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

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here is what we're looking at.

Safety on the CTA.

A judge rules concealed carry guns should be allowed on public transit just days before a mass shooting on the blue line.

And football is back and expectations are high.

As Chicago bears kick off their season at home.

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

Charges are being filed in mass shooting over the holiday weekend that left 4 people dead in west suburban forced part 30 year-old Chicago and Ronnie Davis is being charged with first-degree murder, according to officials for the Monday morning shooting on a CTA Blue line train officials say the 4 people were shot at close range while they were asleep.

Authorities are expected to deliver an update in the case this evening.

The University of Illinois is agreeing to make changes to address nearly 140 allegations of mostly Anti-Semitic incidents on campus over 8 years.

The agreement stems from an investigation from the U.S. Department of Education after a complaint was filed in March 2020, the complaint alleged the recurring appearance of swastikas throughout is is is ripped from student doors and a brick being thrown through the window of a Jewish fraternity.

>> Among other incidents between 2015 2023.

In a statement today, the university says it does not condone Anti-Semitism or expressions of hate against other groups and that this voluntary resolution reflects the university's commitment.

For more on the response from line, I hello, please visit our website.

Swollen class size is not enough language support for new arrivals and no arts library or after school programming.

These are the shortages.

The Chicago Teachers Union says some members of their union are reporting across the district.

The union today launched the underfunded understaffed tracker, but it says is intended to monitor the impact of under staffing and underfunding in CPS.

Schools.

Ctu says the Tracker reports which positions are open at which schools based on data from CPS.

His own reporting and argues the district's lack of planning and funding makes the case for transformative teacher contract.

If you didn't make it out Chicago's pools or beaches this summer, I'm sorry.

You'll have to wait until Memorial Day 2025. the Labor Day weekend was the last place for the city's 22 beaches.

And approximately a dozen outdoor pools which all closed yesterday.

>> Last night, lifeguards posted red, no swimming flags on beaches.

They remain there until the beaches reopen next summer.

>> Up next, Chicago's police chief says we're seeing a transformation in the department, but reform advocates aren't so sure details with a spotlight politics team right after this.

>> 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.

>> Just days before a mass shooting on the CTA blue line, a judge rules concealed carry guns should be allowed on public transit.

Meanwhile, the presidential campaign kicks into high gear with Governor JB Pritzker in New Hampshire campaigning for the Democrats and Mayor Brandon Johnson grapples with how to handle a looming 1 billion dollar budget gap.

Here with all that and more is our spotlight.

Politics team Amanda Vicki and Heather Sharon.

Welcome backing.

So as we mentioned at the top of the show, this very shocking, a local tragedy that's making national headlines for people shot and killed aboard a blue line train.

>> west suburban Forest Park early yesterday.

I mean, CTA recently began using AI technology to detect guns.

Tell us about that.

And the other surveillance tools that are being used to keep public transit take well, so then and there are a lot of various ways that to you have public transit agencies battling the issue of >> safety.

And so, you know, CTA has their own Metro has their own.

That's actually something that legislators are talking about is they figure out how to transform the region's public transit overall, which is here going to be talking soon about Chicago's budget shortfall.

That does not include this huge shortfall that Metra pace and the CTA will be facing come 2026, what is has just started using something.

It's evidently artificial intelligence that you can see when somebody brandishes a gun.

So there's supposed to be no face detection.

But nonetheless, if you bring it out, they have a whole team that checks out, whether that is, in fact, a gun and then something can be done about it.

And this is technology that is used already at Navy Pier and actually has been for a couple of years.

And according to Navy Pier, they really happy with the technologies us far.

They weren't able to give me any instances of where it had been used to prevent any sort of activity.

But they said often it is more like toy guns or what they're seeing.

But they're happy with and planning to continue.

So also, Amanda, last Friday, a judge that it is unconstitutional in Illinois law that bans concealed weapons on public transit.

What are the details of this case?

Also, Illinois was the last in the nation to actually come out with a law that spelled out when you could have a gun on your person in public, though it has to be concealed.

You need to have a license to have a concealed carry concealed carry license in order to do that.

But you're not allowed to bring it everywhere.

private places can say no, we don't want you to have a gun here.

Even if you have that license restaurants public transit is one of them.

So again, this is a law that's been in place since 2013.

But courts you can take their time plaintiffs argued that that was unfair because they were not able to protect themselves.

They say they want to be able to carry a gun for reasons of self-defense.

You have judge out of Rockford that agreed the governor was asked about this today and he says that the star Hope's in assumes that this is going to be appealed, perhaps all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court because he believes that that is not a understanding of the Second Amendment.

the judge there disagrees.

