>> Good evening and thanks for joining us on the weekend review.

I'm Nick Blumberg, the mayor of Chicago pays a visit to the bishop of Rome.

>> I'm going to thank him for his courage and his strength.

Chicago is incredibly proud of the love him.

>> Mayor Brandon Johnson presents Pope Leo with a plethora of gifts and invites him to say Mass in Grant Park next year.

>> Affordability is not just a talking point for us.

It is whether a family can't pay rent instead of making Illinois more competitive.

These ideas move us in opposite direction.

Down to the wire in Springfield as lawmakers battle over the budget and a bear stadium, bill faces an uncertain future.

>> Meantime, legislators do agree on sweeping AI regulation and curbing insurance rate hikes.

And the U.S.

attorney's office faces blowback over the bungled Broadview 6 case.

>> And now to our week in review panel.

Joining us are Hannah Maisel of Capitol News, Illinois violent Miller of the Chicago Sun-Times, Melody Mercado of Block Club, Chicago and Rufus Williams of WB Vo.

And thank you all for being here.

Let's get right to it.

Plenty to cover as always.

Hannah.

We've got a just a couple days left before state lawmakers are set to adjourn their spring session as a longtime Springfield watch or any bets on when they'll actually pass a punch.

>> You know, I have learned not to make any Springfield are having spent a decade of plus covering those late nights and they just keep seeming to get later.

And later, you know, it's not like the most exciting legislative year.

It's not like the worst budget year we've ever seen.

Certainly, you know, lived through the budget and last year was definitely a tough budget year.

This is a little >> you know, it is the biggest thing on people's plates.

Despite all of the excitement over the Bears, legislation will get But, you know, it's going to be you know, probably 56 billion dollar budget.

>> And the governor, you know, once for some things that will close a structural budget gap that, you know, we have to contend with, especially because the federal government funding from the federal government has been so huge cut last summer.

But, you know, these things are still in flux as litigation.

know, things get litigated.

You know, we're looking you know, more than half a billion dollar structural gap.

So something that seem to be on the table is a tax on digital ads.

This could raise anywhere from 830, I believe to 700 million dollars.

This is something that actually did make it into almost the final cut of the budget last year.

But, you know, but then there are, you know, the governor this week loaded, you know, a possible pause on the gas tax.

This would not be the first time that we've paused the gas tax back in 2022.

When we had, you know, pretty rampant inflation.

And it was also pause in a a budget deal that took a while to get to.

But you know, it these things, they're all in flux.

there's going to be some deals that over the next 2 days.

And we'll see what probably early Monday morning.

Yeah, be very interesting to see how get past some of the sticking points they're facing, but they always seem loosen talk about the gas tax.

That's when it starts to get really want to get to people's.

>> Personal pocket with the talking about really isn't that much about, including not in the increase of $0.02, right?

So, you know, it's it's a season back in 2019, we raise the gas tax from 19, I believe in $0.18 $0.38 a gallon.

And then, you know, locked it because it hadn't been Rees for decades at that point.

And we locked into, you know, it increases every year, July first, Spurs to increase another to science.

If you know, this is not a huge like you said, Rufus, it's not a a you know, impact on people's bottom line, but it is, you know, it allows Democrats to say, like, hey, we're doing something in the theme of, you know, national Democrats of affordability, right platform, but important understand because it is a set amount of penney's.

we're talking about is not a percentage right things.

The percentage, then it would it would make a lot more green prices go up That's pennies, right?

But, you know, nobody's going to say no to an extra couple Louisiana last week and I pay $3.60 for boy.

side of the gas did go down.

The last reports on before this week.

>> It was 6 hours and $0.30 this week.

It was only You should filled up a few cans and drove him could have.

will refer sticking a few second, you know, 5 year saga over where the Bears new stadium will end up.

>> We just heard from State Representative Kam Buckner, one of the negotiators.

He says he's confident there's going to be some sort of deal.

Do you share his optimism?

>> You know, you don't know what you've lost in last.

