>> Good evening and thanks for joining us on the week in review.

I'm Nick Plummer.

A lot of noise but not much news as Chicago Bears leadership gives an update on plans for a new stadium.

>> And even though we've had occasional meetings with state of Illinois, our sole focus at this point in time is working for world class stadium and mixed use development in Hammond, Indiana.

The Bears say they finished due diligence on one site in Hammond and identified another in 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 where their party affiliation will determine whether they get help.

Governor JB Pritzker signs a bill funneling state aid to homeowners hit last summer and denied assistance by FEMA.

Just days after 6 confirmed tornadoes touched down.

Breaking an Illinois record.

Meantime, political storm clouds are brewing between the SEIU and Chicago teachers.

over Chicago Public Schools, budget and leadership of the school >> Alleged victims of Midway Blitz, misconduct filed reports asking Chicago police to investigate federal immigration agents and Bally's claims it's 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 week in review panel.

Joining us are alarm and Trout of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Kate, are many of the Chicago Tribune.

There is a legal mess.

All Donna 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.

Mich latest round of back and forth.

Bear say they've got 2 sites in Hammond, occasional conversations, but they want to see a bill from Illinois lawmakers.

Meanwhile, Governor Pritzker says it's on the barest outline what team leadership wants to see.

Does it feel like there's any sign of this impasse?

no, not any time soon.

And like this press conference kind of feels like could have been really knows tangible updates.

>> We saw a couple bills advance in Springfield at the end of the spring session.

But the Bears haven't weighed in either way.

They don't.

They didn't support those bills.

>> But they also have really articulated exactly what it is they want, which is what Governor Pritzker and other lawmakers 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 does your offering and as you watch these press conference, kind of just would like to put them in a room and can you guys hash this out because we can talk about this for 5 years now.

feels like we've been talking for 5 years, press conference over and over again to looking at Indiana and then we're just waiting what's going to happen Yeah.

How about that?

It you know, very much hyped event, including some sport.

Supporters say there might be a major announcement here.

But in the end, it didn't really feel like we walked away knowing anything new didn't know.

There was nothing new in that.

I was expect that was 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 of a group on the East Coast the Giants and the Jets play in New Jersey and playing of for decades.

And so.

>> This is not a surprising thing that's going to happen.

it's like a wait and see.

But every press conference appears to be the same every time.

Yeah.

Forty-niners 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 an announcement and we don't know what we're going to look.

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 the merchandise that doesn't say Chicago bears may be trying get a refund.

What 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 that 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 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 sure deal over all right.

And we will take their word for it for now, because that's about all all right.

Those huge storms this week, 6 confirmed tornadoes that touched breaking the state's record for the number of tornadoes in a single year.

does it feel sort of surprising to see Illinois becoming something that, you know, tornado Capital, Tornado Alley.

It's really what folks think of Certainly.

I mean, just past couple years, we've very bad storm seasons.

I think it came a surprise.

Anyone.

You've got a tornado alert on their phone this week.

I do think it's a surprise either that we're seeing the state of Illinois and now step up.

>> Yeah, we're going to talk about that.

You know, just want to cover a Governor Pritzker signing a bill today aimed at helping storm victims.

Also calling out the Trump administration for FEMA.

No 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 Governor Pritzker's press release today, you know, that's funny.

What 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 there's been so many rounds of severe weather.

It's hard even recall how many there were last It's just becoming such a frightfully regular thing.

You know, it was 2024 like more 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 these people still don't have a lot of 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 and things of that nature.

You just, you know, people are.

But on right now, the stars from this past week, people still don't have power and they're still dealing with.

And I think people get so frustrated with 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 it's pretty devastating.

And it's interesting to we've seen the 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 when biggest the city of Chicago.

Yeah, we know the budget problem.

Chicago, as we know the budget problems that the state has >> as well and trying to fix this problem.

going to be a cold And, you know, as of this afternoon when I last checked, something like 25,000 ComEd customers still without power.

Nipsco in northern Indiana said it was the largest outage 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 the storms?

That's been a huge topic conversation with the Illinois Commerce Commission is come at a solid 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 up on seemingly weekly basis.

Certainly this summer, it's felt that way.

you know, get there's nothing to suggest that it's going to get any better the future.

