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

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here is what we're looking at.

>> We have pushing for the board of Education to take responsibility of their workers.

>> Mayor Johnson is pressing the Chicago Public school board to make a pension payment or spotlight politics team unpacks that and more.

>> If there isn't enough to pay what everyone is owed, the city is on the hook to pay the defined benefits.

>> And while the small CPS has its own pension issues, so does the city W T Tw News explains how we got into this mess in the first place.

>> If we want to have a society where everyone has the ability to thrive, everyone has to have the same access to opportunity.

>> And a local organization is challenging President Trump's executive orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

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

It's a welcome home story.

9 months in the making after an unexpected extended stay in space.

2 astronauts are back home.

Nasa's Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore splashed down off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida early this evening.

They launched into space last June on Boeing's new Starliner crew capsule.

But NASA officials later decided it was too risky to return them home on the same vehicle.

Cta Blue Line riders should notice increased service along the route just as Kennedy Expressway drivers feel the impact of 2 fewer lanes.

Cta says it's adding 2 extra trips each weekday and 5 to 6 extra trips on weekends to its O'Hare branch.

The Forest Park branch will have 30 extra trips each week weekday overnight.

Crews shut down the 2 outbound left lanes of the Kennedy to begin the next phase of construction.

While the reversible or express lanes running outbound until that work is complete close to Thanksgiving.

Like the last 2 years of the work CTA is expecting an uptick in writers who are avoiding the traffic.

The new rail schedule starts April 20th.

2 new early voting locations are set to open in the southwest suburbs.

>> One of my top priorities is this is expanding voting access and all of our communities.

I am deeply committed to ensuring that every eligible voter has the opportunity to make their voice heard regardless of where they live or what language they speak >> the locations are at bridge News.

Universal School and Lyons Township office in countryside.

The new sites are in effort to help expand voting access to the area's Muslim and Arab populations and brings the numbers of early voting locations to 55 suburban voters could start casting early ballots yesterday ahead of the April.

First municipal elections.

Music fans.

Can you guess this?

Tune?

All right.

I could meet her at first but turns out it's boiled peanuts by rapper and songwriter dog.

That's a Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra on the Winds.

The young musicians partnered with Lollapalooza this year to tease out this year's lineup, which they dropped today.

Headliners include Olivia Rodrigo Tyler, the creator's Sabrina Carpenter, ASAP, Rocky Dolci Corner.

Luke Combs and so many more artists will take the stage for the massive four-day music festival in Grant Park starting July 31st.

Presale tickets go up this Thursday.

Up next, how women in trade work are pushing back on President Trump's Anti Dei orders.

>> 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.

>> A local nonprofit supporting women in trade work is suing the Trump administration over executive orders, targeting diversity, equity and inclusion programs are Joanna Hernandez met up with the organization to hear how the order is impacting their work.

>> The shop floor buzzes with the sound of heavy machinery, cutting through a metal at the Chicago Women in Trades Training center.

>> When we go through the program, this is a sanctuary.

We learn with each other and it's all women and were being taught by women.

And it's really, really important.

>> Desiree Guzman is a lead welding program coordinator.

She started in the Free Training program almost 7 years ago wanting to work in the manufacturing industry.

>> That's so important for someone to say.

You absolutely can do it and help you remove those barriers.

>> While welding is a male dominated field, there's a growing number of women joining the industry.

>> The nonprofit has helped women like Kuzma and get But now programs like these are in jeopardy because of President Trump's and tidy.

I executive orders.

>> We can't get rid of the progress we have to build on the progress and that's why it's so important to keep fighting.

>> Chicago women in trades is challenging Trump's executive actions on diversity, equity and inclusion by filing a lawsuit in federal court.

The group's executive director Jane Billing, the says the lawsuit was necessary to support an underrepresented part of the workforce.

>> The executive orders seek to undo all of that progress that probably which is not where it needs to be and to stop this momentum.

Cold inserted in race.

All of the efforts of the past many decades to to help women achieve economic equity.

>> The lawsuit challenges to of Trump's executive orders and in government support of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

The orders calling dei programs illegal and immoral discrimination.

They are an untenable situation because we have to choose between triggering an executive order living in fear of legal liability or stopping their programs and terminating federal funding altogether.

>> The organization is being represented by a team of civil rights lawyers, including Sabrina, to looked are she says there's confusion as the orders fell to defined or described the types of dei activities or speech that could lead organizations to lose or federal grants or contracts.

>> All with that we are asking is that Chicago women in trays can keep its door open and continue doing the work that they have done for 40 years.

They should not be silenced.

They should not live enough year.

A state of uncertainty and fear about what they can and cannot do.

>> While critics argue D I focuses on prioritizing race and gender rather than skill.

