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

I'm John of non this Brandis Friedman will join us later.

Here's what we're looking at.

Candidates for U.S.

Senate Juliana Stratton and on Tracy talk, affordability, immigration, health care and more in our forum later tonight.

We have a preview.

The work being done to break the cycle of incarceration at North Lawndale.

>> Well, we're walk or drive the bane of uninitiated.

Chicago motorist.

It's one of the most confusing roadways in Chicago.

We explain how lower Wacker Drive came to be.

>> It doesn't just helping with a pair bike skills or whatever.

But I hopefully like problem solving confidence.

>> And from repairing bikes to welding metal, a local organization is giving Chicago teens new skills and confidence.

First off tonight to call is going to begin testing a new gunshot detection system of the next 2 weeks.

A top aide to Mayor Brandon Johnson and formed a city council committee of those plans today.

The system will be tested in the 6 police districts on the south and west side of the city.

Mayor Johnson faced pushback from some city council members since he scrapped a contract with the controversial gunshot detection system.

Shotspotter 2 years ago.

That's despite Chicago homicides hitting a 60 year low in 2025. the first full year without ShotSpotter.

one person is in custody after shots were fired near the Clemson ski federal building in downtown Chicago early this morning.

Police say a man was seen firing a gun around 04:30AM.

no one was hurt.

But a nearby building sustained minor damage.

Officers took the man into custody and say they recovered a firearm.

As of now charges are pending the federal building houses several agencies, including the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security.

It also houses offices for both U.S.

Senators Durbin and Tammy Duckworth.

We're told investigation remains ongoing.

2 Chicago public schools have been named the top elementary schools in Illinois, according to a new ranking from U.S.

News and World Report, Edison Regional Gifted Center in Albany Park and Skinner, North Elementary School on the near North Side ranked first and second in the state for the second consecutive year.

The ranking evaluate student performance in math and reading along with other factors that measure academic achievement in the school effectiveness.

CBS has a total 5 schools in the state's top 10, including color elementary Hawthorne Elementary Scholastic Academy and Decatur, Classic Elementary school.

Coming up, some of what you can expect at tonight's U.S.

Senate friend is Freeman joins us with a preview next.

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

The Joyce Foundation.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donuts.

>> And 2 weeks, voters will finally make their decision on who will become the next U.S.

senator from Illinois, Republican and former State Party chair Don Tracy and Democrat and current Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton are both on the ballot.

The winner will replace long term.

Democrat Durbin, who's retiring after 30 years in office and both candidates are joining us tonight at 08:00PM for A W T Tw News for him.

Our brand is Freeman joins us now with more on what we can expect tonight.

Brand what are some of the issues here.

So lots to get to tonight.

Of course, Joanna anyone, you know who is running for public office this campaign season, affordability is going to be pretty high on their list.

So we're going to talk about gas prices and inflation and housing tariffs.

>> But we also have to get into health care, education, trust in public institutions is kind of come up in conversation tonight as we did last week when we spoke with the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor are we're also including questions from our colleagues in downstate Carbondale and Peoria with questions about issues that are especially important to folks in other parts of the state.

Not just Chicago and also like last week, Wbtw News is, you know, we're hosting the only forum that the candidates in this race are doing this season.

So there really is a lot to get to.

Brenda, tell us more about the candidates.

What are they running on?

So Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, she has been running a campaign that emphasizes Congress's responsibility to serve as a check on the White House.

Here's what she said to that effect when she joined us just after the March primary.

>> But I heard every single day on the campaign trail that people were frustrated with what was happening in Washington.

They felt that there was too much of a sort of go along to get along mentality.

And what I heard from people when I asked what they were looking for in their next United States senator is I'm looking for someone who will go to the mat fighting for me who will stand up and hold this president accountable as we are watching him systematically attempt to dismantle our democracy.

Stratton is a Chicago and here she is today campaigning a bit before doing her early voting.

>> On the issues she talks about holding corporate interests accountable, raising the federal minimum wage to $25 a tax cut for the middle class and getting out of what she calls President Trump's trade war.

Her critics will say her positions aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America.

And while her views are on the progressive end of the political spectrum, Stratton herself does not identify as Socialists are.

what about the Republican nominee, Don Tracy?

So Don Tracy from Central Illinois, he argues that communities from outside the Chicago area deserve a stronger voice in Washington and he believes the diversity of his experience, both professionally and in politics makes him an ideal candidate.

Here he is on Chicago tonight.

Also after the March primary.

>> You need to have citizen participation.

and the private sector for on many decades and lawyer more decades than I care to admit.

also been in business and I owned and operated my own small business times when I had to struggle to put food on the table and make payroll at the same time.

