>> Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

>> And mask cannot shield agents from accountability.

>> Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot joins us to discuss her latest venture documenting alleged abuse by federal immigration agents.

And the Bears keep their Super Bowl dreams alive.

But can they slow down the NFL's number one offense?

>> First off tonight, U.S.

Senator Tammy Duckworth is pushing for more funding to replace hundreds of thousands of lead service lines in Chicago.

>> She's calling for 125 million dollars to be restored in the budget currently being negotiated in Congress.

>> You know, under the big beautiful bill, they funded ice to tune of 2 billion dollars buy rating that money from all sorts of places including the drinking water, you know, funds to keep with water creates.

All do is try to put back something that a bipartisan group senators had agreed to.

>> The Senate is set to vote on a measure already approved by the House of Representatives that quad back in unspent portion of the 15 billion dollars set aside for lead service line removal.

City crews in Chicago have a place less than 4% of the city's lead service lines since the work began 5 years ago.

Plans call for another 10,000 to be replaced this year at a cost of 300 million dollars.

Duckworth says she's now concerned that cuts approved by the House would make the process in Chicago, even slower, even as cities like Newark, New New Jersey and Rockford have made rapid progress.

3 former DePaul basketball players and one former Chicago Bull are among more than 2 dozen being accused of rigging college games.

Former DePaul players Jalen Terry and Shawn Nelson are charged in connection with the wide-ranging point shaving scandal.

Another former DePaul player Mac Etienne is named in the complaint stating he has been charged elsewhere as well as former Chicago Bulls guard Antonio Blakeney Blakeney is described in the indictment as one of a handful of, quote, fixers who offered bribe payments to players to fix DePaul men's basketball games, Terry Nelson and at T and allegedly agreed to under perform during the 1st half of their game against Georgetown in February 2024. in order to ensure DePaul would not cover the 1st half point spread.

a statement, university spokesperson says the school is, quote, deeply disappointed and that no current student athletes were members of the 2023.

24 teams.

For more on this story, you can check out our Web site.

The city's first center to support women returning home from prison, opened its doors in Chicago today.

>> It is a win for every woman and survivor who has come home from jail or prison.

Police a few overlook and a one size fits all program for misunderstood.

Shame, not believe.

And is there a re or if she left her dignity at the door?

>> The city's director of re-entry teased its opening right here on our program last night.

The Community Reentry Support Center or CRS see will be housed at the Women's Justice Institute.

Chicago based nonprofit focused on ending women's mass incarceration and building leadership among formerly incarcerated women.

The new Center will provide a child-friendly space as 60% of women returning home from incarceration or mothers to children under 18 as well as providing support with mental health, housing and employment navigation.

Among other offerings.

Chicago and a record number of shared bike and scooter trips last year, Denise Bike and scooter sharing system accounted for 6.8 million rides while Lime scooters accounted for 6.1 million, 4 combined total of nearly 13 million trips.

That's almost 2 million more trips than in 2024, according to the city, city also says it added 140 nudity stations with more than 2000 new docks last year, along with expanding in station charging for e-bikes and e-scooters.

New efforts to help federal immigration agents accountable led by a former Chicago mayor.

We explain right after this.

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

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> The new project is underway with the goal of holding federal immigration agents accused of misconduct accountable.

Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is behind the initiative called the Ice Accountability Project and it allows community members to submit their own documentation of incidents that comes in the wake of last week's fatal shooting of Minneapolis woman Renee Nicole.

Good by an ICE agent.

There.

And joining us now with more is Lori Lightfoot.

Welcome back, Chicago tonight.

Thanks for joining us.

It's good to be here.

So the state has already launched what it's calling the Illinois Accountability Commission.

It will hold hearings and similarly create a public record of what residents have been experiencing during Operation Midway Blitz.

How's yours?

Difference?

I think that project.

>> report ICE now dot com.

I have to get that.

In course.

All will really be working in harmony with the state.

The head of commission, former chief Judge Ruben Castillo, somebody I've known for 30 years and work with on arrange different projects.

We talked about are 2 separate missions.

I think what understand the states project, they will primarily focus on really assessing the harm to individuals and families and community, which is obviously a very important thing.

We are creating a centralized repository for people who have collected video audio and other information about what ICE is done in Chicago and really Chicago land.

So we have a centralized repository for hopefully later holding people accountable.

Hopefully local law enforcement.

We'll look at this information not have to search across various social media platforms, find individuals.

We want to house all that information here.