So it's yeah.

mean, that's that's hitting people's pocketbooks as they have to repair the roofs twice like we haven't had to do it.

My apartment building in the city.

You know, that's going to start life and utility bills as well.

>> Storm of a different kind.

Kate SEIU, which represents what thousands of CPS support staff for what they were fairly aligned with the Chicago teachers Union, but their leaders, they split on the most recent CT CPS budget banking on unsecured money.

There's also a SEIU pouring some money into the school board president race.

Tell us about that.

Yeah.

So we have these 2 politically progressive, very powerful unions that helped elect Mayor Brandon Johnson into office over the past year, the relationship is really sour.

That kind of stems from I guess you'll see like a turf war over district employees and now we're seeing that play out over at the district's budget over the upcoming school board elections.

so it's really become increasingly tense and more public as seeing this kind of feud play yeah, for expecting both these groups support tons of money into the school board race.

They fact different candidates for school board president.

So that's just another sort of front line to feud.

Yeah, SEIU, putting something like what 1.1 million dollars into, you know, a super PAC.

So 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.

He gave Jackson Potter who's the vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union.

And if driver who heads the SEIU, Illinois Council having this very public exchange on Facebook over the district's budget as EU has said responsible for school board to bank on this unconfirmed state money, C to sort of led the push to include that money in the budget have really said it's a presser to pressure tactic to for Springfield, to act.

So despite it's 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, presidences, this sort of another avenue for Chicago politics as usual isn't healthy democracy.

Is it a little bit of both maybe think it's Chicago?

Politics is show that mean the 20 years I've been here, this is not surprising.

I mean, just seeing it.

>> Over the years with CTU and its amount of power.

And we see that, you know, able to push Brendan Johnson into that seat along with the ACLU.

And now you see the 2 of these entities at each other's throats.

You're wondering what's going to happen next.

But yeah, just 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, just seems like.

>>be maybe there should be a little bit more kind of watchful eye on where this hearing that.

a lot check your especially with so many, you know, students and families and, you know, frontline workers kind of caught in the lurch.

They're wondering how this is all going to play out.

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 that process is now wrapping up.

What's the latest there?

Yes, down now Lee.

44 candidate started at 51.

So 7 were kicked off the ballot ballot and it's 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 and you have a couple nths out from the election.

Again, it's just to fair bunch very contested Back to the money point.

whole point they drew an elected school board or 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.

She just look at the park president race because I think that's really going to be where everyone's eye as a November.

Yeah.

And possibly some trickling down into the to the district level as well.

And there are some districts there were folks are going, you know, they're they're sort of dueling endorsements as well.

You know, between SEIU, CTU, some folks going on so >> could be some battles, the district level as well say definitely.

I believe there's 5 candidates both CTU and SEIU backing, again, pretty unusual because if you look at their policy positions are really not that different or both.

Again, progressive labor unions representing district staff.

>> And then otherwise we're seeing these SEIU and see 2 candidates going head to head.

So if you're a voter you to choose between the candidate who supported by the teachers union or the candidate, his backed by the support staff, janitors bus aides see Kuz.

So just a really interesting dynamic that we're now seeing play out and that's mentioned it's the first time Chicago voters are going to be selecting the whole elected school board.

So I think it's already confusing as it is meant to throw all of this little nuance into it.

>> I think voters are going to be pretty overwhelmed.

You said 44 candidates that's a lot.

Yes, definitely a lot for 21 races.

Yeah, a lot of people probably don't know.

And you know, the full dynamic some of its some of them are appointed.

Some of them are elected.

Yeah.

Just one more one more race for folks to fill out on their right, Mitch, truly alarming stories out of both a far Northside cemeteries.

Well, the South during funeral home over the mishandling of bodies.

>> The funeral home there been calls for investigation.

They might also face legal action.

Phyllis on that.

Yeah, this is a stems from the South Chicago Chapel, which is in the South Deering neighborhood on the far South side kind of on 95th Street near the lake.

And there's really persistent smell in the neighborhood.

>> Which honestly it kind of it.

another troubling side of this is that there's a lot of industrial areas of that neighborhood, whether other unfortunate sense that kind of are pervasive, which kind of drowned out the smoke coming from funeral home where dozens of bodies were being improperly stored refrigerated 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 Evergreen Park couple who ran crematory.