The lingo says this perspective is far from their reality.

>> There is a very misleading narrative going on about dei.

And I think the one thing that I I feel like I need people to understand says these are not quotas.

People are not taking jobs from people.

They are getting an opportunity to apply.

You know, they are getting they are being recruited so that they fill out their applications that go through the process.

Lingus as 40% of the organization's budget relies on federal funding.

>> Money they say goes towards programming in helping women succeed in a workforce where they represent only 5% of Illinois's construction sector while about 70% of their participants identify as black or Latino.

The organization says its mission is to boost equity for all women.

We've been in the trades.

They put up with a lot.

They already work in hostile work environment.

They're already relegated to the police, kill skilled jobs on the site.

>> They already struggle to retain to stay working.

>> And then to say that none of this is to have our federal government saying none of this is true.

You guys have had it easy.

You've taken jobs away from other people.

a disorienting to say the least.

It It is a narrative that has no relationship.

2, I lived experience.

>> For Chicago tonight, I'm Joanna Hernandez.

>> Shortly after a federal judge's decision to temporarily block Trump's executive orders Targeting Dei programs.

Another decision by an appeals court lifted the block.

It allows the administration to enforce its anti dei crackdown while lawsuits like the one by women in trades await the outcome of legal proceedings.

Coming up, Mayor Johnson is ramping up pressure on the Chicago Board of Education or Spotlight Politics team is here to explain why next.

Mayor Brandon Johnson is pushing Chicago public schools to make a pension payment.

Meanwhile, the race for Cook County Board president has officially kicked off already and a judge has ordered the city to ramp up efforts to make cross walks more accessible here with all that and more is our spotlight politics team Amanda, Vicki Hatter, Sharon and Nick Blumberg.

Hey, everybody.

So as we mentioned, Mayor Brandon Johnson putting pressure on Chicago public schools to cover a 175 million dollar pension payment.

Here's some of what he said this morning.

>> And our investments to help them contribute to the financial security of their employees.

And that's something that obviously my administration is committed to supporting along the way.

We're simply asking them to do their part because inevitably, going to be their responsibility as they become a fully elected independent body.

>> Head of the school board is set to make a decision on this Thursday.

What's at stake that somebody has got to make this pension payment and the city doesn't have the money to do it.

And CPS doesn't really have the money to do it.

But we heard a very long presentation from chief Financial Officer Joe Jaworski this morning that said, look, go ahead and refinance about 240 million dollars in existing debt at a lower interest rate, you'll save some money and that will give you enough money to do almost 3 things you'll pay to make the pension payment.

You'll cover.

The cost is has yet to be finalized.

Chicago Teachers, Union and the contract with the principals union.

That is also still outstanding.

Whether the CPS board will agree to do that is very much an open question.

Any cannot pass with just a simple majority.

It has to be a super majority of the 21 member board and it's not clear that enough members sort of see this as the best option.

Now we did get a report from the border, consultant hired by the board that said, look, there's no easy options here.

If you cut enough to make this pension payment, it would mean furlough days for teachers and students between 10 and 11 days before the end the school year, which would be impossible to overstate as to how destructive that would be for Chicagoans lives.

And that seems to be pretty much a nonstarter for so, you know, I like to say that budgeting is not rocket science.

You've got 3 options.

You can raise borrowing or raise taxes, can't raise taxes on middle of school year.

That's not how all this work or again, you borrow money or you may cut those of the 3 options in front of the school board.

What are they going to do?

Well, no Thursday for city takes it on again is something that says not.

>> The city does not have money to do, but nonetheless, this is a little bit like a hot potato except for like I want potato in the end, in Baghdad, but in buddy want And it sets up this prolonged question.

I mean, this is all just this year.

Yeah.

These budget problems continue into the future.

And this is not going to any of those options aren't solving And of course, the current makeup of the school board is because the mayor had such fundamental disagreement with the district CEO over financial issues like this.

>> And, you know, clearly the board here now, this this handpicked group of people met, you along with the newly elected folks.

>> Asserting some independence, perhaps, you know, they're going to have to make a really difficult decision either way.

first major test, it seems of this brand new board, not just, you know, new people to the board, but an entirely new.

>> Way of getting to our board, obviously because half of its been elected just under half in this West Point header.

It comes at a time when Chicago teachers, union officials are growing increasingly frustrated that it still does not have this contract with CPS settled what are still the sticking money.

Always right.

Ctu, things that veteran teachers are underpaid and they want increases for those teachers.

They also seem to be sort of stuck on this issue of prep time for elementary school teachers.

Now, if you remember all the way back in the Rahm Emanuel era, he extended the school day essentially by slashing prep periods for elementary school teachers seat.

He wants that 30 minutes back.

>> Now they've agreed sort of compromise on 20 minutes.

