that conrad chicago hotel has 289 rooms.ern luxury hotel right here at michigan avenue and erie. (cheryl) with exceptional views of the chicago skyline and michigan avenue, the hotel gives guests immediate access to many landmarks along with upscale retail and highly acclaimed restaurants. (alan) oh, santa looks like he's in good cheer this evening. that's for sure, got the snow coming down. the finale is up next with "the girl in the dreamcatcher" featuring dove cameron and ryan mccartan and a cast of over 300 performers. (cheryl) and you don't want to miss the fireworks finale on the chicago river. welcome back to chicago. well, and now for the finale to sing a holiday classic. joined by our parade cast, please welcome, everybody, "the girl and the dreamcatcher" featuring dove cameron and ryan mccartan. ♪ have yourself a merry little christmas ♪ ♪ let your heart be light - ♪ from now on, your troubles will be out of sight ♪ both: ♪ here we are as in olden days ♪ ♪ happy golden days of yore ♪ faithful friends who are dear t

the chicago police along the you. vigilante, you havbeen sending the chicago police out to kill, to do nothing but kill. [indiscernible] because that is your mission, you lying demon. mayor emmanuel was already under pressure to resign over the more than one-year-old police killing of 17 year old laquan mcdonald in a potential police cover-up. mcdonald was shot 16 times by white police officer jason van dyke. dashcam video only recently released by court order clearly contradicts police claims about the shooting. we will go to chicago for more on the story later in the broadcast. at least 43 people died over the christmas holiday weekend in the series of storms that hit the south, southwest and midwest. missouri and new mexico have declared a state of emergency. tornadoes were reported in 10 states including michigan which , recorded its first ever tornado in december. the deadliest storms were in texas where at least 11 people , died when tornadoes hit areas near dallas. now a historic snowstorm is heading toward dal

(alan) come to chicago and check it out.tive system moving with the good bugs found in their delicious kefir products. they have a wide variety of delicious probiotic beverages and frozen treats as well. so they say there's a lifeway product for every member of your family any time of day. (cheryl) it's good to know, because we'll be eating lots of food this holiday season, because lifeway kefir is the perfect way to stay healthy when you're busy traveling and entertaining this holiday season. lifeway foods proudly supports childhood nutrition education programs, locally and nationally. (alan) yeah, always important to make sure kids have knowledge and access to healthy food and meals along the way. all right, taking off down the magnificent mile, southwest airline's flight brigade. more than 50 southwest airlines employees here representing all their work groups at the airline's midway operation, so they're walking down the magnificent mile this evening. each person of course at southwest playing a pivotal role in connectin

innocent. >> good evening, from chicago. a city struggling against an onslaught of violence by criminals and sometimes by the police. in the final weeks of this year, the murder toll here continues to climb. eclipsing the gains made over the last two years. but the focus now has veered toward the chicago police department itself, and towards the city's mayor, rahm emanuel. the spark that ignited the current crisis was the shooting death of young la quan mcdonald at the hands of a police officer who has since been charged with murder. but "america tonight's" lisa fletcher found the chicago police department's history of misconduct goes far deeper and is much darker. >> reporter: ronald kitchen never thought he'd hear these words. >> we have ways of making niggers talk. >> kitchen was not being held against his will by men in white hoods or neonazis. he was in the hands of the chicago pd. >> what i'm going to do i'm going to introduce you to the telephone book and onightstick, get this telephone book and this stick and put on

two things, one he is from chicago. oka okay. >> a long time the ago. >> yes, and he is a chicagoan but a background of heading the the civil rights of the justice department, and former governor and he is not leading it, but adviser to the commission, and he is from chicago like all of the other five who will be doing the day in/day out work. >> and what about paris, is it going to you and is it a tax-payer funded trip or will you security? >> i have not made a decision yet whether i will be doing. what is that? >> you had planned to go, and all week your staff said the that you will be going, and have you changed your mind? >> well, i have not made a e decision, because i happy to think that the mission of climate work is very important, and i have serious work here, and so i have not made a decision. >> and what about the march that political considerations played a role in the delaying the decision that, the settlement or having the settlement while you were engaged in a tight race, and the video was not released wh

