Chicago Tonight, Thursday, August 13 2026

originates from the Renee Crown Public Media Center. Programming on WTTW that enriches lives is made possible in part by the David L. Grumman Trust. Chicago became the melting pot of candy. Confectioners didn't only bring their ingredients. They brought their culture. This was a place to go and have a good time. Those shared memories across generations, you can't get from a lot of other things. Hello, Chicago. This is Susie, and you're watching WTTW. Hello, and thanks for joining us on Chicago tonight. I'm Brandis Friedman. Here's what we're looking at. We will make sure that we take our time to get this right. The Chicago Bears say their sole focus is on Indiana for their stadium project. Where does that leave Illinois? Chicago will not be passably shaped by this new industry. We explore what sustainable data center development could look like in Chicago. How secure are Illinois's water systems from cyber attacks? A local cybersecurity expert joins us. A family legacy of Catherine and Joe's, and it feels great. A century of sweetness with Chicago's iconic rainbow cone. First off tonight, still no final decision about where the Chicago Bears Stadium will be built. The team's president and CEO Kevin Warren updated reporters today on the status of the project, saying they remain solely focused on Hammond, Indiana. Warren says they've completed their due diligence on a site near the Lost Marsh Golf Course in Hammond, which he says remains viable, but have now identified a second site in the area near the Wolf Lake terminals. As far as Illinois prospects, Warren says they've had occasional meetings with officials, but that there's no current offer on the table about whether they'd wait for lawmakers or Illinois lawmakers fall veto session to make a decision. I think it's prudent for us to move with pace based upon where we are. These costs have gone up. We've talked about it before at, you know, almost $150 million a year. We're reaching that point where we have to make a determination and decision. The longer this goes on, it creates complications. Governor J.B. Pritzker says that it remains on the bears to come to Illinois legislators and tell them what parameters are acceptable in any new bill. He says that hasn't happened yet. The Chicago Department of Public Health is not making any changes to recommendations for when children receive vaccines. This follows President Trump's executive order earlier this week, calling for separate injections of the measles, mumps, and rubella, or MMR vaccine, spacing out the shots whenever possible.

CDPH, along with the Illinois Department of Public Health, have both said they continue to endorse the existing childhood immunization schedules by the American Academy of Pediatrics, protecting kids against 18 preventable diseases. And four more beluga whales made their overnight move from a closed marine park in Canada to their new 3 million gallon home at the shed aquarium. The shed says the whales, Caspian, Pikachu, rain, and seacord range in age from 20 to 27 years old. They were greeted by the familiar faces of the first four rescued belugas who've been settling in behind the scenes since mid-July at the shed. The animal care team there is watching the all-female pod 24-7 to observe who they're spending time with, how much they're eating, and more. Other rescued belugas and dolphins are to be sent to the Georgia Aquarium, SeaWorld locations, and Spain. Up next, city leaders try to keep data centers in check. We hear their plans 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.

Mayor Brandon Johnson says it's time to take a hard look at data center development. The rapidly evolving industry has become a flashpoint across the country with questions about public health, the environment, and the economy. As the build-out charges ahead, many local leaders are racing to adapt, including in Chicago, where the mayor this week signed an executive order calling for a pause on new data centers until new regulations are in place. Here to discuss the city's role in responding to this developing industry are Angela Tovar, Commissioner of the City's Department of Environment and Chicago's Chief Sustainability Officer. and Jared Patton, a project manager at the Department of Environment. We also invited data center industry representatives who declined to join us, but they did send a written statement, which we'll share shortly. Thanks to the two of you for joining us and welcome. Thank you for having us. So, Jared, let's start with you, please. What are existing data centers like in Chicago? Yeah, so we currently have about 39 data centers in the city of Chicago. It's important to recognize that not all data centers are the same. The ones that we typically hear about on the news are the very large artificial intelligence training campuses. We don't currently have any of those in the city. Most of our facilities tend to be what you call co-location facilities. That's a data center that's owned by one company, and they rent out some or all of their server space to other companies. So there might be multiple users of one building. Those facilities can range in size. Some are just a few megawatts of energy. Some are all the way up to what they call hyperscale facilities of 100 or more megawatts. Most of our data centers are located in the downtown area. South Loop is our biggest concentration or in utility corridors leading downtown. What's the permitting process like to build one? Yeah, so currently data centers are permitted by Wright in most manufacturing districts, all commercial districts, and most business districts. There is no additional plan development process unless they trigger that process for other reasons because of the size of the facility or proximity to more sensitive uses. Our data center's report that was recently released has recommendations for how we could change that to have a higher level of review. Okay. Commissioner, what does the mayor's executive order do? So the executive order does a number of important things, and of primary importance is that it moves very quickly on this topic. The Sustainable Data Centers report.

