>> And thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

Calls for Chicago's U.S.

attorney to step down are growing.

>> I'm proud of our house.

>> I'm proud of the processes that let us get big things done.

>> One-on-one with Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch on the state budget.

Their stadium plan and more.

>> And Columbia College's new president on the institution's future.

First off tonight, both U.S.

senators from Illinois are calling for a new U.S.

attorney to replace Andrew Boutros.

>> A joint statement from Senators Tammy Duckworth and outgoing Senator Durbin reads, quote, Andrew Boutros Boutros his time as interim U.S.

attorney for the Northern District of Illinois has been riddled with chaos.

Deep internal dysfunction and alleged misconduct.

He must resign and there must be an open, transparent and non partisan search to nominate the next U.S.

attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, the to join a growing list of elected officials and candidates for office calling for Boutros his resignation in the wake of a legend prosecutorial misconduct.

That takes the so-called Broadview 6 case last month.

Boutros himself offered a public apology for his prosecutor's actions during grand jury proceedings.

Last October.

Meanwhile, U.S.

attorney Boutros today is responding to claims by a defense attorney that he had some sort of, quote, personal conduct with contact with the grand jury.

In the broad view, 6 case Boutros today says he did speak to grand jurors the day they returned an indictment in the case but claimed he only did so to provide, quote, general comments about the need for grand jurors to be fair and impartial.

The embattled U.S.

attorney issued a, quote, rare special report including transcripts of nearly 4 minute, a nearly four-minute speech that he gave jurors additionally today, defense attorneys for the broad view 6 took the first step toward potential sanctions against the federal prosecutors.

They are accusing of misconduct.

They filed a motion looking to recoup attorneys fees and litigation expenses for the now former defendants for more background on this story and its developments today.

Check out our Web site.

Chicago Civil rights attorney is among those decrying a move by members of the Minnesota Republican Party to honor the man convicted of killing George Floyd 6 years ago.

Delegates at the Minnesota Republican Party convention held a moment of silent prayer over the weekend for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

He is serving more than 20 years in state prison on or in prison on both state and federal charges in Floyd's murder.

State representative presiding over that portion of the conventions spoke with a local reporter about how the moment happened.

>> The delegates stood up and made a motion for a moment of silent prayer for Derek Chauvin.

He came up and stood in front of the podium and asked if he could do it.

And I recommended that that point that he not, but it's his right to be able to do that as it is any other delegates at that convention.

And so he did and the motion was not out of order.

It was second and I put it to the body.

The body voted and we took a very short moment of silent prayer for Derek Chauvin.

>> In a statement, civil rights attorney Ben Crump in Chicago Tony Romanucci who represented the Floyd family said, quote, The audacity of the Minnesota Republican Party to honor an individual who is both been convicted by a jury of his peers for the murder of a fellow human being while at the same time violated a professional oath to protect and serve his community is disgusting.

It goes on to say we call on Minnesota GOP leaders to issue an immediate retraction of this moral act and issue an apology to the family of George Floyd and to the people of Minnesota that they serve.

Up next, we meet the new leader of Chicago's Columbia College and hear about her vision for the school.

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

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> Now we're waiting to be joined by Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch.

But first, Columbia College, Chicago has a new president Bolton is the first woman of color to lead the institution and the first woman to do so in nearly a century.

She comes in at a difficult moment.

A shrinking student body, a series of faculty, layoffs and a 40 million dollar budget deficit.

But Bolton remains optimistic about the future of the liberal arts school.

And she joins us now to share her vision.

Welcome Shante.

Bolton, president of Columbia College Chicago.

Congrats on the new position.

Thank you.

It's exciting moment for the institution and for us in the city of Chicago.

I'm sure is.

Why did you want this role?

What wasn't that interested?

You?

Well, really is the mission that spoke to my heart for staff or access institution.

And so we focus on.

>> Providing opportunity for students who would not otherwise have access to higher education, but even more.

So the creative economy, which is a multitrillion-dollar global business and to have more representation and diversity in this space was very important to me.

I am a person who really appreciates the arts and have been inspired by it.

But also it has been a healing place for me.

And many others find that in the arts as well.

And so the mission resonated and I wanted to be a part of doing something special.

And in no greater city, then the city of Chicago.

>> You're the first woman of color, the whole to hold this Do you think that a significant, of course, considering that Colombia's a minority serving institutions?

Absolutely.

That is a part of why I wanted to be in this role is because of who I was serving.

>> I think leadership it's important to know who the primary focus is.

And as a student-centered president, it is very important.

I support our students.

Many of our students, hail from the south and west side of Chicago and many come from communities in which the very proud of.

