Chicago Tonight: Week in Review, Friday, August 14 2026

and Susan and David Christman. Well, if I was trying to describe myself someone that had never seen me before, I would say, come down. She doesn't know. Dolly Parton is one of the most phenomenal songwriters. She was able to deliver a feminist message in disguise. You can't take the tendency to you have on the girl. There's a mystery about her. I actually take my songwriting more serious than anything else. Tonight at 8 on WTTW. Hi, I'm Stephanie. You're watching WTTW. Good evening and thanks for joining us on the Weekend Review. I'm Nick Blumberg. A lot of noise, but not much news, as Chicago Bears leadership gives an update on plans for a new stadium. Even though we've had occasional meetings with the state of Illinois, our sole focus at this point in time is working on a world-class stadium and mixed-use development in Hammond, Indiana. The Bears say they've finished due diligence on one site in Hammond and identified another in the area and reassured fans that even if the stadium relocates, the team will remain the Chicago Bears. There are deep concerns about how rapidly growing this industry is and what the potential environmental impacts are. Mayor Brandon Johnson tries to put the brakes on new data centers in Chicago. When disaster strikes... People should not have to wonder whether their zip code or their party affiliation will determine whether they get help. Governor J.B. Pritzker signs a bill funneling state aid to homeowners hit last summer and denied assistance by FEMA just days after six confirmed tornadoes touchdown breaking an Illinois record. Meantime, political storm clouds are brewing between the SEIU and Chicago Teachers Union over the Chicago Public Schools budget and leadership of the school board. Alleged victims of Midway Blitz misconduct file reports asking Chicago police to investigate federal immigration agents. And Bally's claims its halting construction on the hotel and concert venue adjacent to its future casino amid a standoff with the city over video gaming. And now to our Weekend Review panel, joining us our Mitchell Armantrout of the Chicago Sun Times, Kate Arminini of the Chicago Tribune. Aricelli Gomez-Eldana of WBEZ and Christian Farr of NBC 5 News. Great to see you all. Thank you for being here. Lots to talk about this week. Mitch, latest round of back and forth. Bears say they've got two sites in Hammond, occasional conversations, but they want to see a bill from Illinois lawmakers. Meanwhile, J.B. Pritzker says it's on the Bears to outline what team leadership wants to see. Does it feel like there's any sign of this impasse ending? No, not anytime soon. And like this press conference kind of feels like

could have been an email, like really no tangible updates. We saw a couple bills advance in Springfield at the end of the spring session, but the Bears haven't really weighed in either way. They didn't support those bills. But they also haven't really articulated exactly what it is they want, which is what J.B. Pritzker and other lawmakers have been asking the team to do for months. The Bears have said, you know, we want to see basically a deal from you guys, like show us what exactly it is you're offering. And as you watch these press conferences, you kind of just would like to put them in the room and say, can you guys hash this out? Because we can talk about this for five years now. It feels like we've been talking about this for five years. It's the same press conference over and over again. They just say we're looking at Indiana and then we're just waiting what's going to happen in Illinois. Yeah, I mean, how about that? It was a very much hyped event, including some sports reporters saying, hey, there might be a major announcement here. But in the end, it didn't really feel like we walked away knowing anything new, did it? No, there was nothing new in that. I was expected. like ready for this. Here's this big press conference that's going to happen and nothing happens. But again, this is not surprising to me because I grew up on the East Coast and the Giants and the Jets play in New Jersey and they've been playing there for decades. And so this is not a surprising thing that's going to happen. But it's like a wait and see. But every press conference appears to be the same every time. Yeah, 49ers nowhere near San Francisco. We would not be the only ones here. And the Hammond Mayor was the one who kind of started saying that there was going to be in an ounce. and we don't know what they're going to say. And then we tuned in and it was basically we're still looking into Indiana. Of course, he's very interested in that. And then I did get reminded that they're not going to change the name. So all of the people selling all of that merchandise that doesn't say Chicago Bears, maybe you should try and get a refund. Well, I mean, how about that though? If you're, you know, the mayor of Hammond, you know, if you're Governor Mike Braun, Indiana lawmakers, does it feel like the momentum for Indiana Stadium is on your side? They definitely believe so. I think you ask anybody in Indiana and you think. it's a it's a done deal and then we hear conversations even at the press conference saying we're still having conversations with Illinois lawmakers so it's really interesting if you go to Indiana it's a short deal over there all right well we will take their word for it for now because that's about all we've got all right those huge storms this week six confirmed tornadoes the touchdown breaking the state's record for the number of tornadoes in a single year Kate, does it feel sort of surprising to see Illinois becoming something of, you know, tornado capital, tornado alley. It's not really what folks think of us as. Certainly. I mean, just past couple years, we've seen very bad storm seasons. I think it came as a surprise to anyone who got a tornado alert on their phone this week. And I don't think it's a surprise either that we're seeing the state of Illinois now step up. Yeah, and we're going to talk about that, you know, just we want to cover J.B. Pritzker signing a bill today, aimed at helping storm victims, also calling out the Trump administration for FEMA, you know, denying claims to blue states, you know, Mitch, by his own admission, though, state can only do so much to pick up slack. Right, I mean, when you're talking about federal funding, that's hundreds of millions of dollars that the state is missing out on. And, you know, just going through J.B. Pritzker's press release today, you know, this funny that he's talking about is geared. towards the storm damage from last summer. And, you know, it's hard to keep track. It just seems like, it feels like things have changed a lot, just on a broader climate scale, you might say, because, you know, there's been so many rounds of severe weather. It's hard to even recall how many there were last summer. It's just becoming such a frightfully regular thing. You know, it was 2024, like, more than 60? And now this year is like...