There are also a lot of local impacts that come from data centers, most notably noise and air pollution. So noise comes from cooling systems and from backup generators. The report identified a number of recommendations. Many of those are going to be pursued through the executive order for how to address those. Okay. So I do want to get to what we heard from the Data Center Coalition. That's the industry group, of course. They sent the following statement from Brad Teets. He's the director of state government affairs for the Midwest. He says, quote, the data center coalition. and its members strive to be good actors where we operate, which is why we're hopeful this directive from the mayor will separate those who are responsible water and energy stewards from those who are not. Commissioner, what's your definition of responsible water and energy stewardship? Sure. I think that we welcome that statement from Brad, and we certainly hope to have continued conversations with industry. There's a lot of best practices that we can consider together. I think of primary importance, we need to drive more sustainable outcomes. The city has a wonderful precedence. We've done that with our sustainable development policy and requiring large commercial buildings to abide by sustainable design standards. That's why Chicago has so many. any wonderful lead buildings across our city. So we can certainly apply that same standard to all industry and to think about ways in which we can think of recycling water, right? Reusing water so that we're not taking water from our freshwater resources. We can be thinking about higher efficiency design. We can be thinking about clean energy. So if you're taking energy off the grid, utilizing clean energy. and restoring that energy back to the grid. There's a lot of possibilities when we think about more sustainable systems, and we can work and welcome that innovation as we think about next steps. And lastly, I want to share one last bit from that statement from Brad Teets, quote, data centers are net revenue generators that provide billions of dollars in economic investment, create thousands of high wage jobs, and help fund schools, transportation, public safety, tax relief, and other local priorities. helping make life more affordable for Chicagoans. So obviously a balance that has to be struck, Commissioner, with regards to economic impact versus environmental impact and protection. Sure, and you heard the mayor say at the EO signing that Chicago is open to business, but we aren't going to do that at the expense of our people and our communities and our water, and that's an important value to lead on. We can certainly work with industry to advance sustainable outcomes, and we have to do that with understanding that these guardrails are important, and that's the balance that we're trying to strike. About 30 seconds left, Jared. How are urban data centers different from what you might see in other parts of the state? Yeah, so, I mean, it really comes out into land use, to local context. When you're in a city, you don't have the ability to have a large vegetative buffer to cancel out sound, for example. So, you know, when we develop our recommendations, we're really trying to be thoughtful about our local context. We don't want to copy and paste what's worked in other areas because, you know, we're not a suburban community. We're not a community from the East Coast or the West Coast. We want to think really carefully about our own local context. Focus on those noise concerns, on those air pollution concerns. Okay, that's what we'll have to leave. Best of luck to you both Angela Tovar and...

