on Chicago tonight.

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

A bombshell day of the Wake County Courthouse is the man charged in the Highland Park parade shooting changes his plea.

President Trump is set to outline his agenda in an address before Congress tomorrow.

Local lawmakers on what they expect to hear.

And what potential cuts to Medicaid could hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents.

>> First off tonight, a surprise move today is the man facing murder charges in the Highland Park parade shooting changes his plea to guilty.

It happened just before opening statements were set to begin this morning at the Lake County Courthouse at Masterson joins us now with the latest in map.

What exactly happened court today where we are expecting the start of the trial was supposed to be opening statements.

As you proceedings were supposed to get underway in this month-long trial.

But instead, right before prosecutors are about start giving those statements, Robert Crimo the 3rd through his attorneys decided to change his plea to guilty.

>> The this he didn't just plead guilty to one charge he faced 69 charges.

He pleaded guilty to every single one of those was 21 counts of first-degree murder.

48 counts of attempted murder socks.

He came as a big surprise that everyone in the courtroom there was not much indication that this was going to be happening.

It seemed as though things are going to be proceeding as usual, but it's not a total shock.

Remote last year had just about agreed to a plea deal and then backed out at the last second.

And actually his father did the exact same thing when he was going to go to trial on reckless conduct charges back in 2023.

Minutes before the trial is about to begin.

He pleaded guilty as well to reduced charges in that case.

And what is this plea change mean exactly?

Was this a deal struck by prosecutors?

He was not Lake County State's Attorney Eric Rinehart made very, very clear that there were no plea to get negotiations, that this was not a deal that crimo me this touches decision on his own and opted to do this without any benefit coming to him from the prosecutor's As I said, he pleaded guilty to every single count.

Thank you.

Faced as for what it means exactly, there obviously will not be a trial.

The victims who were set to testify will no longer have to do so and they will have to sit in court and within 2 weeks and weeks of potentially traumatizing evidence having to relive this, this mass shooting.

What what reaction did you hear from victims as well as the prosecutor after today's change?

Definitely, there is a sense of relief that was brought up by one of the witnesses who was at the parade.

She was not harmed, but her Anderson recounted having to run for their lives.

They said this was a sense really for them on Highland Park.

Mayor Nancy Rotering said the same thing was relief that this city can move forward.

Now that this case is essentially finished victims who are in court.

There are many of them did not speak with press afterwards.

They did speak with Reinhart who recounted that many of you handling this in different ways.

They expected this case to begin today not to.

And so it was very powerful moment for them to hear cream, all except guilt and know that this case is finished and that he will be essentially spending the rest of his life prison.

What we know that what this means for sentencing, right?

Because he pleaded guilty to multiple first degree murder counts.

He's going to receive an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On top of that, the additional attempted murder charges the sentences handed down for those can be served consecutive to that.

Nothing will make any practical difference because will be facing numerous life sentences that hearing for his actual sentence will be in April and the victims who were set to testify.

Many of them will still have the chance to make a statement.

A victim impact statement at that point if they want to tell the court how this shooting has impacted their lives for the last 2 and a half years since it happened.

Okay.

Well, I'm sure a relief, as you said for for some of those family members and survivors that Masters and thank you experience.

And of course, there's much more of maps full story on our website.

It is all at W T Tw Dot com slash news.

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

The gym and K maybe family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

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

The Chicago Police Department still has not filled 250 positions responsible for helping implement court ordered reforms.

W T Tw News analysis shows these vacant positions include all of the 162 jobs.

Mayor Brandon Johnson had planned to cut from the department's budget last year, but restoring been under pressure from police reform advocates of the 665 jobs.

The CPD needs to make changes called for by the consent decree.

More than 37% are vacant.

But PD says the department is actively working to fill those vacant positions.

So far the department is fully compliant with just 9% of the consent decree.

Chicago and Cook County offices were closed today in recognition of Kashmir.

