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

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

>> With a chilling our right to free speech and assembly.

The Saints Accountability Commission holds its first hearing on federal agents deployment to chemicals from protesters.

>> Some older people push forward with an alternative budget plan.

And a new teen curfew.

More on where it stands and city Council.

>> Classes to help Chinatown, seniors use technology facing funding cuts.

We kick things off right after this.

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

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> Just as Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino and many of his agents returned to Chicago for more federal immigration enforcement action.

The Illinois Accountability Commission met with the public for the first time today.

>> We can recommend state legislation.

We can make recommendations for discipline.

We can make are recommendations for prosecution.

We know that some of those recommendations may fall on deaf ears.

>> The commission tasked with keeping a public record of reported abuse is perpetuated by federal immigration agents focused today's meeting on crowd control weapons specifically chemical irritants at Masterson joins us now with more insight into the Matt.

So if the hearing mainly focused on the deployment of chemical agents, Dr Rahimi Har testified about the impact that these weapons like tear gas have on the body.

Here's some of what she had to say.

>> The use of force is occurring by and large unjustified and to win.

It is being used basic protocols that would protect health and limit injuries are not being followed.

>> Okay.

So let's rewind a little bit not to get over.

Mind is how this commission came to be.

What prompted his creations?

Yeah, this was launched in October through an executive order by Governor JB Pritzker who wanted to create a commission that is tasked with documenting recording all these numerous allegations of abuse by federal agents in Chicago and the Chicago area by federal agents during the operation Midway Blitz, immigration enforcement action.

This commission, people its job is to track things like chemical weapon usage like agents pointing their weapons at protesters are residents and any violent arrests that were made during this operation.

But their role really isn't to enact sweeping legislation.

They're there to listen to learn and to advise they're going to take testimony from different groups.

They're going to take videos that are submitted to them and they want to learn about what these agents are doing while this is ongoing in Chicago, OK?

And of course, we just heard from Doctor Hany Har and her testimony.

What did the commission find out about how and why federal agents were using force in many instances like you said, hearing was focused on chemical weapons.

Dr.

Harsh spoke about several instances that she reviewed agents deploying tear gas in and around Chicago during operation Midway Blitz.

And he found that every single one of those is essentially a misuse of these chemical weapons.

One of these that discussed at length today was a November 8th incident was in which a one year-old child and her family was tear gassed as they were in a car to go shopping Har spoke about how there was no threat present to these agents.

At the time.

There were no warnings given before this.

Tear gas was deployed and there's no consideration of whether or not that gas needed to be used.

Tear gas is banned in warfare.

It's not something that should be used lightly.

But what she's finding that these agents repeatedly reusing it without justification and that tracks with what federal judge Sarah Ellis found as part of a lawsuit last month when she found that agents.

Had repeatedly used these types of weapons just indiscriminately in various situations that did not call for them and then would repeatedly lie about the justification that went into that after the So we know the commission, they plan to issue a finalize report by April 2026, what happens next?

There's going to be more hearings like today.

There's a 3 hour hearing where they heard testimony public comment.

They want to continue gathering that sort of evidence from people who are experiencing this firsthand.

There's going to be a status report filed in January with some recommendations.

But the commission's goal is to continue documenting this on a rolling basis.

People can submit allegations to the commission's website they can go to hearings and tell the commissioners what they've experienced in person.

And that's what they want to keep gathering as this goes forward until April, OK, I'm sure keep eye on it for us.

Matt Masterson, thanks so much.

Experience.

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

It's all at W T Tw Dot com Slash news.

And we're back with more right after this.

Rival budget plans compete as alders opposed to the mayor's spending plan.

Make progress with their own plan.

And as that drama plays out, another controversial measure is making its way through City Council.

One that aims to control large teen gatherings downtown.

new curfew proposal allows police to impose what's called a time and site curfew versus the previous snap curfew proposal which the mayor vetoed.

Joining us for more on that plan are Alderman Brian Hopkins of the Second Ward, which includes communities like the near North Side, Lincoln Park and West Town and 6th Ward Alderman William Hall.

He represents communities like Auburn, Gresham and parts of Inglewood.

Thanks to both for joining us.

So let's start with you, the budget because you all have until next week to pass.

Want to avoid an unprecedented government shutdown.

A counter proposal to the mayor's budget plan is headed to a final vote after passing to City Council Canales.

It calls for over 473 million dollars in new taxes while relying on 35 million dollars in advertising revenue.

Mayor Johnson has condemned this calling it infeasible and speculative says that he would veto that Alderman Hopkins to you first.

Where do you stand on this proposal?

Yeah, I'm one of the members of the coalition that passed it out of the finance committee.