But they have an opportunity Columbia to explore their passions in the creative arts and to turn that into successful and sustainable careers and they get to do all of that right here in the city in which they love and can not only get their education but can start there lives and careers and thrive successfully.

So last September, the U.S.

Department of Education decided that it would no longer a war discretion discretionary grants to emphasize as well as Hispanic serving institutions.

Columbia is classified as both.

But even, you know, outside of this current presidential administration.

>> A Columbia College has been dealing with financial issues its own for over a decade.

How do you plan to reverse this trend to stabilize the school?

periods of uncertainty oftentimes offer equally opportunities for those institutions who are willing to innovate and to lean into the moment.

It allows Columbia College, Chicago, an opportunity for us to Imagine who we want to be.

We've been in existence 135 years anchored right here in the heart of the city of Chicago and were part of a very important economic development component with the creative economy here.

And so I it really presents us with an opportunity to think about how we best serve our students regardless of what happens in Washington.

Our mission remains the same.

We are committed to providing access and opportunity to students of color.

And regardless of that, we're interested in the creative arts, education and creative careers.

And so we're very committed to doubling down on that.

We're looking at everything for how to respond to parents desire to have recent and relevant education that leads to successful careers.

But ultimately what are students care about is the the opportunities that are available to them and how that leads to outcomes for a sustainable life and sustainable careers.

And that's what we're doubling down focus.

And what will that look like?

You know, we're talking about the numbers, you know, like if we're looking the declining enrollment, which has gone from what used to be around 12,000 you know, couple decades ago now to closer to 4,000 on series of faculty, layoffs have had to happen over the last 18 months or so.

What does that mean when you're talking about your fund raising in in tuition?

absolutely we've been focused over the last year on 4 things.

What first and foremost, a blast moment we had to do and we've been very intentional.

We're rebuilding our relationship with Chicago, public schools.

That is a very critical relationship for us and working with guidance counselors, meeting parents and students where they are providing everything from financial education in terms of the affordability of college and to make sure that they're where scholarships and other opportunities in addition to what the federal funds may provide.

We've also been focused on elevating our brand.

So we're pushing more visibility of the work that's produced through the creative storytellers and artists at Columbia.

We recently held are manifest, which is the largest art festival that happens.

I'm calling it the unofficial kickoff to Chicago competition.

Morial Day.

Yeah.

Cause also we're looking at the financial sustainability.

Certainly the challenges are not is significant, but we're taking those on with honest approach.

We're being very transparent about it.

And we're working in collaboration.

We're tapping into the thing that our mission serves and that's being creative with the problem solving.

We welcome and our faculty, our alumni staff and other community leaders to help us as we think about how to best serve the students, how ensure that education maintains being affordable and then how do we stabilize the institution so that we can ensure being a part of the Chicago community for another 135 years?

You know, speaking of what he want, the future Columbia College campus to look like, I envision us being the premier Creative Arts Education Center in the heart of Chicago being able to bring together both education, workforce, development and industry partnerships in a way that creates sustainable and fluid careers for creative professionals.

And get a little bit of time left.

You know, you mentioned are being sort of healing for for you yourself.

What can you tell us about why art speaks to you?

I am the mother of a micro preemie for Michael from the 16 now.

So you think perfect for Yankees is big now.

But art was a form through music of how he went through his healing process.

It also gave a form of expression to emotion and helped through the work with March of Dimes.

really love that organization.

They were very pivotal to my experience.

But it was both a creation of art in helping him to learn how to do everything from physical mobility to music and how to express emotion.

And so art has always sort of been a part of my story and I find it to be such honor to be in this moment.

Italy, Columbia, College Chicago, doing this very pivotal time, right?

That is a good place to leave it New Columbia College President chant able to.

And congrats, thanks again for joining Thank you.

Up next, one on one with Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch.

>> He joins us right after this.

>> Reflecting the people and perspectives that make a buck This story is part of Chicago tonight.

Black Voice.

>> It was well past 04:00AM Monday morning when the Illinois General Assembly adjourned for the summer.

By then the budget has been balanced and a flurry of bills sent to the governor's desk.

But a busy finished to the spring session left some of the biggest decisions in some cases.

The decision to wait until the very end here to share his perspective on the session is the representative who presided over at all speaker of the Illinois House Emanuel, Chris Welch.

Welcome back.

Thanks for joining My pleasure be here.

So the Senate passed a new bill with incentives for the Bears to have to talk about the for the Bear Stadium Senate to the House sometime around 3.30, Monday morning.

Were your first thoughts at 03:30AM, in the morning when that bill arrived at the House?

Well, certainly.

>> My first thought was we don't have time to consider that in the House.

We have processes in place that we've been very consistent with some time become speaker.

And that involves getting a lot of stakeholder input.

