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

I'm Nick Blumberg.

Brandis Friedman is on assignment.

Here's what we're looking at.

>> This budget is been the one that we have been not just fighting for the waiting for.

Mayor Johnson makes good on his promise to avoid a property tax hike in his budget and limit cuts to city services.

>> Meanwhile, Cook County unveils its spending plan for next year.

Also without raising property taxes.

But warns the turmoil board.

President Toni Preckwinkle is here to explain.

And a new book searches for answers into the tragic sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald.

50 years later.

First off tonight, Mayor Brandon Johnson is calling for more than 600 million dollars in new taxes on the wealthiest Chicagoans and the city's largest firms.

>> It's part of his plan to fill a massive budget deficit and blunt.

The impact of cuts ordered by the Trump administration.

Let's listen to a bit of what Johnson told Alder People this morning at City Hall about his 16.6 billion dollar spending plan.

>> As I speak this morning about our budget.

We have a National Guard troops from.

The state of Texas that are waiting on a court order to deploy to our streets.

Our federal government isn't a shutdown with no end in sight.

Masked men with long guns, armed vehicles.

Was shot.

Residents with no transparency and no oversight.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it if we fail to invest in community safety in this budget at historic levels, the federal government will try to use it as justification for military occupation of our city.

>> Our Heather sure own joins us now with more on how Johnson plans to fill the city's budget gap of nearly 1.2 billion dollars.

Certainly a tall order.

Heather, who's going to pay more under this proposed budget?

Well, the biggest tax increase would hit big tech firms like Google and Salesforce that pay least tax to operate in Chicago, but also big businesses that have more than 100 employees would have to pay a reimposed head tax, charging them.

$21 for every employee over 100 workers.

That is where most of the controversy is going to beat.

But the big news, at least as far as the mayor's concerns about who won't pay a cent.

More homeowners who won't pay more in property taxes or pay more to have their garbage hauled away.

Mayor Johnson also proposed taxing social media firms.

In addition, some of the tech companies you mentioned, how exactly would that work?

Well, nobody's quite sure, because this would be a first of its kind tax.

They want to tax social media companies like acts Blue Sky and Facebook for every user over 100,000 users and make them pay $0.50 per month.

Is it legal?

Nobody knows.

But the city is going to cry.

They want to use that money, which would be about 31 million dollars to fund the city's mental health clinics and to make the city's alternate response program, which sends counselors to those experiencing a crisis rather than a police officer.

Chicago loves to be a first.

So we're sort making new ground here.

All right.

Well, the reaction to this plan as it often does, came pretty fast and furious after the mayor's speech.

Take us through what folks had to say.

Business organizations, including the chamber are outraged.

This head tax they say will be a job killer.

But the progressive caucus which nearly Johnson's budget last they were heartened and encouraged.

That does not impose taxes on working class Chicagoans, but it is going to be a long haul until the budget actually gets passed.

course, as you pointed out, there was a head tax in the past.

It's it's hard reinstate something that people tell it like a what are the next steps year?

Well, budget hearing start on Tuesday in the hopes of reaching an agreement by the end of the year.

Nobody expects the city council to represent the budget like they did under former mayors, Daley and Emanuel.

So the final package will probably look different than the one we saw today, but exactly how you'll have to state.

And I know you'll be watching all those hearings.

Certainly a contentious set of budget negotiations last time hopes from the mayor's team that things might go a little more smoothly this round.

They do.

And they did that by telegraphing that Johnson was going to ask what he calls the ultra-rich and sort of the wealthiest big firms to shoulder more of this burden.

He, of course, or does used start of crisis of the Trump administration to sort of say, look, we've got to make these big changes, whether it works.

We'll have to see.

And I know you'll be watching.

Heather Sharon, thanks so much.

Thanks, Nick.

And you can read Heather's full story on our website.

It's all at W T Tw Dot com slash news.

>> A federal judge says she has serious concerns about whether immigration agents are following her orders not to use nonlethal munitions or tear gas on protesters and journalists unless they pose an immediate threat to public safety.

