bad wheel bearing = high pitch squeal?

Hey guys, a couple days ago I started noticing a high pitch squeal coming from the front driver side wheel while driving in my Caliber SRT-4. It gets louder when the car is turning right, or if you accelerate or brake hard. The brakes seem to work normally and I didn't notice anything like foreign debris tangled up in the wheel or driveshaft area. I also haven't noticed any play in the wheel assembly with the car on jack stands. The squeal is extremely high in pitch and I don't notice any kind of rumbling or buzzing like I have had with other wheel bearing failures in the past.

Today I took the car for a drive and it seems like it's already gotten worse. Does this sound like it could be a bad wheel bearing?

Have you checked the trans fluid?

Alright, I had time today to look into the car and found what I'm pretty sure is the culprit. The front driver side brake pads are very worn. The outboard pad in particular looks to be worn down evenly nearly to the backing plate! The inboard pad is still about 1/8" thick. Applying the brakes while moving doesn't seem to affect it very much so it must be a wear indicator of some kind. I have new rotors and Hawk HPS pads for the car, but can't seem to find time to work on the car much these days due to work and school.

I also checked the trans. It was overfilled due to an error on my part, but is at the correct level now. I tried to check the wheel bearing/hub by grasping the tire at the 12 and 6 o'clock positions and also 3 and 9 o'clock positions, but couldn't really feel anything wrong. Interestingly I couldn't seem to get the steering column to lock, so it was hard to not have the tie rods moving while trying this.