One for transparency, but also for accountability.

And the second aspect of the project is focused on so called unmasking the agents.

We're not talking about Boxing Federation's, but there are agents said you have seen on videotape that of look like they're committed crimes.

Poor mister.

So be a gust.

Gonzalez was killed in September on 12 Miss Mary Maher.

Martinez was shot.

Luckily not killed, but we have to hold these people accountable for doing egregious things and obviously local law enforcement call and strikes.

But we want to create information that they can readily access to make decisions about who should or should not be charged.

So to that point in an op-ed, you note that quote to date, no federal immigration agent has been investigated by local county or state law enforcement authorities for these incidents.

Not one.

>> Are there even legal avenues for local governments to pursue investigations beyond filing suit?

Yes, of course, if a homicide committed like an instance of Mister Gonzalez in Franklin Park, that's a homicide that's committed within the local county jurisdiction.

And the county prosecutor certainly has jurisdiction over that.

Now there's a lot of questions that have to be resolved around immunity and so forth.

There's a homicide that's been committed.

Certainly this was done by any other local law enforcement, particularly local law enforcement.

There'd be no question that there would be and investigation.

And again, we want to incentivize by collecting the information, the local authorities who have the ability to do something about these allegations of criminal conduct in serious misconduct like excessive force, like indiscriminate use chemical agents and tear gas.

We want them to be able to do their jobs effectively and frankly not have what happened Minnesota regarding the killing importance.

Good where the feds come in and sweep all the information and really hamper the ability of local law enforcement to do its job.

You mentioned immunity.

We have spoken to both Attorney General Kwame Raoul about this just yesterday and the day before that.

Professor Harold Credit, what is your read on law enforcement officers and how much immunity they have in these cases?

>> Well, I think the Supreme Court in a last session called us V Martin opened up the door and made it very clear that there is possibility for least on the civil side forum on suit against individual officers when they are accused violating people's civil rights on cruel is much more complicated issue.

But the Supreme Court hasn't closed the door There's no evidence whatsoever in those statutes somehow vice President dance tried to declare that officers who committed agents who commit egregious crimes against residents are some home I don't think that's what the state of the lies at this point.

>> The project launched last week.

What kind of reception have you gotten as far as other uploads and incidents being reported to the website?

Well, we've had over 1000 people within 24 48 hours visit the website.

We're starting to see up close.

I think there's a great opportunity for us to continue reaching out to communities and the activists and stakeholders to educate them about this resource is available.

But we feel very, very good about how this project has been received in lots of different quarters, not only here, but really across the country that to the extent of the people hearing about it, they're excited about the opportunity.

How are you and your team confirming the veracity of these videos?

I think folks want to know that you like something that's it is going to >> get slipped Well, that's a great question.

So we're doing in a couple different ways.

We are.

working on AI tool ourselves to be able detect whether or not the information, particularly video information has been altered in some way.

But there's multiple levels of review.

There's a front line level review that looks at the information on to confirm date time location.

You luckily here in Chicago when these incidents happen, there's a lot of reporting there's a lot of Facebook and social media acknowledgement of when these out opportunities happen.

And then there's a second line review that's going clued myself.

Other lawyers, former federal agents to make sure, frankly, we're not getting duped into posting something that never actually happened.

So we working every precaution that we possibly can.

We have people sign up to be able to post information on the Web site.

So we've got different layers, a review checking to make sure that whatever we decide to publish is actually accurate.

You the team, right?

You mention former federal agents, attorneys you yourself, of course, former federal prosecutor in addition to former Mayor City of Chicago.

>> Who is working with you on this and who's minding at who's behind you?

you know, obvious reasons, we're keeping identities and folks that are involved confidential, but they are people that I have known and work with over number 15 years old in my time a former federal prosecutor.

In my time as a lawyer and frankly, since launch number of people reach out and say, hey, I'd like to be involved.

How can I help?

And you look, we've been fortunate with generous funding, but we're going to keep the donors identities confidential right now.

Once you have collected this repository, of course, photos, videos reports from all the people on the ground.

What you hope comes of all all of it.

I think a couple things.

One.

>> I hope that it adds to a level of transparency about what's been happening.

And when you look at the number of incidents that have happened and have every reason to believe, unfortunately, that is going to continue.

They're going to come back probably when the weather gets warmer.

We're going to see I'm asking folks, come back.

But it is pretty eye opening and alarming to see the number incidents aggregated together in one spot.