Jared Patton. Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much. Up next, concerns over the cybersecurity of our water supply. What appeared to be innocent malfunctions in municipal water systems could actually be something more serious. At the end of July, several water systems from Minnesota to Georgia suddenly went offline. While officials restored them, cybersecurity experts now say the outages may have been linked to Iranian hacking groups, raising larger questions about the security of America's critical resources. Joining us now with more is Jacob Braun, Executive Director of the Cyber Policy Initiative at the University of Chicago. And former acting principal cyber director under the Biden administration. Welcome back. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. So take us back to the end of July. What happened when these cities first realized that something was wrong with their water systems? Sure. So the cyber attack attacked a PLC, which is a device that helps control the IT system and its commands to the physical system. So the actual pumps and so on that work, though, make the water utility work. As you suggested, the assumption is that the Iranians were behind this attack. And we think that this attack is not really about a specific water utility here or there. It's really trying to send a message to the administration of the American people about where we're vulnerable. And I think that what they're trying to do is really show the administration that they can shut off the water to our military assets. They can shut off the water to what may be the key economic driver in the country right now, which is our AI data centers. And finally, in a country that's deeply divided over the war already, they're showing that they can undermine public trust in government's ability to perform even the most basic life-giving services like making sure the water turns on. How did officials eventually realize or determine that they were dealing with a cyber attack? Well, once this PLC device starts kind of malfunctioning and going screwy, people start looking at, well, how does this happen? And when they looked into it, they see, oh, I see. This thing didn't just randomly break somehow. There was a cyber attack. It was done via technology and came through the IT system in the water utility. And since the... This particular device, this PLC device, is pretty ubiquitous throughout the water utilities in America. Once they saw this start popping up here and there, and now it looks like we're up to over a dozen states, that doesn't happen by just some random device, randomly breaking. It happens because of a coordinated cyber attack. How are they gaining access to our water systems? Well, they just wormed their way through the internet. Unfortunately, most of the utilities that were successfully hit were the smaller utilities that don't have budgets to hire big cyber companies or cyber professionals and make sure they have all the newest cyber defenses in place. And so those were the low-hanging fruit that the presumably Iranian hackers were able to attack.

And you said this, I mean, they did this sort of a shot across the bow for now, right? What are like the broader national security implications of a water system attack? This could be worse. Oh, for sure. And I think that's what the Iranians were trying to signal to the U.S. I think it's no accident that this happened right, you know, in the middle of negotiations and so on to show that, you know, they have other cards to play. What's been the recent history of cyber attacks like these? Are these common? Have other countries experienced something similar in the past? There are, and in fact there was a report today of a cyber attack against a UK water plant. But the reason I actually wound up getting involved in this issue was when I was at the White House was when the Chinese were pre-positioning malware on our water utilities that support military assets around the country. presumably to let the U.S. military know that if there is a conflict, assuming over Taiwan, that they could shut off the water to a bunch of key military assets. And unfortunately, nearly all of the military assets in the country are supported by civilian water utilities. And this is just water, right? Like could there be similar implications or concerns for other utilities, energy, gas? Yes, well, and in fact the Iranians have been quite active in hitting other critical infrastructure. So for example, years ago when we launched a cyber attack against their nuclear program and it came to light, they did a massive attack against our banking system and shut off online banking for weeks and weeks. And by the way, we were never able to stop it. They just kind of got bored with it after a few weeks and stopped doing it on their own. We also know they've been involved in our elections, not to our knowledge with actual hacking per se, but with mis and disinformation, which is always... coupled with different types of cyber attacks. And then, of course, we've seen the Russians and the Chinese act in similar ways. And then ransomware groups have been attacking all types of critical infrastructure for years now. Is there anything that we can do or that we should be doing to increase the security of our water systems? Well, absolutely. We launched a program recently with National Rural Water Association and a host of cyber providers around the country to be able to deliver cybersecurity to local water utilities around the country. It's one of the big problems in this space is that there's 150,000 water utilities in the country, and delivering cyber to them is a pretty intractable problem. Many of these places... We were talking to one in Alabama the other day where it's ran by one guy, and he also runs the Fourth of July parade for the town. So the idea that these folks are going to be able to do their own cybersecurity is not going to work. And that's why we launched this program. One of the things you mentioned that so many military installations are dependent on civilian water supply, should that be different? Should our military installations have their own water supply? Is that even possible? It would be possible. It would cost an enormous amount of money. And I think that while there are thousands of military installations who are supported by water utilities with how big DOD's budget, that would be a drop in the bucket to support the cybersecurity of those utilities. How has the administration been responding to these attacks? Well, I think that there's been...

And the president has come out and of course not agreed that it's necessarily Iran, but I think he's also in the middle of an information war himself, obviously, and I think doesn't want to give them the... credence to be able to say that they were able to do this, and also doesn't want to scare the American public. So I think they've been somewhat muted in this, and I understand why. I know that SISA, the cyber agency under Homeland Security, has been doing a lot of outreach to local water utilities, to try and tell them what they can do to support or to deal with this problem. But really, at the end of the day, the federal government has to fund a solution for this. And one of the reasons we launched this effort with the National Rural Water Association is because they've been funded by the federal government for about 50 years to provide technical assistance, albeit not yet cyber, to water utilities around the country, and we think that's kind of an easy button for Congress to fund. Okay. Jacob Braun, thank you so much. Appreciate you. Thank you. Up next, a sweet tradition celebrates hitting the century mark.

