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

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

Lawmakers in Springfield have just a few days left to hammer out a balanced a budget amid funding challenges.

6 months after being sworn in.

We talked with Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill, Burke about how she's reshaping the office.

>> When it comes to Chicago food, there's a holy Trinity.

And a local entrepreneur is taking a bite out of Chicago's food scene.

One ship at a time.

>> And now to some of today's top stories.

Mayor Brandon Johnson responded today to questions about the ongoing Department of Justice investigation into the hiring of city employees.

>> again.

He's more interested in the country club in the country.

You know, my administration speaks to the values of the people of this city and around the country as we continue to drive by time, the city of Chicago as our investments continue to go up proof positive that my administration only reflects the values and the diversity, the competency of of our city.

But there actual positive roads results that we can speak to.

>> Analysis from W t Tw new shows the mayor has tapped more black Chicagoans to serve in positions of authority.

Then Chicagoans of other races in the over 100 appointments he's made in his first 2 years.

Overall, the city's work force is 38% white.

29% black.

26% Latino and 3%.

Asian American.

According to city data.

For more on that analysis, please visit our website.

Homeowners who experienced damage during recent severe weather should stay alert for another kind of storm coming through their neighborhood.

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is warning residents to be on alert for scammers looking to exploit those in need of repairs.

Adding they often move quickly to put pressure on people with damaged homes and businesses.

Instead, role suggest consumers ask friends for work or recommendations or visit the Better Business Bureau website.

He also says you should obtain a copy of a signed contract before work starts and ask for required state and local permits or licenses.

The full list of tips is on our website.

3 people were killed in shootings across Chicago over Memorial Day weekend.

Chicago police say 24 people were also shot.

That's down from 9 killed in 41 shot in 2024. and 11 killed and 50 people shot in 2023. making this year.

One of the least deadly holiday weekends in the city in recent years so far in 2025, city data shows homicides are down.

23% and shootings down.

35% deputy mayor of community safety Darian Gate would praised police city departments and community leaders for their work towards the declining rates.

>> can't thank our agencies in up.

No.

Every command in the city was out this and mayor talk about that Chicago Police Department was out in full force along with our street outreach partners.

Our city agencies to continue to drop by down.

>> National Public Radio and 3 of its local stations have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's executive order aimed at cutting its federal funding.

The suit argues that Trump's order violates the First Amendment and aims to, quote, punish in PR for the content of news and other programming.

The president dislikes the order which was signed earlier this month directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to, quote, Cease federal funding for NPR and PBS after the administration alleged bias in content.

Pbs is likely to file a separate challenge soon.

Up next, lawmakers have just a few more days to pass a balanced state budget.

Our Nic Blumberg is live in Springfield with a preview.

>> 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.

>> It's crunch time for state lawmakers.

The Illinois General Assembly returned from the long weekend break for its final week of the spring session.

In addition to tackling the state budget, some big issues are still unresolved, including possible reforms to the state pension system and Chicagoland public transit.

Our Nic Bloomberg joins us now live from Springfield.

Nick, we know you've been covering that 770 million dollar cliff that is facing transit.

Doesn't look like there is a fix in sight.

That's right.

Grant U.S. lawmakers and other stakeholders have been hard at work negotiating legislation.

>> That would make some changes to the way transit is.

Ron lawmakers have been pretty consistent that they're not going to come up with that needed money to tackle the fiscal cliff without reform.

Now, a person who's a close to the negotiations told me they have been hurrying to finalize the language so that members can actually, you know, read it.

The idea would be better coordination of things like a fair policy, your capital projects at a regional level and that the existing transit systems would be left to do operations, running buses and trains.

There also have been conversations about coming up with money to fill in that massive budget gap.

Those talks are still under way.

They've been getting some more attention in recent days.

You know, folks have floated lots of ideas over the last year and a half things like using some of the state's money for roads, things you know, expanding the sales tax base to cover services.

But this is a big budget gap to tackle with.

Not a lot of time left, which is making some transit advocates worried that we might just see reform in this session and no money stuff until veto session.

But people are still hopeful there can be a deal getting done.

And Nic, will Governor Pritzker has proposed extra funding for the state's pension system.

What we know about that.

>> That's right.

The governor says he would like to see an extra 78 million dollars go toward tear to pensions.

Now those are for state employees.

>> Who started after 2011?

They later retirement date and more modest pay out.

Now, the concern is that the benefits have to meet the standards of the federal safe harbor Law, which says that those pensions have to be equal to Social Security benefits.

Now, this is not a new issue for lawmakers.