Pulaski Day local leaders celebrated the holiday that honors the Polish born general who fought in the American Revolution and later became known as the father of the American Cavalry.

The president of Poland also joins the celebration at Chicago's Polish Museum of America as well as the counsel general of Ukraine in Chicago.

He drew comparisons between Pulaski is fight against Russian forces in Poland and the Russia-Ukraine war.

>> Memories the life general because of Pulaski X, today said to have of, yes, it will.

problem is the Russian innovation taking place a gate.

>> And has your snow shovel should be well-rested because meteorologists a Chicago came through its 10th least snowy winter on record.

Well, meteorological winter.

That is which measured snow from December through February at just barely 12 inches of snow.

And that's nearly 18 inches below normal.

Don't worry, though, it's Chicago.

And guess what's happening Wednesday?

100% chance of snow.

Y'all.

Up next, previewing tomorrow night's presidential address with local congressmembers right after this.

President Donald Trump is set to outline his policy agenda in a speech to Congress tomorrow night.

It comes just over a month into his second term, which has brought an onslaught of cuts to federal spending efforts to overhaul agencies and the ouster of swaths of the federal workforce.

His administration says it's trying to make government more efficient.

But opponents called a clear abuse of executive power.

Joining us via zoom, our Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Ramirez, whose district includes East Humboldt Park and Logan Square and Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi whose district includes suburbs like Schaumburg and Elgin.

We should mention we did invite Republican members of the Illinois congressional delegation as well, but they either declined or have not Representatives, thanks to you both for joining us.

Congressman Krishnamoorthi first off with you.

What are you going to be watching for from the president's address tomorrow?

>> I think that based on his past addresses, he's had a flair for showmanship.

But we need substance right now.

We need guidance.

We need stability.

We need to muster some immunity.

His voice continues to be a divisive force in this country.

And so my residence and my constituents are very concerned about that.

light of all the challenges that we have, they feel that we should be pulling together to deal with them, at least on a bipartisan basis.

And that's not happening right now.

>> Congresswoman Ramirez, freshman senator from Michigan.

Elissa Slotkin is expected to deliver the Democratic response tomorrow.

So what the president is doing does have general widespread support.

Where do you think the Democratic Party is in terms of messaging right now?

>> I think that critic party is reminding people of what people frustrated about staff, that they can't afford their housing costs continue to increase.

And you have a president that even operation talked about a Golden age.

But Golden Age isn't Fort working people.

been for Elon Musk and so I think this will focusing that he talks about unity is creating division and we have to get back to the actual policies that make life better for everyday people.

And that's what we're focusing on.

>> The president has signed 76 executive orders since he took office.

That is the most in a president's first 100 days in over 40 years.

A congressman, back to you.

Do you think the president has been overstepping his role?

>> Absolutely.

What he's done in terms of just take the federal funding freeze, for instance, it's patently illegal.

And I think because so many people Rose ups spoke out against it along with taking court action both inside and outside of Congress.

We have a temporary pause on that federal funding freeze.

In addition, he has also put forward just flat out unconstitutional executive orders that most notable being the one banning birthright citizenship.

And so these types of actions just create fear and anxiety.

And unfortunately, there hasn't been a single executive order with regard bird flu or dealing with the avian flu, which unfortunately is driving up the price of groceries or eggs.

So he's both dealing with subject matter that divides us.

That makes people scared and not dealing with things that are, you know, kitchen table topics such as high food prices.

>> Congresswoman Ramirez, do you think the reason that that the president has been using so many executive orders is just to go around Congress and should Congress be doing more to push back?

>> Look, he absolutely doesn't see us has an equal branch of government.

What he's doing this at Constitution.

I Eagle.

I mean, the idea he thinks he can issue hundreds of executive orders, most of the against the law demonstrate to us that he doesn't respect the congressional authority.

We create these budgets week of authority agencies to provide resources to the American people and what he's doing.

