Katie is back and cannot wait to catch you up on everything with 'What's Up Chicago?!'
Some Chicagoans lined up bright and early on New Year's Day to be the firsts to legally purchase recreational marijuana.
- Illinois is the 11th state to make recreational pot legal.
- Customers must be 21 years or older to purchase and must bring cash.
- Illinois residents can purchase up to 30 grams of flower, 5 grams of concentrate and 500 milligrams of THC-infused products (edibles).
- Out-of-state visitors will be able to buy half those amounts.
- The day before the law went into effect, Gov. Pritzker granted more than 11,000 pardons for low-level marijuana convictions.
Good news for the city of Chicago, crime rates are down for 2019.
- According to Chicago police, gun violence is down for a third consecutive year.
- As for the past year, the CPD said the overall crime was at its lowest level since 2015.
A couple more days off of school for most of Chicagoland but Chicago public school students go back to school today and tomorrow making up some of those Strike days.
The list of 2019's most cringeworthy social media phrases is out ....many of us are ready to leave these behind in 2020:
- Sorry, not sorry
- I can't even
- Amazeballs
- Bae
- YOLO
- Lit
- On Fleek
- Totes
If you got a gift card that you really do not want for the holidays, there's a novel way to get rid of it that allows you to still get something out of it.
- As part of its MileagePlus Gift Card exchange program, United Airlines is offering to buy your unwanted gift cards in exchange for airline miles.
- They'll even accept any gift cards to other airlines like American or Southwest.
- To do so you'll have to set up a MileagePlus account with the airline, and once you're approved and active for at least 90 days you can exchange your gift cards, but if you already have the account the process only takes a few minutes.
In Sports:
- The Bulls play The Jazz tonight and technically they're in the playoff hunt despite their rocky season.
- New Years Day football in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena it was 28-27 Ducks over the Badgers