The other thing is what I've been very proud watching people across Chicago in Chicago land is how they found their voice.

People that aren't necessarily out there in the street on a regular basis or activists.

feel very animated about this and are doing lots of things, whether it's joining safety patrol for kids to get to school, whether using the whistles act alert, people or neighborhood ice active in and present in the neighborhoods beyond protesting both, you know, in their neighborhoods downtown at the Broadview ICE facility.

People are finding their voice here.

And really, I think we've become a model for the nation.

Obviously l a got the first wave of But I think we've taken the tools that we found in LA here in Chicago and really refined them in ways and receiving those tools now being used in Minneapolis.

Going back to your time as mayor a bit 2021 probe by the Office of Inspector General found that the city and the Chicago Police Department botched the response to the protests.

>> And the unrest that were triggered by the George Floyd murder in May of 2020.

The report said that officers who struck punched and kicked protesters will not be held accountable.

Do you see a difference between the conduct behavior?

Chicago police officers at the time and Department of Homeland Security officers partaking in this conduct.

Well, let me first say Aye.

Aye at the time and still fundamentally disagree with.

>> That assessment by the inspector general's office.

We were facing very unprecedented times.

We were facing not just peaceful protests but people who came for fight and people who wanted to provoke actions on the part Chicago police officers.

But I think, you know, if you look at my contemporaries statements, you look at this down, the statements of on former Superintendent David Brown.

We never apologized or try to do anything other than hold officers accountable from boats.

Small things like taking alternate tax.

That's not acceptable.

Not having their body cameras not acceptable, engaging escalating tactics instead de-escalating.

Now, to be clear, as I said, our police face unprecedented challenges by vigilantes who wanted to fight.

They weren't just the peaceful protesters.

The peaceful protests over and over again, hijacked by people who had a very different agenda.

But obviously I've spent my aunt big chunk of my professional and adult life working on police reform and accountability issues.

And the fact of the matter is when things happen and went wrong in Chicago, we held officers accountable.

We had a number of oversight mechanism.

You're not seeing that at federal level and that's the problem.

Okay.

Well, that's where we'll have to leave it.

5 seconds.

Mayor, could we see a return to political arena for you?

>> You know, I don't see that happening you know, I there are many things about being a mayor that I enjoyed.

And then I miss.

But I'm content to be a private citizen doing my part from the sideline.

So not Not today.

Not not next All right.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot, thank you so much for joining My pleasure.

And we're back with more right after this.

>> The Cinderella season continues as DA bears gear up for a divisional round showdown against the Rams on Sunday quarterback Caleb Williams and company kept their Super Bowl hopes alive against the Green Bay Packers last Saturday, overcoming an 18 point 4th quarter deficit.

Well, late game heroics be enough to overcome in VP at Stafford in the high-powered Rams offense.

Joining us with his spots is James Big Cat Williams, former offensive lineman for the Chicago Bears.

Welcome back.

Didn't think we'd be here today.

Did I You would actually up that we'd be back.

But >> got a carried out no, just happy to be We're happy to have you.

So obviously, that was a huge win against the Packers last weekend.

What was it that jumped out to about this Bears team in their first playoff game since 2020?

>> No, they they had no lack of confidence.

It was something that they have pulled off several times during the season.

You know, 6 wins in the last final minutes of the game and for them to do it again, it was impressive to watch because at halftime, you know.

You want sit there and you wanted to be excited knowing that they had a chance in the 2nd half.

But you just weren't sure so to see them come back in the 2nd half and do what they did in the 4th quarter to put that game on ICE.

It was it was a fun thing to watch.

No lack of confidence.

Despite the lack of touchdowns in the 1st half.

>> We talked about Caleb Williams inexperience last week at a pair of interceptions on Saturday.

But it also made some huge plays, as you said, late in the game.

Do you think he did enough to ease fans nerves?

No is the answer to You quite Yeah, it's.

>> It's point in the sense because you always expect them to be able to do something in the 2nd half in 4th quarter but to have for them to put themselves in that situation over and over and over again.

It just makes it rough on the fans makes it rough on everybody.

You know, it's a team that does a great job at halftime Warren and saying this doesn't work.

doesn't work.

Let's try This and this.

And that's that's what worked for him this season.

>> It's worked for them this season.

You know, you're talk about this, you know, coming back from 18 point deficit in the 4th quarter against against the Packers.

Is that sustainable going forward?

Is that the secret sauce or is that going to get tougher as as the play as the teams get tougher?