And that second of orders or Republicans, perhaps into the funding things like Medicaid.

It's disgusting.

And so for us Democrats, we have to use every single tool in our 40 the stop seeing are some of minority party.

But the party is going to oppose obstruction.

Be obstructive joy, this country's democracy and taking away from the working class.

>> We'll be talking about Medicaid more in the program as But I want to move to Friday.

President Trump had a heated exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky where they argued over plans to end the war.

And here's a little bit of that.

>> You don't have the cards right now with us.

You start having all kinds high right now.

You what I It's a nice red.

you're gambling with lives millions of people seeing you gambling with World War 3.

When you a gambling with World War, 3 what doing is very disrupt, disrespectful to the country.

This that too far more than a lot of people said where they should have.

>> Difficult to watch.

Representative Ramirez, what's your reaction to that exchange?

It's despicable.

>> You see a wannabe early are rating the president of Ukraine when in fact, you should be doing everything he can us get us to a place of peace is working to stand with Ukraine, making sure that we are moving towards peace and the only one that is moving any closer to World 3 is Donald Trump attacking Southern border partners, northern Border partners and the entire world as a bogey.

And I want keep your suspect couple.

>> President Trump has promised that 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico are set to go into effect tomorrow.

Many are expecting that that will actually drive prices up or drive up costs for Consumers.

Representative Kristen could this affect trade relations with our North American allies?

Of course, Canada and Mexico, but I think 20% tariffs are expected to go into effect for China.

What about that relationship as well?

>> Yes, the answer is yes, yes, and yes, absolutely not only affects our country's ties with our neighbors Illinois.

Because remember one of Illinois's biggest trade partners is Canada, for instance.

And so you're already seeing, for instance, property developers and other businesses complain about rising prices.

And you're going to see this with residents too, as they pay more for everything that they are buying on a daily basis.

And in addition to that, you're going to subject our producers, our manufacturers to retaliatory tariffs from the Canadians and the Mexicans and others.

Now, do we sometimes need terrace to level the playing field?

Absolutely.

Especially when another country uses economic aggression.

France's dumping of their products to drive out their competition in the United States.

However, take Canada, France Canada has not engaged in this type of aggression.

And yet we are levying these tariffs so basically amounts to a tax hike on working families and then retaliates retaliation against our producers.

Our farmers and our industries.

>> And we're just about out of time team on the representative.

Kristen.

Dorothy, of course, here a member of the House Oversight Committee, which is expected to hear from Mayor Brandon Johnson and other mayors tomorrow about their sanctuary city status.

Not tomorrow.

Excuse me.

On Wednesday, I know you're Limited on what you can say there.

But what if anything, can can voters and the American people expect out of that hearing?

>> tuned.

I hope everybody watches.

Look, I think we're going to be provide providing oversight with regard to a number of topics that will come up in that.

And that hearing I'm looking forward to seeing are Chicago mayor there as well as others and engaging with them on the topics of the day.

>> Okay.

We will all definitely stay tuned to that.

I know that the 2 of you both have a lot of work to get there on the Hill.

Seminole, I'm gonna leave you to it.

My thanks to Representative Daley, Ramirez and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi for joining us.

Up next, looming cuts to critical health care coverage.

But first, a look at the weather.

>> Nearly 770,000 Illinois residents could lose their health coverage.

Democrats are sounding the alarm about Republican efforts to slash government spending, including Medicaid, the program that provides medical care to people who are low-income or have disabilities.

Nearly one one in 5, 1, in every 5 Americans, nearly one in every 5 Americans.

The GOP controlled House narrowly passed a budget last week that Republicans say could cut 2 trillion dollars from the federal budget over a decade.

Among those massive proposed cuts spending on Medicaid.

Here to talk more about the potential impact is Stephanie Altman, director of health care, justice and senior director of policy at Shriver Center on Poverty Law and Ted Dabrowski, president and CEO of Wire points.

