WBEZ’s Weekly News Recap: August 14, 2026

Join WBEZ at John Roberts Westside for the fifth annual Food Aid Festival on August 21st and 22nd. This year features headliner Shamika Copeland, plus a block party on day two. Learn more at WBEZ.org slash events. So far this year, there have been more tornadoes in the state of Illinois than any state in the nation by a long shot. 105 mile per hour winds. It was on the ground for 22 miles, 300. Three football fields wide. Chicago should stop allowing data centers to set up shop in the city. That's according to Mayor Branton Johnson, who's calling for new rules to prevent the city's air and water from being polluted. Valley, Chicago announces it is paused construction. on some amenities tied to its permanent casino as it fights the city over video gambling terminals. Hey Chicago, I'm Erasalee Gomez-Alada in for Sasha Ann Simons, and this is in the loop. It's time for our weekly news recap. The CTA is expanding its efforts on Chicago buses and trains to curb illegal activity and provide social services. Meanwhile, J.B. Pritzker signs a law allowing right-chair drivers to unionize. The Chicagoans move to hold ICE agents accountable for alleged injuries and chaos caused last fall during Operation Midway Blitz. Victims of ICE operations are accusing federal agents of violence and breaking Illinois law. No one is above the law, not even federal agents. Heartbreak and grief all over again for families showing up at the South Chicago Chapel, the funeral home where dozens of decomposing bodies were discovered, just as some families were holding services. Before we get into the conversation, joining us now is one of our panelists, WBEZ investigative reporter, Dan Mihalopoulos. Hi, Dan. Hey, Arscily. I want to start with some congratulations. You and your team, some WBEZ colleagues, found out this week that you've won the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award. Tell us about the series you were honored for, becoming bovino. Yeah, we did some stories in The Sun Times and also a podcast here at WBZ, which won this National Murrow Award that were very honored to receive, very prestigious. And it was a story about Gregory Bovino, who was the head of Operation Midway Blitz, that Trump administration, anti-immigration push through Chicago in its suburbs last year. It was actually our editor-in-chief here, Kimbreel Kelly, who assigned us to go and find out everything we could about Bovino because, as you might recall, he went from obscurity to being the face of Operation Midway Blitz and all the anti-immigrant efforts where the Border Patrol pushed into the interior of the country in pursuit of immigrants.

Looking back now, are you happy you went and did all of that hard work, long hours to get this story done? Yeah, well, the response from our audience, you know, was enough in itself. This is just a cherry on top of the cake. But definitely we had a big response from our listeners and the readers of the Sun Times here and across the country when we did this story. We went together with a producer, Noah Jennings, and a photographer from the Sun Times, Anthony Vasquez, all the way to the southwest border of the country, really right up to Trump's border wall with Mexico in the California desert because that's where Bovino was stationed for many years before he was dispatched by Trump to the Chicago area and then later to Minnesota, as you might recall. And then there was another team that went to North Carolina where Bovino was from. So we did a huge amount of reporting on the East Coast, on the West Coast, and here in Chicago. All of that required a lot of expense as well as effort. And so we think the listeners who support this kind of journalism. Dan, those increased immigration operations and the so-called Operation Midway Blitz occurred almost a year ago. But the issues raised in the series are still quite relevant. Are you continuing some reporting on this? Yeah, sure. We're still going over a lot of the things that happened here. And we might be doing that for a long time. It's not easy to get records from the federal government. And we're trying to figure out what all happened here and also what continues to. happen because although it's not a blitz where we have hundreds of border patrol and ice agents here, their activities do continue. And we have a lot of reporters here who I think do a great job of covering immigration issues. We'll keep an eye out on all of this as we get closer to the one year anniversary of Operation Midway Blitz. Thanks, Dan. My pleasure. Also at the table, along with Dan, helping us break down the week's top stories, where Maxwell Evans, who covers Hyde Park, Woodlawn, and South Shore for Block Club Chicago, Nick Bloomberg, WTT, news correspondent and host of Chicago Tonight's Week in Review. I started off by asking the panelists how they fared in the storms this week. Here's Maxwell. I think I was on the very, like, northern edge of the worst of the storm, so I was still seeing the crazy winds. I was still seeing, like, the crazy rainfall. But, yeah, the tornadoes, the true violent damage that a lot of the South suburbs in Northwest Indiana were seeing. Living in South Shore, I thankfully just had missed that. Yeah. How about you, Nick? Did you... I was kind of in the same boat. You know, I'm up on the north side, but it got so dark that I, you know, it seemed like it was about to be sunset and, you know, that sort of that ominous color in the sky that we've all gotten so used to. I mean, it feels like we were talking about this earlier that this summer has just been.