And I've been in places where they've lost major league teams and it's a bad thing.

It's pretty clear they're not going to be in Chicago.

But for them to leave, Illinois is going to have a tremendous impact.

I think what they'll end up doing it feels like it sounds like he's breaking the mega bill down.

So the Bills stadium is this considered separately than all the other projects they are.

But they've only got a couple of days to come to something that becomes much more difficult to get anything done and will be interesting to see if that ends up peeling off support from some of the Chicago lawmakers who said, well.

>> You know, there's this bigger deal here that can benefit other projects.

Great if it's just for the Bears in Arlington Heights.

Why my casting a vote for this, right?

I think I think.

>> I think the main goal here is to keep the Bears in Illinois.

And even if Chicago can keep it Arlington Heights, I feel like is a win over Indiana, although I will say that again, the big argument is at least with the tax incentives that people have been arguing, at least with this package.

And they've been trying to put together the Bears could be paying some instead of none at all.

And all that going to India.

One, it's interesting violent.

We got a report from the office of County Treasurer Maria Pappas.

>> analysis of the mega projects Bill said it would be really pretty good for the Bears, but, you know, kind of uncertain how it shake out for regular taxpayers.

Yeah, the treasures saying that, you know, we still need more information to get kind of a full picture.

But yeah, that's the gist of it.

The Bears would come out on top here.

>> And lots of folks are, you know, concerned about property taxes.

They've gone up 182% over the last 30 years.

They've out paced wage growth, inflation.

This has just kind of constant rise as the county's tax levy has increased, also outpacing inflation, a couple billion dollars over where it should be out if it was keeping on track with that.

So any break the Bears get is going to be felt by homeowners in the state.

Very interesting to see if they can get something done by adjournment.

Some other big pieces of legislation.

Melody, there was one aimed at curbing excessive home and auto insurance rate hikes.

You know, some critics are saying this might drive insurance companies out of the market, but given that their laws aimed at the same thing in plenty of other states, does that necessarily seeing realistic?

I don't think so.

And in learning more about this bill.

>> It was interesting to know that Illinois is one of the only states that doesn't have legislation like this.

And so.

>> It just feels like it's time for the state to catch up with the rest of the country on the specifically Illinois does not like to lag behind.

>> Yeah, we're going to need right?

Going out of the State Farm is still based here down staying right there.

Not and Allstate is as close to not going anywhere.

It's just going to be a bit more paying for them and hopefully less pain for because we are paying quite a bit and premiums that yes, indeed.

>> Yeah.

insurance are few years The industry side, you know, we had held rates down kind of artificially and that's why a lot of I included, you know, saw my rates go like way up, even though I don't think I had had an tickets will talk about And it's been a few years.

And the industry, you know, says that it's kind of a you know, got into a more of an equilibrium.

The industry is always going to say that, you know, we can't.

It's untenable to have, you know, state regulations of holding down what we can charge.

But again, other states to this insurance industry in Illinois, it's fairly healthy, violent.

Also some interesting legislation that you are watching about removing certain medications from the state's prescription tracking system.

Tell us about that.

Yeah.

So this tracking system was initially, you know, put into place to try and help curb the opioid epidemic in the state.

>> You know, looking at painkiller prescription things like that regulating drugs you know, schedule schedule differently by the federal government.

One of those included, though, is testosterone, a hormone that, you know, is used for hormone replacement therapy for trans folks.

That's a schedule 3 federally.

And removing it from this tracking service along with abortion pills and other things that the federal government has been cracking down on.

This is a, you know, kind of a two-year legislative goal that General Assembly has been talking about.

Different members.

I spoke to Representative Kelly Cassidy back in November 2024.

When Trump was elected for a second time and you know something along these lines was one of the goals she outlined back then.

And so it's kind of finally coming to fruition.

And that's along with another bill that could hold insurance companies that are licensed in the state of Illinois to provide it was initially 12 months of a prescription hormone therapy.

It has now been amended to 6 months in the Senate.

That's kind of going back and forth.

