police brass that they might be, you know, using this time around while they had entirely new policies and procedures put into place after the massive a racial justice protests that we saw in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd new mask.

Rest policies, new training things at officers went to and to hear CPD tell the way the DNC wet was, you know, a rousing success.

They felt like the work that they did allow them to strike a balance between letting people demonstrate have their voices heard while maintaining public safety.

Of course, there are other people who had a little bit more of a, you know, a critical reaction to that.

Folks like the National Lawyers Guild.

>> They said these massive shows of force that we saw from CPD were more intended to intimidate.

They said the department is making unnecessary arrests but on the whole during the DNC, I was covering, you know, multiple those protests.

They were huge, but they were almost entirely peaceful and orderly.

You saw a lot of coordination between protest leaders and, you know, CPD officials that were on the ground.

Of course, there are some smaller pop-up protests that happened that got a little more out of hand.

There was a minor breach of the perimeter of the convention, but on the whole, you know, CPD, you know, they they really had a lot of policies they put in place here that they saw as successful.

And it's something that they can use in the future for something like this.

No Kings for Heather.

What we know about what TPD is doing to prepare for these protests?

Well, they say they have already passed this test as Nick said.

So this is just a refresher course for officers.

>> It is going to be a different sort of protest environment out there because certainly you have sort of the big scheduled, no kings protests and everybody sort of knows when that's supposed to be and sort of where that supposed to take place.

But the issue with the search protests against specific ice enforcement actions means that something can pop up almost immediately as the word goes out from sort observers that ice is moving to certain place.

Parts of the city.

So I think what CPD has probably got to be on alert for now is sort protests that they are anticipating and that is going to be a challenge that the police department did not face during the Democratic National Convention.

It is something that they face in the summer of 2020 and I know about y'all, but this goes a little bit reminiscent of that when we know the heat lack of a better word that CPD faced after their handling of that will be interesting to see how this plays out the next few in a courtroom on Friday, though, the hammer set to come down.

An Illinois politician once known as the Velvet Hammer.

>> A lifetime of brokering the scenes behind the deal behind the scenes.

You know, former House Speaker Michael Madigan is expected to be sentenced on Friday on his convictions of bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud.

Nick, how long the prosecutors say that he should be imprisoned.

They are looking for a 12 and a half year prison term saying his behavior was antithetical to what a public servant should be doing.

Now, Madigan's already been in court this week either trying to get a new trial or to get acquitted, which the judge pretty swiftly denied.

His attorneys say.

>> That, you know, to sentence an 83 year-old man to 12 and a half years behind bars would be draconian.

They're looking for 5 years of probation.

One year on, you know, home confinement.

But, you know, his lawyers say he wasn't making a penny for the things that he was convicted of doing.

Now, the prosecutors way of thinking that doesn't quite hold water given how much you know business.

They said Madigan ginned up for his private law firm.

They revealed in a court filing what they believe his personal net worth to be, which got his attorneys very upset.

They had it successfully stricken from the record and said it was a gross breach of the rules.

So with the judge denying Madigan's motion to either get a new trial or get acquitted entirely, he will be back on Friday to find out what the decision is.

They're all eyes will be on that court room about a minute left.

Nick, finally, the regional is facing, of course, as we've been covering here a lot and 770 million dollar budget shortfall.

No help from Springfield just yet.

>> Cta, an RTA boards are meeting this week.

What are you expecting?

Well, I think what they're going to have to do here is start to lay out a road map for how they're going to make these cuts.

And I think, you know, one transit expert I spoke to said they're going to be looking at probably multiple different scenarios.

Each of these transit agency CTA, Metra pace, trying to figure out here's some different options on the table because, of course, you know, they've said they want to make sure that they can maintain service for people who need it.

Most folks who rely on paratransit people who live in lower income communities and may not have access to cars.

So they have a tough job ahead of them to plan for multiple scenarios.

And also, you know, you have to imagine they're going to be doing some planning for what of Springfield does come through with the we need to How do we make that happen they can spend it pretty quick, right?

are a lot of questions that they have to answer.

So we're going to start to see the road map there, OK, Nic Lindbergh had usher thanks so much.

The think but probably Then we're back with more right after this.

We will get back to our program in just 2 minutes with a look at a local initiative that helped erase a mountain of medical debt.

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Thank you, Chicago tonight returns in a moment.

>> For many American families, medical debt can be devastating, according to recent data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, 41% of adults in the U.S. have medical debt that equates to more than 100 million Americans who owe upwards of 220 billion dollars in health care costs.

Cook County launched the Medical Debt relief initiative in 2022.

In an effort to help residents with the burden today, the program has a raced 665 million dollars in medical debt for nearly 557,000 Cook County residents.

Joining us with more are Cook County Board.

President Toni Preckwinkle and joining us via Zoom, Courtney were P story.

Vice president of government initiatives at undue medical debt, a nonprofit that works to erase medical debt.

Thanks to both for joining us.

Madam President, I want to start with you.

665 million dollars.

More than half a billion?

More than half a billion?

Yes.

To.

What do you attribute that success?

Well, first of all, I want express my appreciation for the opportunity to share this good news.

>> With our viewers medical debt is our partner says work.

They've done around the country with philanthropy and we discovered it and decide that we would try to do it as a government entity.

And we used our American Rescue Plan Act resources, the money that Joe Biden and Congress allocated to help.

Governments respond to the pandemic to provide this relief for residents and again, 665 million dollars for 555 1000.

Residents of Cook County.

That's a lot of a lot of people.

A lot of human.

Sure.

It means a lot for that to be forgiven.

Yeah.

You know, one of the main reasons people declare bankruptcy as they can't pay their medical debt and it disproportionately impacts communities of color, black and brown communities.