Welcome to both and thank you for joining us.

Thank So, Stephanie, want to start with you, please.

How would a cut like this impact people who are on Medicaid?

would be absolutely devastating.

And as you said, 770,000 people could lose coverage within 90 days.

>> Of that federal funding dropping in Illinois.

And that program started in 2014 and it's provided its increased health coms.

It's improved people's lives.

It's allowed people to work.

And these are people who are mainly working and employed.

So it would also be very, very deep cuts, not just on that population, but on nursing home coverage for older adults.

Half of all births are covered by Medicaid and Illinois and absolutely devastate hospitals are safety net hospitals, hospitals in rural areas who are often the largest employer of people in their city.

These cuts are absolutely devastating and would really hurt the population, but also that economy of Illinois, our bond rating would probably go down and it really harm businesses as well.

You know, we'll get a little bit more of that as well.

Ted Dabrowski, we've spoken about federal funding Why do you think the federal government should rein in spending on Medicaid?

let's be cleared from everything I've seen I read is that that they're not going to cut spending.

They want to cut the growth in spending.

So.

>> Medicaid is expected to grow the next decade by 2.5 trillion.

They want to take that growth.

880 million of that growth.

So still grow by 1.5 trillion.

So still massive growth.

This is of the real promises these programs.

We talk a little bit before these federal programs are getting so big.

deficits are huge with 36 trillion dollars in and deaths that we got 150 trillion dollars shortfalls Medicare and Social Security.

And we have no plan of how to pay all that.

And, you know, it's it's always let's take a lower income.

People get hurt by all these squeezes and tax hikes and all that.

That's a big risk.

So I think we have to be careful, not ballooning these programs that bring them under control because if not people who lose the proposed reforms include reducing the 90% expansion costs that states received establishing a per capita grant.

>> What does that mean to it and what would the what do you think?

It's better than the current?

yeah.

So when we had the expansions was interesting that the federal government gave Illinois the chance to expand the number of people on Medicaid.

>> And they say that we pay for 9 out of every $10, right?

90%.

And so we made the mistake of thinking that we can take that money.

at a million new people onto Medicaid.

But now the federal government can't pay those 9 out of 10.

So now we're on the hook for that expansion.

And we made the mistake of of expanding Medicaid because we didn't have the funding for it.

If we if they do cut back on that 9 and make it 5, we've got to pay.

The other 4 are going to for Medicaid.

So that's that's the big struggle.

The we expanded too fast too much.

And now we have single able-bodied people on Medicaid that perhaps shouldn't be on So it's a it's we have a good look at it.

And when I'm president, had said that wasn't a mistake we made that was a promise the federal government made to us in the Affordable Care Act over 10, 11 years ago.

>> The federal government said we want you to expand people who are 19 to 64 and were never able to be on Medicaid before.

These are people over 60% are working.

They don't get health insurance through their jobs or they can't afford health insurance.

And part of what Medicaid does is make them able to be able to and pay taxes and the members of contributing members in the community, some others are, you know, taking care of very young children, but we are giving them health care because the federal government and 41 states have decided to that.

41 states didn't make a mistake.

41 states took that promise from the federal government and now the federal government wants to break that promise in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and corporations.

Right.

on most expenses, if 50, 50 share with the federal government.

So this was a 90 10 share now were trapped and Iowa state like Wisconsin didn't expand.

So they're not trap of this.

This massive problem here.

>> It's also important note.

I got a piece of paper here that's got a graphic and we used to have in in 2000 least have 1.4 million people Medicaid.

1.4 in Illinois.

Now we have 3.6 That's that's a 250% increase.

Its massive are sections.

A 2.5 times increased.

We have so many that we have almost 30% of our population on Medicaid.

Medicaid was supposed to be something for for the sick, the needy.

And now with with almost 3.6 million people, it's become a middle class entitlement, too many people are on it.

