>> Hello and thanks for joining us on Chicago Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

>> One life has been genuinely enrich by helping people.

Firmer greet mission.

>> Lawmakers in Springfield hailed the historic career of retiring Senator Durbin.

That and the latest on budget negotiations in a live report from the state Capitol.

The battle over redistricting What to know about the shape of things less than 6 months out from the midterm elections.

>> In this play, we're interrogating what we believe.

>> And Oscar winning playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney on his latest production commission.

The Steppenwolf Theatre's 50th anniversary.

>> First off tonight, Chicago's U.S.

Attorney Andrew Boutros is announcing changes to his office's grand jury procedures.

On the heels of bombshell misconduct allegations.

Boutros as the new internal reforms will improve transparency and effectiveness while quote, greatly reducing the likelihood of mistakes and errors the move comes just days after Bhutto's personally dismissed all charges against the broad view.

6 and apologized in open court for his prosecutors conduct in securing charges.

The judge in that case bound the assistant U.S.

attorneys held improper communications with grand jurors outside of court proceedings excused.

Some jurors who disagreed with the government's theory of the case.

Boutrous says his office has launched a review of other grand jury presentations that could have been impacted in similar fashion.

New research shows that in the 6 months after ShotSpotter was disconnected, Chicago police responded to the most serious 9-1-1.

Calls 4 minutes faster than they did when the gunshot detection system was still in place.

The EU, Chicago Justice project studied the response times of police officers in the 12 South and West side neighborhoods where ShotSpotter was installed.

Researchers say there is no evidence that the decision to turn off the microphone slow police response times or drove up violent crime as many ward.

The analysis also shows that homicides dropped more than 32% during the 9 months after ShotSpotter was decommissioned and violent crime.

More than 11% in those same neighborhoods.

Though tickets to the Obama presidential center opening weekend are already sold out.

Visitors will still have access to a free three-day grand opening festival.

June 19th through the 21st.

The center is promising music and dancing on the plaza.

Double Dutch performances in the Home Court Athletic Center.

Plus PlayStation's with mascots from Chicago's pro sports teams.

There will also be dropping gardening activities as well as guided and self-guided tours of the campus.

The center is asking folks, though, to register in advance online so they can get an approximate head count.

You can learn more about how to do that on our website.

The Chicago Police Department is touting improvements to police community relations and say that that while there is work to do progress is real.

That's one of the messages coming out of our W t Tw Town Hall meeting in Pilsen at the historic Talya Hall last night.

An audience of community members from around the city heard from an interactive with panelists, including community leaders and activists in academic in the director of the Chicago Police Department's community policing effort.

Glenn Brookes.

The conversation was civil but passionate.

Most of the discussion centered on how residents and law enforcement can work together to create a safer city.

Brooks said efforts to bring community policing to the forefront are improving.

>> We are now president throughout the department were in the room.

We are part of the decision-making, whether its policy, whether it's training, whether it is implementing our deployment.

All these things are now a part of community policing where they weren't.

So it is definitely improved.

We have a long ways to go.

So let me that's a just cause.

We're improving that.

Were there.

We are nowhere near the finish line.

The ultimate goal here is to have the police and the community continually to work on their safety and determining what that safety looks like.

>> And you can read more about last night's event and see all special coverage of police and policing in Chicago on our website.

Up next, a look at where state budget negotiations stand.

Nick Blumberg joins us live from Springfield 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.

>> Illinois lawmakers gave retiring Senator Durbin a hero's welcome at a joint session in Springfield this afternoon.

Durbin said his career in public life has been an honor ticking off some of his proudest accomplishments while warning of the division's facing the country.

Nic Bloomberg has more on Jarvis address and other developments in Springfield as lawmakers head toward adjournment.

>> brand is Senator Durbin is set to leave office in January after 30 years in the U.S.

Senate.

As we heard at the top of the show, he says that work has genuinely enriched his life during his long career on caught in Congress.

He's worked on a wide array of issues, including one he touched down in his address today.

That sounds almost like it's from another lifetime banning smoking on airplanes also been a longtime advocate for immigration reform, championing the Dream Act as a pathway to citizenship for young people brought to the United States without documents, children.

After years of pushing for that bill with no success, Durbin recalled that one day he picked up the phone and rang up an old friend of his from the U.S.

Senate by the name of Barack Obama moved on to a new position in government.

>> Which was a good one.

