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

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

Gas prices are on the rise as the conflict in Iran stretches into its 4th week.

And what you know about a lawsuit that aims to block a first of its kind tax on social media companies.

>> First off tonight, Cook County State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill.

Burke is launching a new task force focused on CTA related crimes in prosecutions in an email to her staff today, she says, quote, reducing crime on public transportation is now a top priority while other categories of violent crime dropped last year, violent offenses committed on public transit, increased safe public transportation is essential for thriving communities.

The new task force will consist of 36 assistant state's attorneys from different bureaus will receive specialized training with the CTA and Chicago Police Department to strengthen transit related prosecutions.

Additionally, her office will ask courts to restrict access to transit systems and property for defendants who are not detained.

Pretrial.

The state's attorney already has a policy of seeking pretrial detention for all violent crimes committed along the CTA.

While issuing his 3rd veto in less than a year.

Mayor Brandon Johnson started off with a Bible verse before striking out in ordinance that would reverse the planned phase out of the minimum wage for tipped workers.

>> Wolves.

>> On to the rich.

Who have denied the wages to the workers.

Warning to the rich.

>> Who >> denied wages to the workers.

But the good thing about that scripture because clearly they were denying their wages.

But if you keep the Bible says that I hear the cries of the workers.

>> week ago the city council voted to reverse its 2023 plan that would gradually increase the subminimum wage for tipped workers.

It'll take 30 for older people to override the mayor's veto.

Vote on.

That is scheduled for April 15th.

For more on the debate over the sub minimum wage, you can visit our website.

Downtown drivers and pedestrians will finally be able to cruise across the State Street Bridge again, starting this weekend, the Chicago Department of Transportation says it's reopening over the Chicago River starting Friday after finally wrapping a major rehabilitation project.

Cdot says the work included replacing the bridge's center break that had caused damage to roadway during periods of extreme heat as well as a full rehab of its central locks and replacement of the viaduct sidewalk.

The updates began back in April 2025 and took a little longer than expected because of additional steel repairs found during construction.

The city is unveiling its newly named snowplows today, including Abolish ICE.

Mayor Johnson use the event as an opportunity to once again condemned President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts and the presence of immigration enforcement at airports where dozens of ICE agents are now deployed in an effort to fill gaps for TSA.

Abolish ICE has become a popular refrain for those opposed to the agency's tactics and want to see it dismantled the other winners of the 4th annual Snow plow naming contest are Stephen cold cold bare Pope Frio the 14th, the Blizzard of spend Cooley and Caleb Chileans.

But hopefully we won't see any of them again for a while.

Gas prices are up and fueling a debate on economic policy 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.

>> If you've been to a gas station lately, you already know it's costing you more.

As of today, gas prices in Cook County reached an average of $4 and $0.50 per gallon.

It comes as the war in Iran continues to threaten oil shipments around the world.

Joining us to discuss more in-depth are Brian Thompson, a professor of economics at DePaul University.

Molly Hart, a spokeswoman at AAA and Nate Harris, CEO of the Illinois Fuel and Retail Association.

Thanks to all 3 of you for joining us.

Molly Hart, let's start with you, please.

How have gas prices changed in Chicago over the last month?

Gas prices have jumped as a matter of fact, from a week ago today, it's gone up $0.30 >> A month ago, we've jumped up to a $1.30 so gas prices are rising.

It's due to conflict in Iran jumped up by a dollar from left to go.

How say that compares to this time last year.

This time last year, we were not seeing these prices at all, but gas prices to go up at this time of year.

And that's because we're switching over from the winner plan to the summer plan, which is more expensive to make refineries going to do says the finer ease do seasonal not so they're not producing at full capacity for a couple weeks.

So we do see that uptick.

This is a big uptick.

And then additionally spraying people are getting the car going for spring break and then some are doing their summer vacations.

Do right went on the road planning for them?

Yes, I've got spring break next week mate, Harris, over to you.

How gas station owners?