downtown chicago, right? >> festering. downtown chicago. going through the northern part of the loop. >> for people who aren't familiar, that's the sort of central business area. >> exactly. >> of chicago. >> the financial district, state street. a lot of shopping. south of the sort of the magnificent mile, the stretch of michigan avenue where the high-end shops are. the police -- some of the protesters were talking about getting up to the magnificent mile to try to disrupt shopping again as they did on black friday but the police have been ma movneuvering them first sout. >> john, i don't know if you can see what we're airing on msnbc but these are live pictures from chicago. it's a pretty big crowd. was this a preplanned protest or did this come out of rahm emanuel apologizing earlier today and, you know, speaking again about the videotapes and the incidents of late? >> this was preplanned. i think -- i should say that the plans were this march were announced this morning. after we knew that the mayor was going to address the city council

chicago.ill speak with one of the mayor's task force coming up. >>> donald trump may be sticking to his plan to ban muslims from the united states, but he's threatening to break his promise about running as an independent. here's what he said today on "live with kelly and michael". >> with that being said, would you consider running as a third party candidate? >> first of all, i don't want to do that. i'm leading in the polls by not a little bit, 20, 21 points. the people, the republican party, the people have been phenomenal. the party i'll let you know about that. and if i don't get treated fairly, i would certainly consider that. >> trump then cited this new poll from "usa today." it found 68% of his supporters say thaiey'd follow him as a thd party candidate. that's an option that trump supposedly ended back in march. you'll remember this moment, this oath to stay within the party. >> the best way for the republicans to win is if i win the nomination and go directly against whoever they ha

there is controversy over to realizing violence in chicago. i' ve seen interviews with spike where he accepts that people see it that way but it is his story. karen: there have been stories chicago and many chicagoa ns are not happy with the movie because they think it unfairly retraced the city, but news reports are not painting chicago in the best light. you are in contact with the naacp there. michael: we are constantly talking with the national office and boots on the ground there. folks feel like this is the moment. i would compare these instance -- incidents and whether it is baltimore, ferguson, chicago, extinct, dormant, or active good right now in chicago we have an active volcano. folks are wanting to challenge policing of the patterns and practices using the department of justice terms within the city. and the treatment of communities of color, and the underlying issues of poverty and the drugs and guns and accessibility of guns, all of that boiling over right now. it is a critical moment to see whether we are ready to face that. aw

chicago was jumpin'.fl draft, grateful dead, lollapalooza, all happened while we were filmin' chi-raq. but that's all downtown. so this goes back to a tale of two cities. anybody that went to those three events, they were not goin' to the south side. they weren't going to terror town. if you live downtown, the north side, the only reason you're gonna go to the south side is if you're goin' to see the white sox play. and usually if you're on the north side you hate the... the... the white sox and you're a cub fan. so if... (laugh) so there's really no reason to go to the south side. so that whole part of the argument of... the mayor's argument, i mean i totally disagree with. i did a documentary called four little girls, which is about the bombing of the sixth history baptist church, birmingham, alabama... where on september (chuckle) 16, 1963, four black girls were blown apart by dynamite. and in that film... we have archival footage of mayors of southern towns, who always say it's some outside agitators.

attorney's office here in chicago. and the fbi within weeks of the incident. this includes evidence related to the shooting itself, but also related to the police department's response. they will address these questions when the investigation is complete. >> went to take you back to the videotape that seems to have been a catalyst or the final straw in chicago. it can of the shooting death of laquan mcdonald by a police officer who showed up on the scene. that officer, jason, we don't have that video right now, and so i apologize for that. but the police officer involved, again being released on $150,000 cash bond yesterday. and that led to the anger as well. sherry brunner is the vice president and ceo of the vy urban league, and she joins us by phone. was that the final straw of the videotaping released? >> i think that it was the catalyst and i think that there was a lot of political capital that needed to be spent if it had not been released. and i don't think that anybody in our system was willing to spend that. >> . >> how troublesome is it to you that p