It's been a Chicago staple for a century. The original rainbow cone started on the far south side in 1926, and now generations have grown up with the signature five flavors. Joanna Hernandez visited the original shop in Beverly to get the scoop, or rather the slice. For 100 years, one colorful cone has been a sweet tradition from one generation to the next, and we're learning about its history. Let's go inside. One thing has kept customers coming back, those five iconic flavors. Chocolate, strawberry, Palmer House, pistachio, and orange herberts. This is 100 years. Sliced, not scooped. That's Lynn Sapp. Her grandparents, Joe and Catherine Sapp, started the famous Rainbow Cone back in 1926. So he created it, and Catherine was the business woman that kept it going. and counted all the nickels and dimes. The original rainbow cone location along Western Avenue in Beverly has come a long way since it first opened. It started off as a shack right across the street from where this location stands today. Back in the 1920s, this part of the city looked very different. It was considered the countryside, and Joe Sapp saw an opportunity to create something special. And it was called Rainbow Lodge when it first opened. People came out to this area, and it was remote, so they called it Rainbow Lodge. And they served Rainbow Cone, Sundays, and shakes. And my grandmother would make a roast or a ham and have sandwiches for the day because there was nothing else out here for people. And during those early years, the business was also home. Lynn's grandparents lived in the parlor, while her parents lived in a house behind the shop. That's the original outside door because they got the first floor done and then they got the money to go up. So this is where they live. Like many people in Chicago, all these small little Chicago area, businesses you see, people literally live, breathe it, work it. It's their life. So they gave it in a French fry cart. Cones were newer. Cones were starting. It was either in a glass dish, or you could get one slice of vanilla or one slice of chocolate or strawberry. And that's where he got the idea to put one more than one slice on a cone. Even the tools her grandfather made tell part of the story. So the chocolate always goes on the bottom because it's easier to hold to the cone. When Lynn took over the shop from her parents in 1986, she had a vision to bring her family's recipe beyond Beverly. My first year of owning Rainbow, I went out and did festivals, small ones, and this is a four tapes from Chicago. And while Lynn was introducing Rainbow Cone to a new generation of Chicagoans, some customers had already been enjoying it for years.

This ice cream is delicious. It always has been. And even though I'm lactose intolerant, I still do ice cream. Frank Fabian says he was 10 years old when he tried this ice cream and was hooked. People from all over come here because they've heard of it. Now the original rainbow is moving into its fourth generation of ownership. In 2018, Bono Companies took over the business. We partner with the Bono Volanto family, and they're going to continue it on for another 100, hopefully. My grandpa would be so proud of that. Take a bite of original rainbow cone and everything's going to be okay. Maybe. Thanks for a hundred years, Chicago. Cheers. For Chicago tonight, I'm Joanna Nandes. It does look delicious. And Beverly isn't the only place to get a rainbow cone. They've got several other locations across Chicagoland, and you can find the iconic flavors at many Buona restaurants, too. And that's our show for this Thursday night. Stay connected with our reporters like Patty Wetly and Joanna Hernandez as we bring you additional stories from across the Chicago area. You can follow us on Instagram at WTTW Chicago. And join us tomorrow night at 5.30 and 7 for the week in review. Now for all of us here at Chicago tonight, I'm Brandis Friedman. Thanks for watching. Stay healthy and safe and have a good night.

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Good evening. I'm William Brangham. Jeff Bennett and Amna Nawaz are away. On the news hour tonight, Israeli settlers lay siege to the home of an American Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank, sparking condemnation from the U.S. ambassador and an Israeli military response. How President Trump's varied construction projects are changing the face of the nation's capital and incurring steep costs for taxpayers. It's not transparent, it's not accountable, and it's concerning whether there are side deals being made that nobody knows about it. And the Justice Department deploys a little-used tool to strip naturalized Americans of their citizenship. Major funding for the PBS News Hour has been provided by...