We're getting past 70, you know, tornadoes. And I mean, I've been to a lot of these ravaged areas. These people still don't have, a lot of them don't have power. They are still waiting for relief from insurance companies. I mean, what are they going to do? And then you see what the Trump administration did when it came to FEMA and things of that nature. You just, you know, people are but on edge right now. The storms from this past week, people still don't have power and they're still dealing with. And I think people get so frustrated with the bureaucracy around getting... some help and some relief. And if we're talking about last summer, when people don't have power right now, I mean, it's pretty devastating. And it's interesting, too. We've almost seen this start to become a talking point in the mayoral race of what should Chicago be doing about this. But, of course, without the Fed stepping in, there's only so much that any municipality can do, even one as big as the city of Chicago. Yeah, and we know the budget problems Chicago has. We know the budget problems that the state has as well in trying to fix this problem. It's going to be an uphill battle. And, you know, as of this. afternoon when I last checked, something like 25,000 ComEd customers still without power. Nipscoe in northern Indiana said it was the largest outage in the company's history with something like half of its customers. How much is this going to start falling on utilities to try and step up and keep the lights on during these storms? That's been a huge topic of conversation with the Illinois Commerce Commission as ComEd has sought rate hikes over the last few years because They say that this is just a growing issue for them in terms of infrastructure being knocked out on a seemingly weekly basis. Certainly this summer, it's felt that way. And, you know, there's nothing to suggest that it's going to get any better in the future. So, yeah, I mean, as it's hitting people's pocketbooks, as they have to repair their roofs twice, like we haven't had to do with my apartment building in the city, you know, that's going to start showing up in utility bills as well. A storm of a different kind, Kate, SEIU, which represents thousands of CPS support staff. For a while, they were fairly aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union, but their leaders, they split on the most recent CPS budget, banking on unsecured money. There's also SEIU pouring some money into the school board president race. Tell us about that. Yeah, so we have these two politically progressive, very powerful unions that helped elect Mayor Brindon Johnson into office. Over the past year, their relationship is really sour. That kind of stems from, I guess you'll say, like a turf war over district employees. And now we're seeing that play out over the district's budget, over the upcoming school board elections. And so it's really become increasingly tense and more public as we're seeing this kind of feud play out. And, yeah, we're expecting both these groups to pour tons of money into the school board race. They've backed different candidates for school board president. just another sort of front line to this feud. Yeah, and SEIU putting something like, what, $1.1 million into a super PAC. Also a pretty personal back and forth that we watched playing out on social media. That struck me as a little bit unusual, I guess. Yeah, I think definitely caught a lot of people by surprise. We had Jackson Potter, who's the vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, and Anthony Driver, who heads the SEIU, Illinois Council, having this very public exchange on Facebook over the district's budget. SEIU has said that it was irresponsible for the school board to bank on this unconfirmed state money. CTO sort of led the push to include that money in the budget and have really said it's a pressure tactic to force Springfield to act. So this fight is just becoming more vocal, more public, and the budget is just at the center of it. You know, Kristen, does it feel like this huge influx into the school board president race? Is this sort of another avenue for Chicago politics?

