In the Loop

The state will distribute 75 new recreational marijuana dispensary licenses by May 1. Reset takes a look at how minority business owners are working to enter the legal cannabis industry.

Why the United Methodist Church is preparing to split, and a new book chronicles the history of Chicago’s famed theater scene

Pot. Weed. Grass. Doobie. Mary Jane. Whatever you want to call it, marijuana is legal in Illinois. That’s the biggest story in a week of big stories we cover as we begin a new year on the Friday News Roundup.

Homicides and shootings were down in Chicago in 2019 compared to recent years. We’ll get the numbers and the reasons behind them. Plus we’ll hear from a group of 8th grade girls from the city’s South Side are the state chess champs.

Looking for something to read as the weather turns cold? Our panel of book experts and our listeners talk about the favorite things they read in 2019

Historian Dominic Pacyga takes us inside his new book, American Warsaw: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Polish Chicago

Author Leila Taylor takes us into the dark heart of the American Gothic, analyzing the ways it relates to race in America in the twenty-first century.

Matthew Sherman talks with Natalie Moore about his new book “Newcomers: Gentrification and Its Discontents”, a history of gentrification in Chicago, San Francisco, and Brooklyn over the last 60 years.

A new book by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor looks at how a mix of federal policy and private industry perpetuated the segregation lines in cities like Chicago

Mayor Lori Lightfoot blocks a six-month delay on recreational weed sales starting Jan.1. Cook County Board proposes a 3% pot tax. Plus Gov. JB Pritzker signs a pension consolidation bill,

Reset breaks down these stories and more in WBEZ’s Chicago and Illinois News Roundup.

GUESTS: A.D. Quig, government and politics reporter at Crain’s Chicago Business

Claudia Morell, WBEZ City Hall reporter

Lolly Bowean, Chicago Tribune reporter