The district says 10 minutes because if you sort give more teachers, more prep time, you've got to figure out where those kids are going to go and that would mean hiring CTU says more arts and music teachers, which they say would be a win for everyone involved CT or at CPS is sure we agree in theory.

But again, I refer you to our previous coverage so we don't have they would like a deal yesterday.

It is unclear sort of how they're going to resolve those issues.

And it seems like this first little money issue.

The aforementioned pensions is probably something that's going to get.

I know figure it out.

But will they have to figure it out by March 30th because the city's got to close the books on the 2024 fiscal year.

So if the city is going catch this hot potato and it's going to have to probably dip into its reserves or move some other money around, which would require an act by the city Council, which means up times take ticket and everybody and we know that that spring break.

It's a it's coming But of course, the district will still be at work if even though students and teachers are not in the classroom.

Nick, you've been covering the city's efforts to upgrade a crosswalk.

Accessibility for blind and low vision pedestrians.

Federal judge just weighed in on those efforts.

What did they say?

That's right.

So this is, you know, just one of the, you know, long tails of this lawsuit that's been going on for many years.

It was a class action suit filed by.

>> On behalf of blind and low vision pedestrians against the city for essentially failing to make it signalized intersections accessible meaning when someone comes up to them, you press the button.

You hear an audio cue and it alerts you when the walk signal is on.

Otherwise it can be a bit of a guessing game.

Listening for cross traffic, trying to ask someone to help you.

So this is a case that the city has been fighting in court unsuccessfully couple years ago.

A judge ruled that the city had, in fact, violated federal law by not making these, you know, meaningfully useful these intersections, meaningful, useful for folks.

So now, for the past year, we've been waiting on a judge's decision.

The city and the attorneys for those pedestrians.

They filed competing remedial plans, essentially documents outlining how long do we have to fix this problem and how many of these intersections are we going to do?

The city has been ordered now, this is a preliminary order get finalized next month.

But the broad outlines is that the city will have to make 70% of its intersections accessible within 10 years.

And the remainder within a following 5 years.

But this has been, you know, multi-million dollar legal battle.

The city has waged any explanation from the city about why it's taking so long.

Well, they've been doing some of these upgrades kind of as they go.

They're really going to have to pick up the pace in coming years, though.

But these can be really complicated based on.

Is this an upgrade to an existing signal?

Is this something where we're doing it, you know, entirely brand-new.

Oh, and by the way, do we have the money to do these things?

So, you know, let basically just 85 of the city's intersections.

2700 of them.

Have these accessible signals.

They've been planning to about 40 over the course of this year.

But they are going to have to really ramp that up because the judge said you need to start complying with this immediately in 2025.

Amanda, Illinois is the latest state to consider legalized mobile gambling.

They've already permitted 16 casinos.

What is the argument for these online platforms I mean, I think first we just have to establish that people might think you need to go to Vegas gamble.

Despite Chicago, of course, having its temporary casino.

>> But it's not just the casinos.

I mean, there are more video gaming terminals in Illinois than anywhere in the United States.

Saudis restaurants at bars at veterans organizations.

So this is already, you know, capitalizing on what Illinois he's truly dependent on to solve some of its budget woes.

And that is.

>> More people Benton away, their hard-earned cash.

And gets to take some of that right through through Texas.

So this would allow people to just gamble on their cell phones on their tablets.

You've got one right.

There may downloaded program right now that is illegal, that it is not to say that it doesn't go on.

So that's what backers say given people are doing this, there are options.

We've got the World Wide Web.

There are ways to do it.

The Illinois should be able to tax it and get some money from what people are already doing at this 0.

One of the criticisms.

>> Well, it's like I just said there's already so much gambling going on.

It.

Casinos and restaurants that depend on this.

The municipalities, by the way, that get cut from all those video gaming terminals and folks that that at them say he read a second, you're going go instead just using your phone instead of coming to our location and it would hurt presumably new Chicago casino is they're needing as many people to come as possible.

So that's really the argument competition and also, by the way, there is a big problem with gamblers who are addicts and that's a lot tougher to control.

When you have a device that at your fingertips, think about people who are addicted to Instagram.

right.

also don't W Heather Cook County Board.

President Toni Preckwinkle turning 78 on Monday.

78 years Young and celebrated by making a big announcement was she is going to run for a 5th term as Cook County Board president.

Now, this was a little bit of a surprise, I think most observers because back when she ran for a 4th term, that was a surprise because after she lost in 2019 to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, she said this is my last term.

I'm going to retire.

>> And now apparently she wants to run for a full other term.

Now she says she has to because threats facing Cook County because of the Trump administration are so serious that she doesn't want to leave Cook County sort of in rookie hands essentially.