Us District Court Judge Sarah Ellis brought both parties to a lawsuit back into her courtroom today after new reports of immigration agents using tear gas on a crowd of people, including Chicago police officers attempting to control the crowd earlier this week.

What's more?

She's ordering federal agents with body cameras to have them turned on during encounters with protesters.

Let's also ordered another hearing for Monday to hear from the field director of Operation Midway Blitz.

And separately today, a federal appeals court upheld a temporary block on President Trump's attempt to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago.

Chicagoans plan another massive protest against President Trump for the second time in 4 months.

Organizers are planning a no Kings rally.

Demonstrators are set to gather at noon on Saturday in Grant Park and scheduled to march around 01:00PM.

>> And it's not just downtown.

There are a slew of other know King's actions in city neighborhoods and suburbs.

We've got more details on our website.

Science may have solved the great Chicago rat hole.

Mystery of 2024. turns out the viral sidewalk rat Hole in Roscoe Village is 98.6 7% likely to be a squirrel.

Whole doesn't have the same ring to it.

Researchers published an actual scientific paper in the Royal Society Journal Biology letters.

It showed that the measurements of the specimen are too big to be a rat and are more likely those of an eastern gray squirrel or FOX squirrel.

If you want to know why the tail looks more like a rat's tail.

visit our website.

Coming up, how Cook County is planning to fill a more than 200 million dollar budget gap.

We hear from county board President Toni Preckwinkle next.

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

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support these don't.

>> As Chicago wrestles with its own budget challenges.

Cook County is unveiling a 10 billion dollar budget proposal for next fiscal year.

The plan includes no new taxes, employee, layoffs or fees, but things aren't completely in the clear officials warn of tough waters in the years ahead as potential federal funding cuts threaten to hit the county's bottom line.

Joining us to discuss all that and more is Cook County Board.

President Toni Preckwinkle, Madam President, welcome back to the program.

Thank you so much for inviting So this spending plan closes the 211 million dollar budget gap.

The county was facing doesn't high property taxes or impose any new fees.

How did you manage to to come up with the needed money?

There?

first of all, I want to thank my team.

The bureau financed on Anthony M Conoco.

Cheetah Musselwhite and their crew.

You know, we've made hard choices and tough decisions over the last decade and a half and it's paid off in these in this difficult moment.

We've got a 10.1 billion dollar budget.

No new taxes, fines or fees.

I'm proud of the work that we've We have a a healthy Reserve and our pensions are funded at 66%.

And we have a 20 year plan to get to full funding.

So we're in great financial shape.

We've had bond rating upgrades each of the last 4 years.

So the bond rating agencies are are happy with the work we're doing.

And I hope our residents are.

Yeah.

When I want to talk about some of the specifics coming up, but you know, you referred to last year's spending plan is scored a good-news budget when this year's budget came out.

You did warn there could be some turmoil ahead.

What are the storm clouds you see on the horizon?

Well, half of our budget is health care.

And I'm very proud of that.

We have a health care system that for 190 years has helped to ever comes to your door.

Regardless of immigration status, ability to pay race, age, gender, ethnicity.

We should always Cook County residents be proud of that.

You know, President Trump has declared war basically on the health care system in this country, particularly on Medicaid.

It just never meant insurance for people with moderate incomes.

Now those of us who are over 65 get Medicare right.

But and there's there's no income eligibility for Medicare.

But for Medicaid, people under 65, there's a federal program which was expanded under President Obama to include more of our residents.

And we have provided not just Karin our facilities, our hospitals and clinics, but we've created a Medicaid insurance program.

Medicaid managed care program called County care, which hopefully you've heard about candy and protect the lives of about 400,000 people in Cook County, who are part of our county care program.

So we provide insurance for them.

In addition to delivering direct care to people through our hospitals clinics.

And, you know, are you concerned?

You know, we've seen massive cuts to Medicaid this year that those could hit Cook County health County care.

You know, how can you address a potential budget gap for some of those needs?

Well, but health and hospital system is putting aside a reserve to help them get through these tough waters.

We have reserves on the county side as well.

But the way in which the the Congress push implement these cuts.

Many of them going to take effect, not not in the 26th 27th, but we know that that their turbulent waters ahead because Medicaid is our principal provider of revenue for health and hospital system.