Crazy storms, wildfire smoke, or just unbearable heat that we've kind of gotten a little bit ripped off this year. Dan, were you here? Were you in Greece? I just came back from the motherland. And because of the bad weather, my quote-unquote direct flight from Athens, they took us to Rockford instead. And then they flew us like 15 minutes from Rockford until O'Hare when the storms, you know, left the area. But yeah, I mean, it's really insane to look at these maps and see. Illinois is the tornado alley of the United States this year. Is it climate change? Is it just bad luck? Honestly, when you look at the size of some of those storms, no disrespect to the people that were hit, you know, in other parts of Illinois. But we're very lucky it didn't go through like highly, highly. densely populated area. That's a good point. And I mean, I was here. A lot of us were here at Navy Pier. We had to take cover. Of course, like a lot of Midwestners, we wanted to look outside and see what was happening, which is very common. Our terrible instinct to do so, yes. There's a tornado where? And you kind of go out there and look. But yes, I mean, it's very interesting that we usually see tornadoes hit great planes, or at least we think this idea that they usually hits Kansas or Oklahoma, Texas. But really, Illinois is. leading the records. And I just can't believe how many we have. Dirk's guys, you know, descending on us in the middle of the day is so odd. But they are becoming... more common, like we've been mentioning, in the loop interviewed Scott Susan Collins and a scientist at Argonne National Laboratory about what's behind this extreme weather. The Midwest has a unique set of vulnerabilities, unlike our coastal partners where you can see flooding and things like that. Where we sit, and we talked a little about tornado alley, we sit at this interesting intersection between cold polar air. warm moisture coming in from the Gulf and agricultural practices in and around here, adding to that moisture and fuel. And so what we're seeing, and this comes back to what we're talking about in July, we're seeing more of our rain fall in fewer events. And so we're hearing there kind of what could be causing all of this. And Nick, you mentioned about wildfire smoke from Canada. That's also becoming a very common thing. People are worried about air quality. And I think most of us still think that we're pretty immune to these weather emergencies. I kind of think, oh, we're so close to the lake. And I know that's a misconception. But yeah, any thoughts on why? Why we're getting all of this? Well, I mean, you know, as Scott mentioned, sort of the confluence of things in the area where we live. climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and more extreme. Yeah, you know, the wildfire smoke is becoming, it feels like, more or less every summer kind of an occurrence. You know, in these intense storms, you know, there was that, you know, to Dan Sullivan point about, you know, being lucky that some of the more populous areas weren't necessarily hit. I remember in 2020, I think it was August of 2020, that the Durachio blew through. That's right. You know, and I remember seeing, you know, buildings along the lakefront with roof tiles just.

getting completely ripped off. I think, you know, a lot of us who grew up in Chicago or the Chicago area, you know, we always heard, oh, tall buildings, lakefront, you know, we're not going to get hit by a tornado, which is absolutely just not true. It was a comforting thing for like an eight-year-old in school doing tornado drills thinking these don't really matter. And as it turns out, they kind of do matter. And we should know how to react. Or Plainfield, what year was that? Oh, yeah. 21 or 22? Yeah. No, no. I mean, there's a really bad one in Plainfield in the 90s, I want to say. Mm. Yeah, and I think we're going to, you know, I'm looking into research about, you know, climate change and tornadoes. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of data there. There's more in droughts and heat waves, but tornadoes usually don't get a lot of coverage. But I'll keep an eye on for you guys. We know you will. Turning to other news, a historic loop office building could soon be turned into a data center. Another topic we've heard about this week. The commission on Chicago landmarks approved the project at 300 West Adams, though the full commission hasn't given. given it the green light yet, and preservationists are opposing that development. And we know where Chicago's mayor is on the data center debate. He wants to hit the pause button. Maxwell, you reported on this. What are some of the details about what Brandon Johnson is saying? Yeah, so about two years after city council had unanimously pushed to draw data centers to the city. There's been such a push against them that it seems the political wins are definitely changing in favor of pausing them or turning, at least making sure we're regulating them in a way that is safe for the neighborhoods around them before allowing future ones to go forward. And so that's exactly what Mayor Brandon Johnson has been proposing. He's called on city council to enact a pause, a moratorium on development of data centers until the city works out a permanent regulation scheme. And he's also put a few other kind of stopgap temporary regulations in place. through an executive order while the city works out its longer term plan for regulating data centers. Have any of the older people kind of said there was no need for this? We kind of want data centers. Has there been in opposition to that viewpoint? Now, I actually haven't heard any personally, but I do know there was, again, a unanimous effort through city council just a couple years ago to do so. I would imagine many of the older people that voted for that would feel the same way in terms of it's a positive for economic development. They're hoping to draw some of these big tech companies here. But there were also older people that were in the council at the time who had voted for that package. to attract data centers that were out there with the mayor here earlier. So, yeah, I think there is definitely a shift in terms of even if people were kind of unaware or not really thinking about these larger AI-based centers that Alderman are certainly thinking about that now as they move forward. Well, and I think it's interesting to seeing, you know, as you mentioned, the city kind of reversing itself on trying to draw these data centers in. We've seen the same thing at the state level where, you know, within the last few years, you know, there was an effort