How do they calculate or decide where to set prices for a gallon of gas?

>> Yeah, thanks for having me.

I don't really decide what the price of oil is going to be.

So it all depends on the global market.

Like was mentioned before conflict with Iran has caused oil prices to jump up.

And so when you take price of the oil, plus all of the costs with refining its transporting it getting in and the pipelines and then eventually getting it into the gas stations itself.

Then the gas stations have to, you know, run a business than to pay property taxes.

They have to make a little bit of a profit.

And then include the about a dollar in taxes, from state, local and federal officials.

All of that goes into the price that you see on the board as you drive past.

>> And then Illinois, we currently have higher average gas prices than surrounding states.

Me.

Why is that?

>> Well, a lot of that is due to the get to motor fuel taxes most of most of the same fuel that we use here in Illinois is the same that the use in Indiana, Chicago, the Chicago Land and the St.

Louis metro area do have a a special blend.

But most of difference in the price is due to taxes.

Thank you.

>> Brian Thompson.

What factors influence the price of oil globally?

>> Well, I mean, it's it's economic related, right terms of what you think about what they were, the economy is going in the future.

We're interested to go in the future.

But Ankeny of the market supply and demand.

And so if you expected to be less supply that can raise prices, if there's less demand in the future that can bring prices back down to it's very market driven widely seen gas prices jumped so quickly.

It's very behavior right to like you, but you tend to tend to see the on the bad news.

It, you know, prices go very quickly.

And then when things are to recover and brazen pacer to come down, it comes down much slower.

And so it's very behavioral.

It is the fact that everyone's kind of trying to make a market and figure out where pricing to be in the future.

There's a lot that goes into that.

>> I'm Nate had a gas station owners.

How did they respond in the early days of the conflict with Iran?

>> Yeah.

I VE had their prices reflect what the global market was doing.

So has the price of oil jumped the price of gas falling behind.

Now it's tied an exact correlation, but it's it's generally as one goes up, the other goes up as well in the same manner.

>> Can we expect this to keep happening to station in prices to keep climbing?

>> I do think so.

As long as the conflict going on, I think the price of oil is going to increase, which will therefore increase the price of motor fuel, whether it's gas or diesel.

>> Molly, how might these high gas prices factor into people's decisions to travel?

You know, we're talking about, you know, planning for summer break, spring break, which has happened for a lot of folks right now.

>> Show, you know, they're gonna just budget differently for the most part, if they were maybe can go away for a week someone may might only do 4 days.

You know, if they're going to stay the hotel, they might not.

They might stay at a less expensive hotel, maybe go to casual dining set of fine dining.

But those tips you can also do, which is take any extra cargo carpet fuel economy.

If you have a bike rack and not using it, take it all.

If you doing combine them into one, you have a fender families that need to do it, do it to all.

These are just couldn't help but a little bit money back into wallet.

>> What about the, you choosing between flying versus driving?

Right?

Because I think we can expect the same out of airlines, which I'm going to come to one of you on as well.

>> Right.

And I think you need to look into what the price of a flight is.

They might be going up as they are going up as well.

So as a matter of the distance and how much to be paying for gas as well as what the airfare us.

Brian, a guest on that on that point.

us a little bit more about how oil and gas prices are connected to other parts of the economy.

How else are we feeling the impact of gas prices?

Sure, like this moment in time is really kind of defined by what we call this Kay County where there's people they're doing people that invest in the stock market, people whose jobs seeing higher wages.

>> They're benefiting from the environment.

So they're not as affected.

But there's also people that are very sensitive to prices in sensitive changes like I mean, those people much more exposed to this environment will come experiencing.

Are there not other ways that, you know, purchases that we all have to make, right?

The food that we eat, the stuff we buy in stores, it's got to go on a trip to get to the store where I'm going to buy it in.

That truck is running on diesel.

And we're seeing those prices in things that the tariffs that you from previous never mentioned previously.

All that kind of his few into the economy slowly, but surely the now we're just seeing it.

No more holistically.

