Art-world celeb and UW grad Chuck Close dies; frustration among doctors, nurses as delta variant rages on; why encampment residents don’t want to move into shelters; Redhook (and the Seattle microbrew scene) turn 40.

Historic/kitschy Admiral Benbow Inn to reopen; Inslee mandates masking for all and vaccines for school/college workers; ICUs fill to capacity again with COVID patients; Pike Place Market turns 114.

Mudhoney bassist (and Harborview ER nurse) Guy Maddison tells COVID tales in a podcast; area health leaders blame public gatherings for COVID resurgence; Amazon now outsells Walmart (sort-of); Afghan refugees are headed our way.

Artistic mini-golf at Olympic Sculpture Park; City Council passes JumpStart payroll tax; why hasn’t county rent-relief money come through yet?; a summer of ‘frustration’ and ‘rage’.

Wing Luke group exhibit ponders Asian American beauty standards; music fest at the Gorge linked to 160+ COVID cases; wildfire smoke makes COVID worse; more on the trends seen in the new census data.

New magic-themed bar prepares to open; Census data reveals how much we’ve grown around here; state Supreme Court rules in favor of vehicle dwellers; non-teaching Seattle school workers will need vaccines this fall.

Pop-art posters honor Indigenous women preserving the planet; Edgar Martinez gets a statue; WA COVID cases surpass a half million; ACLU sues to stop the city charter-amendment drive.

The new ‘Skid Road’ book’s parallels to the older one; more institutions impose vaccine requirements; controversial PCC president quits; city attorney Pete Holmes is out of the general-election race.

Tech tycoons hype a buzzword from a dystopian (local) novel; an unnamed live-music gig was a ‘superspreader event’; Sound Transit salvages its rail-building plan; incumbent city attorney Pete Holmes drops to #3 in the latest vote count.

Henry Weinhard’s beer to vanish; few real changes in latest the primary-vote update; why Amazon likely won’t demand its workers be vaxxed; local anti-ICE activist says she’s being targeted for retaliation.

What we know (and don’t know) after the primary election’s first ‘ballot drop’; local COVID conditions return to ‘substantial transmission’ level; rain’s brief return may re-return; an old (but fake) totem pole is taken down at a Tacoma park.

Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair returns; feds find ‘improprieties’ at Alabama Amazon union vote; city eviction moratorium extended two months; Seattle Rep to stage a musical named after the mechanical shark from ‘Jaws.’

Water-themed playground coming to new Waterfront Park; does Seattle’s ‘urban village’ zoning perpetuate inequality?; the heat wave sickened Columbia River salmon; nine bars are or were temporarily closed due to COVID exposures among staff.

Big touring exhibit of African-American art and history comes to Tacoma; state, federal eviction moratoria end, while COVID cases and hospitalizations explode anew; huge Oregon wildfire now mostly contained.

‘Seattle Walk Report’ sequel book is out; the SPD commander blamed for CHOP response says he was framed; the Lummi Nation’s traveling totem pole gets to DC in a drive to save sacred spaces; the NYT seems to think Seattle’s in Silicon Valley.