to incentivize data centers being, you know, built in Illinois. And just this year, J.B. Pritzker similarly said, you know, let's put a pause on these incentives. And I think, you know, the kind of the pushback to it is, I think AI has driven a greater public awareness of these data centers aren't necessarily new. You know, we talk about. cloud computing and putting stuff up in the cloud and all our, you know, our Google Docs and all that. Right. The cloud is a data center. You know, the cloud is a building that has these servers that has these energy and water and cooling needs. So these are things that have existed, but I think kind of the, the scariness of AI and the speed with which it's developed and it's demonstrated some potentially kind of dangerous or alarming possibilities has really raised people as attention to the fact that. You know, these things are in our backyards, and they come with some serious environmental costs. Yeah, people are speaking out. It has become an unpopular thing, right, to have a data center in your backyard. I mean, like you said, Nick, 39 data centers in Chicago currently. And the Sun Time spoke to ComEd and told them that, you know, if you look at Northern Illinois, there are projections and proposals of over 100 data centers. So it is something that... People are like, we don't want this. On the other hand, it does bring union jobs, things like that. So there is probably a need for balance. And yeah, the scale of it, too. I think AI has really caused these data centers to go from something you can fit in like a South Loop office building to these hyperscale developments where you need acres and acres of land, massive, massive power draws. And so, yeah, it's just kind of the tone of the conversation has changed as that's become obvious. And what's interesting, Maxwell, like. We're talking the state, so, you know, governor and city officials, they kind of are talking a lot about a quantum park, about becoming this hub of technology and quantum physics. And, you know, is that kind of like bumping into the status center conversation a little bit? Yeah, for sure, because there was actually a proposal in 2025 by an affiliate of the developer of that site to build a one gigawatt hyperscale data center at the north end of the quantum shore Chicago development. And that wouldn't necessarily. be fully tied to the quantum park that's being developed at the south end. The developers have been very clear that that south end will not include a large data center. But yeah, when you look at that project as a whole, it's a little unclear as to what the status of that project is. But as of 18 months ago or so, it was at least proposed to put one of those right there on the lakefront. Yeah. So another thing that we're kind of wondering about. Yeah, these are places with a lot of acreage when you're talking about, there's another one going in on the old United Airlines. headquarters in Elk Grove Village in the northwest suburbs just by O'Hare, which that's a huge area. I mean, this was the largest airline in the world, and they moved their headquarters, you know, basically downtown. And that's a huge, huge site. You know, the implications for other people's electricity bills, the rest of us, water that they used to. These are huge issues that are playing out all over just the north of us, I think, in Wisconsin. There was that, you know, progressive Democratic socialist candidate for governor who was favored in the primary and lost this week. But I believe she had planned, like, to stop them entirely or try to stop them entirely in Wisconsin. And, you know.

She didn't win, but there's definitely different approaches politically some people very much against them. And I think on the federal level, though, the Trump administration is very pro-beta centers. Yeah, we're hearing a lot of different things, nation and local. Dan, I want to stick with you because that made me think about another debate that's going on with our elected officials, video gambling. So the city council did, you know, just is. very, you know, pausing, you know, not pausing on the construction. What do we know about what's happening with this whole ordeal? Yeah, so Chicago forever wanted a casino, couldn't get approval for it from Springfield. They're cropping up all over the state over the years. And then finally, Chicago gets a casino. There's a big fight about who's going to be able to build it. Bally's proposes, of course, not only a casino, but they always say that there'll be hotels and other things all around it. And now Bally says, you know what, because you're going to allow video gambling, which is sort of these mini casinos that I think the limit now is six per location. But anybody who has a liquor license, I think, can open one of these. They're all over the suburbs. They're all over other parts of Illinois. Chicago didn't have them hoping that they would get one big casino. And instead they won both now. So they get their casino. And now they say, well, we're going to also allow video gambling all over the city. And if you're the video gambling industry, yeah, now the threat from Bally's who's developing this casino is, well, we're going to build the casino, but we're not going to build the amenities. Right. If you allow video gambling, I don't blame them. You know, if you go to the city and you say, I'm going to pay you a bunch of money. to do and invest, let's say, in the parking garages under Millennium Park, which did happen some years ago, you get a guarantee that the area around you will not have competition. And in that case, the city went and allowed a parking lot mistakenly, I think, or not, a short distance away from those parking decks and the private interest sued and got tens of millions of dollars from the city. So similarly, if you're the casino, And you're investing. You don't want little competitors all over the place if a person can go down the block and bet. Why are they going to go to the casinos? Right. So what's going to happen with the hotel? Do we know? Are they going to construct the hotel? Well, they say they won't if there's video gambling. But I guess we'll see, you know, how this plays out. The city council has already budgeted all this money from video gambling terminals, which I think is also a crazy way to do budgeting. Because even when they launched video gambling in the state around 2010, 2012, it took quite a while. to really get it going. The Illinois Gaming Board, which regulates this and licenses these locations and these operators, and, you know, well, there's already that sort of infrastructure across the state. I don't know how long it would take to ramp it up. Businesses love it, you know, it's another income stream. There's places that pay their rent, restaurants that pay their rent entirely from a few video gambling machines in one corner. We see this all over the suburbs. But at some point, you've got to wonder, like,