or isolated only to chicago. there is a history of it. we have worked hard to address these concerns over the past four and a half years through intensive training, new policies governing the use of force. but for whatever progress we have made, the killing of laquan mcdonald is a vivid reminder that we have much more work to do as a city. there are two key questions before us. first, was this specific investigation handled properly and i want to be clear that that question is being investigated by the united states department of justice and the u.s. attorney's office. as you know, the city has handed every piece of evidence over to the u.s. attorney's office here in chicago and the fbi within weeks of the incident. this includes evidence related to the shooting itself but also evidence related to the police department's response. they will address these questions when their investigation is complete. i hope you would await the conclusion of their inquiry which i also am anxious for. the second question is how we

chicago is no joke now.ou have to be very, very, very, you know, careful that the lid doesn't blow off. >> yeah, he talked about policing and police and about a five-person task force. let's listen to what he said. >> police officers are only as effective as if they are trusted by all chicagoans, whoever they, are and wherever they live in the city. by reinvigorating our oversight we will continue to take the necessary steps to build trust between the police and the residents and communities they serve. >> he talked about -- >> you know what i would like to say real quick? i want to put it on a national level. that tape hurt every police department in the united states of america. not just in chicago. those things are -- you know, it goes nationwide. that hurts every single police department in america especially in areas where the gap is widening between the community and the police. that's bigger than chicago. >> but what struck me. he talked a lot if you listen to the press conference, he talked about est

. 70% of the cases in chicago are unsolved.he community i live in is not valued. >> reporter: pam bosley is not a statistic, she's a commentator. she did what good parents are supposed to do, yet her boy still died. >> you hear people talk about all the time what parents don't do, that their kids get in trouble because they didn't have this. you have a beautiful home, loving husband, believing in the importance of education, discipline, did everything right. >> yes. the perception of our black men is that they're all in gangs and sell drugs. that's the perception we have to get away from. a lot of them are good kids that are being killed. >> reporter: so afraid of the danger outside their front door, pam and her husband built this backyard patio. >> this is the safe haven spot that i put together for terrell. >> reporter: it didn't protect terrell. now she keeps an even tighter grip on their two remaining sons. >> lovely as your home is, it seems like a prison. >> it is. my middle son told me, mom, you've got me living inside t

police shooting of a chicago teen. mayor emanuel has asked for his resignation because the trust has been shaken and eroded. it follows the release of videotape at last year's shooting death of la-quan mcdonald that took more than a year for the video to come out publicly and now the mother in another chicago death says was also killed by police. she's accusing the city of sitting on this tape. the 25-year-old was gunned down just eight days before mcdonald in october of 2014. >> and just got the stop. it's been over a year that my son has been murdered and has time to convict of murder. shouldn't nobody have to go through this pain over their kids because i'm quite sure they loved theirs just as much as we loved ours. >> his mother joins me now along with her attorney. so welcome to both of you. and ms. holmes, i'm so sorry for the loss of your son. if i may, just begin with you and ask you what happened to ronnie? >> he was killed by cpd in o 2014. >> can you tell me more about what he was doing at that time, that da

chicago. marching in the city streets.ou can hear them calling for the resignation of rob emanuel. he was apologizing this afternoon. saying i am sorry. after, of course, news that hit the streets. look, shot 16 times in 15 seconds. this shooting happened back in october 2014. emanuel was reelected back in april of 2015. in november of 2015, just a few short weeks ago, the video surface. asking why did it take so long. coming amid realization that the city was in a very bad spot. chicago is a very bad place to live. turning the blame on rob emanuel. we have more on the story coming up. ♪ (trader vo) i search. i research. i dig. and dig some more. because, for me, the challenge of the search... is almost as exciting as the thrill of the find. (announcer) at scottrade, we share your passion for trading. that's why we rebuilt scottrade elite from the ground up - including a proprietary momentum indicator that makes researching sectors and industries even easier. because at scottrade, our passion is to power yours. trish: welc