I think 53% of our our patient revenues come from Medicaid.

Well, you know, speaking of those sorts of cuts, this plan also calls for setting aside some 65 million dollars to cover, you know, potentially essential services paid for by federal money to you.

See, you know, concerns about more cuts ahead, not even just to to Medicaid down the line from Congress from the Trump administration.

Well, it's unclear what's going to happen outside of healthcare.

We're concerned, of course, of maybe some of our transportation projects might not be funded, but are particular concerns.

I healthcare get health care is 50% of our budget.

So when the federal government says we're going to make you determine eligibility twice a year, instead of it magnifies not just the red tape that people have to deal with, but we think it's good.

It's it's a way of reducing the roles without saying you're reducing the rolls right.

when they talk about work requirements again, most people on Medicaid.

Are doing something right here working.

They're going to school, whatever right.

in the places in this country where they've implemented work requirements like Arkansas, one of the things they found is that.

Most of the people who were kicked off.

Suppose because they didn't meet the work requirements were, in fact eligible right?

So, you know, it's instead of a frontal assault on Medicaid.

They're doing all these things around the edges.

2 reduce the program and it's diabolical.

Well, you mentioned transportation, you know, another thing that, you know, falls under the county's purview.

The Trump administration has had some legal trouble trying to freeze or cancel money for sanctuary jurisdictions, but now it's going after infrastructure programs like the Red Line extension that take into account.

Women owned businesses, Black and Latino owned businesses.

Are you concerned that those attacks on infrastructure money could hit Cook County beyond just the red line?

That's the reason we put aside the 65 million dollars you know, he's declared war on blue cities, blue counties, blue states.

I can't recall in my present.

United States has been so explicit about going after his political enemies.

You mentioned as well.

You know, the issue of of immigration status, there's been dramatic escalation of pretty aggressive immigration enforcement around Chicago land over the last weeks.

Agents to playing tear gas, an attempt to deploy National Guard troops helping the county respond to this so-called Midway blitz.

The governor of the state has described the ICE agents is Jack booted thugs.

He's right.

The kidnapping people off our streets.

Dragging people out of their homes, sunny and the detention centers in this country and blogs and foreign countries.

It's disgraceful.

Its absolutely disgraceful.

And this week, Judge Evans issued an order that ice may not come on to county property without a warrant for the rest of a particular person, warrantless arrests.

And likewise, I have issued an executive order to the same effect.

I don't want them on county property.

There.

This is.

This it's hard.

It's hard for me to put it simple terms, right?

The president states is not following the Constitution.

He doesn't believe in the rule of law.

And as I said, they're kidnapping people off our streets.

Well, obviously there are a lot of issues going on on policy side.

There is also the the March primary coming up, which will probably be here before we know you're facing.

A challenge from Chicago Alderman Brendan Reilly who's said, you know, the county budgets tripled in the 15 years since you've taken office.

He wants to address crime spending, corruption.

What's your response to his effort to unseat Well, first of all, let's talk about the budget.

I began by saying we have a 10.1 billion dollar budget.

Its balance without new taxes, fines or fees, and that our pensions are funded at 66%.

We've for upgrades in our bond ratings in the last 4 years the bond rating agencies say that we're in pretty good shape.

take their word my opponents.

>> And let me just say, I mean, this is a tough job and I think I've done it well for the last 15 years.

We've got after really struggle for the first 2 or 3 years.

We've got the county on on good physical in good physical shape.

We've addressed the challenges and in public safety by working together with the stakeholders to reduce our jail population, get people out who are accused nonviolent crimes and sometimes shoplifters or stayed in jail because they can pay, you know, nominal cash, bonds.

So we've done a lot of work around criminal justice reform.

We've kept steady or increased the budgets for our stakeholders and public safety.

I think we've a good job and worked with the state in end, the city.

We have a government alliance for safe communities and cents 2021, the state in the county and the city of Chicago have invested 350 million dollars in violence prevention.

And that's working with community-based organizations who do the tough work on the streets of trying to work with people who are likely to be shooters are victims of shooting of shootings to help people who are coming out of the tension or incarceration and to work with community-based organizations that serve at-risk youth.