I'm not on the budget committee but had I been there, I would have been one of those.

21 or 22 votes that supported it.

>> Both committees now have are prepared to report out what is a complete budget.

I maintain that it's a balance budget.

I know the mayor disputes that.

But checked our math and we checked our revenue projections and we believe it is a balance budget.

It's before the mayor right now.

He has not said definitively he's going to veto it.

I think he's considering vetoing it.

But he's also considering letting it pass.

That's on him right now.

So we'll have to see where we're at with the negotiations are going well.

Well, you know, one of things in this proposal, the tax levy increase and for me.

>> My ward saw 100% and Englewood 80% in other parts.

And I made a promise that I would not do vote towards adding to property taxes.

And so unfortunately, I am a no for the proposed budget.

Doesn't mean that the work that was presented by my colleagues is in vain.

But it just doesn't fit the 6 war.

>> Hopkins, what you make of the mayor's response that he would veto it if it passes.

>> I'm not sure he well, I don't think he wants to see a government shutdown and if he vetoes it and we don't get to a veto override status, we have a government shutdown effective December.

30th.

However, I do believe that if the mayor were to veto it, this will pass with probably 30 possibly 31 votes.

So we're looking at deficit of maybe 3 votes to override a mayoral veto.

There are some aldermen that have indicated their with their open-minded to possibly overriding a mayoral veto to avoid a shutdown.

I don't think the mayor wants to take that risk to veto it and then have his veto be overridden.

That would just be politically disastrous as well you know, a major setback for this mayor's administration.

You can't take that risk.

Alderman whole.

How do you feel about the advancement of this rival plan and how it impacts the state of negotiations?

What you and I count that again, it's a proposal.

Number one, I'm concerned about taxes being sky-high.

Number 2, I'm concerned about.

>> Idea, predatory debt collectors to take already stated.

The fact that again, property taxes, they are already going up.

So all the work that we did in reviewing asking for a certificate bears have now gone out the window because, fact, property taxes are going to go up.

I'm also concerned about the idea of turning bgt machines with no 3rd rail.

This is something that has been proposed easy video gaming video gaming, meaning that right now we will possibly see video gaming turned on different parts of the city.

Again, no thir, real.

Is there work to do?

I think we're going to go down to the 9th hour to make sure that gets done.

But as it stands right now, some of the funding sources have some limitations to idea, for example, of both houses being use as a federally protected.

So that means that the protection has to come down.

Now.

And so I get what you're seeing is the back and forth.

But you people committed to making sure that our city does not shut down.

>> Mayor Johnson has been standing firm, though, in keeping the corporate head tax.

Here's a little bit of what he said earlier today.

>> You have a group of Alders who are working against the will of the people.

That's why this particular struggles important because this is not just a fight for Chicago.

This is a fight for democracy across our country.

People have overwhelmingly spoken that in order for us to have affordable communities.

We have the challenge, big corporations and the ultra rich to pay their fair share of taxes.

>> Alderman Hawkins with your reaction to that.

The corporate head tax is been a result settled issue.

There isn't enough support and city council to pass period.

So the mayor needs to give up on that.

It's that simple.

There's other things that we could potentially change about the budget that just passed.

>> My colleague Don mentioned a couple of them.

I think we're willing to discuss video gaming and some other things that are in that alternative budget that maybe we could change.

There's still time to do that.

But the corporate head tax has been answered.

It's not gonna happen.

Open holes.

The mayor painting himself into a corner by taking such a hard line on the corporate head to.

One of the things that we do know is that without the corporate tax we possibly be pack.

>> In city council in June because it be no money left.

This budget is absent of some real long-term sustainable income.

>> I don't think that the ideas mentioned would be sustained to the test of time.

And one of the things that's most concerning is the fact that we have not had record amount of time to look through the numbers in the way that can justify certified that the revenue would be there.

So if we back in the table in June to figure out how to pay for the remaining 6 months of 2025, 2026 so be it.

But there are some very gaps in this budget that leaves concern.

And so my concern is that we will run out of money simply because we have not found the sustainable revenue that can stay in 12 months of Chicago economic challenges.

And you believe then that the corporate head tax is the most sustainable?

Certainly when compared to some of the other revenue possibilities that your colleagues have.

What I do know is that 9 billion dollars was made in 4 months by corporations in this year.

>> So the money is here in Chicago.

And what I'm suggesting is simply because of the fact that we see that Chicago was leading the nation in global industries.

And so to tax corporations to pay a portion, it's a sustainable model because they're not going to leave.

However, at the end of the day, I do see the challenges federal government that has played the top tier of game has corporations uncertainty.