what will it take to leave chicago? i've got to talk to some who say invented the term sharaq. >>> breaking news tonight, the so-called -- teen, he was on the lamb. mexican authorities nabbed ethan and his mother. he was wanted in texas for allegedly violating probation after an alleged drunk driving cash that killed two people and injured others seriously. sonny hostin joins me along with evan. what are your sources telling you about ethan couch's arrest? >> ethan couch and his mother were caught by mexican authorities. they were detained earlier today, earlier this afternoon and we expect that couch is going to be on his way back to the united states in the custody of the u.s. marshals. now, this happened down near puerto vallarta on the pacific coast in mexico. apparently, the u.s. was aware of his presence there, was able to do some investigation with the mexican authorities and finally being moved in and arrested him earlier today. we expect the mother's case to be a little bit more complicated because, as you know

they have marchs around chicago, they went to the financial district, they went to the chicago boardtrade and stormed the entrance to the legendary macy's. now they are going to show the mayor a lesson and try to make a dent in as much retail as they can. >> it is five minutes till 3:00 in the afternoon on a wednesday afternoon, not prime shopping time, matt. >> reporter: no, not primetime shopping, but these guys back on black friday shut all of michigan avenue down. as far as the eye could see. i have to imagine that made a dent in retail at that point. they want to hit chicago where it hurts in the pocketbooks and show chicago and the mayor, they are calling for his resignation, they want to call the mayor they can effectively stop business in these stores. and today is organized. they started at city hall after mayor emanuel's speech. now they are here on michigan avenue. >> a lot of cops out there. to what degree has this put a strain on the budget of the police department? >> reporter: you know, that's yet to be determined. we are going on week three of unrest and protest here

days of protests in chicago leading to one official calling for a federal investigation into the chicago police department. illinois's attorney general second a request to the u.s. department of justice civil rights division. this as a chicago police board is set to begin a nationwide search for a new superintendent. >> he has become an issue rather than dealing with the issue. and a distraction. >> reporter: the firing of chicago police superintendent gary mccarthy continued fallout over the city's handling of the shooting of laquan mcdonald by officer jason van dyke, video of the teen who died in a hail of 16 bullets igniting days of outrage and growing distrust. >> now is the time for fresh eyes and new leadership. >> reporter: reacting to the pressure tuesday, mayor rahm emanuel announced a new task force to review how the city trains its officers. many wonder if the mayor and cook county prosecutor's jobs could be in jeopardy, accusations swirling that the city tried to keep the shooting under wraps during re-election season shelling out a $5 million to the mcdonald family before a

a live shot of protests in chicago. we need to stress, these are peaceful but angry protests from daly plaza to city hall. rahm must go is what they are chanting leading to the discussion of rahm emanuel who addressed city council as the mayor and apologized for the situation involving the 17-year-old laquan mcdonald who was shot 16 times october 2014. the video released of that, people are outraged, pending civil rights inquiry by the u.s. justice department. we're keeping an eye on it. we apologize for the grainy video. we use a live view to follow untethered what is going on the ground, but to the left is the air shot, the helicopter shot, you can see the white cars are police officers. we have stopped traffic in the heart of chicago. so from the outside, maybe we can keep some of these pictures up, from the outside, let's take it inside to the chicago mercantile exchange, all the while keeping one eye on the situation. that's where dan is. we've got the market story and outside your doors, dan, both are pretty drama

or isolated only to chicago. there is a history of it. we have worked hard to address these concerns over the last four and a half years through intensive training, new policies governing the use of force, but for whatever progress we have made, the killing of laquan mcdonald is a vivid reminder that we have much more work to do as a city. there are two key -- there are two key questions before us. first, was this specific investigation handled properly? and i want to be clear, that that question is being investigated by the united states department of justice and the u.s. attorney's office and as you know the city has handed every piece of evidence over to the u.s. attorney's office here in chicago and the fbi within weeks of the incident. this includes evidence related to the shooting itself, but also evidence related to the police department's response. they will address these questions when their investigation is complete. i hope you would await the conclusion of their inquiry, which i also am anxious for. th