That was shut down last year.

And 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 news that, you know, obviously there problems their other facility the kind of reveals we're gaps in state law.

The Illinois controller's office is responsible for policing crematory is even though that office is mostly responsible for paying the bills.

Yeah.

Well, part of the executive branch overseas funeral directors.

And real there's nobody paying attention specifically to ral homes for the visor actually stored.

So there's a lot of their local lawmakers talk to state Representative Marcus Evans.

He says Springfield's got to take another look at how police the situations.

I thouit 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 knwe're still operating, you know, a lot of people, I think, are rightly asking questions about where where are the gaps in the system?

What more do we need to be doing here?

Yeah, because that we've seen this before.

This is not a new story.

Ryan, but I don't number of his 10 or 12 years ago there was something similar that happened again.

It was a smell that that people family discovered.

You go there and find out bills had been paid.

>> The energy been shut off and bodies have been, you know, a falling out woods.

You know, faes are crushed by this.

And then you go back to and cheese 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 varied and then you have this happen.

It's just it's a problem that s to be solved right now.

Yeah, something that, you know, shouldn't should be continuing to be in the news here.

>> All right.

Here's This week wee more 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 police and prosecutors.

Do you think we'll see more filings have 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 knthat.

And, 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, we're 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 such, 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 if the police department wants to push things forward, then it goes to the state and then potentially something can happen, though.

Nothing has happened what we also first of its kind plea deal and ice agent pleading guilty to battery against a protester did happen while that agent was off duty.

But even for off-duty misconduct.

>> Still fairly remarkable to see that play out.

we haven't seen this in.

This is this was not in Chicago.

This was separate Highland Park on a second.

It's going to be a Skokie.

And it was I will it was someone who practices law.

So I think there is a lot of knowledge going into it.

It was it was not during the office or the federal agents actual duty.

there was a lot of evidence they did follow through.

Of course, this is now being conducted as a misdemeanor and process, a misdemeanor.

So we have seen something happen.

I think that people are still questioning where who makes a decision and how it gets prosecuted and why.

And really, I just do think that is going to be a difficult process for local police departments to take these cases to then send them to the detectives and then, you know, then the superintendent, the supervisors decide where to move forward.

It's going to get really, I think very tricky for for the police department's.

Yeah, the convoluted path and the questions about a 40 year, certainly not going anywhere here.

>> All right.

Mayor Brandon Johnson just signed an executive order calling for a temporary pause on new data centers.

You know, Christian, a lot of this is going to take council action.

The mayor and council not always see eye to eye that.

You think just given the wave of push backs, we've seen against data centers that you know from from residents from constituents that might help get them all, you know, saying out of the same hymn book.

Yeah.

I mean, this is a big deal.

mean, when you go to the suburbs and you see that through these.

>> Residents been fighting against these data centers.

A lot of my colleagues have been covering this over the past several months.

A lot of village board meetings.

This has come up.

This is a big move by the mayor and it may be a domino effect and those other communities that have dealing with this because of the environmental impacts and things of that nature, the sound that people are dealing with as and just the amount of money that's being poured into this.

And I mean, I think Eric Adams, the former mayor of New York, was actually out there circling this and got for this.

Holding its booster, makes everything for parts of things as well.

But, you know, this is a big deal.

It's going to go along for a very long period of time because AI is the one thing that sort of, you know, building need all this data in order to push that along.

You know, you're wondering what's going to happen next to these communities are impacted by.

Yeah.

All the way wonder whether you might see pushback from some of the trade unions that are building facilities because it's a huge opportunity for them.

>> And a lot of politicians do rely on those dollars so they may find themselves kind of stuck in the middle you know, much.

We also saw similar action earlier this year at that the state level with the governor saying we should pause incentives for these data centers.

Why do you think that the state in the city have done such an about face going from trying to draw these into saying let's let's slow down here and see what the right way to handle this is kind of fascinating to watch this evolution just from a political standpoint because going back a couple years, you couldn't find a local elected official anywhere who wouldn't be cheerleading.

And thank at home to my city.

>> Create a bunch of jobs and stay here forever.

Like that.

Be great until folks are seeing a 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 up so much of it.