I'm proud of the work that we've done collectively with the city and the state.

>> All right.

That's where we'll have to leave it.

But looking forward to having you back again, Cook County Board, President Toni Preckwinkle, thanks a lot.

Thank you.

Up next, a new book examines the largest ship wreck in Great Lakes history.

50 years ago.

29 lives came to an end in a massive storm on Lake Superior.

The sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald is the largest ship to wreck in the history of the Great Lakes.

The huge vessel was renowned for its ingenious design is a cargo ship.

But amid nearly hurricane force winds and waves more than 3 stories high, she broke in 2 and sank to the bottom and more lies and hit 1976.

Ballot.

Despite the fits his fame conclusive answers as to why it sank are still elusive in the new book, the Gales of November.

Author John U Bacon tells the story of the Men who crew the ship, the conditions in which it operated and the Fitzgerald legacy to this day.

John, you Bacon joins us now.

Congratulations on the book.

Nick, thank you.

So this was, you know, a widely celebrated ship on its construction.

As we mentioned, the really clever design elements very narrow.

So is navigable.

Lots of cargo room, not necessarily such an impervious vessel, though, fair to say No said this is true.

A few reasons.

One, the ship's all of them, but especially this one.

They're incredibly long.

729 feet long.

Only 75 feet wide.

That's skyscraper.

Some 3 stories and not in the Home plate and first base.

It's not only make chips, of course, no runs in the world.

They like this is because of locks have to squeeze through locks up and Emory.

So that's why and they swapped out rivets for weld, their cheaper.

They're faster.

They're lighter.

They're not a stir But, you know, you talk about the value of this trading route that Fitzgerald was was navigating at the time.

There are some economic incentives to sailing in November, fairly late in the year, despite the risks.

Tell us about Share these things this especially set all the records in the Great Lakes.

Basically on his last trip, it took 26,000 long tons of taconite iron that's enough to build a 7,000 cars.

It did it once a week mean every 5 days are doing this.

So is to trivia.

You add, of course, make that much more money.

And a case of this last trip, already the captain of the ship.

He tacked on one more week before retired he and 5 others on the ship.

Why?

Because his wife now ya sic in Toledo and this bonus was going to pay for her medical care.

Yeah.

A lot of folks that that you write about that we're very close to calling it.

And I want to get into some of their stories.

But, you know, you wrote that it's a finding the ship proven far easier than determining why it sank.

Tell us a little bit about, you know, the storm they faced and why it's so hard to pin the exact cause of the of the wreck down.

Sure.

It really was neck a storm of the century.

Yet 3 elements going on at once.

One.

The longer winter takes to arrive.

angrier is shows up us 70 degrees in Duluth the day they left.

You don't want that because it's like water by dam.

The more water you have, the worse.

It's going to be so beautiful.

Weather means going turn nasty, fast.

Got a cold front coming in from Canada and a warm front coming in from the southwest United States.

And these 3 elements are gonna combine right in front of Whitefish Bay catcher in front of home plate.

And that was waiting for Fitzgerald when it showed up on Monday.

But it's been hard to determine.

You know, in retrospect exactly what went wrong with the ship.

True.

Obviously a once-in-a-lifetime storm.

There are a lot of theories out The hatch covers is the Coast Guard's theory.

Others say want by a wave and might have hit bottom by show near care.

But island in the middle of the lake I go with those who say Matthew Collette University, Michigan, that it's almost always a combination of forges forces nature, mechanical failures, some decisions that could have gone the other way, of course, with Hudson, the mother of Bruce Hudson.

She had the best line about this one.

Only 30 know 29 men in God and the rest of us are guessing that.

Well, you know, speaking of of Route Hudson, she was somebody who, you know, really fought to keep her son's memory alive.

This book really delves into the personal stories of the men who crewed the Fitzgerald.

Why was it important to you to tell it through that lens?

That to me was the driving force of the story.

Most of the books written on this as the whodunit.

What happened?

And again, we're still not quite sure, but I want to know who the 29 men were.

What are their families like?

What are they doing when they're on board?

these basically personal stories with Hudson is one of my favorites.