And that's why it's so expensive.

So want to you're going get you all and your Last week, members of the state's Democratic congressional delegation joined a had a joint press conference addressing the potential Medicaid cuts and how broad that impact could be.

>> It's also a broader economic issue.

Illinois hospitals and our health care systems and supports.

Of provide jobs for 445,000 people and they anchor many rural communities.

Hospitals will close.

People will lose their jobs.

>> And Stephanie, aside from people losing their jobs, how else might this impact the economy?

You mentioned credit rating, right?

It's, you know, Medicaid an economic driver.

It drives employment.

It helps people be covered so that they can work.

It helps employ people in hospitals medical centers.

It also is it there's mind, okay, funding in our schools.

There's no nursing home coverage for anybody under Medicare insurance.

Medicaid is the main pair of nursing homes.

It pays for over 50% of all births in Illinois.

And it's not a middle class benefit.

The people who the 770,000 that you're talking about, good lose Medicaid make under $19,000 a year.

That's not the middle class and they don't have access to affordable health insurance.

So it is really pervasive throughout our society and we're proud of the fact that Medicaid has grown that much.

That's part of what it was meant to to.

Do you think there's a possibility of of job loss if cuts like this where?

No, I think you I think we've got a bloated government.

We have to remember we said this before.

We have the highest property taxes in the country.

>> We have the 6th highest overall state and local tax burden.

We have the highest pension debts in the country by far we're deep trouble.

And so we can keep thinking that we can just keep putting money into government and government spends it.

Well, people leaving the state people leaving Chicago.

When you think the opposite.

We need to have we shouldn't have an economy.

We're nearly 30% of our economy is on Medicaid.

It's back with a and that with all due respect, I think it's the opposite.

We shouldn't be proud that we have 3.6 million people Medicaid.

We should have as few people as possible because our economy is so strong because people can earn a living and it's a sad state for Governor Pritzker.

When you say that to when he took office in 2019, there were 700,000 fewer people on Medicaid.

People weren't dying.

We didn't have a, you know, the kind of crisis he talking about because that's where we were before took office.

So I think we're overplaying this.

We need I'm much more efficient to look.

But May may just bring up one thing we had.

We just had this not report the inspector general report about this 1.6 billion and health care costs for for the illegal immigrants.

Nobody understood that cost.

Nobody just Coming up, Representative Debbie Ramirez 2 million it turns into 1.6 billion out of control in spending and we better start looking at it.

If not, we're going to pushing more people.

And it sounds like you think that it should be a health insurance of last resort for far fewer people.

But that were the case.

>> What is the alternative for ensuring?

No, I think should be.

we want a big risk and this many people are on the program.

So many people getting money that we don't take care of the poor.

And this is gets diluted.

We need to make sure that we're taking care of poor because that's what it's for.

I think 3.6 million people.

Maybe we shouldn't take care of billionaires and corporations and give them a tax break and we could provide health insurance to people who are working.

>> Over 60% of the people are working and only making up to $19,000 a year.

They have no ability through their employer to get health insurance or to pay for health insurance.

So I think we should.

This program is there just for that purpose?

>> It should be for those people and others, you know, like when when when Blagojevich expanded the program, he went to 4 times federal poverty level.

So we have a lot of we've so many people in and made so many exceptions.

We need to take care of the poor, the really the people that need it, we should make sure we take care of and the rest.

letter economy growing, help them.

All right.

We'll have to leave it there.

Stephanie Allmon from the Shriver Center on poverty lot at the Broskie wire points.

>> Thanks to both for joining us and thank Thank you.

And that is our show for this Monday night.

Stay connected with our reporters and what they're working on by following us on Instagram at W T Tw Chicago and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10 one-on-one with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on his office's actions under Trump's administration.

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

Stay healthy and safe.

>> We have a good night.

>> A close connection was made possible by Robert, a and Clifford law.

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