So we'll see where that lands the next 2 days as well.

Yeah, certainly a lot of attention on that issue given the number of folks from out of state coming to Illinois reproductive care, gender, affirming care, things like that.

>> All right.

Well, Hannah, you have been following the twists and turns of the broad view.

6 case.

We heard accusations this week about the conduct of the U.S.

attorney himself, Phyllis.

And they're right.

This follows, of course, the kind of stunning revelation that we saw in court last Thursday.

>> Where the lead prosecutor on the case it was revealed that she had.

improperly interacted with the grand jury that indicted the broad view 6 and on Monday in one of the entire case has been dropped now.

now we move to a phase the case where there might be a sanctions and that's pretty serious.

And so on Monday in court, one of the defense attorney said that he has reason to believe, Andrew Boutrous himself had personal contact with the grand jury hours later, the U.S.

Attorney's office said that the prosecutor has not presented in front of a grand jury on any particular case.

But didn't deny that he has been president and new parents he has made in grand jury has been in his capacity as the chief legal adviser to federal grand or is this district.

And so the judge took the parties back into her chambers to discuss.

We do not know what was discussed.

Of course, we don't know any further details, but we are expecting to get further details most likely next week the next filing that would, you know, on the road to sanctions.

You know that one of one of the things that this country used to really rely on is that we had a really good justice system, right?

And these kind of things through it all out of kilter, this in the number of or the other.

>> Suits that have been brought by the administration just makes it all different than what we really hoped and expected from justice system.

And then now we've got people, including the few 6 was saying they should be beneficiaries of those 1.8 billion dollar slush fund.

So which out of control in so many ways as it looks justice.

And, you know, Melanie calls this week for the U.S.

attorney himself to step down.

We heard from.

>> Elected officials slash Senate congressional candidates.

Juliana Stratton, Daniel You know, obviously ultimately this is going to be the president's call.

Do you think could you know, Democrats putting heat on Boutros, maybe backfire, kind of solidify support with Trump?

>> Well, I it.

>> In my opinion, a lot of the mistakes that have happened in this case seem to be very sloppy and kind of elementary like if you're someone who has a lot of experience and is high up in the administration, you would.

think that they have there case quick Yeah, you think of it that they would have everything together and wouldn't be making mistakes like this.

So.

>> one thing is Trump doesn't like weakness.

And so I can see, you know, him possibly stepping in and wanting.

>> Boutros out and considering their other members of high ranking administration involved with other immigration enforcement Chicago that are no longer with the administration because of all the backlash I could see.

Boutros is time.

You know, maybe short.

know that the damage has not, you know, ended its ripple effect just this week.

We cases, you know, big series of cases that made so much news, especially because of block clubs reporting.

>> About fraud at Loretto Hospital.

we also saw called into question, you know, the it's the same grand jury that had indicted some of those folks and, you know, and people involved in the Don Lemon, protester case in Minneapolis from January, they are citing the broad view 6, prosecution falling apart in some of their filings like this is it's not an isolated case.

It's in the Northern District because it, you know, we would assume that U.S.

attorneys from all over there in contact with each other and in contact with me.

Just us.

>> Yeah, the fallout from this is likely not quite done, but another big story this week violent involving the local U.S.

attorney's office.

We learned their handling a case related to one of President Trump's assault accusers.

What are the details there?

Yeah.

So it centers around.

Eugene Carroll, though, the investigation or the referral for the investigation isn't specifically for Eugene Carroll, for Reid, Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn.

He is tied to a Chicago nonprofit, hence the venue that they, you know, kind of chosen for this referral.

But Eugene Carroll in 2022 testimony on during her lawsuit against Trump both for a civil suit for, you know, this alleged assault and then also defamation for, you know, his comments in the wake of that she ultimately was awarded 83.3 million dollars in total.

But, you that was held up in the courts.

Trump has repeatedly appealed to the Supreme Court.

I think about a dozen times now and he's been unsuccessful.

That is the one issue.

They they don't seem to want to hear him on.