So I do think that there is still no from in the middle to find corporate sustainable contribution, strong economy beyond just taking money from consumers.

Okay.

So I don't have to tell you that you're up against the clock here, right?

You've got what is it?

12 days before the But even sure it's about much.

Honestly, Alderman Hopkins is there potential that negotiations could go past that date that the city government could shut down?

>> It's possible.

None of us want to see that happen because I think the consequences would be disastrous even beyond anything that we could predict right now.

We should be afraid of it because it's a fearful scenario.

So were all highly motivated to resolve this.

I think I can speak for my colleagues.

I may want to take Christmas Day off.

I'm willing to work Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas and every other day after that to try to resolve this.

We are lot where we've come down to the wire here and there's a highly motivated group of people that are looking to potentially make a compromise.

If the mayor is willing to abandon his effort to pass corporate head tax, everything else can remain on the table and we can look at potential changes to the budget that we just passed.

And again, you see this in Washington, D.C., where there's been some short-term spending packages pass and then they come back in April for the remaining of the year.

So >> it's not uncommon again to get the budget season with just patches.

And then if you have to regroup, so be it.

But on January, the first one thing I'm confident along with my colleague is that the city will be open.

People will still be working in paychecks will be in their bank accounts.

Okay.

So I want to talk about this other controversial issue, of course, that both of you have been involved in and that is that the curfew issue.

>> The so-called time insight curfew that you're proposing Alderman Hopkins, it would give police the authority to issue a curfew of up to 4 hours with 12 hours.

Notice within a geographic specific area.

did you arrive at this is a potential solution?

Well, after the debate about the snap curfew seemed to center on the fact that no one wanted to give the police such blanket authority to declare a curfew almost immediately and start enforcing it almost immediately.

The point of this is to create a disincentive for the teens to follow up on one of their planned action.

So when we find out about it, we have many sources that tell us when one of these teen gatherings is being planned.

When we find out, we need to use every tool in the tool box to convince them to actually not do it.

This would allow us plenty of time in advance 12 hours as the minimum.

By the way, Brandis plenty of time in advance to work with the Chicago Public School Violence Interrupters the counselors, the faith communities that are on the ground and tell them don't let your teen show up for this event.

We're going to enforce a curfew if they do in the event is not going to happen with that much noticed is that not just give teens and obviously a lot of these teens are good kids, right?

But some of them violence does happen as we know and as has been demonstrated is that I give them the opportunity to just relocate.

>> Sure.

You know, teens will be teens, right?

They're always going to try to find a way around authority.

We did that when we retain.

So I can't fix that problem.

But what I can do is create disincentives for them to show up at these events that are potentially violent and life-threatening.

And now I'm working with Alderman Hall on a companion ordinance that would actually require the social media companies to take down advertisements for some of these illegal teen gatherings, further reducing the chances that they're actually going to happen.

All hotels more about that and why you think social media should be should hold some responsibility here.

When I sat in the funeral of the 14 year-old that was killed 2 weeks ago on Cottage Grove, 79 Lincoln Centre to see that many children crying and to hear mother and a father just devastated.

>> This is a step in that direction to protect children.

Again, social media companies have gotten out of control.

Australia band 16 and under usage of it because they are witnessing children being influenced and inspired to do violence, which is asking social media companies do your job.

This is not an attack on the First Amendment.

This is not a surveillance program we have to trust.

First of all, our superintendent of police, he's been doing a great job.

We see that there's a new pilot program that a state's attorney is offering for young people who are on the West side that have been to some no trials and tribulations with the justice system is.

So what we're looking at is a comprehensive approach.

Trust our police.

Secondly, let's make investment so that children who are detained are not repeat offenders such early in life.

And so when I'm competent, is that working with Alderman Hopkins, we can find sources of investment so that kids are deterred from doing so.

It sounds like when you're taking a both and approach that ultimate home, would you support such a time inside curfew?

>> In addition to holding social media companies responsible number one to social media companies are promoting.

That's it responsible.

Secondly, I think that is responsible.

If we're not protecting our children, this is simply a measure to make sure that we don't see another 14 year-old boy or girl laden the caskets simply because they with the wrong place at the wrong time.

Kids are going to be kids want them to go outside.

Want them to see the city who wanted to be done safely.

Ok, Mayor Johnson had been a staunch critic, of course, of the snap curfew proposal.

Here's what he said when he vetoed that plan earlier this year.

>> This proposal of could certainly expose the city to even more costly lawsuits and settlements 80's.

Remember now that Mary Richardson, Larry 9, our budget director, we are now going through police settlements that happened during that very era.