When is the gambling industry going to be saturated in this state? I mean, this was already with video gambling, the Vegas of the Midwest. This was like the place that, I don't know if it's still true, but at one point we found a few years ago more gambling in Illinois than any state except Nevada. Well, and it was interesting, too. You know, there were questions when Bally's was, you know, when the city casino was being proposed, when, you know, the Bally's, you know, kind of construction was still in question of like, yeah, what is the what is the ceiling here? At a certain point, is this just going to be zero sum of like. okay, you know, they'll be pulling some more people from, you know, from the riverboat or they'll be pulling some more people from the Hollywood casino. But, you know, they're not necessarily. Yeah, you know, they're not necessarily going to be this huge, you know, influx, you know, how's this all going to shake out? The other thing that I think is an interesting question with this kind of political standoff between Bally's and the City Council, there was reporting that, you know, the lender that's working with Bally's on this project, which is, you know, putting up like billions of dollars. They said in an earnings call recently that, yeah, you know, there's video gambling going on in the city, but we still see, you know, huge prospects here for the Bally's casino. So it's like, well, the money people aren't necessarily worried about it. So is this more of... Bally's, you know, are they worrying about their profit? Or is it just kind of like, we want to stake out our position, like have some primacy here? People are looking to say, I did something, right? I mean, there have been questions about the financing of this whole casino complex going back before video gambling entered the picture. But yeah, and when it comes to saturation of gambling and cannibalizing, you also have to think about gambling addiction. And we have sports gambling too now. Yeah, a lot of people are worried about that. Let's turn to some transportation stories, news out of the CTA this week, Nick, that it's going to be expanding crisis and violence intervention efforts on certain L lines, maybe some buses. What do we know? Yeah, they're calling these folks safe ride specialists. It's a program that they've been talking about, you know, kind of an effort that they've been talking about of what can we do, you know, in terms of non-law enforcement intervention to try and help folks on. That's the goal, right? Absolutely. You know, so these are people who. Maybe you're using the, you know, CTA trains as shelter. These are folks who maybe are going through some sort of a mental health crisis, you know, people engaging in, you know, potentially, you know, disruptive behavior, that there's concerns that could lead to violence. You know, the CTA over the last several years has really started to ramp up this kind of outreach. You know, a lot of times, you know, the CTA board chair said when he first came in like 10 years ago, the message was, you know, we run buses and trains. We're a, you know, we're a transit agency. We're not a social service agency. This is other folks' responsibilities. But more and more in public transportation, people have been realizing that, like, listen.

These things are happening across our system, whether we're addressing them or not. And they directly affect not only of the people who are going through these crises, but also passengers around them or the perception of the system that maybe keeps passengers away. So this is a $9 million in change effort. They're partnering with a bunch of nonprofits. There's also some work with the city's Department of Family and Support Services to have outreach teams working on the – there's already some working on the red and blue lines. They're going to expand that. They're going to be on the green line. the sort of violence interruption effort is going to be focused on redline trains and stations downtown. And then the on-train outreach, they'll have people who can help connect folks with social services, who can provide them with hygiene kits, with Narcan, who can help get them connected potentially with a shelter if they want to. So it's a really interesting approach, you know, trying to do direct social service aid for people and, you know, improve the kind of overall, you know, safety and experience. of CTA. It's, you know, it's an interesting approach. It is. And, you know, the CTA even said they want to kind of be a leader in the nation of these alternative interventions. Maxwell, do you think that, you know, the perception is going to, is going to help, that people are going to feel more comfortable to go out onto the red line? I'm not entirely sure about that. I think that some people, their perception is just that the CTA is unsafe. But as a frequent CTA user myself, I'm less concerned about the perception and more about the realities. Like, I frequently will see somebody. clearly in need of help, clearly in need of social services, sleeping on the trains, or again, having those mental health crises, and I'm not equipped to help. If they come to me and, like, interact with me, I have no idea how to handle that. So having professionals that know how to handle that, that know how to not only keep that passenger safe, but the rest of the passengers safe. Regardless of perception over time, I certainly think that would be factually, tangibly helpful. And the idea is that it's not a police officer. Well, exactly. You know, to Maxwell's point, like, you know, you and I on the red line seeing someone in crisis don't really necessarily know what to do. And a lot of instances, neither does law enforcement. It's not within their purview. Obviously. you know, officers get some sort of, you know, they get de-escalation training. They've been in these situations before, but they're not a mental health care provider. They're not a social service provider directly. That's not, you know, they may have some experience in that, but it's not their training. It's not their role. So the idea is, you know, meet people where they're at, put people in place who do have that expertise. Yeah. And sticking with transportation for a little bit, Maxwell, you've written a lot about the red line extension. Are there any updates with that? Nothing too major. Since the federal government was essentially forced to unfreeze the funding that it had withheld, the Trump administration had withheld some of the funding from that project. But since that's been unfrozen, progress has been ongoing. There's been updates about workforce developments, road closures, kind of the day-to-day life effects that this project will have as they try to extend it from 95th to 130th. which with such a major project, so much investment, so much work on properties that were once homes, vacant lots, things like that, so many impacts still ongoing for the next several years. Yeah, I mean, something that takes a long time, but it has just gotten.

