Trump races to rule out a new executive orders, state and local politicians are responding in a range of ways.

Governor Pritzker's banning January 6.

Rioters from state jobs Mayor Johnson calling the president's actions unconstitutional.

And as Trump moves forward with abolishing the Department of Education, Illinois lawmakers introducing a bill to push back on presidential priorities impacting local schools here with all that and more is our spotlight politics team Heather, Sharon and Nick Blumberg.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Team now, Governor Pritzker.

Again, he is saying that pardon January 6, rioters cannot be employed by the state.

>> Heather?

Mayor Johnson going to do the same for the city, not at least right away.

I asked him about this today.

He said that the governor's move was the right way to go but declined to issue an executive order that would do the same for city departments.

And I think this is especially important because >> one of the people convicted of participating in the January 6 attack is a former Chicago police officer who his lawyer says wants his job back.

Now, last week I asked Superintendent Larry Snelling if he was the kind of person who should be a member of the Chicago Police Department.

Superintendents filling didn't answer saying that he believes Chicago police is the greatest police force in the nation which I have to point out not in fact an answer to my question not, in fact an answer.

So you'll you'll be following this.

I'm sure.

Now a W t Tw held a televised a special town hall last night.

>> The mayor made news.

They're saying that he would like to try again to pass the bring Chicago home initiative that would increase the tax on home sales over a million dollars.

Now, here he is today talking about that commitment.

>> There is unfair tax structure in this country where those who have keep more and those who have less less have to give more that system in of itself is equitable.

And we're going to do everything in our power and the city work with community organizations, work with businesses and corporations to ensure that we have an equitable tax structure that allows us to meet the needs of everyday people.

>> Heather, that ballot initiative failed last time around.

Did the mayor indicate whether he's truly serious about putting this back on the ballot and went well, he didn't give any timeline for that.

And he has always seen himself to serve the leader of a coalition.

This was bring Chicago home as it was known was a years long effort led by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

And he says it's not really about him and what he wants that's about with the community wants what especially caught my aired last night about the mayor has remarked was he's really harsh remarks about the fact that he blames the business community for its failure, saying that they leveraged sort of the migrant crisis that everybody was coping with back in March of last year to sort generate fear about that.

What this would mean for Chicago's economy.

I spoke with a number of business leaders today and they said that that criticism was unfair, that they oppose this ballot measure picks the wrong policy for Chicago and that they will do so again if and when it comes back.

But the mayor did have more of an answer than the non-answer.

reference to He did have actually something to say about it, but not against the city committing or saying where the funding would come from to really put this before Chicago voters again, Well, I mean, certainly this is the kind of thing that it even needs to happen with an act of the general assembly or a majority of city voters need to approve a big change like this in the real estate transfer tax.

>> I mean, irrespective of timeline, I think it's something that the mayor is going to be interested because as Heather rightly mentioned, there's a big coalition of people who are politically aligned with him.

still very interested in this idea and be as we talked about ad infinitum ad ad nauseum over over the fall and early winter, the city needs revenue.

The city needs sustainable sources of revenue because there is this huge structural deficit that Mayor Johnson and probably whoever comes after him, however, long he should serve, will have to be dealing with.

There are a lot of issues here in this could be a major source of funding and it could be a major source of funding, you know, going towards the sort of programs that Johnson and his allies really want to see happen, right?

Certainly were covered to get it past.

Given that I mean, it did fail.

He can say that people want this, but they they didn't sure it's also sort of politically expedient for the mayor because he campaigned back in 2023 about taxing the ultra-rich and sort of making corporations pay their fair share.

This is one of the few ways that Chicago voters sort of have the immediate ability to do so if they passed.

But ballot measure.

>> It also comes as he's about to go to Springfield and ask for a lot of new money or a lot new ways to raise what he calls progressive revenue, which could help shift the burden from property tax to other sources.

That, of course, is a big ask for state legislators who have a 3.1 or 3.2 billion dollar deficit of their own Tory heard the mayor make call again last night and he really did not parsed his words and making demands of the state.

But Governor Pritzker who we're not and away right.

>> Let's move on to the mayor also saying neck that he will not be intimidated by a president who is, quote, operating outside the bounds of the Constitution.

Federal workers increasingly afraid for their jobs.

that does include Chicagoans.

That's right with there was some reporting that about 100 employees at the local Environmental Protection Agency office, which is a regional office.

This is multiple states and indigenous American tribes overseas.

>> It's a massive workforce there for folks who are on a probationary period, sometimes reporting about 100 of them notified they can be terminated immediately.

New York Times had some reporting nationwide putting that number at 1000 probationary EPA employees.

Of course, this comes on the heel of the entire federal workforce getting this email offering them a chance to resign via e-mail and keep getting paid until September.

But you know, the issue here with these probationary employees, they don't have absolutely no recourse.

They can allege there's an oversight board for mayor federal employees.

They can say they were removed for partisan political reasons.

They can also go to the equal Employment Opportunity Commission or to the special counsel and say they were removed because of their political affiliation.

So if folks want to push back on this, they do have some avenues.

But clearly that the messaging going out to them was basically saying abandon hope.

All ye who enter here.

We can fire you if we want to, even though that's not strictly the case.

And of course, questions as well about the work that they perform protecting the Great Lakes and the environment and the Chicago and surrounding areas.

Now there's another executive order.

This one really dealing with the Department of Transportation and how it focuses its funds in a way that could be.

>> Damaging to Chicago and Illinois.

Nic, explain this one.

If this was newly minted Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy put out an order saying that they prioritize grant making loans all sorts of capital flowing to states municipalities.

Some of the the criteria caught people's eye because it was saying they want to see a preference to communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average.

One of the thing that didn't necessarily get as much attention as well.

They also said there can't be any mask mandates or vaccine requirements in there as well.

>> But clearly, this is, you know, targeting areas like Chicago that have lower marriage rates that have birth rates.

This give significant advantage.

2 Republican held areas.

We should note that this the secretary of transportation does not have unilateral authority to change grant making rules.

This does not immediately take effect.

This is a policy statement.

This is not something that's going to happen overnight if they want to change the rules for these grants and for eligibility here, there is an extensive notification and comment process that federal agencies have to go through in order to do this.

And I think even if they do go through that quite lengthy process, you will see some legal challenges for bases here.

And we heard from Mayor Johnson today saying we take all these orders seriously as a threat, but we are parsing whether they are constitutional because many of them have many steps to go before they take effect.

So Clinton is there's a lot in the Currents are going to be busy it let's say I'm so you're saying basically that the red line funding, therefore.

>> This is for new funding going forward.

Not previously guaranteed funding, which has its own issues.

Certainly certainly but the red line extension funding.

They have a legally binding document that the CTA and the Department of Transportation have signed.

So unless they really want to test the patience of the courts will be pretty difficult for them to withhold.

Those already agreed upon Now, Heather, back to you.

We've got just under a minute left.

What is the latest on this top secret gift closet filled with the handbags and the shoes and the cuff links.

>> The mayor asked about it today.

Well, he said that he still hasn't seen the guest room and he is still insisting that the inspector general's office has no right to make an unannounced visit to that gift room.

However, the city's top lawyer Corporation counsel Mary Richardson, Larry, said they're going to step up efforts to properly document gifts that the mayor's office except on the city's behalf and that they're going to provide a video of the guest room that will show the public exactly what's in there and how it is being stored.

Perhaps that will come next week.

A few short.

I will be among the first viewers to get a look at the good handbags and this Kate Spade handbags and the size, 14 live video and not just let people.

that's a good question.

One of the things reporting in instead of out that really I