And now the state is sort of in a holding pattern.

like you mentioned, the governor his office, put a pause on tax credit set of help finance.

A lot of these centers that have popped up over the last 5 years.

But has not like General Assembly is not taking up a bill to fully institute a moratorium because I think there is still and 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, very liberal city folks are going to very upset about it.

Not a popular idea.

and it's interesting to we were talking earlier about, you know, the idea of putting one in disused building downtown a lot of times.

You know, these adaptive reuse projects are really popular thing.

Let's let's use this land that we've got that in these instances.

Not so much think it depends.

A lot of people are asking questions, right?

And we talked about utilities higher cost.

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 some traction there for from lawmakers.

But I think people are just kind of saint.

Why are we just allowing everything to happen and like maybe we need to kind of pause and rethink it, though.

I mean, at the end of the day, you know, property taxes and incentives like all of that goes into it as well.

Yeah, lot of factors that put into perspective here.

All right, Ken, 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 CBS 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 Yeah.

The state released new numbers with its evidence base funding for me.

I would just how fun schools CPS actually went down from 73% funded to set up to 70%.

>> But it's not alone.

Most districts in the state also went down.

Most districts are also funded 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 And for CPS, they really need the money in the next couple months, according to their budget.

So that's really going to be a last-minute scramble to get that money and avoid midair 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, basically said it's not as simple as this mean and then that kind of laid out there is 100 million that was set aside to undo the layoffs.

But there they said it actually would take a lot more even if they were able to bring all these 1500 or so people back and beyond that, you know, school starts in 2 weeks.

So you can't just bring everyone back at once.

You can have principles reopen their budget to redo their schedules or at least the district saying they're not gonna have people to that.

So I think that kind of remains to be seen.

How many people are actually going to come back and well, that's going to look 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 I don't have kids in the and it just gives me anxiety to think about this, knowing that we're so close return to school and all of these jobs are up in the air.

Although this funding, there's just not enough money from anywhere that you looking at.

>> Yeah, it's a it's a big problem.

I don't know how we're going to talk We did hear from the CPS CEO Macklin King.

That school will be starting on time, which there was some fear about.

I'm sure a lot of parents are very happy.

is the case.

not so much.

All right.

Kristen Bally's Casino says it's stopping construction of sort of the amenities attached to its Chicago project concert venue, restaurant hotel.

>> They said the city council approving video gaming violates its deal with them given how much money and time Alley's has poured into this project.

A little bit surprised to see them saying, you know, taking about we're going home on this one went with them.

when you talk about the, you know, this video gaming interrupting their business.

Yeah, I'm not.

I'm not surprised by this.

The minute pushed very hard to get this casino.

>> Built.

And so I think that eating into their revenue stream with the video game and it's going to be a big deal to them.

And then, you know, they're looking at the future of, you know what, what is this going to look like here in the city of Chicago?

Because this was a big deal when this all got past.

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, not surprised when I well.

And of course, on the flip side, we're seeing that, you know, that 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?

You've got a whole coalition of alderman who are saying that Bally's is about to leave the city holding a bag because it's a it's company that's very much in depth.

A got a lot of high leverage projects across the country.

>> you know, I thought was interesting this week, another major company that basically as 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 you know, just all the cards spouses showing on the table at this point.

Yeah.

Well, you know, whatever cards, valleys and showing you all are royal flush.

But we are out of time.

So our thanks to >> Mitchell arm and Trout, Kate, our money.

There is a legal nestled on a and Christian Farr.

We're back to wrap things up right after this.

>> Chicago tonight is made possible in part by the Alexander and John Nichols family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation.

And the support of these donors.

>> And that's our show for this Friday night.

Now for the week in review.

I'm Nick Blumberg.

Thank you for watching.

Stay healthy, stay safe and stay informed.

Have a great weekend.

All right here.

So and you got caught in an air and water show just practice traffic.

Anybody planning checking it out this weekend.

>> that I was a little bit surprised to see practicing today said he surprised that, you know, as far you know, North almost northwest side of the studio is here.

We could hear them.

Yeah.

I mean that they make long runs when they're trying to slow things down.

A voting happening is made possible.

>> By Clifford and Clifford Law, offices of Chicago, Personal injury and wrongful