longer and longer. One final transportation story. J.B. Pritzker just signed into law a bill that could maybe mean major changes for the ride share industry. Nick, how about, you know, for unionizing? This has been something that has been debated, you know, in Springfield for years and years and years now. This was a bill that was passed in the most recent session of the General Assembly that would allow Illinois ride share drivers to form a statewide union. You know, it's interesting. because these drivers are classified as independent contractors. So what the law... does as it kind of creates a framework for, okay, you know, how many, you know, what's sort of the top number of rides? Who, you know, what's the median number of rides and who's above that? Okay, you're qualified to be part of this union. And then there has to be a certain threshold of people who are interested, you know, say they're interested in potentially unionizing. And then there's a vote threshold to actually form one of these unions. There's all sorts of frameworks that are in place. This was something that. For many years, the ride share industry was actively opposed to. I don't know if folks remember sometimes getting like a push notification in the Uber or Lyft app, which they do from time to time. If there's, you know, legislation, NACSI is unfavorable. They eventually Uber last year dropped their opposition to this. So they were able to kind of craft a framework. But this is something that, you know, ride share drivers, you know, have been in Springfield for years, rallying for, trying to get support for. still a lot of hurdles in place for a ride share union to actually form. But this is something we've seen a couple of other states where they've recently formed one of these. So it's certainly a potential that this could happen for some of the rideshare drivers, some of the most active ride share drivers here in Illinois to form a union and get some of those labor rights and protections and negotiating power. I was wondering if other states were doing this. And I believe Illinois is like the third state to kind of move some legislation around this. Yeah, there were California. and Massachusetts where the two and Massachusetts certified their union in May. So we are, we're on the leading edge. Interesting.

Last week, the gruesome discovery of dozens of decomposing bodies at a south side funeral home made national headlines. This week, we received alarming news about a cemetery on the far northwest side of the city. Maxwell, you've kind of... covered this. What's going on? What have you learned this past week? Yeah. So in hearing both about the investigation into Bohemian National Cemetery that the state comptroller's office was doing, as well as the truly horrific discovery you had just mentioned about South Chicago Chapel, I was kind of curious as to whether those were linked in some way. They kind of started to trickle out at the same time. They were announced at the same time. And so the comptroller's office this week actually did confirm that most of the bodies that had been, that inspectors had found improperly stored at. Bohemian were sent there from the South Chicago Chapel where the 56 other bodies had been found improperly stored. And so just knowing that those were separate incidents, like the 56 does not include the, I believe, 10 that were sent to Bohemian National Cemetery, as well as 12 from a suburban business run by Clark and Johanna Morgan, the same people that ran the South Chicago Chapel. It's just we're getting into dozens and dozens of bodies in multiple different locations just connected together in this truly gruesome way. I can't imagine what the families are going through. I mean, a lot of people calling for more government oversight around these facilities. I think this kind of highlighted the problem that who is in charge here? Nick, what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I think any story like this, you know, the scope of this, the scale of this, I think it makes a lot of folks think about what is, what's the regulatory framework here? Who's supposed to be overseeing these, you know, these various kinds of operations? Are those? those, you know, folks talking with one another. Are there results being shared publicly? You know, that obviously there's been some great reporting from Maxwell from some other folks on this issue. But like, would, you know, is there some sort of a public-facing way to, you know, alert Illinois into the fact that these things are happening? And in many instances, you know, when you report on things like this, it comes out because of a FOIA request or because of sources. It's not necessarily something where there's. proactive reporting that like, hey, there are problems going on. We've identified them and we think that members of the public should know about them. Yeah, we just assume that someone's keeping track and, you know, doing inspections or something. And I would add also that the same couple, the Morgans that are behind two of these businesses at the center of this current investigation also had situation where another one of their businesses, 100 plus bodies being stacked on top of each other, stored in trailers. This was just a year or so ago. I personally knew nothing about that. Like, this is not something that had come across my radar. And so I think that really underscores the fact that these businesses can kind of get away from time to time with situations like this if there isn't a coordinated, dedicated effort to prevent it. Yeah. Nick, you know, something that I was kind of when I saw the headlines, I thought, Bohemian National Cemetery, right by WTTW. What were you? What was being talked about at the station? I know. I had the same thought. You know, sometimes I'll go, you know, for a walk around the neighborhood at my lunch break and kind of the back of that cemetery. backs right up to the northeastern illinois campus which we you know were situated on so it was you know it's always a little bit you know this would be a horrific story in any instance in any instance but it's always a little bit jarring when you think