They have higher rates of medical debt.

Then the majority in this country and as a result of these efforts, you know, that burden that stress has been really for people And I'm grateful to, as I said medical that is our partner in this work.

>> Courtney, we have talked about this issue on this program before >> how does that Explain it for us.

Please buying medical debt.

>> Yes, so we work directly with hospitals in the secondary market to purchase medical die in Once we do that, we forget we purchase that that for typically pennies on the dollar.

And if we have that, made our program qualifications.

You will receive a letter in the mail letting you know that is no longer road.

Pretty densely the precept.

That's really it.

>> Yeah, pretty simple.

So you know, you buy it for less than it is worth right.

So I guess I'm trying to understand how this works for hospitals because 665 million dollars.

That's the day.

But no one spent 665 million dollars.

>> Correct.

So we typically purchase at that is older on club considered collectible by hospitals.

So they are not technically actively collecting on it, but it is still owed and the the individual still knows that that that is out there and vote by So we work with hospitals to purchase that that just in a similar way that they would sell it to a secondary market collector, which are those collectors that will try to call you put you want to play month payment plan and then collect on that debt.

We won't do that.

We will just purchased that data and then forget it.

>> 2 pennies on the dollar.

So if Iowa Hospital, $10,000 and you all purchase that debts, approximately, how much might you pay for it?

Just to give folks a sense of of.

How it's how it Civically typically for government partners, one dollar of government funding equates to $167 of medical debt relief.

>> And then a $1.60 something that we would pay for that.

>> Wow.

Okay.

Yeah.

Madam President, give us a sense of of, you know, we talked about it a little bit how vast the problem of medical debt is.

Well, first of all, I believe in universal health care.

This is the richest country in the world.

>> And the idea that folks can't get good medical care because they can't pay insurance rates.

You know, it's ridiculous and I am grateful to undo medical debt for helping us kind of level the playing field here until such time as we have universal health care, we have to do everything we can to support our residents and ensure that they have access to care.

And there's not a burden to them financially.

>> Who qualifies for this?

medical that about the algorithms they use to determine eligibility.

But I am very grateful to them.

This is work they've done around the country and we're grateful for the work they've done here in Cook County, of course, and into what we've got a quick graphic on screen, obviously have to be a cook county.

Residents your income must be up to 400%.

>> Of the federal poverty level and 5% or more of household income in medical debt.

Madam Practical, Madam President, we also have data so Cook County data that's collected by medical debt.

It shows where the value of debt that has been a raced is the greatest in Cook County.

on this map, the dark blue and the turquoise locations.

That is where the dollar amount is.

The greatest, the greatest amount owed.

What does this tell you when you look at this information?

>> Well, I would say, you know, if you if you look at what the county, they're sort of one map.

No matter what you're looking at, if you're looking at poverty, rates are on employment are food deserts and the burden of medical debt and reflects that same pattern.

And we see on the West side and the South side in the south suburbs that there a significant impact of the program, which means those folks were disproportionately burdened with medical debt.

>> Right, which we it also tells us that largely our communities of color are experiencing this medical that that's right.

Courtney.

We also have data of course, from your organization from undue medical debt, showing that more than 100 million upwards of 220 billion dollars, 7 in 10 adults can't afford to pay medical bills.

55% of adults to for medical care.

Give us a sense of what people are are struggling with her challenge by when they've got medical debt.

This hefty with water.

What else is is not working out for them with a missing out on.

>> Yeah.

We know that medical causes folks to delay seeking care so they have to they have a problem.

They will not go to the doctor with that problem more easily treatable.

So by the time they are seeking care, it is going to be more complex and more costly.

We that individuals do have at least $500 for a medical emergency.

So we know that if something happens, you're going to have to go seek care.

And then you're gonna have to make difficult decisions about what those are going pay.

Are you gonna pay your rent?

How are you going to be able to feed your family and how are you going to get that care that you need?

We know that medical data is out of choice, of necessity.

And we need to make sure that folks feel comfortable and safe accessing care and that the way that we finance health care in this country isn't causing them unnecessary mental stress.

>> The state has a similar program.

What are some of the challenges in getting this going?

madam President, when it come to you first on that.

But, Courtney, I know that you will work with government agencies as well.

I think under medical debt is a partner with the state as well.

So we have the same provider of the service.

And, you know, I just want to express my appreciation to the health agencies that have worked with us and then fly all of the University of Chicago Sinai, Saint Anthony recently joined us fight could be so we've got lots of partners in this work and really grateful we couldn't do it without those partnerships and, you know, a new medical that as is doing this now and number of places in the country where the first government entity to do it.

But >> not just our state, but units of government across the country have now become this work.

>> Courtney, why aren't more or how can you get local and state government agencies to replicate this to do this as well?

>> Yeah, we actually are working with over 25 cities, counties and states across the country and more expressing interest in working with us every day.

So we're really excited about We do think it's a really easy value proposition for governments, the return on investment and the impact of the communities.

It's just so great.

And we encourage everybody that's interested in working with us to reach out.

you know, we're happy to explain more about how how we work our model works and how it can be impactful in your community.

>> Okay.

That's what we'll have to leave 665 million dollars.

great deal of money.

Congrats to you all.

And the folks debt has been forgiven, of course, a Cook County Board, President Toni Preckwinkle.

Courtney Work the story.

Thank you so much for joining us.

appreciate it.

Thank you for the invitation.

And that's our show for this Tuesday night.

You can stream Chicago tonight on our W T Tw YouTube Channel every evening.

>> And catch up on any programs you may have missed and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10.

We explore the challenges facing many black fathers and what's being done to help support them.

>> Now for all of us here at Chicago Brandis Friedman, thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> Closed captioning is made possible.

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