>> Nader, there are concerns about possible gas shortages in the U.S.

>> Not that I've heard in this is not a supply problem.

This is uncertainty and volatility problem.

>> How does this compare to previous, you know, problems or or energy crises that we've experienced?

>> You know, the most recent one I can think of was there was increase when Russia went to war with Ukraine.

This is much bigger than that.

I'm not an expert much beyond that.

I have heard that this is one of the worst crises we've had.

>> Same question to you, right How do you think this compares to energy crises or gas lows we've had we've seen certainly is a tentative.

We're experiencing a lot of uncertainty which makes it difficult for businesses to predict what they're going to do to guard, to pricing and what they think man to going to be in the travel industry where people travel with a not travel.

>> All that uncertainty makes it very difficult to plan.

And so that makes it more difficult for people to price.

And that affects demand over time.

>> If the conflict in Iran word and say tomorrow with gas prices drop as quickly as they rose?

I don't think so.

I think that you know that because we are in very headline, experienced environment, we don't necessarily always believe that like things are going to be the way we expected.

So I can I think we want to see more certainty over time.

And I think that they will take more time to see prices come Molly, how can individuals sort of cut down their gas bills?

You mentioned some folks are going to be budgeting differently.

going to be budgeting differently.

And you can use our AAA mobile app and it's come to show you different gas stations and the price so you can choose the one that has.

>> The lowest price at the pump.

Again, there's other savings like I said you know, do you San Juan Brown and then of people are plan on getting on the plane?

You probably this summer for fall.

You probably want to book now because some of the airlines are also talking about wrong, reducing you want to get on that plane enjoy your trip, maybe carpool and Yes.

Alright.

That's where we'll have to leave best of luck to everybody out Brian Thompson, Molly Hart, Nate Harris, thanks, everyone.

>> Thank Thank you.

Okay.

That tech industry is pushing back against the city's social media newsman tax.

We're going to have more on that in just a moment.

In tech industry is pushing back against the city's social media amusement tax that Mayor Johnson has states.

31 million dollars worth of city revenue.

One, the measure requires social media companies to pay $0.50 a month for every active user.

Beyond the first 100,000 companies including X, Facebook and TikTok began paying the tax last month.

But net choice argues the tax violates tech companies right to free speech.

Joining us to discuss the lawsuit are 6 Ward Alderman William Hall who represents communities like Chatham, Auburn, Gresham and parts of Inglewood and on Zoom, Patrick, Head or neck choices.

Director of policy.

Welcome back.

Thanks to both for joining so much for having veteran over to you first.

As we mentioned, that choice is arguing that the mayor's tax violates the free speech rights of the social media companies that targets describe that part of net choices.

Lawsuit, please.

How so.

>> Yeah.

So there's already Supreme Court precedent about this governments can not target specific forms of media for special taxation.

You look to the Minneapolis Star Tribune case that went all the way up to the Supreme Court in the 1980's.

And they put in place a tax on So any for that used over had to pay an excise tax, very similar to the details here in this case.

Re arbitrary size threshold and a tax on specific form of media patently unconstitutional.

And then you have a federal law issue with the permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, which says essentially cannot discriminate against online service simply because it is an online service that you would any policy would apply to an online platform would also have to apply to its offline eclipse point.

That's not the case with this tax.

>> Alderman Hall, you supported Mayor Johnson's budget proposal.

We talked about it a good bit to show that was last fall.

You've repeatedly called for large corporations to pay their fair share in taxes.

But is there merit to the idea that a tax on social media companies for having more than 100,000 users is attacks on popular when it was first of all, start their way that you start the segment.

The company's are to have been painted.

So my question is if they are ready in agreement with the fact that essentially this is an investment in mental health.

They was outside group Messily inside business.

At the end of the day, we know that social media companies are dangerous to those who use them.

We just see right now in California, lawsuits filed victory.

One we see here in the Cook County right now we have lawsuits in which parents have filed against these companies for allowing the predators inside the chat rooms.