He was president of states can you do anything by executive order?

To help the Dreamers?

That's when he came up with DACA.

Dhaka and best helping 900,000.

Young people in America giving them the legal right to work.

Without fear of deportation.

>> Durbin also warned about the danger of political divisions facing the U.S.

arguing that the long tradition of the peaceful transfer of power has been under threat in recent years.

And that election integrity could be under attack in the upcoming midterms.

>> Debates in Congress and contest in our courts indicate this next election.

May be challenged in ways we have never seen before in our history.

Abraham Lincoln, a house divided speech to the game here in Springfield.

Gave a grim morning that the divisions in America over issues, slavery could destroy our nation.

We see similar divisions today.

>> addition to celebrating German's career, of course, lawmakers have a long list of items to accomplish before they're set to adjourn on Sunday.

What we know about where the budget stands.

well as is often the case.

Folks here and expect it might go right down to the wire.

We heard earlier this month from Governor Pritzker's budget office.

They're expecting 173 million dollars less in revenue in the coming fiscal year than originally predicted.

So that means lawmakers already facing a tight budget really don't have a lot of wiggle now, the budget that the governor proposed in February floated an array of new sources of cash, including a proposed fee on large social media firms and changes to gambling taxes.

>> But we heard earlier today from a group of Republican budget tears in the Senate.

They said that new taxes are going to hurt Illinois residents and warned that a last-minute budget just doesn't give legislators enough time to parse the spending plan >> Instead of making Illinois more competitive, these ideas move us in opposite direction.

Our Illinois families are already stretched thin and they do not want higher taxes.

>> And of course, has been a lot of attention this session on the possibility of so-called mega projects bill aimed at keeping the Bears in Illinois.

Where does that stand >> That's right.

That measure cleared the House last month and it's now in the hands of the state Senate.

And there's the possibility that there could be some pretty significant changes.

The original proposal would allow for large-scale developments like in Arlington Heights Stadium to lock in property tax rates for 40 years.

Crain's Chicago Business reporting today that some lawmakers are considering narrowing the scope of the bill in order to garner the necessary votes.

heard one of the lead negotiators on that Mega Project, Bill Representative, Kam Buckner of Chicago.

He was pushing back on reports from the Cook County Treasurer's Office that found this mega project measure would give Bears an estimated 30 mine.

39 million dollars in annual property.

Tax savings.

But that the benefit to taxpayers would be potentially Now responding to that report, Buckner said, quote, You can't count full tax revenue from a project that doesn't exist.

May never get financed.

May get tied up in court for May go to another state.

The real choice is not full taxes versus reduce taxes.

The real choice is a negotiated payment on a real project or from taxes on an empty lot.

Obviously going to be a lot of interest into whether they can get that bill into the endzone Brandis.

course, the clock is ticking.

thanks so And you can catch Nick, more of Nic's coverage of the legislative session in Springfield by visiting our website.

That's Wt Tw dot com slash news.

>> The redistricting battle that began in Texas last year continues to have ripple effects across the nation just this week, redistricting effort in South Carolina stalled out while a map and Alabama faces a legal challenge.

But lawmakers in Florida and Tennessee have successfully adopted new congressional maps.

Some of these efforts have been made easier, though, since the U.S.

Supreme Court ruling in Louisiana versus Kelly.

That weekend, key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Joining us with more on this now, our Conor Cozy check program counsel at the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and the Midwest Voting Rights Project.

And John Mark Hanson, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago.

Thanks to you both for joining us.

Marcus, starting with you first.

Even before the recent Supreme Court decision, there were states that we're looking at mid-decade redistricting and we kind of mentioned it at the top starting in Texas.

But remind us, if you would, of how this all got started.

You got started really in Texas.

>> And President Trump really sort of press them to redistrict in the middle of the decade he thinking about how he result in some additional members from the Republican Party thinking that since he had done better than he had before in Texas and particularly with Latino voters that there might be opportunity to pick up more Republican seats in Texas.

>> Connor, explain for us if you would.

The Supreme Court's finding in Louisiana versus Kelly.

>> Yeah, this was a decision that eviscerated section 2 of the Federal Voting Rights Act which is often referred to as the crown jewel of the civil rights movement.

The federal DRA protects against vote dilution, which is unfair districts that prevent communities of color from electing the candidates of their choice.

And in Louisiana versus Cal.

A U.S.

