and thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight.

I'm Nick Bromberg.

Brandis Friedman is on assignment.

Here's what we're looking at.

City Council eyes.

A slew of issues from police settlements to coach Houses.

We have a live report from City Hall.

>> I just want to say want to say it like it is.

Don't take Tylenol vote.

Okay.

Tylenol?

>> President Trump links Tylenol use during pregnancy to hire autism rates in children.

We look at what the science shows.

>> When we talk about stigma, we often play in the community for not acting services when it hasn't been available.

>> But that's changing for some neighbors engage park where there's a center offering bilingual mental health services for free.

We take a look inside.

First off tonight, advocates blast immigration officials for more major raids on the southwest side today.

Local politicians and activists say ICE agents detained a street, vendor intimidated people outside of a Home depot and traveled in a caravan of vehicles down Western Avenue.

They're among just the latest actions in the ongoing operation.

Midway Blitz.

>> Every time we do a press conference, we talk about the escalation in tactics and every time we have something new, reaches to report.

Isis cruelty has no bounds.

Yesterday we uplift new and disturbing intimidation tactics shelters during the critical work of serving in the House.

Neighbors.

And today we are forced to highlight ICE agents brandishing millet military-grade assault rifles.

The dollar tree parking lot.

>> Border Patrol agents have also reportedly deployed Marine units in a show of force on the Chicago River.

Protesters have been gathering every day this week for morning and evening.

Demonstrations outside an ice facility in Broadview.

Reproductive health providers in Illinois brace for an influx of patients after Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin says it's pausing abortion care beginning next week.

The move is fallout from Medicaid cuts in the massive tax and spending bill backed by President Donald Trump that passed earlier this year.

Advocates gathered downtown to discuss what they call a public health crisis when it comes to abortion, access a crisis they say is only getting worse.

This amounts to an abortion ban.

>> But here's what I know and what I'm looking forward to having members of the pro abortion community in our state say loudly and clearly in front of you today, Illinois is ready.

Our constellation of care, which includes providers, funds, advocates and our incredible elected fish officials will not leave people stranded.

>> Educators pushed back after the Trump administration pulls 8 million dollars in funding for CPS.

The council grant came after the school district refused to back off its black student success plan or to bar transgender students from playing in sports and using restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

Speaking before today, school board meetings, Chicago teachers, union organizers said it's critical to address decades of disinvestment in schools serving black and brown students >> we saw what happened with the greatest school closings in American history here in Chicago.

It was devastating.

It was almost exclusively focused on the black community.

It led to record displacement.

It led to increase.

rates of violence.

And we know that we're reversing that divestment and putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.

And Trump is trying to instead promote billionaire investors want to privatizing entire system.

>> Ctu members also reiterated their calls for billions in additional CPS funding from the state.

Tonight, Illinois is for the birds.

Some half a billion birds are expected to be on the move across the country tonight as migration starts to hit its peak about 25 million birds are expected to fly over Illinois tonight with a B and advocates calling for people to turn off non-essential outdoor lighting and close their shades between 11:00PM and 06:00AM.

The aim is to reduce the risk of collisions that can seriously injure or kill birds passing over our state.

More than 15 million birds are already estimated to have flown over Illinois on their way South Chicago bird collision monitors say they tracked hundreds of hurt or dead birds on Monday alone.

We've got much more about this on our website.

Up next, Heather Sharon has the lowdown on a busy day at City Hall.

That's right.

After this.

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

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these don't.

>> As we just mentioned, immigration enforcement raids continue to sweep the Chicago area Thursday shadowing the City Council's annual celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Alderperson Raymond Lopez use the celebration to tell his colleagues they should have listened to him and scaled back protections for undocumented immigrants.

Kerry is responding to comments from Alderperson Jesse Fuentes.

Let's listen.

>> When you had the opportunity to grant and the law, the transfer of custody of individuals from CPD to ICE when someone chooses to start shooting at people, sell drugs, human trafficking or any of those other crimes.

Spare me the fake tears because you brought this on our communities yourself.

And you're a hypocrite and someone who's never had a deal with undocumented because you come from an island where you're guaranteed citizenship.

So don't you dare talk them.

I want my people have to vote and director comes to me, sir.

Please fight that.

I want her censured for calling me a hypocrite in this room.

>> W t Tw News reporter Heather Sharon joins us now with more.

Heather, how did things get just so tense?

>> Well, we heard Alderperson Lopez essentially saying I told you so if we had made a deal with the Trump administration, he said on behalf of the city of Chicago, these militarized raids would not be taking place across the city.