as usual? Is it healthy democracy? Is it a little bit above, maybe? I think it's Chicago politics as usual. I mean, in the 20 years I've been here, this is not surprising. I mean, just seeing it over the years with CTO and its amount of power, and we see that, you know, they're able to push Brandon Johnson into that seat along with that CIU, and now you see the two of these entities at each other's throats. You're wondering what's going to happen next. But, yeah, just looks like politics as usual. Yeah. I keep track of the money. I mean, if we're talking about millions and thousands of dollars and people... donating to these campaigns, it just seems like maybe there should be a little bit more kind of watchful eye on where this money is coming from. Very much so. I'll check your reporting. Especially with so many students and families and frontline workers kind of caught in the lurch there wondering how this is all going to play out. Well, you know, Kate also school board candidates, speaking of politics as usual, they've been running a gauntlet that many folks are familiar with. This is ballot challenges. That process is now wrapping up. What's the latest there? Yeah, so we're down now to, I believe, 44 candidates, started at 51, so seven were kicked off the ballot. And as possible more could be as well. There's a whole appeals process, but I think this is probably what we're going to see for now. And, yeah, we're a couple months out from the election. Again, it's supposed to be a bunch of very contested races. Back to the money point, the whole point they drew an elected school border. Part of it was to limit the influence of outside money in the... race. That's why we have 20 district races, but I think we've kind of seen the opposite. If you just look at the board president race, because I think that's really going to be where everyone's eye is in November. Yeah, and possibly some trickling down into the district level as well. And there are some districts there where folks are going, you know, they're sort of dueling endorsements as well, you know, between SEIU, CTU, some folks going unopposed. So it could be some battles at the district level as well, fair to say. Definitely. I believe there's five candidates who have both CTU and SEIU backing. which, again, pretty unusual because if you look at their policy positions, they're really not that different. They're both, again, progressive labor unions representing district staff. And then otherwise, we're seeing these SEIU and CTU candidates going head to head. So if you're a voter, you have to choose between the candidate who's supported by the teachers union or the candidate who's backed by the support staff, janitors, bus aides, CECAs. So just a really interesting dynamic that we're now seeing play out. And not to mention, it's the first time Chicago voters are going to be. be selecting the whole elected school board. So I think it's already confusing as it is. And then to throw all of this little nuance into it, I think voters are going to be pretty overwhelmed. You said 44 candidates. I mean, that's a lot. Yes, definitely a lot for 21 races. Yeah, and a lot of people probably don't know the full dynamic of, oh, some of it's, some of them are appointed, some of them are elected. And yeah, just one more race for folks to fill out on their ballot. All right, Mitch, some truly alarming stories out of both a far north side seminary. as well as a South Deering funeral home over the mishandling of bodies. The funeral home, there have been calls for investigation. They might also face legal action. Fill us in on that. Yeah, this stems from the South Chicago Chapel, which is in the South Deering neighborhood on the far south side. Kind of about 95th Street near the lake, and there's a really persistent smell in the neighborhood, which... Honestly, it's another troubling side of this is that there's a lot of industrial areas of that neighborhood where there are other unfortunate scents that kind of are pervasive, which kind of drowned out this smell coming from funeral home where...

Dozens of bodies were being improperly stored, unrefrigerated, for at least several days, probably more in many of those cases, according to state officials. And this is a facility that was run by an Evergreen Park couple who ran a crematory that was shut down last year in Chicago Heights for pretty much the same situation. Bodies being stored not at below 40 degrees as they're required to under state code. So there are a lot of questions about why this couple was allowed to stay in business for a year, even after the state knew that there were problems at their other facility. It kind of reveals weird gaps in state law. The Illinois Controller's Office is responsible for policing crematories, even though that office is mostly responsible for paying the bills. while part of the executive branch oversees funeral directors. And really, there's nobody paying attention specifically to funeral homes where the bodies are actually stored. So there's a lot of, there are local lawmakers talk to state representative Marcus Evans. He says Springfield's got to take another look at how to basically police these situations. Yeah, I thought it was really striking as well, you know, just sort of the questions of business regulation licensure, the fact that these folks had gotten in trouble before and yet we're still, you know, we're still operating. You know, a lot of people, I think, are rightly asking questions about where are the gaps in the system? What more do we need to be doing here? Yeah, because we've seen this before. This is not a new story. I don't remember it was 10 or 12 years ago. There was something similar that happened. Again, it was a smell that people finally discovered. You go there and find out bills hadn't been paid. The energy had been shut off, and these bodies had been, you know, thawing out. And there was, you know, families are crushed by this. And then, you know, you go back to 2009, geez, 17 years ago, to the Baroque scandal, you know, where this, you know, historic cemetery where, you know, civil rights leaders, you know, change agents are buried. And then you have this happen. It's just, it's a problem that needs to be solved right now. Yeah, something that, you know, shouldn't be continuing to be in the news here. All right, Arizelli, this week we saw Marmar Martinez, other people who say they were victims of misconduct at the hands of federal immigration agents. They filed reports with Chicago police in an effort to spur some action from, you know, police and prosecutors. Do you think we'll see more filings of this kind? I think they are trying. And I think what is really interesting is that there's finally some type of process that is maybe unfolding. So we know that, you know, increased immigration operations, that was in September. That was almost a year ago. And people have said that if they felt that there were some federal agents that, you know, were acting badly, that they wanted to press charges, they didn't know where to go. Chicago Police Department was really kind of unsure how to handle, you know, such cases. And so, of course, we saw the state saying we have to have a process in place. And now we're finally seen.