The biggest stakeholders to me or my members and we caucus on things.

We survey the caucus.

We get a lot of input from our members and we had no time look at the bill.

Read the bill.

Let alone going to caucus and talk about it at 3.30, in the morning.

And so just we ran out of time.

>> By 03:30AM, in the morning.

You all are technically past year.

Your midnight deadline.

Well, technically.

But when you have a super majority and you know that the votes are there for other things, you can continue working.

>> in this regard, it would only 60 votes.

But we didn't.

We believe in have 60 vote.

And that's the byproduct of people not having information and you got to make sure they have the information answers to their questions.

>> But the Senate chose to speed up that new bill rather than risk losing the Bears to Indiana House shows the opposite.

>> You know, our processes are very different.

And as leader of chamber, I understand what the Senate president was going through.

You have to listen to your membership to be responsive to your members.

All reports in the House was in order to get someone to vote for something that impacts the mayor's.

That also has to impact other areas of the state order to get 60 people from across the state to vote on a bill in the House.

It really nice to impact the entire state and the bill that I've read that came more from the Senate so far does not do that.

And it's just a different approach.

And apparently our didn't stand a chance in the Senate.

And so we're going to keep our conversations going over the summer here and hopefully we can.

We can find something that works for the Bears.

What into that?

You know, the House first passed that mega projects bill back in April.

>> Why didn't go?

She ation still end up coming down to the last minute.

That's the legislative process that sausage making and Springfield, people understand lines and sometimes the deadlines.

>> Are the reason why things actually get in this case.

It's why didn't get done.

We ran out of time.

In the House from our perspective, really need to take your time to get it right rather than go fast and get us law.

complex issues like this.

It's really important that you don't rush something.

This is not easy by any chance.

you know, we passed a lot of things the other night that has been around for 2 years complex legislation takes time.

>> Are you planning or is there any chance that your plan to call a special session in the summer to discuss stadium You know, they're still plans to call a special session.

>> We are back in November.

And then again in January for a lame duck session.

What I think is really important is to keep the conversations going.

People know that you're working honestly, if we can reach an agreement between the House, the Senate, all of the stakeholders that are involved you know, that's what's really important right now is to keep doing the work and we're committed to doing that.

Bears have said the plan to keep their own timeline.

Do you are you have any concerns that that timeline at the end of their timeline?

>> They decide to go to India.

Well, obviously, you know, I can't dictate what the Bears timeline is.

All I can do is commit to them that and show them by my actions that were willing to continue to work.

>> I already I left Springfield meetings on my schedule that involved the Bears and we're going to keep those meetings have those conversations and do everything we can to get to that agreement.

>> Ok, so also the budget this year.

55.9 billion dollars.

Almost 56 billion have federal funding concerns play into this year's negotiation?

You know?

>> It really made it the most complicated.

But you that I had to work on my 6 years as speaker and truly the the HR one bill that passed last summer.

The big, Bad ugly Bill just had negative impacts on our budget all across aisles.

And so we had to figure out a way to pass a fiscally responsible budget that help, you know, working class families across the state.

And that's a difficult task to do this year and what we got it with pastor balanced budget since Governor Pritzker has been governor 6 inside been speaker.

And it really is a a fiscally responsible budget that takes care of people.

>> The spending bill, though, again, not pass until those final hours of the legislative session, which in my experience, has also been fairly typical.

What were the sticking points this go around?

>> Well, if you look at the bill that passed the other night, we found a budget bill the first week in May, the bill that passed tonight probably 2% different.

3% different from what we filed that entire budget has been out there for over a month.

What comes down to is I have to listen to my members who have things that it's important to them, that they got go back home and explain.

president has members what last minute things.

That's part of the process and literally the budget that we passed when we pass.

It is very different from what was introduced in February filed in May.

And what ultimately passed.

>> However, the discussions like when deciding where to look for new sources of revenue.

>> Well, you know, one of the things is our progressive caucus is in both chambers were very insistent those who can pay more should pay more looking at corporations looking at the rich.

And I got to tell they had some some winds in this budget cycle.

You know, we close some corporate loopholes, decouple it from couple loopholes.

We've pass taxes on social media platforms.

Digital ad attacks prediction markets, fantasy sports cryptocurrency.

All these new things that call for some some taxation.

that's what helped us close the budget.

Nothing on regular everyday people.

We have not done that.

And I think that was very important.

The progressive caucus is in both chambers.

>> Well, raising income tax on higher and higher earners continue to be a priority in the future.

You said that, you know, there were some winds for the progressives who are calling for that.

But will there be more later on?

Tell you, Brandis taxing the rich is very important to me.

Those pay more, who can pay more should pay more.