I don't think anybody thought sustainable up until this point.

>> You it's it's something that they can do.

It's something they have a belief They never feel as though out of the game.

So.

who says it can't happen or 3 more times on the way to the show.

>> shows are going back to because the Bears defense managed slow down the Packers in the 2nd half.

But in all allowed 421 yards of offense and 322 passing yards.

Plus 4 touchdowns from Jordan.

Love.

How can this bears defense having to clean it up heading into Sunday?

That's It is especially with the Rams team coming in here with was.

>> Pope moving offense as they had?

>> They have.

I mean, this the same conversation we had last week far as they have to start faster.

They have to start faster.

They have to get the running game more.

They have to keep the Rams off the field.

The Rams offense off the field and if they're able to do that, I think they stand a good chance if they're not able to do that.

This is not Green Bay.

I don't think if you go down.

21.2, if you're down 18 points, that's going to be a lot harder to come back versus the Rams of world's first Right to that point is that I do want to get to the Rams offense.

You know, it's not Green Bay.

It's it's it's Chicago.

It's gonna be really cold.

On Saturday.

And Bears typically know how to play and that what what what impact you think the weather is going to have LA team playing against the Bears at home?

I think it'll have a little bit of an impact.

I think think the big impact for the Rams players.

>> is going to be when they first up off the plane you come from what is 80 degrees out there today and you step off the plane Saturday evening or Saturday afternoon.

>> And its 15 and the winds weapon.

It's going to be a little bit of a shock to some of those players guys like Stafford, Monte Adams, you know who played for Green Bay who have played in weather like this.

>> They will know a little bit more.

They will have a little bit more of an advantage.

But you're going to have some guys come in that have never played in temperatures like are going to play in this weekend.

Just like you've got some bears players ago.

Never played in weather like this, but they have the opportunity during the week to practice.

>> To practice and in this cold.

>> Rams led the NFL in total offense this season, putting up 394 yards per game.

What is the biggest threat from the Rams offense?

Those wide receivers?

>> Who could add-ons Stafford be able to get them?

The ball run after the It's going to be a test for the Bears.

You saw how they got diced a little bit.

Well, a lot of that in the 1st half of the Green Bay Game, they could not let the Rams come out and do the same thing.

They cannot let them go up and down the field in the 1st half, they're going to have to come up with some stops and put some pressure on staff.

>> Defensive side a little bit.

They allowed 333 yards of offense and 4 touchdowns against Bryce Young and the Panthers might be susceptible.

How would you like to see the Bears offense attack the Rams in this game?

>> Same way last You know, we talked about being able to run the ball early.

Stay ahead of that same stoke.

3rd down and walls, you know, let that offensive line work, run.

The ball gets, you get for 5 yards.

A pop on runs.

And now your stay on the field.

Now you tire that defense out.

Now you're able to put some points up on this team.

If Carolina can put up 30, why can't the Bears?

You know?

But I think they have, if not as many more offensive weapons and right.

So getting the, you know, winning wild-card matchup.

That's one thing, right?

That's great.

But getting to the Super Bowl, that's a whole other beast.

>> think they got a shot.

>> I mean, they have a shot.

If you do take care of your business against the Rams when you're talking about to or forty-niners team.

have to go to Seattle.

But Forty-niners are able to win and they have to come to Chicago.

Now you talk about 3 home playoff games and horrible temperatures.

Stay the tent.

>> How insane are Bears fans going to go it's going to be crazy.

I might not leave my That's why feel that what is your prediction for Sunday's game?

I think it'll be a close one.

I have.

I think it has the possibility for the score to be up there.

>> I think.

24 27 bears.

I'm going with the bears again.

I have to I'll never bigger and bigger rebound.

James Vick at Williams, thanks again for Thanks for having >> And we're back to wrap things up right after this.

And that's our show for this Thursday night.

Check out our website for the latest from W T Tw News including this week's live music recommendations in the Chicago area.

>> And join us tomorrow night at 5.37, for the weekend review and do you ever wonder what happens to the 1000 trees used at Brookfield Zoo's holiday magic display?

Well, some of them go to the animals for enrichment purposes.

We leave you tonight with images of those animals enjoying the new addition to their exhibits, some gentler than others.

Now for all of us here at Chicago tonight on Brandis Friedman.

Thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> Closed captioning is made possible by Robert a and Clifford law offices, a Chicago personal injury wrongful and sponsor of progress.

That offers