Continuing impacts of the scorching weather abound, as the state finally reaches The Big Reopening; the state bails out Point Roberts’ only grocery; a brutalist UW dorm tower won’t get razed for now.

The meaning(s) of Juneteenth; Portland wants our tourist $ (and a more positive image); Durkan extends eviction moratorium; has the Gates Foundation’s money/influence hurt global vaccination drives?

Ballard’s new marine-themed fence mural; a UW psychology prof predicts post-pandemic hookups; Portland’s protest-response cops resign en masse; Megan Rapinoe will help Victoria’s Secret ‘rebrand’ itself.

LGBT history noted in Pioneer Square on and Capitol Hill; the ‘tentacles’ of MacKenzie Scott’s charitable giving; a push to make corporate boards less white; 500 days since the first WA (and US) COVID case.

Seattle’s Black rock (and other music) explosion; local thoughts on a year since George Floyd’s killing; City Council moving to restrict some evictions; DC sues Amazon over ‘anticompetitive practices.’

A local Indigenous writer on Coast Salish songs and the CHOP protests; teens can get the jab now (and should); a proposal to help prevent future mayoral text-message disappearances; a classic, closed downtown hotel and dive bar may get boutique-ified.

The Black Tones’ Museum of Flight concert; 50 years since the (real) first Starbucks opened; campus COVID cases are on the rise around the state; the legislature passes a bill to close Tacoma’s for-profit ICE jail.

Animated ennui from a ‘Quarantine Kat’; Vain hair salon leaves old Vogue nightclub space on 1st; questions about a doctor’s child-abuse testimony; Amazon says its workers won’t have to pee in bottles (many workers say yes, they do).

Tacoma puts up 500 lights to remember COVID deaths; WA teachers now vaccine-eligible; City Council candidate drops out after 2015 assault case goes public; the Seattle Storm’s got a quasi-militaristic new logo.

A local vintage store’s pandemic survival story; pick for regional ‘homelessness czar’ turns down the job; court upholds city anti-eviction laws; we’re not an ‘Anarchist Jurisdiction’ anymore!

Health worker turns body bags into traditional Native dresses; women’s group wants a GOP pol off of the state Redistricting Commission; could QB Russell Wilson want to leave the Seahawks?; snow might show up, fear of snow is already here.

Retro civic-PR art from a ‘Department of Design;’ no cruise ships to Canada (or, likely, Seattle) this year; Lorena Gonzalez’s last rival wants the Council seat she’s leaving to run for mayor; judge overseeing SPD reform warns against major restructuring without his OK.

Sub Pop retail shop opens beneath a mostly-empty Amazon tower; WA records its lowest new-COVID-case count of the year; a Native-homeless advocate runs for mayor; no, Bill Gates doesn’t want to kill you on behalf of any lizard men from outer space.

Year-in-review punditry galore; dumped logs temporarily disable a ferry dock; a third COVID vaccine’s in local testing; a right-wing militia plans to ‘occupy’ the state capitol when the next legislature opens.

On the day after the Seven Gables Theater burned, we look back on some recent local arts and culture stories, trends, and tales of survival.