>> 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