create a bunch of jobs and stay here forever. Like, that'd be great. Until folks started seeing their utility bills going up because these centers take up hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and they drive up your electricity bill because they suck up so much of it. And now the state is sort of in a holding pattern. Like you mentioned, the governor, his office has put a pause on tax credits that have helped finance a lot of these centers that have popped up over the last five years. has not, like the General Assembly has not taken up a bill to fully instituted moratorium because I think there is still an appetite for development in some areas. It's just a matter of where and who's going to get really upset about it. And right now in Chicago, a very liberal city, folks are going to get very upset about it, not a popular idea. Well, and it's interesting too. We were talking earlier about, you know, the idea of putting one in a, you know, kind of disused building downtown. A lot of times, you know, these adaptive reuse projects are really popular saying let's use this land that we've got. But in these instances, not so much. Well, I think it depends a lot. People are asking questions, right? We talked about utilities and higher costs. Who are these data centers benefiting? Right? So if they are bringing in jobs and if it is something that the entire neighborhood or communities are going to be able to benefit from, there needs to be a balance within also getting some business and some traction there from lawmakers. But I think people are just kind of saying, why are we just allowing everything to happen? And like maybe we need to kind of pause and rethink it. at the end of the day, you know, property taxes and incentives, like all of that goes into it as well. Yeah, a lot of factors to put into perspective here. All right, Kate, we were talking earlier about the effort to squeeze some more money out of the state for CPS, given that it is not meeting, you know, its own funding targets, but CPS is hardly alone in that when it comes to school districts in the state. We got some more details on that this week. What did we learn? Yeah, the state released new numbers with its evidence-based funding formula. which is how it funds schools. So CPS actually went down from 73% funded to 70%, but it's not alone. Most districts in the state also went down. Most districts are also funded at a similar level. There's only a handful of districts that are considered fully funded. So now there's this push from CPS and other districts to get more money from the state. The problem, of course, is that the state doesn't really have a lot to work with. And for CPS, they really need the money in the next couple months according to their budget. that's really going to be a last-minute scramble to get that money and avoid mid-year cuts potentially later on. Well, and we also heard some from CPS leadership this week about the efforts to reverse the proposed layoffs with that unsecured state money. But district officials kind of said that what was set aside isn't even necessarily enough. Yeah, they basically said it's not as simple as this budget amendment kind of laid out. There was 100 million that was set aside to undo the layoffs, but they said it actually would take a lot more. even if they were able to bring all these 1,500 or so people back. And beyond that, you know, school starts in two weeks. So you can't just bring everyone back at once. You can't have principals reopen their budgets or redo their schedules, or at least the district saying they're not going to have people do that. So I think that kind of remains to be seen how many people are actually going to come back and what that's going to look like. It does very much feel like they're sort of taking it day by day right now and also waiting to see if anything will change at the state level. You know, I don't have kids in the system. And it just gives me anxiety to think about this, knowing that we're so close to return to school, and all of these jobs are up in the air, all of this funding. There's just not enough money from anywhere that you look. And, yeah, it's a big problem. I don't know how we're going to solve that one. Yeah, although we did hear from the CPS CEO, Macklin, King, that school will be starting on time, which there was some fear about. And I'm sure a lot of parents are very happy that is the case. Kids not so much. Yeah, exactly. Well, and ever are. All right. Christian Bally's.