Again, social media.

We also saw social media qual companies question.

We failed and protecting life of a 14 year-old who was unfortunately killed because it was advertise on these platforms.

So this tax is to protect our children.

The sexes, protect families.

And so again, social media companies have already started pain.

And so they understand the need to invest into our mental health system, which, by the way, we've opened up more men to clinics in the first 3 years.

And those that were close in the last 4.

And so again, this is a commitment to mental health and wellness because the social media companies as much as the informative, they also can be dangerous.

Patrick, what about that?

The claim that the social media companies clearly agree because they are already paying.

Is it a matter of them pain now to avoid being in violation?

Has your organization fights this out on their behalf?

>> Yeah, that that is correct.

It is not to be in violation of the law until it is adjudicated.

I will remind the alderman that in the Supreme Court case, Minnesota Star Tribune, the Tribune was also paying that tax until was found unconstitutional.

And the state of Minnesota had issued them a refund.

So just because somebody is paying into a tax that's unconstitutional, does not.

Therefore, Ben, make it lawful.

>> So as the ultimate mention just today, a jury in La found Meta and YouTube are both liable for, quote, engineered addiction, leading to adverse mental health outcomes.

The jury awarded that 20 year-old plaintiff who started using Facebook and YouTube at a young age, 3 million dollars in damages.

Patrick, what is your reaction that ruling?

>> Yeah, I think these cases are complicated and they will be appealed be seen.

Several legal experts weigh in and say that there are some very questionable items in these cases and that will be have to be decided upon But I really worry about the floodgates of the trial bar going after speech platforms and ultimately the Internet becoming a much less dynamic and a much quieter place and people losing access to valuable services.

>> Alderman, what do you think the broader impact of that decision point again, for the second time, who is this guy?

We saw social media companies have already started paying attacks in which it's in use to pay for mental health clinics.

I don't understand why it is that we are attacking the city to form of frivolous lawsuit to stop companies from investing in what is needed at this current present time.

Social media companies again have just been found liable and the damage of human life.

And so again, essentially what we're saying as a city is pay your fair share and what is an investment into the wellness of those who use these devices?

This is not a tax again, that is not reachable.

It is not fair because it was so they would have felt the lawsuit.

We didn't get these lawsuits from matter.

When you get a lawsuit from Facebook when you get a lawsuit from TikTok and the others came from outside group.

trying to up on inside insight taxes that are used to help our citizens in Chicago.

Again, 5 minutes a clinic opened in again.

We look at war 3 on the verge of and amount of time that people use on their phones.

It has been proven that not only has it messed up meant to help.

It has also to increase the damage on People losing their site plans with these falls for the mount hours that they're doing.

Look, I'm 41 years old and I have to put limits on my social media just in case so that I don't use it too much.

And so damage that has been done.

Damage been proven matter of fact, with some primitive damages paid in California.

So it's no if ands or buts about is that this tax is the 3rd rail to protect Chicagoans in anyone that season as a necessity for they meant?

Well, I think there's also been some decision in this case or part of this case is about it is about how the feed works, right less about the content.

Those companies have been protected and held.

>> Not responsible.

Patrick and correct me if I'm wrong about that, the content that people are seeing on some of these platforms.

And to that point, then, you know, why should social media companies bear the cost of the mental health challenges as a result of what's on their platforms?

Additionally, when we know there's a lot that has to do with the mental health of our young people these days then the cigarette companies that for years they stole cigarettes were no warnings and people got canceled and then we have to families a lawsuit.

>> To recuperate the cost of damages, known to lives that were damaged by smoke, a cigarette.

It's no secret.

Even the CEO Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook said this has gotten out of control.

We never saw is dangerous for use.

As when I started using Facebook, I was in college.

It's a college student only at DePaul and that's how we communicated was a new way to innovate and essentially message on the door like you would in the dorms.

It has evolved to something that is dangerous.

It is dangerous to the point where not only are the user guides that are in place, but the use guys are not strong enough.

