Erin Allen: Good morning. I'm Erin Allen and this is The Rundown. This past April, Whole Foods Market in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood announced it was going to close its doors later this year. And closing day came yesterday. WBEZ's Michael Ponte spoke to one of the stores last visitors.

Michael Puente: Maria Huarey showed up to Whole Foods on the final day of the high end stores operations in this neighborhood. She left the store late in the morning with a couple of bags of items less than an hour before it was to close for good.

Maria Huarey: I hate it closing because I was there at the opening day. We had a great time. We worked to get this store opened in this neighborhood. And I don't know why it didn't work. It should have worked. We need something like this.

Erin Allen: Now that Whole Foods has closed, that leaves Aldi as Englewood's only major brand grocery store. There are a few more locally owned stores including Go Green Community Fresh Market, which opened earlier this year. So far it is unknown what will take the place of the Whole Foods location but Block Club Chicago reports community members and aldermen are strategizing to find another healthy and high quality, yet more affordable option. 

A lot of us experienced more profound mental health issues as COVID-19 sent us into isolation, loss and grief. But a new study shows that suicidal thoughts among Illinois youth surged before the start of the pandemic. The study will be released today by Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and Lurie Children's Hospital. It found that emergency departments in Illinois experienced a spike in visits in the fall of 2019 from children and young adults aged 5-19 years old with suicidal thoughts. The study examined data from 205 hospitals throughout the state beginning in 2016. And it found that there was a spike during the pandemic as well. Dr. Audrey Brewer at Lurie helped write the report.

Audrey Brewer: How do we think about addressing trauma, you know, whether it's related to trauma in the home, parents dealing with their own mental health concerns...

Erin Allen: The study will be published in the Journal of Pediatrics. And thanks to WBEZ's Michael Puente, for his reporting on this as well. 

Most of us acknowledge that climate change is a problem and some of us are doing what we can to reduce our carbon footprint. But at the moment, global warming is still a thing of the now and of the future. And ComEd and Argonne National Laboratory are doing research to prepare for this. They just released the first phase of a study examining how climate change will impact the power grid. WBEZ's Indira Khera tells us more.

Indira Khera: The study uses Oregon's climate modeling to identify and prepare for real risks to the local grid. Their projections found conditions in Northern Illinois will be warmer and more humid by mid century with more intense summer heat waves, which means ComEd equipment will have to work in extreme heat and the grid needs to support an increased demand for electricity. Argonne scientist Tom Wall says the project applies climate science to utility planning. 

Tom Wall: Work with the people who own and operate the infrastructure so that we can start doing something different today to be better prepared for the future.

Erin Allen: Phase two of the study will start next year and that one will focus on flooding and extreme storms. And a few quick hits before we get to weather. Millennials came through last week during midterm elections, second only to boomers and turnout in Chicago according to The Tribe. And 16 students from St. Ignatius college prep were injured when a tractor trailer rig crashed into their bus Saturday evening in Indiana. As of yesterday, all of the students are in stable condition. Ahead of the holiday travel rush flight attendants are calling for legislation to protect them from abusive passengers. I know traveling to see family can be stressful but ya'll... be nice. 

In the weather today, partly cloudy this morning. Then even more cloudy as the day goes on, high in the low 40s. And in the wee hours tonight, snow, low around 35 degrees. 

And that's it for now. Coming up this afternoon, this is the first episode of a new show. So we're gonna get a little more acquainted. Hunter Clauss, writer of The Rundown newsletter, will interview me, host of The Rundown podcast, about what you - The Rundown listener - can expect to hear every day as I explore the stories and people that shape this big little city called Chicago. That's coming up at 2:00pm. I'm Erin Allen. Talk to you then.

WBEZ transcripts are generated by an automatic speech recognition service. We do our best to edit for misspellings and typos, but mistakes do come through.