That prompted Alderperson Jesse Fuentes to call him a sell out, which prompted the angry reaction we heard from Alderman Lopez now the city council declined to take up his move to censure her, but it was a tense 10 celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, which is typically a moment for school children and older people to celebrate Chicago's past Hispanic community.

With many people call it coming from Mexico and all over South and Central America.

Instead, many older people used to this celebration as another opportunity express solidarity for those who fear that they're going to be deported and their family and friends who fear they might be caught up in these rates.

>> Well, despite that clash, the city council voted unanimously to welcome a new member.

Tell us about the newest 27th port on the person.

>> Well, he is the youngest member of the city council, but he's got a familiar name.

Walter Redmon Burnett is now the representatives of the West Loop and parts of the West side.

He replaces his father and longtime alderman Walter Burnett, and he was only able to very briefly addressed the city council today after hours of delay as Mayor Johnson is his allies attempted to negotiate who would replace the former Alderman Burnett as vice mayor and chair of the zoning committee.

Those negotiations fell apart, leaving the council's leadership structure in limbo just as we head into a very difficult budget season.

>> once the city council did get down to business, they voted to close the chapter on the alleged wrongdoing by former Chicago Police Sergeant Ronald Watts settling 176 law suits.

What's the tac cost to taxpayers going to be?

>> So it is going to end up costing taxpayers more than 126 million dollars when it's all said and done that includes fees for the city.

The lawyers, the city hired to defend disgraced former Sergeant Ronald Watts who was federally convicted of engaging in bribery and it But it nevertheless close chapter on a number of wrongful conviction lawsuit and many alderman we're thrilled to spend 90 million dollars to resolve these cases saying it was the deal of the century because they thought it was going to cost the city a lot more and perhaps charts a new course for the city.

>> As they try to resolve police misconduct lawsuits, many of which date from miss caught alleged misconduct.

Many, many years ago.

>> Yeah, certainly a long-running problem there.

Well, City council is also set to lift a ban on tiny homes.

What with those new rules mean for property owners?

>> Well, it would still give each alderperson the final say over whether coach Houses and Granny flats and added units could be built residential areas of their wards, upholding the longstanding tradition of Aldermanic prerogative, which is Ben really accused of fueling segregation in Chicago.

However, the compromise that is still set to get a vote today at the city council will uphold that while allowing some older people to try this old.

But new form of affordable housing.

It will nevertheless lift a 68 year-old ban on those tiny homes in at least some parts of the city.

>> Sounds like it's been quite the topsy-turvy day down there at City Hall.

Heather, sure around.

Thanks so much.

We appreciate it.

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

It's all a W t tw dot com slash news.

Up next, what you need to know about Tylenol, autism and new treatments.

Stay with us.

At a Monday news conference, President Trump joined by RFK Junior and federal health officials linked Tylenol use during pregnancy to rising autism rates in children.

Trump urged avoiding the longtime household staple during pregnancy and warned against giving it to infants.

The announcements have drawn sharp pushback from many in the scientific and medical communities which dispute the claims as unproven.

Joining us to discuss more are Dr.

It should Cheema Hassan founder and CEO of Corrales Health developmental Pediatrics and behavioral health provider in Chicago.

Doctor Kristen assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago.

And joining us via Zoom, Dr, Melissa Simon, vice chair for research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University.

Thank you all for joining us.

We appreciate your time Dr.

Simon, I'd like to start with you, please.

What does the research say about taking acetaminophen during pregnancy?

>> Research actually shows that acetaminophen are the active ingredient.

Allen all remains widely considered the safest over the counter choice for treating fever and pain in pregnancy.

There's been decades of clinical research, all kinds of different types of studies and that research supports that is in a minute.

Then is the primary option for pain fever relief right now.

>> Are there reasons to limit acetaminophen consumption during pregnancy?

>> You shouldn't take any medication and pregnancy over more than what you really need.

And so that's what we give advice obstetrician.

We give advice all the time take that those that you need for the time that you need it and then be done.

>> It will DRA.

So what's your reaction to Trump and other federal health officials explicitly linking Tylenol with autism in children.

>> Well, what we do in medicine as we return to the evidence, we turn to the research and at this point today, there have been no studies that have definitively linked acetaminophen, too.

Autism.

There have been both positive and negative study is the problem is the methodological approaches to those studies.

So when you look at the power, it's a very low number of individuals in the studies and they're also retrospective the nature, which means we have a diagnosis of a child with autism.