But I think we're the hardest and most important all human endeavors is is politics.

And I feel like I've got the skill set that being a lawyer and having succeeded in business as well.

>> Tracy says he wants to lower the cost of living, including taxes, energy costs, inflation and healthcare expenses he supports securing the border, enforcing immigration laws, reducing government regulation.

Of course, he faces an uphill fight in this race.

No Republican has won statewide office in Illinois in 12 years.

Price can you remind people when they can see the form?

Very important question.

Joanna, glad you asked tonight at 08:00PM right here on W T Tw as well as our Facebook and YouTube pages.

And of course W t Tw Dot com hours again, it's the only form in this race.

So some of our fellow public broadcasting stations, both radio and television, they're going to be carrying this around the state and it'll be available in Spanish tomorrow night as well.

Awesome.

good luck.

Thank you all And we're back with more right after this.

>> A >> newly released report is shedding light on the impact of the cycle of incarceration in North Lawndale on the city's west side.

The report is a collaboration with the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois, Chicago in the North Lawndale Employment Network.

It highlights structural barriers facing people who are formerly incarcerated and details what it takes to improve outcomes.

Joining us now are Leslie Williams program graduate in men and maintenance technician at the North Lawn to Employment network.

That is a Cordova director of the Great Cities Institute University of Illinois, Chicago and Brenda Palms president and CEO of the North Lawndale Employment Network.

Thank you, ladies for joining us.

Theresa, I want to start with you.

Let's get straight to the report briefly.

What did it find?

>> Well, we know, for example, that if there's a refusal to hire formerly incarcerated people is going to result in higher rates of unemployment and with higher rates of unemployment that's going to directly cycles of poverty when she trigger those cycles of poverty than precinct, the likelihood re incarceration and that re incarceration, of course, comes with the human cost.

That comes from a cause to individuals, their families, their household to their neighborhood.

But it also has the fiscal cost.

And so every time that we incarcerate someone, for example, Casa, Illinois $45,000 per inmate.

And if you take that and you look at the 20,170 5 the 20,715 with vendors just from North Lawndale.

And you look at that over 20 year period, you're talking about 1 billion dollars being spent over 2 decades around the that money on on incarceration.

I think what the report shows better spent on social enterprise such as the work being done we as we beginnings at birth and them.

>> Theresa, I am going to circle back about the Thank you for bringing that up.

Leslie, I want to go to you.

You are incarcerated for 23 years for a murder conviction.

You were 19 at the time.

What was the biggest challenge you faced when you returned home?

>> Employment and housing.

Tell me more about that.

But was there during like increase in Carson when I was incarcerated.

I gained all this experience and it all this cooling.

And I thought that it would be easy.

Once came home to get employment.

You know, it's that kind of want to start off on my own.

Without any help and so.

I had all this experience, but it didn't matter because they always did background checks.

And of course, I was on parole.

And so nobody was willing to hire me except for like warehouses.

And this is not what I wanted to do.

I'd eat it.

You know, because I needed money at the time.

But it was something that was it was dangerous.

So those are dangerous type jobs.

And so came North Lawndale employment at work.

>> Plus-a how did how did that make you feel?

>> I was discouraged.

I was that that was a press.

That one point.

>> Brenda, I want to talk about how you start the Northland employment at work.

You started more than 25 years ago.

You know what was a vision?

>> I'm actually the stakeholder or trustee, if you will, of the residents of North Lawndale, the Stains Family Foundation whose reused who's really use a pioneering approach to play space philanthropy came out and asked a community one of the most pressing issues that you're facing and how can we help?

And 2 things came up.

Housing and employment.

And so the idea was there were efforts around housing taking place, but there wasn't strategic target effort around workforce development.

So I had the pleasure of being recruited and hired to establish the North Lawn implement network as a result of the community coming together to say we don't want to be listed as the neighborhood with the highest unemployment rate.

We want to work hard.

Our residents are seeking employment and they're having difficulty.

And so for me, it an honor to be invited to work in North Lawndale 20 5 plus years ago.

To help address the high issues of unemployment.

And of course, what I learned through commissioning a study at the time.

Why is the unemployment rate in North Lawndale higher than other neighborhoods?

came to learn that it was due to the high rate of mass incarceration and that 57% of the adults in our community have had some involvement with the criminal justice system.

And so it was clear to me, then it wasn't that there was a lack of will to work much like Leslie said she wanted to work.

She expected to come back into her into the neighborhood into her community to work.

But the jobs weren't there primarily because of the stigma.

The south end up having a criminal record.

And so we knew we needed to do something to help individuals who are returning back to their neighborhoods by creating jobs by providing job training and then eventually launching a social enterprise business that would hire them.

