Erin Allen: Good morning. It's Thursday. I'm Erin Allen and this is The Rundown. So last night on NBC5 , the first debate happened between runoff candidates for mayor, Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson. A lot of ground was covered, including how the two plan to interact with their supporters. My colleague Tessa Weinberg is reporting that they both vowed to remain independent from some of the biggest groups backing them. Brandon Johnson is a former teacher and has the financial support of the Chicago Teachers Union. Now he didn’t disagree with any of their work or stances, but he did say he will no longer be a member if he’s elected. 

Brandon Johnson: I would no longer pay dues to the Chicago Teachers Union.

Erin Allen: And then Paul Vallas talked about his support from the police, he said he will still be able to hold them accountable even though he has an endorsement from their union. He said he’s made it a condition to not accept money from them. 

Paul Vallas: I’m not going to be beholden to anyone.

Erin Allen: Meanwhile, the billionaire founder of Citadel Ken Griffin came out in support of Vallas this week. Griffin is one of a few folks in the business community endorsing Vallas. And a lot of those folks have supported Republican causes in the past. Now remember, Vallas is running as a Democrat. So, he made sure to note that they’ve supported other Democratic mayors previously. He says they are just looking for someone who can manage the city.

You may have heard about an announcement from Walgreens last week regarding abortion pills. The company said that in 20 different states, it won’t be selling the pills and in some of those states, abortion care is legal. So yesterday, Chicago activists protested in favor of legal abortions everywhere. They staged the rally in honor of International Women’s Day. My colleague Araceli Gomez-Aldana met them on South State street, activists were marching and chanting, holding up signs and wearing green bandanas. Patricia Wallin told Araceli wearing the color green for a protest originated in Latin America.

Patricia Wallin: It's really an emergency and people are taking the color green as a symbol of unity too because everyone in different countries are wearing it and it is a symbol for unity and struggle for abortion rights.

Erin Allen: Appropriately, the activists chanted right in front of a Walgreens. And the aren't the only ones coming for Walgreens right now. We'll get to more on that later. 

Preservation Chicago has released the 20th edition of its most endangered buildings list. These are buildings in the city that are most likely gonna be demolished soon. And it looks like the top ones are in The Loop, Century and Consumers Buildings on State Street. Ward Miller is the executive director of Preservation Chicago. He says the organization has been pushing to reuse the buildings as a national archive center, but they're up against a $52 million federal earmark to tear them down.

Ward Miller: These are the last of the Chicago school buildings built before World War One which usually ends that period that Chicago is so known for this is where we really put our mark on that architectural world map.

Erin Allen: Other buildings on the list include the West Loop’s Warehouse, which is one of the birth places of house music.

 I’ve been talking quite a bit about mental health issues in the city, among young people, police officers, educators. I mean, the pandemic has just really exacerbated things. And right now, there aren’t enough professionals to help anyone struggling with mental health issues.To help address some of this, Governor J.B. Pritzker is launching a new education center to recruit and train behavioral health professionals.

J.B. Pritzker: From care portals and universal screenings to improved coordination of service delivery and increased statewide capacity, we are laying out a plan to build the best behavioral health system in America. 

Erin Allen: The facility is out of a partnership between the University of Illinois Chicago and the state Board of Higher Education. It’ll be housed in the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. Public and private universities and community colleges statewide will be invited to work with the center to train students entering the behavioral health workforce. And it’ll be funded every year by a $5 million investment from the Illinois Department of Human Services.

And now for a few quick hits. Last week, I mentioned that a young Chicago police officer was killed while chasing a man with a gun. That officer was 32-year-old Andres Vasquez Lasso and his funeral is today. It’s scheduled for 10:30 a.m. this morning on the South west side. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Steven Montano is being held in jail without bond while he awaits trial on charges that he murdered Vasquez-Lasso. And back to Walgreens, which if you didn’t know is based in Deerfield, IL. California Governor Gavin Newsom is withdrawing a $54 million contract with the company. Yesterday, Newsom said the state will not renew the contract because Walgreens won’t sell abortion pills by mail in some conservative-led states. Walgreens has a contract with California to provide specialty pharmacy prescription drugs for the state's prison health care system. The contract expires on April 30th, and the Governor's Office is like say less. They said they're going to get their drugs elsewhere.

As for the weather, cloudy with temps in the high 30s. It's supposed to rain this evening, possibly snow overnight and into tomorrow. We're almost to spring y'all. So the weather is a little bit unreliable lately. I personally brought my sunglasses and my umbrella today just in case, and that's it for The Rundown today. I'm Erin Allen. Thank you for listening. I'll talk to you tomorrow morning.

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