And I spoke with the plaintiff's attorney who said that right now he doesn't recommend that even if you have a concealed carry license, you still should follow the law.

Don't bring it on train right now because they're still reading through and figuring out next steps.

But he said that this is a victory for the Second Amendment.

He believes could be use.

Maybe not in horrific crime where 4 people died early Monday after being shot on the blue line train.

But nonetheless, that people might be able to use this for self-defense.

So meanwhile, Republicans not so happy with the route that Illinois House speaker seeking to overhaul regional public transportation map out what's going on So House speaker has gotten into a pattern of developing working groups instead of committees.

Committees things that members of the public and journalists can all follow.

We know when the hearings are, we knows what happened.

We know what happens.

Working groups are just legislators sort of meeting behind closed doors the speaker believes that this is advantageous way because they can have more open discussion and that leads to compromises except except I'm right now.

Republicans are upset because there aren't GOP members.

So where is the compromise?

Is certainly there is plenty to be discussed.

You have.

>> It's sort feuding is too strong, a word but strong sentiments on the part of legislators that represent the suburbs, even as you have city legislators fighting for more funding for CTA.

So again, this huge question about what is the future of public transit in the Chicago region, not just the city but the entire region.

>> Republicans say they should be included in that discussion and they aren't.

Heather, Chicago police chiefs knowing nothing but praise for how his officers handled themselves during the Democratic National Convention.

fact, he says that what we're seeing is a quote, transformation.

But you spoke with some police reform advocates who aren't so sure.

What did you find?

Well, nobody disagrees that the Chicago police passed the test posed by the Democratic National Convention.

There are only 76 people arrested during the protests.

There were no incidents of police violence or sort of mask incidents like the kind we saw after the police murder of George Floyd.

>> However, I spoke with police reform advocate who say that's the floor.

They should be protecting const people's constitutional rights, which we all have to go out and protests.

issue with these protests is that they were planned.

They were permitted.

Everybody knew when they were going to take place and they knew where they were going to take place.

That is very different.

Then what happened during the summer in Twenty-twenty where these protests sort of popped up organically and the police department in the city sort of had to scramble to respond to them.

So those are 2 very different thing.

I think everyone is relieved that the city sort of shined on the national stage police department sort of didn't take several steps back in its efforts to reform itself.

But there are big challenges that they remain and perhaps, you know, the proof will be in the daily interactions between Chicago police officers and Chicagoans without 8,000 media cameras there and the international spotlight that is really what the consent decree is designed to change how they perform when nobody's looking not everybody is going I'm always like window.

That had arisen also at City Hall.

Heather, the city's facing that budget shortfall next year.

Nearly a billion dollars.

Mayor Brandon Johnson finding himself, of course, between a rock and a hard place.

>> Can he close that gap and keep his campaign promises is not going to be easy because of course, Brandon Johnson was elected on a platform promising to invest in working class people and makes it really hard when you have that big of a budget gap.

And the other thing that he promised to do was to not raise property taxes.

And unfortunately raising property taxes is the easiest most effective way for the city to increase revenue to keep pace with those spiraling expenses.

How he's going to navigate this will certainly be a major test of what he hopes will be his first term in What would happen to the people's budget?

Remember like that as we that when he unveiled his first budget his first year in office, he says it's still it's still in effect.

It's just that they're going to be sacrifices and tough decisions will have to be made.

You know, I talked to some people at City Hall who say this is an opportunity for the mayor to sort of take advantage of this crisis and propose structural reforms, the lakes that we really haven't seen, whether or not he's going to do that.

We won't know for about another month and a Okay.

Just wrapping up celebrating a holiday that celebrates workers, everybody.

But a new report shows that union participation is actually declining Amanda.

Well, so that data show.

So we had researchers and I should point out that some of this research was done by an organization that does have ties with labor leaders, also want to put that out there.

And they've been doing this annual report just kind of gauging the >> membership in Illinois unions.

And they saw that there were additional you had 4,000 people.

>> Joining unions that there were successes and you're as you're seeing, for example, we've reported a lottery colleague Nic has reported on.

And, you know, Starbucks unionization or the cannabis dispensaries employees there are joining the labor movement as well.

So you're seeing that in the same time a decrease for there is the first time really in the overall labor participation that could be tied to under the Rauner administration.

You have this fight that was taken to the U.S. Supreme Court and those who didn't want to have to participate in public sector unions are no longer have compelled to do so under the if they don't have to pay that.

What's called fair share fees.

So that was really the numbers that they came out with.