But this is going to be bad news for the people who are already jockeying behind the scenes, expecting her not around.

They're going to have to find somewhere else to looking at on federal level in terms of this handing on the baton and you that there are leaders who say we need to be here at this crucial time and then younger folks saying, hey, wait, I have to turn.

I'm ready.

And this question of who does that put on get past 2?

Well, it's an especially because so many of Cook County's top leaders have been in their jobs for quite a long time.

You look at Sheriff Tom Dart.

You look at Treasurer Maria Pappas.

>> Certainly President Biden around.

who are still in the game.

So I think that at least run nation.

they're going right.

But, you know, you have to assume that there's some frustration as he pointed out with and, you know, younger members of the Democratic Party that are looking to, you know, to make a name for big questions as well as to other U.S.

Senator Durbin is going to make another younger So Nick, the Illinois Prisoner Review Board being sued for negligence regarding the tragic death last year.

That 11 year-old boy remind us what happened.

That's right.

It was just about a year ago that 11 year-old Jaden Perkins was fatally stabbed.

He was trying to defend his mother from his mother's You know, who had been released from, you know, Illinois Department of Corrections facility and whose mother had a protective order against him that he did did not honor.

He's been making threats against her, went to their home on the North side.

Also present you know, her from another of her children, a 5 year-old.

And of course, the victim was herself pregnant at the time.

So this was just really something that.

>> For very understandable reasons.

A lot of people were up in arms about to see that he had been granted released by the Prisoner Review Board led to the appointment of an executive director there led to a couple of the folks who are serving on the board to step down and, you know, calls for even broader reforms in the way this is done.

But what it did not lead to was passage in reforms.

There have been some changes, but >> a measure that would have required, for example, live streaming of did not pass that got through one chamber but got held up.

That's something that the governor has said he is against.

So there's still questions about how the prb is run and that the students yeah suit you know, accuses folks at every level of, you know, being negligent folks within See the city, the county, you know, the the Prisoner Review board is certainly the focus focal point here.

But a lot of other folks name in this negligence action.

All right.

Something to keep an eye on.

We'll have to leave it there that spotlight Nick Lumber have a Schroder made of things.

Everybody.

>> Up next, an explainer on Chicago's pension problem.

But first, a look at the weather.

As we mentioned earlier, Mayor Johnson today called on the Chicago school board to reimburse the city for pension payment.

The city made on behalf of CPS.

The school district has pension issues.

The city also has pension issues.

But what exactly does that mean?

How much does the and how did we get into this mess in the first place?

Amanda gets us up to speed in this edition of WT Tw News explains.

>> You may have heard Chicago has a pension problem to the tune of 10's of billions of dollars of debt.

That's money meant for city employees down the line when they reach retirement, the cities pensions are underfunded.

So the fear is that those retirement benefits won't be there when workers retire, pensions affect nearly everyone.

Even if you're not a public employee, taxpayers have already footing the bill to alleviate the pension debt.

cities are rated on their fiscal stability and credit ratings.

Agencies frown and pension underfunding.

If they cut the city's rating that becomes more difficult and expensive for Chicago to borrow money, extra cost either gets put on residents often through higher taxes or means less money for other city programs like schools, public safety or filling potholes.

How did it get to this point?

First, you need to know how pensions They start out like most other retirement plans.

A certain amount is taken out of a worker's paycheck.

That money gets invested in an effort to grow it.

>> But a pension is a defined benefit plan in which workers are guaranteed a certain amount upon retirement.

Regardless of how the investment performs.

That's why Chicago needs to contribute to its core pension funds.

If there isn't enough to pay what everyone is owed, the city is on the hook to pay the defined benefits.

And right now, remember, the funds are collectively tens of billions of dollars short.

So why are the city's pension so severely underfunded?

Some claim the pension benefits negotiated between the union city and state are overly generous and too difficult to keep up West.

>> Also for a long time, the city just flat out didn't contribute enough to the pension Chicago was following state law which didn't require the city to put in It's also a matter of mask following the law still the pensions with loads of Now new laws in place, Illinois requires the city get its pensions.

90% funded within the next 30 or so years in an effort to catch up the city approved a new casino.

Its tax revenue will go exclusively toward pension Will it be enough to fix the pension funding problem?

Go ahead in your bets.

>> You can see more videos are W T Tw News explains series on our Web site at Wt Tw Dot com Slash explains.

And that's our show for this Tuesday night.

Stay connected with our reporters and what they're working by giving us a follow on Instagram at W T Tw Chicago and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10, the future of police reform amid changes at an agency tasked with investigating officer misconduct.

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

Thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good thing.

>> Closed captioning is made possible by Robert a cliff and Clifford law, offices Chicago, personal injury and wrongful death.

And he's proud to give