It's something unions have been raising the alarm about in particular in a letter to the governor just today, it is still to be determined what the final number looks like there and where that money comes from, as well as if there any other reforms.

In addition to some more funding, perhaps >> and we heard late last week that the Bears are once again focusing on a move to Arlington Heights.

Could lawmakers be interested in helping them out?

Well, lawmakers, legislative leaders, they've been pretty clear the bare should not expect a big tranche of public funding.

>> But there could be some action on an idea to let a so-called mega project like that potential Arlington Heights Stadium and Entertainment District negotiate with local governments over the property tax.

They pay their been multiple proposals on that subject.

So lawmakers will need to reach a compromise deal by the end of an already very busy week.

And lastly, what else can we expect to see in the final days of session?

>> Well, as you said, right at the top, its budget crunch time lawmakers have until Saturday to pass a budget with a simple majority.

If they believe the deadline, can do it with 3 fifths vote, a super majority.

But they really don't want to do that.

There are some of the proposals as well that we've been telling folks about things like banning cell phones in classrooms that passed the Senate last month.

And it's currently in the house where it's gotten some amendments to make sure there are exceptions where appropriate also been fall following that pitch to allow community colleges to offer certain four-year degrees that made it out of the House committee last week.

But the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus has reportedly voiced its opposition to the bill.

So it's unclear where that plan is headed.

But yes, there is going to be plenty to keep us busy down here this week.

I'm sure you'll stay there for us and keep us posted.

Nick Bloomberg there in Springfield.

>> Up next, we're one-on-one with Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke stay with us.

her swearing-in 6 months ago, Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill, Burke promised a new approach to tackling violent crime.

Key to that approach has been asking her prosecutors to seek pretrial detention for more suspects, especially those charged with felony firearm cases since Burke took office.

Cook County jail's population has grown from around 5200 at the end of her predecessor, Kim Foxx term to just under 5800.

Now.

But critics say violent crime was already trending down in the city and the country and question the need for Berks tougher approach to crime.

Joining us now to give us her take the job so far and her efforts to reshape the office is Judge Eileen O'Neill, Burke, Cook County State's attorney.

And of our viewers are aware of your, of course, the former Circuit County clerk.

I was on public or to that the so as discussed, you recently announced the creation of a choice protection units in your office focusing on ensuring women access to reproductive services.

Tell us more about that units on and why you wanted to to create that right was necessary.

So on the lawn or when Dobbs came down, I was starting to think about, well, Illinois is going to be one of the few places in the Midwest that you're going to be able to have abortion services.

So >> I started looking at what would the potential charges before someone who is coming here to interfere with that right?

And it could be anything from ordinance violations on noise violations blocking a roadway all the way up to assaults batteries.

And we tried to get a terrorism legislation passed in the Legislature within the last few months in order to have another tool in our tool box to deter people from coming to Illinois.

We've had an 80% increase of women coming Illinois from other states in order to get reproductive health services with that is going to be women or people who want to interfere with women exercising the right to reproductive health.

So we need to be ready for.

So as I was looking at the the multitude statute that could come into play, it became very apparent to me that these are not the type of cases that can just land on your desk and you would know what to do.

So we've formed a choice protection unit, which is a volunteer unit, essays have volunteered to come in.

And in addition to their regular court call the trained what are the statues there available to us?

What trends are we seeing in other legislators in other states all across the country.

And let's have training on it so that we're not caught on our back foot.

We're ready to go and having this unit is also a deterrent.

It sends a very strong message that we take this very seriously in Cook County and we will prosecute anyone who is interfering with the women you, engaging in criminal conduct.

And of course, that training is so that the essays can recognize a case where someone is intentionally attempting to.

>> To someone's effort to to receive that care.

And doing so in a criminal manner.

And they commit that crime, we will prosecute.

And we want to be ready for that.

What about the the actions of other states who might legally target reproductive health care providers in this state?

Will that unit be able to look at those as well?

Is that the kind of thing that that would normally be within the province the attorney general's office?

we will be addressing any time a crime is committed in Cook County.

What we wanted to to get through the legislature and the session was a terrorism bill.

Terrorism is is currently a statute, a state statute that we can you lies when a terrorist act occurs in a hospital?

Well, again, it's a very real threat.

Pierre and Danville both have had clinics bomb and and it is a very real threat that we need to have terrorism in our state statute where it cannot guarantee that the federal government will pursue terrorism charges.

When someone commits a terrorist act abortion clinics, we wanted to an end.

The statute to include a abortion and reproductive health services clinics as well as hospitals.

Your views on pretrial detention and electronic monitoring on.

So you directed, as we mentioned, you're prosecutors to object on the record whenever they had sought attention.