>> To those who much is given much is required and I very hard for surcharge tax on millionaires to on our November ballot came up just short in the House.

The Senate president and agreed to talking the summer and find ways to come an agreement on that language that we can probably look at in 2028.

But honestly, we do need some structural reform and those who can pay more should pay more.

>> House Republicans pointed to the scheduling of the House and Senate sessions as one of the why they think many decisions were left until the last day.

Here's House Republican leader Tony Macomb be speaking on Sunday.

>> As you started the the calendar year this year, you could tell right away by the difference of the calendar.

>> That the Senate and House Democrats were not communicating with one another.

And you're still seeing that today.

>> was there are adequate collaboration between the House and the Senate are in session.

I think we had excellent cooperation and coordination.

>> As evidence by yet another balance budget.

You know, passage of massive cannabis hemp regulation AI regulation, a junk fee ban act.

Things that have been in the works for over 2 years.

Now.

And that's because of the coronation of the chambers.

Our chambers are very different line is double the size of the Senate.

The second year of a GA involves election here.

There's a lot of needs of members to be back home in their districts.

Our our needs are different from the Senate needs.

And so one sitting down to the calendar that had to come into play the differences in the 2 chambers in the needs of members to be back home.

And that's what people saw.

But the false narrative that that created was that there was no coronation, the substantive things that we got done shows that there was indeed a lot of coordination in the same vein.

Was there enough coordination, a collaboration with members across the aisle, GOP?

>> I think we've gotten better every year since I've been speaker.

You know, leader Macomb be said earlier on the radio show that.

>> You know, she enjoyed the conversations with me, her budget 2 years with my budget.

Here's there's a lot of coordination.

Are we going to agree?

We're going to disagree probably more than we agree because of the differences in the parties.

But, you know, we can do better.

We can always do better.

And I'm committed to that.

>> You know the evidence base funding program for K through 12 schools that increase this year by 350 Million.

But the state Board of Education estimates it would take nearly 10 times that amount to bring all school districts up to 90% of their adequacy target should K through 12 funding have been a higher priority this year.

>> If you look at the budget that we passed the other day, the single biggest thing that was prioritize was K through 12 funding.

We put in 350 million new dollars since I've been speaker.

We're close to 2 billion new dollars for K through 12 education.

Are we at the level?

We should be a no.

But that's going to take that new revenue stream that we need.

And that's what I think we need the structural tax change.

That's why I think a on millionaires will be very important.

Those are dollars that can help us properly fund evidence based funding formula.

>> Are there any concerns that, you know, this funding formula might fail with that is not implemented the way research says it should, which is, of course, with the funding adequate to educate students on the data shows is working.

It's been working since we passed in 2017 and it's been fully implemented.

>> It's working the way it was intended.

It would probably work better and faster if we were able to fully fund it.

But the problem is, is the budget has pressures all across silos and there's only a finite resources if we can find additional resources, would we're committed to continue do that.

Work on.

We certainly will do that and funding fully funding that evidence base formula is extremely important to me.

>> The AI regulations passed this session recognize to some of the strongest in the country passed the House unanimously at the same time, the tech companies OpenAI and Tropic also supported these regulations.

So I'm kind of wondering if the AI companies are supported.

Does that indicate that your legislation, new regulations could have been stiffer?

>> You know, got to tell you know, you have to have those folks at the table, their stakeholders, you know, they know their industries, but they also know that they need regulation our regulation is tough for the New York and California.

They fought against some of the things that we put in our bill because it was tough for the New York and California, but we got it done.

It was very important we lead the way on that and they knew it was going to happen.

And so they they decide to participate in the process rather than not participate in the process.

And that was welcome.

>> few seconds left speaker, what are your priorities for the caucus moving into the summer?

Well, I can tell you, number one, I want them in their districts knocking on doors.

Let the folks know what we did and why we did it.

There's a of things that they go home read about this book.

This budget focused on affordability.

We brought costs down and so many areas we've we froze the gas tax.

We have a school holiday on supplies for the upcoming school season.

We we expanded the school lunch program.

There's a lot of things that we had to do in response to what's going on in Washington.

We created the first of its kind fresh program help those that Trump kicked off of the SNAP program.

That's in this budget.

There's a lot of things they need to go out there and have those town hall meetings and knock on doors.

So let the people know what actually went on.

All right.

Voters can expect to see the representatives out and about House Speaker Chris Welch.

Emmanuel was request Chris Welch, I can say your name.

Thank you for joining My pleasure.

>> And on our program tomorrow evening, we'll hear from House Republican leader Tony Macomb be.

>> And that's our show for this Tuesday night.

Stay connected with our reporters and what they're working on by following us on Blue Sky at W T Tw and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10.

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

Stay healthy and safe.

We have tonight.

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