And then we asked the parents to look backwards and we find out some of the things that they've spoke exposed to.

And from there we make links.

But today there is nothing that says definitively and we need to remember not to confuse correlation with causation.

Yeah, that's exactly what was going to say that even if there is.

>> You know, studies that indicate some sort of an association, it's by no means definitive and shouldn't be guiding clinical choices.

Absolutely.

doctor, she was assigned, you know, you see as many as 20 or 30 young people a month in your practice.

What have you seen?

And more importantly, what does the research say about just the wide variety of factors that lead to an autism diagnosis?

So, you know, the debate in rise of autism as Multifactorial.

>> The it's genetics.

Early screening.

you know, better identification, better classification and and then in my mental factors.

So it's not one thing to oversimplify this and identified just one single cause does not do justice to this complex issue.

>> it runs the risk of people thinking it's just this one thing.

I can cut that out and prevent the risk.

Yeah.

Well, Monday's press conference, President Trump repeatedly warned of the risks of Tylenol.

He also downplayed the risks of avoiding the medication.

Let's listen to some of that.

>> But here's the thing is no downside.

To doing other than a mother will have as they say, tougher that a little bit.

There's no downside to doing this.

It's not like, oh, if you do this, you're going to die.

There's no downside.

>> Dr.

Simon, what are the risks of pregnant people or of infants?

Not taking Tylenol?

Is it accurate to say that there are no downsides?

>> It's misleading, inaccurate.

I and medical organizations such as the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

We warn that not treating pain or fever can actually result in health risks for both the mom and the baby or babies.

And that includes increased risk for birthday facts.

the safest approach to taking acetaminophen or Tylenol is judiciously right and not to avoid it completely.

And and it's especially important to understand that alternatives for pain, medicine or for fever reductions, such as ibuprofen is it is contra, indicated and pregnancy and can have harmed with well documented well-researched risks to the baby.

So tough thing it out and is is really problematic.

Statement.

>> so, you know, Trump officials are also now pushing luego horn as a possible autism treatment.

What is that?

What is the research?

Tell us about that.

A possible treatment.

>> I get this question a lot, especially recently, as you can imagine.

I'm not going to get into the weeds of the science, born is really interesting.

Luka Boren is actually an activated farm of folate.

barn is full casted fully does vitamin B 9.

And the reason that fully it is relevant to autistic individuals is because there is a cerebral folate deficiency.

So lower levels of of fully in the brain.

And we've done whole genome sequencing, looking for, you know, genes involved and within the fully metabolism and transport pathway.

They've identified 2 different genes.

And one is metabolizing Floyd into the active form fully.

And the other one is a transporter that's actually moving forward into the brain and individuals with autism.

There are problems with the so the metabolism into the active form is problematic and also the transport into the brain is problematic for when asked being active form doesn't have to go through the enzyme.

That's converting it to the active form and it can actually bypass that transporter be transported across the blood brain barrier, blood brain barrier differently.

And so this is one of the things there have researchers that have looked fry and colleagues have look to next have actually found that individuals that have auto antibodies to this receptor that I talked about in the brain, the fully receptor alpha.

shows improvement when we get full in a full in a gas.

And so the bulk of our own.

So there's improvements in receptive and expressive language and just kind of overall sentimentality.

So it seems promising.

But the issue is what we need more data.

We need to look at it more.

And it's also very unlikely that it's going to be a one size fits all because autism is such a heterogeneous disorder and DR team has on its my understanding that you have some experience using the card with patients with.

What's your reaction to the idea of advocating for this treatment?

>> So when I talked to families, I discuss all the risks were says benefits for all the therapies.

>> That are available.

And then as a as a fan, you know, as as a group, we come to it.

decision whether this would be beneficial for this specific their specific child.

So it's important to keep that in mind that it does.

It's a small study which showed that it may help in communication.

>> We need, you know, more robust research.

It doesn't work for all.

It is off-label use.

So there has to be standardized protocols that are followed and, you know, family should seek out professionals that have experience with working with children with autism.

>> Dr.

Simon, you concerned that providers might shy away from recommending acetaminophen either for pregnant people are children out of fear of backlash given these new recommendations.

>> I'm very concerned about and the potential for a slippery for other medications and vaccines and things like that.

Basically what this does is it generates confusion and anxiety amongst both providers clinical care officers set Rick's providers, but also amongst expectant parents.