Supreme Court said that state or local governments creating maps.

Essentially can assert that they did not intentionally racially discriminate and making those maps and instead can use partisan goals.

Even if there's a racially discriminatory consequence in creating those maps and this this decision, but Supreme Court, it's also, you know, it comes after a couple of other Supreme Court decisions regarding the Voting Rights Act that all together.

>> What would you say?

The status or is it a shell of itself before after all, these decisions by the Supreme Court?

Yeah, it's a big bill that includes many pieces.

But over the course of the last decade in particular, it has been chipped away at and fully got it depending on the provision.

How does the shape of a district how does that affect the voting power voters half?

It's really significant.

Thurs a number of factors that go into the map itself.

But the communities that are included within a district determines who is voting on specific elected representatives in shape, the outcomes of those elections, a marker.

There are other examples of mid-decade redistricting throughout history that you could name.

For a There was there were several states in the 1960's who had to read which had to redistrict there.

>> Their congressional delegations because the Voting Rights Act, actually many of them in the south.

They tried to evade and of course and allow them to do so from one that serve touched off a lot of kind competitive partisan redistricting was mid-decade redistricting.

That isn't in Texas in the 2 thousands that was instigated by Tom DeLay, who is yes representative from Texas from the Houston area and who was the minority in the U.S.

house at the time the Republicans did very, very well in 2002 in the midterm elections in the state legislature and so an opportunity to change map that have been drawn the Democrats.

And after the 2000 census and to turn into much more effective mat for the Republicans, it was very, very successful.

So it's it's happen from time to Usually when there are legal things that need to be addressed.

But increasingly it's become an extension of partisan warfare.

>> Connor, earlier this year, there was an attempt to draw a new map and Indiana.

What happened there?

Yeah.

There was intense pressure from the current presidential administration for Indiana to redraw its maps.

And we saw significant pushback from voters and non-partisan organizations that resisted an unfair mapping process.

And you also saw a number of Republican elected officials in the Indiana Senate and House in addition to Democrats pushed back forcefully against that stopping process from happening this year.

Mark just yesterday, a proposed map in Alabama was overturned by a district court.

Bring it bring us up to speed on what's happening there.

>> understand it is that this was a case that actually written Alabama couple years ago in 2023, the state legislature draw during new districts as a result of of the 2020 census and drew them in such a way that there remain only a majority African-American district in the state.

a federal court.

A federal appeals court ruled that get deluded African-American voting power and was illegal under the Voting Rights Act.

That case was actually taken by the United States Supreme Court, which actually upheld a challenge and it didn't immediately call it didn't immediately forced Alabama do the redistricting.

But but it did require Alabama to do a second map.

That second map was then also ruled out of bounds by a federal district And there was a second African-American district created in Alabama.

And it's that same panel.

Let's district court that ruled recently that.

are just a few days that the map is in violation, not just the Voting Rights Act.

Voting Rights Act interpreted in the most recent decision in Calais.

>> And of course, you know, there's a lot of focus on how the decisions and how the redistricting will impact the representation of black voters in particular.

And there's reason for that, right?

The civil rights movement was to obtain rights.

Of course, for African-Americans in this country.

But what other voters does, the Voting Rights Act still protect?

>> Well, the Voting Rights has been extended as well to no voters.

And so you know, African American representation in the U.S.

House Representatives increased over time in markedly in state legislatures as well.

That's that's the other.

I think that we ought to be talking about.

The same has been true of that.

He knows Hispanics as so those protections are also so by the boards now that the Supreme Court has ruled in that ruled such efforts are are out of bounds.

>> Connor, can Illinois or any other states do anything on their own to uphold some of the provisions of the Voting Rights Act?

Yeah, absolutely.

As you mentioned, it has been over a decade of federal court decisions chipping away and getting the Federal Voting Rights Act response to that, many states have enacted state equivalence that secure or strengthen protections under the federal Vra.

>> Illinois currently has a bill introduced sponsored by Senator Garcia like on the Illinois Voting Rights Act of 2026 Senate Bill.

3170 that seeks to secure those protections for voters in Illinois against voter suppression tight leash and those on fair districts and also expanding language access for voters whose first language isn't English.

>> Mark, we've got just 30 seconds.

But, you know, could all of this redistricting and redrawing could backfire for either party?

>> Well, as in yes, and probably more likely for the Republicans.

