WBEZ’s Weekly News Recap: Oct. 23, 2026

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The candidates for the open Illinois Senate seat shared a stage last night.

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A rare opportunity for Illinois voters to see the candidates for US Senate go head to head.

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It's the only faceoff between Democrat Julianna Stratton and Republican Don Tracy.

Shia Kapos (0:44)

Mr. Tracy supports the war in Iran.

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I'm starting to wonder if my opponent is running against me or against the president.

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On the start, they disagreed on the war on Iran, affordability and tariffs.

Sasha-Ann Simons (0:58)

Hey Chicago, I'm Sasha-Ann Simons and this is In the Loop.

It's Friday, so it's time to look back and break down the big stories of the week in our Weekly News Recap. Chicago prepares to test a new gunshot detection system on the city's south and west sides. Governor Pritzker and Illinois' First Lady makes some major election campaign contributions. Plus Mayor Brandon Johnson unveils his 2027 budget proposal.

SPEAKER_8 (1:28)

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson today is laying out his $17.6 billion budget proposal.

Sasha-Ann Simons (1:35)

The mayor is calling it Chicago's fair share budget.

SPEAKER_9 (1:37)

He does face some opposition from the same group of 29 aldermen who helped block his corporate head tax just last year. Now, the mayor brought that tax back in the $17.6 billion budget.

Brandon Johnson (1:49)

90% of the people of Chicago have expressed that in order for us to continue to build the safest, most affordable big city in America, we have to challenge corporations and the ultra wealthy to put more skin in the game. That is hands down what the people of Chicago have called in for. And so my fourth budget continues that effort.

Sasha-Ann Simons (2:08)

We're going to get into the Weekly News Recap in a few minutes. But before we do, Sun-Times investigative reporter Bob Herguth, who's one of our panelists, joins me now. Bob's here to share some alarming allegations against local religious leaders. Hey, Bob.

Bob Herguth (2:21)

Thanks for having me.

Sasha-Ann Simons (2:22)

So you're working on several stories. They're about corruption in religious organizations, including more evidence of predatory behavior by faith leaders. What exactly are the allegations here?

Bob Herguth (2:32)

Well, I'll speak kind of broadly, but, you know, I've written many years, over many years, about the Catholic Church and with the troubles of sex abuse and financial misconduct and among other things. And I'm just digging a little bit more deeply into other faith groups, including the Evangelical Christian world, the Mormon community and even the Orthodox Jewish communities. A little bit more and focusing on some issues there.

Sasha-Ann Simons (3:01)

So covering it for so long, I mean, what have you learned in terms of how this might be prevented? Are there steps that can be taken to, you know, maybe add oversight or put something in place to stop this from happening?

Bob Herguth (3:14)

Well, I mean, I think the first realization is that these problems can transcend faith groups, right? It's not just one denomination or religion or another. It's many, if not most, if not all of them. That's one thing. And then the second thing is a lot of these faith groups are rooted in sort of this foundational element of truth, right? That in Christianity they equate truth to godliness.

And, you know, I think that if faith leaders and congregants understood that more and embraced that more, this element of truth, I think that a lot of the lies and deception and coverups, you know, wouldn't be occurring.

Sasha-Ann Simons (3:54)

Yeah. So enlightening. I'm glad you stopped by to fill us in, Bob. Thank you so much.

Bob Herguth (3:58)

Thank you.

Sasha-Ann Simons (4:07)

There's a lot more news to get to, so let's dive in. Also at the table to help make sense of the week's news was Heather Cherone, WTTW Chicago politics reporter and Shia Kapos, Politico reporter and author of Politico's Illinois Playbook newsletter.

Mayor Johnson's $17.6 billion plan to close an $882 million budget gap includes some controversial ideas like the corporate head tax. So here's Heather kicking things off with more details.

Heather Cherone (4:32)

He wants to assess a fee of $25 for every employee that works for a company that has more than 125 employees here in Chicago. Now he says that's going to generate about $100 million, but and that's relatively similar to what he proposed last year, which was soundly rejected by the city council.