And so you know, it's it's just been kind of back and forth.

But again, it's not a Jean Carroll specifically who is at the center of this.

It's it's Reid Hoffman.

In fact, his attorney put out a statement specifically saying there is currently no criminal investigation of Carol utility.

The New York Times I thought had an interesting piece framing the story.

They're sort of saying in the second term the president sees the DOJ so far to go after folks tied to government and and politics like James Comey or Letisha James.

But now with this, there are going after private citizens like, you know, Reid, Hoffman and sort of, you know, ancillary E Jean Carroll.

Does that feel like maybe a new progression of the way the DOJ is being used or is this kind of an unexpected New Avenue?

>> I don't think it's unexpected just because of the person sitting at the highest seed of office and the behavior and actions that Trump has taken towards people that have.

Vocally opposed him in any So I I'm I'm personally not surprise.

I don't think a lot of other people are surprised.

I think what constituents are hoping is that other there can be a stop put too, you know, using the federal government for your personal gain, which a lot of people seem to see this whole situation has as it continues to evolve.

Yeah, absolutely.

>> All right.

Well, switching gears to a very different topic altogether.

Mayor Brandon Johnson and a delegation of more than 40 Chicagoans there in the Vatican to meet with Pope Leo, the 14th.

They came bearing gifts.

How about you all?

What would you have brought the Holy Father >> I guess I would have to find a way to bring a hot dog, but like it's still cheese fries didn't don't congeal.

I'm not sure of sciences caught up to that, though.

Yeah, we need someone from the Wiener circle in the delegation.

Yeah, I don't know.

I feel like I mean, we know about the Cubs had.

I think everybody's heard about the That's totally understandable.

I mean, how do you not play into that rival, especially after the Sox took, you know, the series two-one.

I know Cubs fans are a little better about Helps dropped 10 games.

listen, it's it's the Sox curse, I guess.

you know, you have to get back how you can and when your team is down, you know, you choose frock like Think it's a riff fortunes.

You take them something that's real Chicago the lives and stays.

But the other rivalry, the baseball right with, you know, that says this is Chicago's.

So it's.

>> Kandahar I wasn't I would bring some Chicago like food of some kind snacks, food like.

>> You know, there's some things they just don't have in Rome as good job or Chicago stopped Cornyn Romo's.

Let's send roof kind of in a visit like this sort of burnish Chicago's image on the world stage.

One of makes it very clear that the pope is from Chicago, great and he's American and so many things this large delegation.

When we talked about this because he's from Chicago, we haven't had one right.

And, you know, just to think that this is a pope look, he's a black pope from the south side of Right?

And that's a big deal.

And I think you've got a lot of people going there and that that should be celebrated elevated and and a man.

Yeah.

It was interesting to see Johnson's comments beforehand say, you know, I appreciate.

>> His moral clarity.

The fact that he condemned the church's role in slavery.

He did.

And that was really, really important on so many different levels because it hadn't been done and the church's involvement had been.

They own they enslaved people themselves as well as blessing.

Europeans who did so.

So it's a big deal that he made that statement from the on behalf of the Catholic Church.

Do you think we'll be seeing him and your neck of the woods on your beat in Grant Park sometime soon I mean, I think it's possible he didn't say no.

So I guess we'll find miracles can happen Some other city news melody.

We got a statement from the mayor's office late this afternoon on some reports of possible teen gatherings.

>> The mayor says as we enter the weekend, I'm urging parents guardians and trusted adults to help prevent unsanctioned teen gatherings know where your children are and talk with them about the risks of attending these gatherings to Chicago's young people do not attend these gatherings.

They can escalate quickly and carry serious consequences.

Chicago Police Department will enforce curfew and applicable laws and community violence.

Intervention Partners will be on the ground to help keep young people safe.

You just had a piece this week on teen takeovers.

What you hear from folks?

>> Yeah, I think patience is wearing very sun people that live in the neighborhoods that have been experiencing this.