>> And I do want to talk about some of those programs.

Leslie, you're a graduate of a program call at the network called Empowered.

Now, How did that proud program help you rebuild your life and move forward?

>> Well, apparent now is like a page training.

And so the first paycheck got, I want to get a bank account.

Because I know moving forward like you, you, that's how you pay most of your bills.

And everything was on.

My was an online before out with to jail.

So I had to learn how to navigate online is They tell me about had are not come here.

I wouldn't have even on how to set up his own, you know, like small things like got my credit up through North London for the network.

I learned how to write my own grants from all company didn't build it.

Yeah.

Just just that.

that are needed.

>> Says that changed her life in a way.

always I will forever be grateful to officer down the at work.

And Theresa, the report says you did talk about it on the correctional calls for people in North Lawndale.

re offend exceed 1 billion over 2 decades.

What does that tell us about the cost of this cycle and what makes an effective re-entry program?

>> Those are great questions the B. First all, it tells us that we all bear that cost.

And so there is an impact for everyone.

And therefore, it's really an all of our interest that there's also solutions to it so that I think that's an important than until and it really poses a question for us.

Are there better ways to spend that money?

And the answer to that is yes, there are because because if we invested in a program has a high success rate of reducing recidivism rate.

Then that proves that this is money.

It's better spent in investing not only the individuals in this thing and the organizations that support those individuals and in this in the commute surrounds him, particularly when you look community like court likes North Lawndale, for example, when folks come back into the community after having been incarcerated.

They're coming back to situation where high rates of poverty wow, an a rate of employment, high rates of unemployment, low median income read the educational attainment is lower than the Chicago Avenue.

All of those conditions make it even more difficult.

So that part of what you want to do is you want to build the community itself by reducing the poverty, increasing employment opportunities, improving educations time people indication simultaneously having us a question about what makes for good social Enterprise effort.

And that's one of the things I so great to celebrate North Lawndale Employment network today because is first of it's helping them.

As Leslie mentioned, getting the training, getting the access.

But it is also providing them those wrap-around services that they need.

We know that we examine people.

That's our goal to join >> No sorry.

Didn't mean to cut you off.

But we have time for one last question.

I want to get to Brenda really quickly, no, Brenda, what's the message you have for employers who may be reluctant to hire someone with the can criminally background?

It seems you've 27 years and this you've been putting in the work in in the neighborhood.

You know, what is that message to >> messages we understand that there may be certain sectors, different types of industries where the the regulations will not allow you to hire a person who has a criminal background.

We understand that.

So it's not that everyone can, but you can do something differently and that will have a positive impact on the men and women that are coming out of the system and that is what other social enterprises offer.

A service.

We are.

We have a market driven.

We are market driven solution to mass incarceration through the production of our honey and honey.

If you skin care products under the beloved brand.

So what you can do is for be love, honey and T. In your break room, be love gifts for your VIP.

Stand for the holidays for your employees.

Invest in the products that we make because when you invest in the products that we make, you're investing in creating jobs for folks that need a fair chance.

Our Brenda.

>> we're going leave it at that.

And I apologize.

I know there's so much more to get to.

But thank you for that insight.

>> Please check out their website for the report.

Yeah.

Well, you know >> Thank you Theresa Leslie and Brenda.

Thank next, we explain the history behind one of Chicago's most confusing roadways.

>> Reflecting the people and perspectives that make a buck This story is part of Chicago tonight.

Black Voice.

>> Nightmarish a portal to disappointment.

The Bermuda Triangle of Chicago.

Lower Wacker Drive has a lot of haters and a lot of diehard fans who say the learning curve is worth zipping along underneath clogged downtown streets.

So how exactly did we end up with this divisive divided roadway which was officially opened 100 years ago today.

Nick Blumberg explains.

>> The streets of Chicago.

Sure the traffic can get rough, but with the exception of some pesky diagonal, that these that's a nice orderly grid and easy to navigate, except, of course, for lower Wacker Drive the pain of the uninitiated.

Chicago motorist it's There simply is no picnic, either.

Daniel Burnham of make no little plans.

Fame first envisioned and dual level roadway along the riverfront in his 19, 0, 9, city designed by Burnham's collaborator, Edward Bennett.

The idea was to create a double decker roadway aimed at relieving riverfront congestion.

It replaced the existing water street crowded hub for produce sellers and other wholesalers whose market would be looted over to the near West side.

The duplex design found a major champion in the chair of the Chicago Plan Commission.

That would be one Mister Charles Walker who help sell the plan as vital to the city's future.

Construction started in 1924.

