>> Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan wraps up his testimony in his corruption, racketeering trial.

Meanwhile, CTA President Dorval Carter is on his way out and the fight over a new teachers contract continues with little sign of an agreement in sight, although we'll get to that here with all that and more is our spotlight politics team Amanda Heather, Sharon and Nick Blumberg.

Welcome back game.

So former, let's start with Madigan we'll get to the other stuff.

Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan wrapping his testimony and that corruption, racketeering trial.

Today he was asked by prosecutors about 2018 comments that he made to co defendant Michael McClain about how he, quote, put a knife into then Senate President John And what was he referring to?

So this was on the heels of man, again, being pretty well set a lead in the court of public opinion by former Republican Governor.

>> Bruce Rauner and Cullerton had innocence piled on top of that, taking advantage of Madigan's, you know, bad name in and ran a campaign ad calling for term limits on leaders like met again.

That again, none too happy with that.

So this evident lead had a meeting with the governor who is elected instead of Rauner.

Of course, that's our current Governor, JB Pritzker and again, was proud to McClain's sort of bragging that he had talked down, Cullerton, stabbed him in the back to Governor Pritzker despite the fact that he also on the stand admit it.

Yeah, were family friends, family to godfather too much on exactly got And so I think that was the objective right the prosecution to say, hey, look what he can do to somebody that is.

>> Not just an ally, but a long time.

Good friend.

He can look the eye and say that's the godfather of my son and still be proud to have stabbed him in the back.

What Megan didn't say there is there's a long stretch between I think Kolr 10 and Matt again had clearly both Biden by after he was made Godfather coated and those his own ranks and became president of the state Senate.

So up clearly politics is rough and tumble.

We all know that.

That's what we talk about here is But it is something that perhaps that the prosecution is really hoping the jury is going to find distasteful, OK?

So also little bit of breaking news this afternoon, standard and poors lowering the city's debt rating citing its quote.

>> Sizable structural budgetary imbalance.

How much of this is surprise and how much of it is a blow to to the Johnson administration.

shouldn't be a surprise to anyone stand.

Importer warned the city that they were going to do this.

If the city did not make structural changes to its budget.

The city council declined to do so.

And this is the result to it.

What's really remains to be seen about how much will it cost the city in terms of, you know, borrowing costs, interest rates, whether they'll be able to sort of borrow the way that they had planned to.

But it's an indication that Chicago's finances are severely out of whack.

I keep saying this and it is, you know, essentially a warning to the city council and mayor, that things need to change significantly and that Chicago's on the wrong track.

Now, it's no doubt a blow to the mayor sort of hope that this would happen.

There's a reason why his press release today described it as a ratings adjustment.

Not a ratings downgrade Yeah, but this a, you know, a a vote of no confidence in the budget.

And, you know, had the city council approved 300 million Dollar property tax hike.

It's likely this wouldn't have happened because, again, that is structural change.

The city's budget.

The city council said no thanks.

And it signals also is, well, a lack of confidence, not just in this current budget, but a lack of faith that Chicago is going to make the hard choices, the easy ones off the table.

>> Property tax or what have you will have to be part of the next budget.

Snp believes and maybe also signaled in their ratings downgrade is what it that they don't necessarily have face at.

Elected officials are going to take those tough steps.

Okay.

>> So let's get back to Chicago.

Public Schools.

Heather, any reaction to what we just heard from senior Martinez?

Well, listening to both him and Stacy Davis, Gates, the president of CTU yesterday.

It's clear that not only do they not agree on sort of how this contract should be settled.

They disagree on sort of the facts at issue and that always makes it really tough to get a deal because, you know, you had I think a very sort of pointed back and forth.

Well, what about the reserve fund?

You know, see to use as well?

There's 100 million dollars there.

learn.

Tina says actually, it's 66 million dollars is very difficult to negotiate a complicated contract like the one that the teachers have with CPS.

When you can't sort of agree on those fundamental facts and until there's sort of a an agreement on sort of what the district is sort of dealing with.

It's not really possible.

Solve the larger issues about teacher prep and sort how much the pay raise is going to be in that sort of So that was pretty noteworthy to hear that, you know, Martinez and the mayor, you know, essentially have not been speaking for months now.

Certainly, you know, the mayor is not.

>> You know, officially one of the leaders of CPS, he's not leader sea, too, but this is someone who can hold it has a great deal of sway over the public school system by design.

So to hear that that relationship, you know, clearly, I think it was pretty clear that it had broken down significantly.

But to just have that in such stark terms at a time when there are huge questions about the district's fiscal future, about the status of CTU negotiations to hear that there isn't really much of a dialogue there at all in about Martinez's own rule, of course, because I remember when he was on the show when we first really got wind that he was that the mayor wanted him ousted something.

Of course, the mayor continually denied at least in public that that was even the case.

>> And at the time, Martinez had said right with schools are opening.

Know, we didn't really talk like we saw other, but we didn't And that's still the case throughout all these questions about, yes, the contract in the future of the schools, but also about Martina.

Some it will in as the mayor is advocating for, you know, having been elected to implement his vision for Chicago public schools.

You think there'd be some conversation with them and that the mayor chose to keep on board to run and operate a Chicago public schools.

So, yes, that that is a good point.

>> Double Carter stepping down from the CTA, Nick, after nearly a decade of leading the CTA on, he's had his share of criticism, obviously as well.

The mayor faced regular calls to fire Dorval Carter.

>> But stood by him.

Why is he leaving now?

It's that.

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

I mean, the calls to fire Dorval Carter.

You know, predated Mayor Johnson's election.

And he said during his own campaign in his inaugural speech that >> there needed to be changes to transit in Chicago that it needed to be safe and reliable that it needed needed an overhaul.

Now, we should note the mayor cannot simply fire the head of the CTA.

The mayor appoints the CTA president, but it takes an action of the board.

Certainly the Mayor Clinton Yes, exactly.

And of course, the mayor can use their Boyd appointees.

They can use the bully pulpit.

They can use public pressure to get the board to act or to get the, you know, the leader of such an agency All that being said, you know, one of the things that Carter said about his own tenure and that folks who, you know, would give him some credit, said was that he was really good at getting federal money for big deal.

Infrastructure projects like the red purple modernization, like some of the work they've done on the blue line like some of the work they've done, you know, on the green light like this big red line extension, that the city is now in line for nearly 2 billion dollars of federal money.

So I think that was sort of, you know, the red line extension really was Carter's crowning achievement and had been his priority for years and years and something that he advocated to the mayor's office for to say this is a huge priority and this is something I can get over the finish line.

And now that that, you know, full funding agreement is in place and it was a natural time for Carter to step down.

So City Council tomorrow, Heather, we've got about 45 seconds left set to vote on an amendment that would weaken the city's protections for undocumented people and allow the Chicago Police Department to work with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent agents in some circumstances.

What's at stake here?

Well, for nearly 40 years, Chicago has been sanctuary city.

This would essentially returned to the protections back to the level where they were before 2021, when that was expanded to basically eliminate any sort of possibility for police officers to work with ICE agents.

>> Potentially this would put undocumented immigrants who are arrested but not convicted.

A certain range of crimes, drugs, gangs, prostitution at risk of having then be turned over to ice.

It's not clear whether there's a majority of city council votes, but it is going to be a very fraught debate tomorrow as thousands of Chicagoans face the prospect of new mask