WBEZ’s Weekly News Recap, November 13, 2026

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

The Chicago Immigration Hub is your one-stop shop for the city's most comprehensive immigration coverage. Get news and resources from 15 local organizations, including WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times at suntimes.com/immigrationhub.

SPEAKER_2 (0:18)

For the first time since reconstruction, Mississippi will have a black senator. History in Mississippi, happiness in Chicago.

SPEAKER_3 (0:25)

What motivated a group of local Democrats to push out Emmanuel Chris Welch as the Speaker of Illinois House.

SPEAKER_4 (0:31)

A hunt for a new Speaker of the House is on. Democrats right now are circling a few names, with many now seeing an opportunity for Illinois to have its first ever woman holding the gavel.

SPEAKER_5 (0:42)

Yet another developer laying out plans for a potential new expanded site to try to keep the Chicago Bears in Chicago.

Mariah Wolfel (0:50)

Hey Chicago, I'm Mariah Wolfel and this is In the Loop.

We're breaking down the biggest stories of the week in our Weekly News Recap. The finalists are announced for Chicago's Police Superintendent as the budget battle between Mayor Brandon Johnson and City Council continues. Plus, the city's first self-cleaning toilet debuts in Wicker Park and floating hot tubs return to the Chicago River.

SPEAKER_7 (1:21)

Dead on arrival. That's what 28 Alders announced today when it comes to Mayor Brandon Johnson's proposed budget.

SPEAKER_8 (1:27)

I'm calling on City Council to provide us with some ideas.

Alex Degman (1:30)

The mayor needs 26 votes to get his budget through.

SPEAKER_7 (1:33)

Three finalists have been announced in the search for Chicago's next Police Superintendent.

SPEAKER_10 (1:37)

Mayor Brandon Johnson has 30 days to choose one of the three.

SPEAKER_8 (1:41)

Mayor Brandon Johnson's petitions were officially challenged, meaning he will have to undergo a Board of Election hearing to see if he can remain on the ballot.

Mariah Wolfel (1:50)

We're going to get into the Weekly News Recap in a few minutes. But before we do, Alex Degman, WBEZ anchor and reporter, was one of our panelists today. And he joins us now. Hello, Alex.

Alex Degman (2:00)

Hey, Mariah.

Mariah Wolfel (2:01)

Alex, you monitored the City Council budget hearing where the controversial ShotSpotter gun detection technology was being debated this week. What did you find out?

Alex Degman (2:09)

Yeah, so this is not normally where you would think something like ShotSpotter would be discussed. But this is the time of year when departments make their budget requests. And Procurement was one of the departments this week. We heard that Mayor Johnson is responding to election results from last week when 72 percent of people said they want gunshot detection technology to come back in some form. So the mayor took that and he now wants to expand in already existing violence prevention pilot. Now originally, this was just going to be a single bit one company type thing. But now all the companies that have been shortlisted can apply and bring what they have to the table. And that means that this could involve more than just gunshot detection, drones, license plate readers, pretty much anything you can think of in the technology field aimed at violence prevention could all be on the table.

Not real clear how this affects the process going forward. It could take six months or more. That just depends on how many people submit proposals.

Mariah Wolfel (3:06)

Something to watch. I'm glad you could stop by to fill us in, but there's so much more news to get to. Let's dive in. Thanks again, Alex.

Also at the table to help make sense of this week's news was Monica Eng, Axios Chicago Reporter, Quinn Myers, Block Club Chicago Reporter, covering Wicker Park, West Town and Bucktown. The mayor's chief financial officer resigned this morning just three months into the job and in the middle of a contentious budget process. Quinn kicked us off with more details.

Alex Degman (3:42)

This is the mayor's CFO, and we are in the middle of budget season, and not just any budget season, a very contentious one, just like last year, where a majority of the city council has said the mayor's budget is dead on arrival. They're opposing his corporate head tax and a slew of other proposals that he's made. The mayor was hoping that Gavrish was going to help sell this budget to Alderman, and that has not really happened. And now she is out the door already. She was only hired in August. This has been a revolving door this whole year. Bill Jaworski, the mayor's long time CFO, left in January. Her acting replacement left in July.

So this is not a good look for the Johnson administration. It's just huge.

Monica Eng (4:19)

And not just any budget season, but also a budget season ahead of elections. I mean, for a CFO to essentially accuse someone of asking her to not tell the truth about the city's finances just a couple months before the election, that's huge.