She's 4 foot 9.

But as said, she told you she was 5 at 5 and you believe he was spitfire to say the least.

Her only child was Bruce Hudson, 20 year-old deckhand on a break from Ohio State University.

And of course, the cost his life.

And she was known to a lot of the folks, you know, in in the community of survivors as Aunt She's, you know, my Gordon Lightfoot as He talked to her on her deathbed and they're that a real force to be reckoned with.

She lost her only child that day.

flip side as he didn't know that his girlfriend is pregnant.

So 6 later, she becomes a grandmother out of nowhere.

was their story that you learned while reporting out this book, the particularly surprised you capture your imagination.

Nick, started 40 years ago, I knew about 5% of So pretty much all that 24 years basically another story that I thought was point Eddie been in first first engineer on the ship.

He was a butter tire.

Also at 47, his wife and celebrate the 25th anniversary.

He goes across from Superior, Wisconsin to Duluth the day before they leave to buy a 25 and Surrey Diamond Ring.

And it gives it to a friend of his to mail it to his wife.

Why not put in your duffel bag going arrive in 3 days and they docked of Toledo.

gives it to his friend.

And of course, the ship goes down.

week later she received the ring.

She was rest of her life and never remarried.

There was a really notable story to me So to talk about that, the sailors code you know, the men who are who are traversing the Great Lakes.

There is a fellow captain who turned back to look for the ship despite the danger that he and his crew face talks about.

That meant that is case.

You're wondering, yes, true.

My concern reading the book is OK, everyone, we lose everybody.

You know how they're heroes out of this.

These guys are heroes before the on the ship.

All our stuff comes from the ship's.

It turns out food, steel.

So then you name it.

But more heroes.

The guys who got away right after Fitzgerald, survived the storm of their lives.

They're lucky to be alive.

They know it.

Coast Guard asked him to go back out on a fool's mission.

You're not going to find the ship.

You know, you're not gonna find ship and they went out anyway because why?

And I talked to one guy, Rick, by Philly on that ship 2 because they would have done it for us and that keeps you alive.

You know, it's been 50 years, as we mentioned since the ship sunk.

Did you feel that that time crunch trying to talk to as many folks as possible while they were still with us.

Nic, I got lucky.

Lucky, lucky I found 600 crew men who'd been a ship obviously before it went down.

So they're still around.

Not not more of those.

I found one guy in Anderson that night.

The closer we can get to what it was like for the Fitzgerald.

Got to have to families.

And the 2 guys who wrote the stories are still alive in their 80's.

2 guys in the band, the drummer and the and the Bass player.

They're still alive.

I just kept getting lucky with my sources.

You couldn't do this book in 5 or 10 years.

Absolutely.

What do you hope readers take away from this book?

There's there's a lot to it.

There's a lot of elements, lot of elements, I guess of their 2 things is granted shipping is immensely important.

I guess that's where our stuff comes from.

It's an invisible industry because these guys are in a ship 9 months out of the years.

You're not going to beat him.

So we don't know these guys, but that's where our stuff comes from.

They risk their lives.

Every time we go out there.

So that is one thing big who these people really are and the families I talked to.

No, it will help was 12 Yo girl who lost her father.

You don't get over even 50 years later.

And also one surprising thing that really blew my mind.

The Great Lakes are considered more dangerous.

Then the ocean for those who sail them.

I never guess that saw water versus fresh water is the main reason.

And it's a true story.

So pretty amazing.

Yeah, a lot to learn in this book.

John, You Bacon, thanks so much, Nick.

Thank you.

Again, the book is called the Gales of November.

And We're back right after this.

And that's our show for this Thursday night.

Be sure to check out our new weekly newsletter, Urban Nature, where we explore the Chicago area's natural wonders local wildlife, environmental news and much more you can sign up today at W T Tw Dot Com Slash newsletter and join us tomorrow night at 5.37, for the weekend review.

Now for all of us here in Chicago tonight.

I'm Nick Blumberg.

Thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> Closed caption News me cost by Robert a cliff and Clifford law offices, Chicago, personal injury and wrongful death that supports inclusionary