Oh, wait, that beautiful cemetery that I walk past a few times a week, you know, when I'm out, you know, just trying to get some fresh air. Definitely. And same thing for the South Chicago, sorry, Vets Park neighborhoods that had been smelling some of this before it was discovered, like just going around a walk on your neighborhood, getting home from work, smelling something awful in the air. And something that the local alderman Peter Chico had brought up is that there is a lot of industry around there, including Pullman Innovations, which the state AG and the city just recently sued over some of the horrible smells coming from that plant. So even when this was going on, neighbors are just day-to-day life experiencing this before this is found out. And so to your point, it's just like just trying to live your daily life and knowing this kind of thing is going on right in your backyard. Right. And that's something that, you know, people are going to keep reporting on. And of course, this story, it just seems like we are just at the beginning, unfortunately. Turning to something very different. Also this week, nine Chicagoans are looking to finally hold ICE agents accountable for the alleged injury. and chaos caused last fall during Operation Midway Blitz. Dan, you've been covering this. What do we know about the nine Chicagoans and what they actually want? Well, one of them is Marimar Martinez, who we might recall was shot. by ICE agents, or was it Border Patrol? I think it was Border Patrol, actually, in that case. But we had both ICE agents and Border Patrol running rampant around Chicago in the suburbs for months, actually, last year you'll recall. Not a single one of those agents, despite all the things we saw with our own eyes, despite all the things that were video recorded in Evanston and, you know, in Uber lots by O'Harets, not a single one of those agents. has been charged with any crime. Did they not commit any crimes or is it just a lack of local law enforcement holding them accountable? And they tried to put a special prosecutor at one point. The judge said, Cook County judge said, well, nobody's made a police report. So these nine went and they made police reports with the CPD. And we'll see where it goes from here. There's the issue of. The state's attorney who says, you know, if laws were broken, we can apply them to federal agents legally. That's not entirely clear, though. You know, there are issues of federal immunity. And, you know, it was quite a, quite a scene. And a lot of people believe that laws were broken by these federal agents in their anti-immigrant blitz. that both Border Patrol and ICE carried out at the behest of President Trump, of course. I think from the beginning, people were just so confused. What is the order of operations here? If I am being, you know, if they feel like there was some activity that shouldn't have been happening, who do they call? What is the process? I think people have been asking since last September for elected officials to do something. And it's been like, you could do this, you could do that. But now this is actually finally potentially something. Do you think? Nick, that there's finally something that could be done? I think it's going to depend a lot on, you know, what Dan said in terms of, is there just sort of this federal supremacy, this, you know, immunity that comes through. You know, we've seen, you know, the state set up its Accountability Commission, which had, you know, all sorts, taking all sorts of testimony and witness reports, putting together a big report. You know, that's the kind of thing that I think maybe is going to be used, you know, in a future administration down the road. If there's, you know, a different, you know, folks in power and in Washington.

you know, with kind of a different bent on this that want to hold some of these immigration agents accountable in future years. But yeah, in terms of immediate action, you know, going and filing a police report in the hopes that maybe there is some prosecutorial action or at least, you know, some sort of an investigation by, you know, a prosecutorial agency. Right. That could maybe have more of an immediate effect. We did hear from some of the folks involved in supporting those who went and filed saying, you know, expect more police reports to come. This is, you know, this is the beginning and not the end. But it is, I mean, as we've been discussing for the, you know, what, a year and a half now, it is really, really difficult to hold federal agents accountable for their actions unless there is, you know, willingness from. from the federal level, you know, to sort of hold folks to the laws and standards that, you know, as we've seen in many instances, agents were clearly not upholding. Well, there's none of that in Washington currently. I mean, so many inspectors general of different federal agencies have been dismantled. And my reporting into Border Patrol particularly, and most of the agents here were actually Border Patrol, we found. There were hundreds, about 300 some. And Border Patrol has really had a bad record at the border. And when they came in terms of holding themselves accountable, I mean, and now they came inland, far from the border. And we saw a lot of the things that people at the border are used to. You know, before we leave this topic of Operation Midway Blitz and Immigration Enforcement, I want to take a moment to congratulate Dan and the whole WBEZ team, which includes a more host, Patrick Smith, who worked on the Becoming Bovino podcast and investigative series. It won an Edward R. Murrow Award. Congrats to everyone involved. So many people involved. Congratulations. Yeah. A lot of effort went into it and a lot of expense. That's right. You went all the way to the border. I went to the border with a producer and a sometimes photographer with Noah Jennings and Anthony Vasquez. Others went to North Carolina. That's right. These things cost money to do the kind of in-depth reporting that we do. And we appreciate the listeners who support us and make that possible. And it is a great, great series. So congratulations. Thank you. for a bit, the state versus federal authority. Dan, a Trump-appointed judge has overturned Illinois law granting in-state tuition to undocumented students right before school started. I mean, we're right around the corner. Yeah, that's a very, very difficult situation for a lot of students. And it looks like, you know, the argument was why should undocumented... students get in-state tuition, which is much lower, obviously, than if you're out-of-state student, when out-of-state students generally, who maybe U.S. citizens or many cases are U.S. citizens, can't get in-state tuition. And this judge agreed. I don't know if it's going to be appealed. Some of the universities seem to already be waving the white flag on this. So we'll see how it develops, but it's definitely another barrier for undocumented students.