The Democrats, the problem with what President Trump went ahead with was that it it proceeded on the assumption that all of the votes that he won in 2024. places like Texas stay Republican, which is completely crazy idea because circumstances change.

incumbent president hand.

Thank you vote on consent great and sometimes districts themselves can change.

That is where we'll have to leave it.

I'm sure something that the 2 of you and we will be keeping an eye on for the next less than 6 months.

Carter has his second.

John Mark Hanson, thank you both for joining >> Up next, exploring grief and the value of life in a production at Steppenwolf Theater.

>> A son lost in a clash with the police.

A huge cash settlement on the table and the father torn between staying put in Chicago.

We're starting a new that all too real dilemma is what underpins the play windfall.

new work written by Oscar-winning Steppenwolf Ensemble member Terrell Alvin McCraney and it's a work that McCranie says he didn't take on lightly.

Nic Blumberg recently brought us the story.

Here's another look.

>> It's that someone lived here Kuz had criminal record.

>> I did stupid, but it >> Windfall was commissioned as part of Steppenwolf Theatre's 50th anniversary season.

And it's the first play written specifically for its ensemble theatre with the audience seated in the round and immersive experience that befits the play's emotional weight.

>> The money, It's all Cast member Glenn Davis is also Steppenwolf Co-artistic director, along with Audrey Francis.

Usually actors don't run theater companies.

I think here at Steppenwolf because it's an ensemble theatre made up mostly of actors.

We also have directors.

>> Writers, but we started as an acting company and very much still it is identical today among the cast Davis, Alana Arenas and Jon Michael Hill, all of whom appeared in Twenty-twenty Four's purpose, which opened at Steppenwolf and eventually moved to Broadway, winning the 2025, Tony, for best play.

>> The Secret weapon of step of our fun say is the fact that you have these relationships that of traverse time and space over so many years.

>> Including Davis's relationship with fellow ensemble member and windfall playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney.

>> Not only my best friend but also.

One of the great drama NCIS of his generation often talk about the spiritual aspects of theater that we come into a room and we believe together and therefore something act of faith is happening.

In this play.

We're interrogating what we believe and I we believe as a society, more than anything that money.

>> Coors more things and we'd like to admit Glen Davis told us that this was the play.

You said you were most afraid to write most anxious about why was that?

>> Money is the thing that some people say the root of all evil is based on that started about.

Here.

I was wanting to make a play about the ways in which money are attributed to black bodies, particularly those who are harmed by the city.

>> The challenging material appealed to longtime New York based actor Michael Potts who is making his Steppenwolf debut.

I wanted to work here for a very, very time.

was wondering why at math?

>> take it.

>> What drew you to this role?

I love.

Puzzles and I love this is kind of.

So he's created about this character about these characters of and the store.

And how it fits in the human experience.

>> The play's infused with the joy of community, the joy of tackling something to gather.

Actor Alana Arenas has no McCranie since high school and the Arts Community Center in Miami.

They both went on to study at the Paul where they met Glen Davis.

>> Maybe more than once our directors looked at us and had to say to have this every 2 there's a lot of there's a lot playfulness and the room.

But it's it's.

>> Cozy, you know, like the old comforting sweater.

As I we have not done anything wrong and do not admit to doing anything.

Terrell is very masterful in knowing that we need to have a serious conversation.

But choosing a tone that makes it palatable for us to all engaged.

>> Stephen Wolf has previously staged several of muck.

Rainey's works.

He's also well known as the writer of the Oscar-winning film Moonlight Adapted from one of his own plays.

>> We just saw Ryan Coogler join a club that you're a part black artists recognized with a screenplay Oscar.

What did it feel like to see him up there on that stage?

All man.

>> I Yeah, it was.

It was extraordinary.

It was extraordinary.

And the way in which he holes his community so close.

>> And that he's a leader in the community felt it was astonishing to see.

>> As Stephen Wolf marks its 50th season, the artist working on windfall are cognizant of the history they're carrying on and helping right.

>> initial group of ensemble members who started in the Mid 70's.

They've played husband and wife, brother and sister brother on brother, father signed mother daughter.

All the things over 50 years now and so to be even know someone that well is a gift.

>> For Chicago tonight, I'm Nick Blumberg.

>> And windfall runs through May 31st.

And that's our show for this Wednesday 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, 30 10.

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

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> Closed caption made possible by Robert a cliff and Clifford law, Chicago, personal injury and wrongful