With the city of Chicago is now responsible to pay for the damage that was caused by the very policies that criminalize as well dehumanize people, particularly black and brown people.

And you're asking me to repeat the sins of our forefathers and mothers.

Why would I do that?

>> Ok, so we're almost out of time.

But when we often have these discussions, we also talk about making sure that their space and opportunity for young people to enjoy the city, be it downtown or in their own neighborhoods.

Alderman Hopkins, what could that look like?

And where are we in the process so that we 30 part of what we're doing?

That's why Alderman Hall has joined me.

He voted against my initial snap curfew proposal.

We made improvements and now he's one of my co-sponsors.

So in the spirit of compromise, we know how to do it.

And the next step in this is to find ways to help you think it picked up for curfew violations to give them access to programs and interventions that they need to turn their lives around.

Our work is not done yet.

Okay.

We'll be keeping an eye on Thanks to both of you for joining us.

Alderman Brian Hopkins Alderman William Hall.

Up next, digital literacy efforts to help local seniors are at risk.

>> Senior citizens have been gathering in China town over the past several years to learn how to use technology.

>> But since the Trump administration's recent termination of many federal grants, their future with digital education is uncertain in partnership with students at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

We explore how these digital literacy efforts take shape.

Here's June.

>> Enough.

>> Chinatown.

Residents like 66 year-old move clock and her husband.

>> Have learned to use their phones to navigate daily life in an increasingly digital world says town.

>> kind come >> The camera phone as as their second pair of eyes to check-in comedians.

>> of this year.

Then a few tops on an AI tool.

Help them decide what to buy.

>> on the messaging app, we chat vehicle friend asking if she needs anything from the Gomes have been learning how to use to phones every Monday in classes such as this one.

But have for today to the coalition for better Chinese American community also known as CBC AC started holding the classes during the pandemic to help seniors learn how to use digital tools.

doing just maybe find it.

>> Do they do Because I I had all the times over >> But he made 2025 the Trump administration terminated.

If federal grants that have been funding the classes, grant that was cut to U.S.

roughly $50,000 the federal equity capacity Grant awarded more than 23.7 million dollars to Illinois.

This grants provided resources for residents across the states to access the Internet and online services in Chicago that equity coalition distributed to grants to dozens of community groups in underserved and low-income communities, including in Chinatown.

>> This idea that, you know, these are the extreme yes benefits you know, people don't deserve to have that.

They're not necessary.

Or that, you know, these are communities that.

You know, this administration is seeking to help.

>> Roughly 25% up.

Residents in Chicago's Chinatown are 65 and older.

Almost double the city's overall average.

Very few people.

>> You know, really know or have internalize this information about, you know, the fact that there are a lot of seniors in Chinatown and they live, you know, below the poverty line.

Cbc AC Holtz digital literacy classes and one-on-one tech appointments for seniors.

>> enter your candidate, number >> The classes are designed to help seniors use defense to overcome the language barrier why yet?

But name.

>> That one local Now you might vehement?

>> Take public transportation.

>> one who go toe to to those an going I see it.

so that could tent.

>> Another government services and benefits.

guy who the Limon, >> So will the fully with the end.

And when they do seems all so we were going with the Color King wanted for seniors, phones and the More than technology.

>> They are a lifeline to community and connection.

University Chicago student Michelle to volunteers at what she show what he used >> She says helping seniors.

It's very rewarding.

Once a grandma wins.

>> Just giving snacks after is expensive banks and it was just really kind.

And I don't think.

I don't experience that.

And like every day, life.

>> Even with the federal grant funding ran short.

And that's not enough for of >> full program.

That's enough to support part staff salary and not even enough for a lot of printing and a lot of resources.

>> longer than normal, wait current leave.

This to have this habit to citizens help.

At this point.

City says we can help immediately.

>> Hannah Summit Buds researches digital appetit for you Chicago.

She says making only access fear means confronting longstanding patterns of segregation and disparity in Chicago.

>> One of these different social fact is due a alongside people not having these and additional skills.

So we need to talk is a social issue.

>> Cbc AC recently received a $25,000 Grant from the Julian Grace Foundation, private organization to continue as to to literacy programs, but without federal support.

It remains unclear how long these classes will be able to serve.

Seniors like the gongs of you to do news and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

I Am your home.

John.

>> And you can read more about the digital literacy program in Chinatown on our website.

And that's our show for this Thursday night.

Stay connected with our reporters and what they're working on by following us on Instagram at W T Tw Chicago and join us tomorrow night at 5.37, for the week in review.

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

Stay healthy and safe.

We have a good night.

>> Closed captioning is made possible by Clifford and Clifford Law offices, Chicago, personal injury and wrongful death for gives back to its