might be the mid 80's outside, but they're feeling a deep freeze at City Hall this week Mayor Brandon Johnson announces a hiring freeze.

>> To help close a big budget gap.

The mayor's belt tightening strategy comes amid a record-breaking jury award in a wrongful conviction.

Lawsuits here with all that and more is our spotlight.

Politics team Amanda Finicky, header, Sharon and Nick Blumberg.

And there may or may not be a presidential debate tonight that have details.

So but let's start with the city because in a statement today, Mayor Johnson and or I guess a statement from his budget director yesterday, the city announced cost-cutting measures to deal with the city's massive budget gap.

Heather saving strategies that stood out to you so they are not going to find 223 million dollars in savings from putting a hiring freeze on and curtailing overtime.

That's not how this works, but it will send a message right that this is a very serious financial crisis and that the city >> is prepared to tighten its belt before it asks taxpayers to dig into their pockets a little bit deeper.

It also sends, I think a message to the Chicago Public School district because most of this year's budget is because they refuse to make 175 million dollar pension payment.

So this is a little bit perhaps of game gamesmanship telling CPS, Hey, you didn't do this.

And now there's a consequence and it's going to be a little bit of back and forth for the next couple of months.

Maybe they'll find a 223 million dollars in couch cushions.

I mean, I should start looking to any idea how long this hiring freeze and over time limits glass.

So I think at least until the end of the year because the city has to sort of get this year's budget out of the black by December And they've got to deal with a 982 million dollar projected deficit for 2025.

Also by the end of the year.

So until that is all figured out, the city is going to put away the credit card for a little while.

Nick, do you think this could be just the first of more belt tightening moves down the road?

Absolutely.

I mean, in the mayor's budget forecast, they laid out a bunch of different options trying to find operational expenses that they could pay for with grants.

>> Obviously cuts to programs and services to talking about delaying certain project.

But, you know, the issue here is that there are only so many things you can do.

You can institute a freeze.

You can raise, you know, taxes and fees.

You can issue bonds.

You can refinance debt.

You can sell assets, but you only get to sell them once.

And as we saw with the parking meter deal that can be very unpopular.

So there's not a lot on the table.

And state aid isn't looking particularly likely.

It sounds like Yannick asked the governor about this today because there has been this notion.

Well, all right.

Well, we'll ask the state both to on the city side as well as coming up with additional money for CPS, something that we've heard.

The mayor.

>> The teachers union president clamor for and the governor really making clear that gonna be happening.

He said, first of all, he has not yet been asked by the Johnson administration.

>> No request been made but he said the notion that this city's it is going to receive supplemental funding from Illinois.

It can happen.

Not happening, One thing that is adding to the city's expenses, of course, those paying settlements and jury awards for law enforcement misconduct.

Heather?

>> The jury awarding a record breaking amount to a man who was wrongfully convicted or wrongfully imprisoned for 10 years.

Tell us about this case.

So this case dates all the way back to 2008 where in 18 year-old man, Marcella Brown was arrested and convicted in connection with a murder.

Now he says that he wasn't that that he didn't fire the gun and that he didn't know who did.

But he ended up implicating himself in the case after being interrogated for more than 5 hours and being held for more than 36 hours, even as his mother hired an attorney and tried to get that attorney in to speak with him that led to his conviction being overturned and him getting a certificate of innocence.

And this led to this massive jury verdict, which is significantly more than really any other verdict.

We've seen involving a single plaintive, for example, the most recent wrongful conviction settlement approved by the City council was for 22 million dollars.

And that man had spent decades in prison.

So this case really illustrates the stark just roll of the dice that the city takes windy, take these kind of cases to federal juries because any lawyer will tell you I'm not a lawyer but sometimes play Sure will tell you never quite know what a jury is going to do now that the city's law department says they're assessing their options.

They can certainly appeal an attempt to negotiate a settlement that will sort of end this litigation.

However, the last time the city lost a case like this, that jury verdict of 21 million dollars was And a TNT executive Paul Scott says trial began today.

Water prosecutors alleging and how might his his trial impact Madigan trial?

all has to do with bribery surrounding Madigan, allegedly in policy as a says that he is not guilty of this.

But >> he basically is accused funneling money.

Let's say a ghost payroll to a lobbyist really to curry favor with the former Illinois House speaker as last year as I was seeking legislation that was ultimately passed, became law over a veto by then Governor Ron Bruce Rauner.

That would save 18 millions of dollars by no longer mandating that they keep up land lines when they say everybody uses cell phone so they shouldn't have to do that sort of thing.

So what is key in this case is, first of all, just watching what arguments are made here because we know that in October this is going to be something that has brought up in the Megan trial.

It's also key because this is really the first case since the U.S. Supreme Court changed the definitions that were working with in terms of what is considered bribery.

Last again says that he didn't do it under the old definition or the new, but that we're going to have a new instructions.

Really, the jury is going to have to follow.

So this is quite the preview, OK?

So following last week's very tragic school shooting in Georgia, seeing new efforts in Illinois to strengthen gun storage laws in homes with children.

Nick?

>> Update us on this.

It's the Safe firearm storage who's behind it was opposing it.

Well, this is, you an effort from Democrats in the Illinois legislature to tighten the rules right now.

If there's someone 13 or younger guns have to be locked up if they're in the house.

>> There was a measure floated in the spring by Democrats in the General Assembly to say they have to be locked up period that got pushed back from the NRA from the far-right, Illinois Freedom Alliance from the Illinois Sheriffs Association, which also opposed the assault weapons ban.

Now, this has been tweaked to just be, you know, young people, 18 and younger sponsors are hoping to have updated version of the bill ready to go either in the veto session this fall, perhaps in January.

Certainly a lot of attention around this because of the recent school shooting in Georgia.

Also important context to know that, you know, young people dying by firearm.

Suicides is also a huge issue.

There is a Brady Center report from a few years ago that found since 2006 that's been up drastically among boys and young men at a rate far higher than the overall population.

Easy access to firearms being a huge part of that, OK?

So 30 seconds left a little bit of a partisan divide how people are going to view tonight's presidential debate.

Real quick.

I'm just going to throw this out.

You pick it up.

>> Which keeping an eye on the It's going to be the first time for many people to see Kamala Harris and this kind of a debate where she debated back in 2020.

I don't remember 2020.

>> And this, of course, is going to be one-on-one with Donald Trump and he is well known for sort of how he treated Hillary Clinton during the 2016 debates.

So there's going to be clear contrast.

I would imagine provided what got from his last debate with Joe Biden comparison in terms of how he treated.

I'm