And I think also interestingly, because you have Democrats who, of course, are in charge in Illinois government, always saying Illinois is the most labor friendly state.

I don't this is not measured, but I don't think they're particularly wrong.

Have a constitutional amendment that protects the right to unionize with the exception, by the way legislative employees, who's a fight.

really is the 13th ranked for labor participation.

So just picking mostly per family, not number one in terms of numbers, which, yeah, I think some folks to find that interesting, Heather, far northwest side Alderman Jim Gardner admonished just before the Labor Day holiday by federal judge.

What's up there?

Well, he is in her court because back in 2021, he blocked 6 of his most strident critics from his official Facebook page.

And that ran afoul of another decision by another series of federal judges.

So this Judge, Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, will that he had violated the First Amendment rights of these critics to sort of >> make their opinions known to him.

Now, the Supreme Court ruled on this issue and sort of narrow that sort of, you way you sort of analyze whether that was proper.

So he's back in front of her court.

But they ran into each other at the June funeral of former chief Judge Perry Leavin Wiper apparently aldermen Garner introduced himself to the judge, which is no, no, you cannot speak to a judge under federal ethics rules because it could raise questions of an appearance of a conflict of interest and Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, let him have it in his court on Friday.

Now he wasn't there, but his lawyer was told that that should have happened and it shouldn't happen again.

She is expected to rule in the coming weeks whether he will face a full trial on those allegations of First Amendment violation.

Okay.

Amanda Mayor Johnson, Governor Pritzker.

Everybody was happy with how Chicago came out.

Of course, being in the spotlight, the world spotlight during the DNC.

Apparently the harris-walz campaign was really happy with Governor Pritzker because we know that he is campaigning for in New Hampshire.

>> Tell me or I mean.

He had been a surrogate for Joe Biden.

So there were some sort of questions, even though he said that yes, and fully on board team Harris, now that there's a switch in the nominee, still questions.

How much would he be doing?

I'm told by Pritzker's political team that in fact, this really was a truck that was built around requests from the AFL CIO that he had lined their Labor Day brunch.

So that's why he went out to New Hampshire and that he'll be making more stops, including this month.

We don't know where else will be campaigning for harris-walz ticket.

Of course, because it is New Hampshire.

Some people were particularly interested because of that state's very classic role due to the 68 DNC.

By the way, being the first state to for the primaries.

That's no longer really the case.

But nonetheless raising some eyebrows as to what exactly Pritzker was doing in New Hampshire.

What he's trying to rub some elbows out there and a prominent state Iowa caucus or primary is usually first.

Alright, that spotlight game and had a strong thanks, everybody.

>> Up next, what to expect from the upcoming bear season with James Big Cat Williams.

Football fans.

The wait is nearly over.

The NFL regular season is set to kick off this week and after a disappointing last few seasons, there's excitement brewing once again at Soldier Field Bears.

Fans are hoping college phenom Caleb Williams will be the franchise quarterback.

They've long been looking for.

It's a lot to put on a rookie quarterback.

But so far, Williams appears unfazed by the pressure as the Bears prepare for their home opener against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.

Joining us now to share his thoughts.

We are delighted to welcome back.

James Big Cat Williams who played offensive tackle for the Bears from 1991 to 2002, good to see you again happen because want to of course, you know, high hopes this season for Bears fans because they've got quarterback Caleb Williams, number one overall draft pick.

What are your expectations for the team this season?

>> Well, everything coming out of the locker rooms, posture.

You know, we talk about how Paul is to is how mature years and just how unphased by the little things years and hearing that come out of the locker room is a good thing.

have a couple years different things flowing out of the locker room about quarterback situation quarterbacks.

So it's it's good to hear everyone on the same page right now.

But you're really in that locker room, just don't know.

don't know what they're saying, right?

Is a playoff bid on the table for sure.

>> I don't think that's for sure.

But I do believe they have the pieces to make it work.

>> One good thing about the Bears season this year is the conference games are back.

It's over towards the end of the season.

So they have an opportunity to work on their craft to get a little better before they get into the conference games, which be week.

9 week 10 is the 1st half intent.

So leader the season.

Yeah.

>> Lot of hype, of course around Caleb Williams.

How much can should we expect from him in his rookie season low in the I first overall pick in the draft.

You're expecting a lot of them.

>> like what you see it out of What you do have to understand that he's, you know, and he's going to make mistakes.

It's about how he learned from those mistakes, how he comes back from those mistakes.

However, guys interact with him when does make those mistakes because you have a veteran group around him that you have structured to help her.

Now they've gotten nowhere.

