Republicans briefly brought the Democrat-led impeachment investigation to a halt when around two dozen GOP House members stormed into a closed-door deposition with a Defense Department official. 

The powerful Illinois House speaker is named in a federal subpoena. Our politics team tackles that story and Mayor Lightfoot’s budget proposal in our weekly roundtable.

Mayor Lightfoot laid out her plan to resolve the city’s massive deficit, but any final budget will require the support of aldermen. Weighing in on that and more: Alds. Scott Waguespack, Ray Lopez and Jason Ervin.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot delivered her first budget address Wednesday at City Hall amid a swirl of protests from striking Chicago Public Schools teachers and support staff outside. How she plans to close the budget gap.

A top U.S. diplomat testified Tuesday that President Donald Trump was holding back military aid for Ukraine unless the country agreed to investigate Democrats and a company linked to Joe Biden’s family.

A former Time editor and State Department official on fighting for truth in the age of disinformation. Richard Stengel tells us about his new book “Information Wars.”

Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi has promised to fix a broken property tax system and end political patronage hiring. But a recent report found that the assessor’s office is not complying with a series of federal court orders. Kaegi joins us to discuss that and more.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday will deliver her first budget address, with an expected plan to close an $838 million budget deficit. She’s already accounted for $200 million of that with a proposal to refinance $1.3 billion in city borrowing.

President Donald Trump injected racial overtones into the House impeachment inquiry Tuesday by comparing the Democratic-led investigation into his handling of U.S. policy toward Ukraine to a “lynching.” 

The president, according to people familiar with testimony in the House impeachment investigation, sees the Eastern European ally, not Russia, as responsible for the interference in the 2016 election that was investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller.

President Donald Trump lashed out Monday at critics who prompted him to move next year’s Group of Seven summit from his private golf club in Florida, claiming he would have hosted it for free and now it will end up costing taxpayers “a fortune.”

Chicago teachers take to the picket lines. Will the city delay the start of legal pot sales? A federal probe into ComEd widens. And the Bears try to bounce back against the Saints. 

Alds. David Moore and Sophia King introduced an ordinance Wednesday to rename Lake Shore Drive to Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Drive in honor of the city’s founder.

Despite the tentative agreement, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson must now sell the deal to Parliament. Johnson’s political rivals and even a key ally have already rejected the agreement. 

Cummings, who was 68, had been chairman of one of the U.S. House committees leading an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. He died Thursday of complications from longstanding health problems, according to his office. 

On Wednesday, a former aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to speak to the House impeachment panels behind closed doors. Michael McKinley is expected to discuss concerns held by career State Department officials about the treatment of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.