And it was a massive feat.

Buildings along the river were demolished.

Hundreds of work next steam shovel excavators wreckers and lifters dug in and built a retaining walls to hold back the river.

New sewer lines carved out of the ground.

Tens of thousands of square yards of asphalt and granite block crews excavated so much dirt get cover a full city block and stood 75 feet high.

All told it racked up a bill of more than 20 million dollars.

Some 375 million bucks in today's money.

Ahead of that October 1926.

Opening the Chicago Tribune waxed Rhapsodic calling a sham in this city's front yard.

Sure, Chicago zone ovation Fields was extended a few times in the 20th century before getting a much-needed overhaul and modernization in the early 2, thousands and of course, being immortalized in film by a certain caped crusader in 2008 while some drivers bemoan the dark lower drive, others embrace it as a sort locals only short.

>> What are fear at the massive undertaking is still one of a kind and undoubtedly among the projects that shaped the downtown Chicago.

We know today.

>> Look at much a car when every time I go down there, I feel like I'm gonna get lost.

And forget about your GPS.

Never works again.

Low record drive opened on this state 100 years ago.

Up next, empowering young people with bikes day with us.

Team takeovers remain a hot topic in Chicago and across the country as officials and residents debate how to combat the large gatherings.

Second turned violent.

One argument is that kids need more opportunities to access productive outlets.

A local organization is taking a hands-on approach by teaching young people, new skills while also building their confidence.

We recently brought you the story.

Here's another look.

Inside workshop.

Lessons found in textbooks.

>> They're learned by hand We're going back to fancy school will is teaching Chicago teens how to repair and build bicycles while helping them build confidence along the way, teaching them how to empower themselves through cycling through the mechanics of light.

>> I don't know how to do is is like no.

You don't know how to do it yet.

>> The bikes in Rose's program operates out of a shop in Belmont Cragin.

Eighteen-year-old Kevin Keatts be has been part of the program for 4 years old by us here.

I don't.

And we have because Bill time.

>> We I we I we even have open shop every Thursday where we have kids coming from the community.

Kloza communities come by.

We all work together fix and buy it.

Some kids how to fix or buy.

>> 15 year-old David Earl, the Tegus says the program has helped him step out of his comfort zone in the sun.

Just help with Mike schools or whatever.

But I >> hopefully like problem solving confidence.

We try to be a better person like try better ourselves raised in Pilsen.

Rubio says he understands firsthand.

>> How the right mentor can change a young person's path myself and my boss, David, we kind of see the positive nus of like working with your hands and seen something to be really rough and you'll be able to polish it.

>> Bikes and roses is one of several free programs under communities.

United Workbench Project initiative giving young people a chance to explore trades like bike mechanics, woodworking in welding along the way.

Many participants are in a financial stipend for a paycheck.

>> These programs are completely essential for these communities where we're at now with schools not getting appropriate funding after-school programs being cut or not having enough of them.

These programs offer young people something to do in the summers and outside of school, but also an opportunity to learn in a different way.

>> Just a few miles away in the Austin neighborhood.

Sparks are flying as another group of teens were into different rates.

>> A lot of we all come together and work together.

Everybody is hopeful com Inslee.

>> I do think it's good scale to have because they say this technically like a job and I'm like thinking like all it's kind of like prepare me for like the future.

We >> Instructor Sophia Lopez says the goal isn't just teaching students how to Weld.

She says it's about teaching them how to work through challenges.

I really do try to reinforce that whether it's like the machines not working or I can't get this to work in a certain way.

Giving them the tools and the confidence to pause.

Take a second.

What do I know right now and how can I fix >> We want young people to leave this program with an understanding of how they can build their own narratives.

And so despite what other people have told them.

There's a lot of time to grow who you are as an individual.

>> Whether its repairing a biker welding metal.

These mentors hope the teenagers leave with aren't just technical.

>> live in low-income areas.

There's also still some gang activities.

So it's kind of like the more that we teach them how to build community amongst themselves and look out for each other is like a real benefit.

If there's people struggling out there, think they don't have anybody talk to are like.

>> They're alone in the world.

Like find yourself a program like this and like it will really change minds about the whole world.

>> Bikes and roses is also helping expand access to bicycles in the community.

The teenagers are repairing and donating bikes and giving them to people who need them.

And that's our show for this Tuesday night.

Join us tonight at 08:00PM as Juliana Stratton and on Tracy Face off in the only U.S.

Senate for him.

From all of us here, Chicago tonight, I'm joined at 9 this.

Thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe and we'll see you at 8 tonight.

>> Closed captioning is made possible by Robert a cliff and Clifford law offices, personal injury, law firm.

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