And then addition to a couple alderman that have been trying time and time again to pass curfew laws like Alderman Brian Hopkins did get something passed last year, but then it was vetoed by the mayor.

And this time around, we're hearing that there needs to be something pass around parental accountability.

You know, if you know that your kid is going out and they're attending these events and they're staying out past curfew, the whole idea is that the parents should be held accountable I don't know if that's going to gain enough traction to, you know, be solidified.

And in city council.

I think the argument is that.

Kids will always find a way to do something even if their parents say And and, you know, the city has been doing a lot of geared towards teens that have been drawing now crowds and people to participate and these free events in different parts of the city.

But at the end of the day, it's Things are coming to an impasse here because we're seeing these events continuing to occur.

And and there's only so many times that, you know, and aldermen can put out legislation that is vetoed or doesn't make it through.

And there's only so many times the American say that, you know, we just need to continue doing what he thinks is working, which youth jobs and hosting these events and all these things.

It's really those things are working.

There's Vince, there's been on stats that show that that's working regards to decline in crime.

But when you see these videos on social media of just like hundreds 100's of teens out way past the night way past curfew just in in the neighborhoods in the streets.

It's really difficult for the mayor to get that point across It's like every time, you know, video was Trump stats because perception Trump's reality, right?

Exactly.

o'clock in the morning is 3 o'clock in the right?

Plain White.

yeah, I'm not even at 3 o'clock in there is clearly a lot of frustration.

>> Why this is happening in a lot of looking and trying to find a solution.

>> To this issue big on our station, our weeklong as well.

So people searching searching for to your point.

I mean, it's reflected in the data what we see for Life Memorial Day weekend violence.

I mean, everything's and increased right now because last year we saw, you know, >> it was the least violent Memorial Day weekend, 16 years.

It was the lowest number homicides, the city of Chicago since 1965 in the years.

A whole and so everything.

This year's feeling a little bit more intense because we're seeing, you know, that that kind of return to normal numbers, if you can even call it normal.

But, you know, what we're seeing is is fewer shootings and more of these shootings that have more victims at these larger events at larger gatherings on, you know, holiday weekends and things like that.

So it really is, you know, showing to be at least a part of the root of the problem in the mirror and say trying to bring anything that happens.

Any violence is bad.

>> But the numbers aren't All right.

And we are seeing that the we saw the decline last year, the crimes of this year, but it's so problematic because there is a lot of property damage and people are concerned, particularly those who get caught in the middle of a teen takeover.

Right.

it's interesting the idea of, you know, potentially trying to have that the parents P, you know, more of a part of this because so much of the concern about the snap curfew, you know, ordinances has been the idea of >> criminalizing children.

So I'm curious yet whether there may more backing, there's already apparent the laws regarding parent accountability in the city of Chicago.

And if your teen is >> consistently being ticketed for being out and about.

And you are left with a very hefty fine.

But the argument is, you know, parents could just not pay that fine.

And, you know, just because you pay the fine doesn't mean that the that the teen is going to say, okay, well, guess I'm not going to go up past midnight anymore.

And so I think where where there is some mystery ordinance that's in the air that is going around this.

I haven't seen it yet.

No one has seen it yet.

But >> apparently it's coming.

So we'll There's accountability.

Me indeed and how you do it without criminalizing.

There's a tough part is there's no silver bullet.

Really this is probably a multi-pronged approach, oath.

I'm sure we'll see the parts of the come together.

Indeed.

The mystery ordinance never mystery for.

You are going to be great on this show.

You always are.

But unfortunately, we are out of time.

>> thanks to Hannah Maisel.

Violent Miller.

Melody Mercado and Rufus Williams.

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

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

The Pope Brothers Foundation, additional support is provided by.

>> And that's our show for this Friday night.

Be sure to sign up for our free email newsletter, the Daily Chicago and that's at W T Tw Dot Com Slash newsletter.

Now for all of us here at the week in review, I'm Nick Bloomberg.

Thank you for watching.

Stay healthy, stay safe and stay informed.

Have a great weekend.

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