This tag station is not against freedom of speech.

This taxation is not against uses.

This taxation is to say that the investment needed to protect the warning signs that are not clearly a strong enough for those who are using these devices.

It those on social media platform.

Patrick, the 31 million dollars that the city has projected from this tax is earmarked.

As we've discussed for mental health services in Chicago.

>> Supporters say that social media contributes, as we've heard from the aldermen to mental health issues, particularly among young women, argue that the social media companies should help fund those services.

Do you think social media companies are doing enough to address the mental health challenges that are linked to this platform and or could they be doing more?

>> Also, services offer strong, comprehensive online protections as well as parental controls.

And there are parental controls available in every level of the Internet stack, whether with your Internet service provider on your device or on the platform.

But we're not seeing enough is the state and local governments contributing to online safety education.

We know that kids and families are going to be online for the rest of their lives and we ought to be educating people on how to use the services safely.

But discriminatory taxation that risk services being pulled out of certain districts and their for small businesses and other valuable services losing access to those things is not the right way to go.

>> Netchoice also argues that the social media newsman tax, it could increase costs for Chicago residents and businesses.

How so?

>> Yeah.

So we know a lot about corporate tax incidents in these taxes are generally passed onto the consumer and the consumer in this case that's actually paying for these services is small businesses that are advertising social media platforms have dramatically level the playing field for small businesses, be able to find customers and they can spend more money serving their customers and not as much money finding their customers.

And so when you have attacks like this, that may cause certain services to pull out of the city altogether, those small businesses end up suffering or they end up paying more for the advertising.

They need to be able to compete.

>> Alderman how?

Well, you know, Warren Buffett, certain things I learned before.

So my business at the number one way to advertise the steel word of mouth.

It comes to credibility.

It comes to stories that come to testimonies again.

We also must understand that modernity has an issue with equity.

Not everybody has access to cellphones number one in inner cities as well as communities.

So we look at how do you grow small business?

You grow small business by good product and by word of mouth testimonies is no different.

What we see with limbs, which is a James be award winner in the 6.

What word of mouth is it's the best barbecue in the city is no if ands or buts about you can cut off a cell phone.

Now you can cut all social media.

People still have mouse and they still want to tell the experiences of small businesses.

So again, the idea notion that small businesses will suffer because folks in on the Internet, that's not We have multi-million dollar small businesses.

Well before the Internet, we will have a long afternoon Internet.

But though the Internet is here, our taxes to say pay for them in 2 clinics, 5, which just opened up in the last 3 years.

And this mayor do your part in the investment of that in when he talks about the notion of what we can do more, the more is essentially making sure that they social media companies are now out of control with the damage that they're doing.

Patrick got under a minute left supporters say social media companies profit heavily from user data and comparing.

>> The tax to similar taxes or mining companies for extracting natural resources from the Earth.

example, what is your response to that argument?

Look at >> Brick and mortar businesses rely on data to if you have a a pharmacy card or a shopper's card at your local grocery store, that is data that is used to offer you a discount and services.

again, that gets sort of back to the idea of the permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act signed by President Obama, son of Chicago that we are not going to discriminate against the business just because it is an online business.

And that is exactly what this tax does.

And I would really heavily pushed back on the notion that that small businesses would be just fine without the ability to access these online platforms.

Because what these online platforms, art is word of mouth.

And that been critically important.

I agree with the aldermen on that.

limiting these channels for for small businesses, again, to level the playing field against their larger competitors with access to broadcast is not fair.

>> All right.

That is where we're going to have to leave it all Patrick Henry, thanks you both for joining us.

And that is our show for this Wednesday night.

Stay connected with our reporters and what they're working on by following us on Blue Sky at W T Tw.

Speaking of social media join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10 reaction from Chicago's Latino community to abuse allegations against civil rights icon Cesar Chavez.

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

Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

>> Closed captioning is made possible by Clifford and Clifford Law offices, a Chicago personal injury and wrongful death from that is a