We help where catching the ball running the ball scoring touchdowns, but they have to help.

And when times get hard and that's what I'm looking forward to Do you think improvements have been made on the offensive line to protect him?

>> when that one is healthy.

I think line we've heard.

>> Keeping them healthy is going to be the question.

You know, you have 2 guards that have spent a lot of time on the sidelines in the cold.

So interchange, was just difficult.

So, you we have to see how healthy, other standout players are excited about.

>> I you talk about the people.

The polls was brought yo-yo Tuesday.

>> To grow with K local swift in the backfield to take some of the pressure off COVID.

You know, you're You put a lot of things around a young quarterback to make successful as well as you know, come at the guys that are already here.

And you've put together a defense with some players that all are.

Top up.

You know you set the table for him now.

It's just about seeing what they can set.

The could eat Bears won all their preseason games.

How much can we read into?

>> What we saw in the preseason.

Not sure.

Not sure.

Because you think about how much time the first actually played in those games.

50 something players as a group.

>> So really don't know how bounces out order.

84 4 games during the preseason, ended up winning a wild card game against Minnesota.

So it's possible, you know, like I all the fate everything lines up and everyone's able to stay healthy.

What they could do could be fun to You invoke the 84 So how much pressure is Maddie bird flu saw under as he enters his 3rd season as Bears head coach.

>> I think it's it varies because, yes, he's under a lot of pressure because you have to do better than the 7 in 10 season that we had last You have a young quarterback.

You don't want your young quarterback, but every once Ohio.

>> To start off his career with 2 different head coaches to different offensive coordinators.

You never know how things like that are going up.

so.

Him calling the defense some of the things that they seem to want to run this season.

As far as the defense goes, I think they'll be able to take some of the pressure off the offense, allowed them to score some points.

I think you'll be OK, I think they've got to.

I think it's going to take a major meltdown for them to get him out NFC North.

It's known as the Black and Blue Division with some intense rivalries.

Are we returning to the days of having a competitive division?

What do you think?

It's possible.

There's division a very competitive right now.

When you look at Detroit.

>> Being game away from the Super Bowl.

When you look at we're Green Bay was able to do with a quarterback.

You know, everybody's got their fingers crossed he's not the next Farber.

other guy took part are no, not >> this conference is.

It is very tight and you just have to hope that with the things that the put together, a very will be ready to compete when the time comes in.

You know, you talk about Minnesota, very, very team.

That's not too far away either.

So it's it's definitely a competitive division.

>> So Chicago Bears the pre-season has been the focus of the series on HBO.

Hard Knocks and it's fun for the fans, obviously, right to get, you know, sort of that behind the scenes access to your favorite team.

But is that sort of a distraction for young players?

I don't thinks.

>> Because when you talk about young players nowadays, you're talking about kids grown up on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, X euro.

They know all this stuff very have They have attacked before they have had to keep quiet or retaliate.

So know how to go about these things.

They know how to.

Well, some of know how or when school routes.

you know, I I could see being hard to take that home with you.

What aroma facilities you're always on care would support.

>> Does it not also sort of give fans and maybe some, you know, some fair weather fans sort of a look at like what really goes on behind the scenes at some of the decisions and choices that are made and get to know the team, people who are playing the game.

>> Well, yeah, I think when you're talking about things that are going on in house when you're talking about things a little going on in the building, I think it's great for you know, and fans also want to see what these guys do in their off time with the door and, you know, in their personal lives.

So it's it's a great look in 2, I got a little I could have get off my lawn.

Got it it was as big of a break with our first came into talking But he'll it would just seem like a lot.

It would seem like a lot knowing that.

>> You know, every waking moment someone following you.

But like I said, these kids are more used to.

>> 10 seconds season opener against the Tennessee Titans this weekend.

What kind of game you expecting a close I think Tennessee has bolstered their team to see whether or not will Levis is the guy or not.

So I think it'll be a very competitive.

should be fun to watch.

James Big Cat Williams, good to see you again.

Thanks for joining us.

Appreciate it.

And we're back to wrap things up right after this.

>> And that is our show for this Tuesday night.

Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter, the Daily Chicago win at W T Tw Dot Com Slash newsletter.

And while you're there, check out our website for the very latest from W T Tw News and Never Miss Chicago tonight because you can stream us on Facebook, YouTube and our website and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10 as people incarcerated in state prison began to transfer elsewhere.

A look at what the pending closure means for employees and people held behind the wall.

And aside from a transfer how some people in Illinois prisons are working to secure earlier releases for themselves and other people incarcerated around the state.

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

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

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