And there has been a surge in questions and fears regarding safety the and that's going to lead to potential under treatment of pain, fever conditions that actually >> pose a greater risk if left untreated for pregnant individuals and also for babies.

And so these mixed signals and dramatic messaging and fear of retaliation or retribution from the clinicians standpoint can really undermine confidence and specifically maternal confidence.

confidence in in, you know, evidence-based care and it can worsen health care disparities.

It can stigmatize the mothers who end up taking Tylenol.

So really I encourage health care leaders to really sit down, talk to their patients provider.

Guided medication is really important in terms of use and it continued focus on pace in safety and well-being is so critical right now.

So any person out there, any parent concerned, whether that because they're pregnant or they have a young child about Tylenol use, I encourage them to please speak to health care provider.

>> All right.

Well, much more to say on this topic, but I'm afraid that's where we'll have to leave it for this evening.

Dr.

Melissa Simon Dra should Sheamus on Dr.

Kristin Raw, so thank you for joining us.

We appreciate for And we're back with more right after this.

In many communities demand for mental health services is at an all-time high.

>> And the need is particularly acute in brown and black communities that often lack access to those resources in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Our Joanna Hernandez visited the Gage Park neighborhood.

She learned about a mental health center that's taking care of underserved communities and offering bilingual services.

On the southwest side along West 51st Street is central Sanaa.

>> Which translates to heal center what might in this is one of the co-founders.

The clinic was once a local pediatrician's office.

Now it's providing free mental health services.

>> March and June of 2020, but they said they was like me.

Working in a different organization and then doing volunteer workers in this and that.

But the city came a baby and prettyman that's how much much teen is believed in the mission of providing wellness support Latino communities that often lack access to therapy because of insurance barriers.

In terms of what folks need things.

And it's an array of support that is the center's their own healing journeys, whether that be therapy, couples therapy, family therapy.

>> I'm thinking about like.

>> really coolish culturally specific, high quality mental health care and that tends to be inaccessible for folks.

>> began as a grassroots initiative 5 years ago by local mental health providers has evolved into what central Sanaa is today focusing on helping people break through their complex traumas through different techniques I've had.

>> Clients say I'm seen or I saw someone once a month for like 2030, minutes, right?

So I think what makes sense us and they're so special is the ability to be able to provide those high quality free services on a consistent basis for up to 2 years.

Right.

And in some cases we've been providing services for longer than Money to Kabul's is a first generation Latinos who says her upbringing inspired her to become a case manager.

>> Eventually she returned to school to become a therapist.

>> Looking back at my family growing up in Iowa, there were it wasn't a lot of like resources that were in Spanish.

They were not a gating court systems.

They were navigating all these other systems that they had no like.

They were barely learning about it themselves.

So I was like I want to be that person that's able to help other folks navigate systems that they don't understand.

That's not even I didn't understand when I first started out.

>> The non-profit service neighborhoods throughout the southwest side from Gage Park to Brighton Park in Little here to do.

>> It's been life changing.

And you know not only like here.

In it for yourself to help yourself which own work.

But they here for you because Sanchez has been receiving therapy for 2 years and says the tool she has learned have helped her become a better mother to her son of It's OK to come looking for help and to be able to have.

>> And opportunity in a place like central some that Lake.

It's amazing.

And the fact that they're able to do this for us at no cost.

Yeah.

But Deena says the center has assisted nearly 65 families serving over 2000 individuals since its opening with ages ranging from 10 to 44 years old.

>> As he does, but he's researchers have that's really provide.

incur of community one this is me using my skills said and what the community has wanted for a long period of time and bring it to fruition.

>> For my teen us a first generation Mexican-American being the executive director of a mental health clinic is a way to break those stereotypes surrounding mental health Latino communities are.

I'm also a father a 7 year-old and a 5 EUR.

I think of.

>> You know what a feel what I feel I need.

But also I feel that other folks can benefit from as well and selfishly.

I want to create a better with kids.

>> For Chicago tonight, I'm joined on this.

>> Well, the nonprofit is growing.

Martinez says the need for mental health services is also growing.

The waitlist can last up to 10 months.

More information on our website.

And that's our show for this Thursday night.

Don't forget, you can get Chicago tonight streamed on Facebook, YouTube and our website Www Dot com Slash news.

You can also get the show via podcast and the PBS video app join us tomorrow night at 5.37, for the weekend review.

Now for all of us here in Chicago tonight.

I'm Nick Lumber.

Thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> Closed captioning is made possible by Robert a cliff and Clifford law offices, personal