The casino says it's stopping construction of sort of the amenities attached to its Chicago project, concert venue, restaurants, hotel. They said the city council approving, you know, video gaming violates its deal with them. You know, given how much money and time bally's has poured into this project, are you a little bit surprised to see them saying, you know, we're taking our ball, we're going home on this one? Well, I mean, when you talk about, you know, this video gaming interrupting their business, yeah, I'm not surprised by this. I mean, they pushed very hard. to get this casino built. And so I think that eating into their revenue stream with the video gaming is going to be a big deal to them. And then, you know, they're looking at the future of, you know, what is this going to look like here in the city of Chicago? Because this was a big deal when this all got passed. This took a long time to happen. Now you're finally on that road to sort of bring that money in. And now you have this intervening factor that comes in here. You know, I'm not surprising what Pallies is doing. Yeah. Well, and, of course, on the flip side, we're seeing. that, you know, that revenue that was passed in the budget over Mayor Johnson's objections from video gaming isn't even coming through. So, you know, there's all these sort of follow-on consequences and, you know, could leave Chicago with a deficit, of course. Right. And you've got a whole coalition of aldermen who are saying that Bally's about to leave the city holding a bag because it's a company that's very much in debt. They've got a lot of high leverage projects across the country. And, you know, I thought it was interesting this week. Another major company that... basically has lent Bally's more than a billion dollars to finance this project, basically said they were aware of the possibility of video gaming entering the mix in Chicago, and they weren't worried about it enough to stop them from throwing a bunch of money to this project, which does make you question a little bit of, you know, just all the cards Bally's is showing on the table at this point. Yeah, well, you know, whatever Cards Bally's is showing, you all are a royal flush, but we are out of time, so our thanks to Mitchell Armantrout, Kate Arminini. Ericelli Gomez Aldana and Christian Farr. We're back to wrap things up right after this. Chicago Tonight is made possible in part by the Alexandra and John Nichols family, the Polk Brothers Foundation, and the support of these donors.

And that's our show for this Friday night. Now for the Weekend Review, I'm Nick Blumberg. Thank you for watching. Stay healthy, stay safe, and stay informed. Have a great weekend. All right, Erissela, I know you got caught in an air and water show, just practice traffic. Anybody planning on checking it out this weekend? No, I'm not going to be that nice. No, I don't think it is. Yeah, I was a little bit surprised to see them practicing today. I was even surprised that, you know, as far, you know, north, almost northwest side as a studio is here, that we could hear them. Yeah, you could have heard of us. Yeah, I could hear, I was going to hear up here. Yeah. I mean, they make some long runs when they're trying to slow those things down, I guess. Closed captioning is made possible by Robert A. Clifford and Clifford Law Offices, a Chicago personal injury and wrongful death firm that contributes to public safety policy and guidelines.

PBS News Hour next on WTTW. Well, if I was trying to describe myself someone that had never seen me before, I would say, come down. Dolly Parton is one of the most phenomenal songwriters. She was able to deliver a feminist message in disguise. You can't take the tendency to have of the girl. There's a mystery about her. I actually take my songwriting more serious than anything else. Tonight at 8 on WTTW. Have you completely lost your mic? Right. Do you want to synchronize watches? Easy James Bond. Oh. Terrible. Enter WTTW's 2026 be a winner sweepstakes, and you could win the fall early bird prize. The Weber Summit Smart Gas Grill, featuring smart control technology, touchscreen temperature controls, an infrared broiler, rotissory system, and smart food probes for real-time cooking updates. Enter by September 28 for your chance to win. Visit WTTW.com slash sweepstakes today.

WTTW programming originates from the Renee Crown Public Media Center. Programming on WTTW is made possible in part by the Harris Family Foundation. Next time on Antiques Road Show, it's a roller coaster of emotions. No way. Yes, seriously. Oh, I got a little chill. The Pokemon market is extremely volatile. It's Antiques Road Show next time from Shelburne Museum. Monday at 7 on WTT. Princess Diana didn't follow the royal script. My interests are humanitarian. And when her life crumbled around her, the fairy tale was coming to an end. She fought back. She was very nervous about what was going to happen. Absolute shock. How Princess Die changed the face of royalty over her short lifetime. She broke all the folks called all the rules. On Diana's Decades. Monday at 9 on WTTW. Hi, Chicago. I'm Daniel, and you're watching WTTW.

Good evening. I'm William Brangham. I'm the Navas and Jeff Bennett are away. On the news hour tonight, Luigi Mangione pleads guilty in the shooting death of the CEO of United Healthcare. The president dismisses concerns over the conditions on a long-deployed aircraft carrier, including reports that some of its sailors have tried to jump overboard. The death toll from Ebola rises in Congo as it threatens to become the disease's deadliest outbreak in history. And as the debate over immigration divides Europe, Greece tries to stem the flow of migrants by sending them to other countries. What we see in practice is practically that the safeguards of the asylum process are increasingly demolished. Major funding for the PBS News Hour has been provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. For more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world at Hewlett.org. A life with impact in this moment and into the future. A Raymond James advisor can help craft a wealth plan with your goals for today.