>> And a judge instead opt for electronic monitoring or home confinement.

Why did you why was that important to read into it there is significant problem right now with electronic monitoring.

It is being transferred from Sheriff Dart's office to the chief judges.

>> umbrella and.

>> The problem is pretrial officers within the chief judge's office do not have arrest authority.

So if someone cuts off their band or goes a lecture.

Nick monitoring those pretrial officers do not have the authority to go in to arrest someone.

They don't have the authority to common.

Ask for an arrest warrant.

You need a law enforcement personnel to do that.

And those are significant problems with the electronic monitoring system.

In addition, we have 40 to 50 people that are charged with murder, attempted murder on electronic monitoring.

Those are not appropriate charges for electronic monitoring.

My job is to make sure that people who are a danger to the public that we do everything we can to detain them.

If someone is not a danger to the public, we are not asking for detention.

So there's many low-level felony cases that somebody doesn't present a danger.

If someone is carrying a machine gun, Oregon with the switch, converting it into an automatic weapon.

They present a danger to the public that those cases we seek If someone commits a violent crime, the aggravated battery where someone goes to the hospital, violent assault on someone where they're going to the hospital.

We asked for detention.

We're also asking for detention anytime someone commits a violent crime on the CTA in order to have a safe, thriving community.

We need to have safe public transportation system and we do not have that.

We can send very strong deterrent message by asking for detention and jail time when someone presents a danger to the public.

As as a former judge yourself, some critics say that this sort of undermines the discretionary authority of judges to make that decision.

Well, yes, it is a a violent crime, but looking at the facts of this case.

>> I'm so order electronic monitoring.

What would you say to argument?

Well, when we first came in, we knew that there is a significant problem.

There is a significant problem in our assistance getting this access to all of the data bases.

So we have a feed from CPD, but we didn't have access to the chief judges information.

We didn't have access to the sheriff's information.

We didn't have access to a lot of court files.

So I'll give you an example of why this was significant for us going into first parents, court.

One, man came out from detention.

The state was asking for detention on someone.

It's a brand new assistant state's attorney in the courtroom.

Judge says why are you asking for detention on this allegation in the petition was he left a basket of gifts for his children and his ex-wife's porch.

And why would you ask for detention on that?

And and the state's attorney couldn't answer the question sufficiently.

The judge luckily had come from civil court and knew how to get into the civil court system.

She take a look at the divorce files, pulled at the order of protection, turned out that this person had taken the children absconded to Indiana, barricaded himself in a hotel room.

They had to surround the hotel with a SWAT team while he threatened to kill himself from the children.

Well, that's significantly different than I left a basket of gifts on my ex-wife's porch.

That was when the state was asking for detention.

And yet we did not have access to that information.

So we immediately embedded to investigators over in first parents court so that they could start plumbing.

All of the information that we need to have to give the most full picture to courts when we are seeking detention on why and why did they present a danger?

You also you expand a pilot of the felony bypass review program.

Now that is in 2 districts, Englewood in Calumet.

This one allows police officers to get to skip getting approval from your office on if they need a felony weapons charge.

>> Once they've had a lieutenant sign off on Why did you want to expand?

This enters excess.

Let me let clarify down a little So and they're just for class for gun cases, which means it's a handgun.

It's not an automatic weapon and it's a handgun.

>> And somebody doesn't have the appropriate licensing.

A FOID card of fire owner's identification card.

So it's the it's really just a registration issue.

It is not a issue of and somebody is presenting a danger to the public.

And we're saying that you can bypass felony review.

We're one of the few jurisdictions in the entire country that does come your view.

So what it is is when a police officer has made an arrest on a felony, they call family review to review the case and determine if there is a sufficient basis to hold that case into first repairs quarter, a preliminary hearing and there are certain types of cases assistance states trees go out.

And if it's a victim case it you know, a violent crime.

Assistant state's attorneys go out to the police station, the interview, the witnesses, if it's a gun case, there's no winner view of anyone.

It's the police officers giving you that information over the phone.

There was a 90% approval rate on those types cases that were brought to us.

So on, what would hands like this just in And I just want to get to one more thing before we run out of time.

it sounds like this.

accelerates the process for something officers were off the street 6 hours waiting to get interview approval.

That was a logjam that's people not getting their 9-1-1.

Calls responded to in a timely manner.

>> So we took Who's waiting the longest on 9-1-1, calls and who has sufficient going cases to have us do this training.

So we went out and we train every single officer in both of those districts exactly what we need help.

And every single one of those cases has made it through preliminary hearing.