the two different sides of chicago.ur special series. >>> and rules of the sky, the faa announces new regulations for drones. ♪ >>> president obama is fighting back at isil, and at critics of his strategy to defeat the group. today the president made a rare visit to the pentagon to discuss the u.s. military's plan in syria and iraq. al jazeera's national secure if i correspondent jamie mcintyre has the story. >> reporter: bisi after a more than two-hour meeting here, president obama's message was essentially this, read my lips, no new strategy. trust me the old one is working. president obama's motorcade left the white house mid-morning, for the short trip across the potomac. the rare pentagon meeting of his entire military and homeland security team was intended to show that defeating isil remains among the president's top priority. afterwards in the pentagon briefing room, obama talked tough but took no questions. >> as we squeeze its heart, we'll make it harder. >> reporter: he offered no new plans just a promise to

can he fix chicago? >> no.t fix it himself and i think that's part of the problem that he's tried to create a narrative that there's not a lot of issues there. he fought against the doj coming in originally and while everybody in the community was saying, look, we need to bring an outside investigator in here and i think the doj was the best people able to do that. and, you know, it was just until a couple of days ago he turned around and said, okay, i'll agree to that. and i think it's frustrating for a lot of people in chicago to see him, you know, kind of making contradictory statements in the op-ed piece talking about accountability and transparency and almost like we have to sacrifice one for the other and a lot of us are saying it's out of your hands now. this has to be done by somebody from the outside working with people on the inside but it just can't happen that way that he wants it. >> do you think that the mayor should remain in office? >> well, you know, he's already said he won't resign. i know th

we've seen it in ferguson, philly, blower and now in chicago. why don't these departments do the kind of training we just watched before they get into trouble? >> well, many of them do, ali and one of the difficulties is, training is very expensive. for an officer to be pulled off the street, the agency has to make the decision how much of their resources do they spend on training? they have a limited budget and the police department, municipal police departments are often the highest budgets item for the city and the city expects a service for that money. the decision to whether or not have officers on the street or if they're being pulled into training is a difficult one for police executives to manage. >> we saw in your lab, a situation i find facinating, when expensive force is okay, when it's expensive officers say they're so used to using expensive force and ge excessive force say they're so used to seeing it, they don't know whether to pull away.have you seen that phenomenon ? >> i have not. officers want their friends and colleagues the

or isolated only to chicago. hard to address these concerns over the past four and a half years through intensive training, new policies governing the use of force. but for whatever progress we have made, the killing of laquan mcdonald is a vivid reminder that we have much more work to do as a city. there are two key questions before us. first, was this specific investigation handled properly and i want to be clear that that question is being investigated by the united states department of justice and the u.s. attorney's office. as you know, the city has handed every piece of evidence over to the u.s. attorney's office here in chicago and the fbi within

brutality in chicago.ontinue to go live there throughout the hour. but let's go to our politics lead right now. banning muslims from coming into the u.s., that's what republican front-runner donald trump wants to do and what he says is necessary to guarantee this country's security. trump's policy has his party declaring open season on him. he's been openly condemned as a demagogue, as not representing conservative values as devastating to republicans down the ballot as unhinged, unconstitutional, a bigot and on and on. all that has trump talking once again about something he says he doesn't want to do, abandon the republican party and make an independent bid for president. insiders say trump defecting could gift wrap hillary clinton the white house. cnn senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny is here. jeff, are republican party elders in panic mode? it's twice he's referenced an independent bid. >> i'm not sure but certainly well beyond the heartburn stage. it's that potential independent bid which do