to try to get ahead and establish themselves in this country, educate themselves, and when they're not treated as if they are the same as other in-state students, despite the fact many of them, you know, have probably grown up here or maybe were brought here when they were, you know, little little babies practically in a lot of those cases. You know, in this federal government, in this administration, when Trump was in power before, too, also you'll recall, battled against the dreamers, you know, who are the... undocumented people who are given status administratively by the Obama administration, and that's been all thrown up in the air, too. Yeah, I mean, the difference between in-state tuition and out-of-state tuition is huge. We know that at UIC alone, it's triple the price, so affecting a lot of families going into the academic year. I know that this has happened at other states. I know it's happened in Indiana, so, you know, sometimes the schools step up and try to do something if it can't be done by the state. Dan, you just finished up an investigation into the closing and bankruptcy of a local charter school. Let us know the details. Yeah, you might have recall a few months ago, there was a charter school that stopped operating in the middle of the year, ran out of money. I couldn't believe this story. Never happened before hundreds of kids, I think about 500 kids left to look for another school with just a month or two left in the school year. That was the Aspira school. One of the Aspera schools was in a building on Milwaukee Avenue in Avondale. And this building was built just 11 years ago with $27 million of state grant money. And there's only a couple schools that have ever gotten state grant money to build their own, beautiful lead certify environmentally. State of the art. State of the art beautiful building, limestone facade. And this building, after 11 years, is on the market as part of the bankruptcy of Aspita. And they're trying to pawn it off. They're trying to get the bankruptcy judge to approve them pawning it off for $11 million. Remember, we paid $27 million for it. They want to pawn it off for $11 million. They have a mortgage. They owe money to a bunch of other people according to all the bankruptcy filings. But then they stand to pocket, we believe, a fair amount of money, too. And so why should they be allowed to take this building that was supposed to operate as a school for 50, 60, who knows how many years? And 11 years later, say, you know what, we're not in the school business anymore. Right. But we're still a community group. And this is our asset. Well, we paid for it. Right. And I also, in your reporting, you said, you know. A lot of money that was given from CPS, or excuse me, from the budget to this charter school. How does that work? Of course. Well, charter schools are privately run, but publicly funded. If people think it's like WBZ and people just give money, yeah, most 95% of their money or maybe 99% in some cases.

actually just comes from taxpayers. So they get money from CPS. And it was, I think we said, $165 million in the last 10 years. They've been in the charter business since 2002. We'll see if CPS or the state have any way of clawing this money back. But I think it's very complicated. CPS says they're going to intervene in court. I haven't seen that yet. in the court records. But the state has just been crickets when we've called them. You know, this grant was approved under a previous administration. The state senator who approved it is livid that she says it was mismanagement by Espira that put us in this place. Have we ever seen anything like this before? I don't believe we have. I mean, the only other charter school that got money to build their own. school building from the state was called Uno some years ago. They became mired in scandal. You might know them as acero. They rebranded. And they've had problems. They've closed some schools. But the ones that were built with state money, I believe, are still operating. And so really, we're in uncharted waters here. Well, and it's kind of what we were talking about earlier in terms of like, Who are the, you know, who's mining the store here? What are the regulations that are in place? I wonder whether this is going to give, you know, this grant money might give lawmakers pause in future years to say, you know, let's make sure we put some terms in place in case. You know, because obviously you think it's, like you said, they've been around since 2002. It's not some fly-by-night operation. They have a reputation. You know, we as state lawmakers want to support them and their students with this beautiful new building. But seeing something like this that just gets, you know, everybody's hackles up is like, you know, Are people going to either think twice about supporting a grant like that or are there just going to be way more stringent regulations in place in terms of if things go belly up? And are people thinking, well, I can open up a charter school and get tax funding money and then I'll go declare a bank from state. Well, let's see. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of problems right now with charter schools and there are a lot of political headwinds with, you know, a teacher's union elected mayor up on the fifth floor city hall. So I do feel for the charter schools, but where's our money? You know, why should they sell this as if it's their own asset? This was supposed to be an anchor in the Puerto Rican community, basically. And this Aspita is an organization that is national, that is centered in the Puerto Rican community. And these are going to become maybe condos. You know, a private developer is buying it or wants to buy it. We don't know what they're going to do with it, but I would say it's pretty likely there on Milwaukee Avenue that they will become maybe condos in that building. So it could go from being a symbol of the Puerto Rican community to another hallmark of gentrification. And, you know, talking about schools and. you know, mentioning back to school. And I know that it's back to school because we had the Bud Billiken parade last weekend, which is how I know it's almost back to school, even though I'm not in school anymore. It is the oldest and largest African-American parade in the country. Maxwell, is this your area of expertise, that area right there? Yeah, and actually I wasn't able to make it out this year, but the year before I was able to bring my nephew and my little brother from Michigan to go and see it. I know they had a blast. Like, they're not even from Chicago. They don't know the history of that parade.