So that said, Cook County, Public Defender and some aldermen are concerned about a couple of things that sort of critical layer of oversight that they believe is missing.

But also these were talking about 2 predominantly black communities that are receiving this this pilot of a program so far and they feel like those 2 communities are being treated differently in 30 seconds.

What do you say to Illinois State?

Police is doing training now and they cover all the roadways in Cook County.

So that will cover everyone from were not cut down to Sauk Village and will cover everyone.

So the other thing was goes where the communities that we're waiting, the longest on 9-1-1, calls had nothing to do with race.

It had to do with the efficiencies that we needed to implement.

got 15 seconds left Eileen O'Neill Burke, thank you so much for joining us.

Best of luck.

We look forward to having with us again.

Thank of course.

And we're back with more right after this.

Elements of Chicago culture are built on some of the city's most famous foods deep dish pizza, Italian beef.

And of course, the classic Chicago style hot Dog.

>> Now a local entrepreneur is putting all of those flavors in the bag and adding a little crunch to the city's food scene.

>> I love potato jets and I love Chicago food and I thought it would be a really fun way to celebrate Chicago if we smashed the 2 things together.

>> That mashup lead Laura Gardner and her husband, David, to create local style potato chip.

>> We wanted the best chip base for this product.

We didn't just want to make these tales like Chicago's famous foods.

We wanted to put them on a kettle cooked potato chip.

That would be downright delicious.

Cooking up the flavors was no challenge.

The flavors were almost the easy part to select because when it comes to Chicago food, there's a holy Trinity.

And you've got to tell beef and you've got Chicago hot dog and you've got deep dish.

Pizza and locals are already finding some fan favorites.

I was stunned by the hotdog flavored.

was like this is like, like when they talk about like a Chicago style hot, I'd be like dragged through a guard.

And I was like, this is what it's like.

Like it's like a party in your so that Gardner didn't stop there.

Hot Jordan era.

I needed to be the next labor after that.

>> It's Chicago's best kept secret.

>> Those best kept secrets are just some of what makes local style.

So flavorful.

>> I love the logo.

I love the illustrations, which are so fun.

And Chicago food is so much more than just the food.

We wanted to give it a personality like.

>> Walking on a happy, bright Chicago summer day like that was sort of the feeling we were going for.

>> The cartoon designs and creative flavors are popping up across Chicago's neighborhoods.

We started in 7 and we've already grown to 17, has been a whirlwind 3 and a half weeks.

That just goes to show that when like Chicago gets behind something like >> we can.

We can grow.

>> Gardner chose the first 2 locations to carry her product based on her history with the city.

>> I lived in the West Loop.

I've lived in up in old town.

I've lived in a handful of places.

And I really chose my favorite spots like that's it.

There wasn't much strategy to it.

>> But her first stop was inspired by her love of a popular Chicago show.

That also pays homage to the city's vibrant food scene.

I walked into Mister B's very nervous and was holding my chips in my arms.

And I asked if the owner was here, Chris looked at the chips, any taste of the chips and fell in love with them and >> the best case scenario in my head that day was that Mr.

Beef would carry the chips.

That was all that was on my mind.

And it actually went further than that.

And Chris shared the chips with his buddies and his friends at the bear.

So my very first paying customer was the Bear Kraft Services team, which is just incredible and something I'm so so grateful for.

>> And Gardner has plans to take or Chicago style chips even further.

>> I think we definitely want to expand the line asking on social media what flavors you guys want already getting some really great social comments and ideas thrown our way and we're like, gosh, is this really want to flavor like don't dare us like we'll do it.

And she's taking pride in representing her adopted hometown.

I feel really proud to be bringing this to the city.

I think.

>> Taking our famous foods and putting them on such a fun snack like a potato chip.

it's something that the city feels excited about.

And I feel really proud to be bringing it to the city.

yeah, just very excited to see how far Chicago can take local style tips.

>> Oh, lord flavored chips.

In addition to Mister Beef, you can find local style potato chips at the goddess and grocer locations D'amato's in Westtown and JP Graziano and Fulton Market for more locations and details.

You can visit our website.

And that's our show for this Tuesday night.

Be sure to stay connected with our reporters and what they're working on by following us on Instagram at W T Tw Chicago.

You can also stay connected by following us on Blue Sky at W T Tw and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10.

We speak with the creators of the new opera.

She who dared about exposing audiences to lesser-known black female heroes.

>> Now for all of us here in Chicago Brandis Friedman, thanks for watching.

So healthy and safe.

Have a good night.

>> Closed caption made possible by Robert a cliff and Clifford Congo, personal injury and wrongful death.

That supports educational