>> at 8 p.m., watch the thoughs, chicago med. and then chicago fire. and then 7 news at 11. and we're taking you into the fire, kris anderson gives us behind the scenes look at chicago fire, gives you an exclusive look at the sets that's tonight at 11: very cool. >> looking forward to it. there's another 30 minutes. >> breaking news at 6. a rising number of boston college students get sick after eating in a local restaurant. side. we're live with the latest. also breaking. at pregnant woman tied up in a frightening home invasion. custody. in the race for the white house. republican presidential candidate donald trump. standing about i his call to block muslims from coming to the u.s. hampshire. >> you got to find the proper balance. >> we're live with more reaction to the controversial comments. at this storm. now things start to clear up gradually and we're warming too. >> and two massachusetts women coming together to mail a holiday message to troops overseas. >> the two of us live so close to each other, that we figure, why not join forces. >> how many cards they hope to

chicago as its own particular kind of ethos. but this exists across the country. and we don't really address it until something flares up. that's a problem. the fact that we're getting rid of the police chief today because of video that was made over 400 days ago that nobody ever apparently wanted to ever be seen by anyone, and if a judge did not have the courage to honor that request, we would still have that same police chief in office. so i think we have to look more systematically and across the board at a lot of these cities, and say there's a problem. it's an endemic problem to the way we look at certain pockets of the population, and that we don't value somebody in the same way that we value other bodies. that is a bigger issue than just chicago. >> father, do you think the superintendent being asked to step down, will that make a difference? >> i think it's only a step. the body is sick of the police department. you can take off the head but you've still got the same sick body. we go into that whole community of blue cod

but when we look more deeply, into the culture of chicago, the police culture in chicago, the news that was probably in the headlines that laquan mcdonald was killed a week before, a 17-year-old, now we find out exactly how that all played out once we finally had the video, aren't the complexities here of how this situation unfolds in real time for any type of situation it really comes down to specific details. >> that's the most awful police case you can see. it's akin to putting a guy up against the wall and executing him. that is awful. the officers should be charged. that's a murder. he shot him 13 times on the ground. but you can't conflate that case and those officers and that case with this case, where force is justified. this guy could not be stopped. he was armed, he was fleeing, he was fighting, he was going to go into a place where the public was. the officer was justified to use force. the proof here is substantial. now, maybe someone will say well, we don't know if it's a gun, we don't -- every fofficers lying. that's not going to hold up. as churchill said, facts are subje

chicago's center says its yellow lights are set at 3 seconds. kidwell uncovered evidence that many of the red light camera intersections had so-called yellow light intervals of less than three seconds. that means more red light violations and millions more in revenue for the city. >> this camera right behind me, it is a thief. it is doing nothing but stealing people's money. >> reporter: terry had received a $100 citation after being captured on camera going through an index whose yellow light interval was be lows three seconds. at least that's what this man's research shows. he is the red light doctor. using a video camera and special software, he is able to capture the exact duration of a gel low light inter valley-- yellow light interval. his program proves that this light last 2.873 seconds. >> they're hooked on it. they will go down fighting before they give up the revenue from the camera. >> reporter: kidwell says chicago became the nation's capital of red light cameras through a mix of corruption and back room politics, chicago style. it

as these issues in chicago, as you know, these aren't anything new.olice abuse has been a long-standing problem. it didn't start with this administration. it didn't start with the superintendent. so many scandals. and we've lived through over the years. and we often hear just the same things after each scandal. hey, let's form another commission. some heads roll. but nobody up to this point has had the political courage to address the underlying issues that have allowed a minority of police officers to abuse the most vulnerable among us with impunity. the feds coming in now really provides an opportunity for some hope. not a panacea but hope if we can work together toward reform. something i haven't seen in my lifetime in chicago. >> wesley, you have been reporting on police issues for well over the last two years. my question is what's the significance of a d.o.j. patterns and practices probe? what does it mean for chicago? >> well, it's -- it's much broader than a civil rights probe. when d.o.j. comes in and says, we're going to investigate the laqu

chicago's top cop is fired.e illinois attorney general wants the justice department to investigate. is mayor raul emmanuel next? >>> after overwhelming evidence that airstrikes alone will not stop isis the u.s. is planning to send many more special ops forces into syria and iraq. >>> republicans battle president obama on climate change while china chokes on record levels of smog. then thieves are keeping an eye on those just-delivered christmas packages. a frightening collision between a deer and a police cruiser, and the countdown to the big tree lighting. "first look" starts right now.