but just being there, I could see these two cool for school dudes like, oh, wow, look at those dancers. I'll listen to this music. It's a blast for whoever goes by. It is so much fun. I know WBEZ was there with some of our colleagues, and I also had to miss it this year, which I was very bummed about. Another cool thing that I saw you reporting on was the Washington Park and the George Washington statue. There is a new movement going on there. Can you tell us a little bit about it? Yeah, so artist Amanda Williams. who's known for projects like painting, abandoned and soon to be demolished buildings on the south side or planting. hundreds of thousands of tulips in Washington Park to represent redlining in the neighborhood. Her latest project is reimagining of Washington and what it represents. There's a 1902 monument to George Washington at the entrance of the park. And for over 100 years, it's just been a monument to him personally. But Williams Project reimagines this as other Washington's bringing in people that are as famous as Harold or Denzel and alongside Chicagoans who are. our best friends in high school or Chicagoans who are beloved by their families and putting everybody with that last name Washington on the same pedestal. So it was such a cool project to see not only in concept but in execution and chat with the other Washingtons who are now right alongside our first president in stature outside of Washington Park. Yeah, and part of the Chicago Monuments Project, which is really cool, like you said, like a lot of things, you know, kind of coming out of that project itself. Yeah, actually just a few weeks ago, I was. there for the groundbreaking of the Chicago Torture Justice Memorial. And that is another one. This whole project is about reimagining monuments, what they mean, who they represent, and trying to reshape local imaginings of history through that. So it's a really cool project. Do you all have a favorite Washington? Oh, man. I got to say I wasn't alive for it, but the more I learn about Harold and what he meant to black Chicago in particular as a black Chicago. And it's just so cool to see that kind of representation and love that people still have for a man who died four decades ago. Yeah, you've got to give it up for Harold Washington. I guess my way less serious answer as a scandal fan would be Carrie Washington. Carrie Washington, of course. Actress Carrie Washington. Dan, do you have a favorite? I think you guys covered the waterfront. Another Washington. I think I'll stick with Harold, too. Now, Chicago has been captivated by another story, Baluga whales. They are being rescued from a closed aquarium near Niagara Falls in Canada and being transported here to Chicago. got four other beluga whales they

are now Chicago residents. How are you guys keeping up with this story, Maxwell? Do you know what? I actually haven't kept up too closely, but just as a fan of sea animals in general, I would be excited to see them. And I hope they're well cared for because I know a lot of times like a maritime institutions or kind of putting them on display, they don't have the best reputations in terms of taking care of them. I would really hope coming to Chicago, they're cared for, loved, shown all the respect they deserve. Yeah, they were in danger, right? Yeah, I mean, they were at the shuttered park and, you know, the park owner was basically trying to sell them off instead. Well, if you don't let us sell them, you know, we're going to euthanize them. So the fact that they're now going to institutions like the shed is really cool to see. And if anyone hasn't seen the footage, it's worth looking up of like this like massive military scale operation to like lift them out of the water and get them into these, you know, transport tankers and get them onto planes. It's, it has been a whale of an effort. Let's hear. Let's give them a welcome. They're giving a welcome to us. Let's hear what they sound like. That's Caspian, Pikachu, Rain, and Saccord. I think I believe that is their names. Isn't it just so peaceful? Audio gold, you call it in the industry here. The fact that one of them is named Pikachu, that's an appropriate sound that they're making. I think. So they moved them from marine land, was it, that closed near Niagara Falls, Ontario. That's a hike. They couldn't just swim through the Great Lakes, I guess, through the locks. Yeah, it is, it's very interesting to see them. Of course, the public can't see them yet. They're being taken care of, as you mentioned, Maxwell. But we know they're there. We heard the sounds. Well, thank you so much for joining the weekly news recap. Again. Thanks to Maxwell Evans of Block Club Chicago, Nick Bloomberg of WTTW and WBEC's Dan Mihalopoulos. Are there any other stories you guys are looking or following this week that you want to kind of promote a little bit? Well, maybe it's outside of my traditional coverage area, but the second go-round of the Cross Town Classic starts on Monday night at Wrigley Field, and I will be there. And Sox leading the AL Central, Cubs four games back. It should be an interesting night. Chicago Fire four-game winning streak with their new Polish striker Robert, I think it's Lewandowski. Oh, that's great.

This episode of the In the Loop podcast was produced by me, Andrea Guthrman. If you like what you just heard, we hope you'll join us for more. We drop a new episode about Chicago News and Culture every weekday afternoon, including our weekly news recap on Fridays. And once a month, ask the mayor. Thanks for listening and have a great day.