Local band Prom Date’s new Britney Spears tribute EP; new COVID case counts are close to last summer’s; Boeing ‘ekes out’ its first profits since ’19; southern resident orcas are finally back in WA waters.

Familiar Pike/Pine flower vendor recovering after being struck by a car; more responses to last weekend’s many shootings; more counties want everyone back in masks (at least while indoors); rural schools have more anti-LGBTQ bullying, and more faculty apathy toward it; Mariners go down 6-0 in first inning, go on to win.

Remembering the pandemic with tattoos; everybody’s asked to mask up again (at least indoors); racism/sexism claims at Amazon Web Services and Seattle Park Dept.; differing responses about cruise ships’ return to Seattle.

One man’s search for free, public ‘writing spaces;’ COVID testing’s in demand again; a subdued Olympic hype this time around; The NY Times discovers we make and like beer in Seattle.

Photos of COVID health-care workers shown big on a building wall at night; Sue Bird’s latest honor at the Olympic opening ceremonies; the Seattle Kraken’s finally a team (almost); eastern WA’s wildfire smoke blows all the way to NY.

New life (and maybe a new club) in R Place’s old building; Jeff Bezos had his costly li’l suborbital space trip; the Kraken’s about to have its Expansion Draft party/telecast; OR’s Bootleg Fire is so big, it ‘makes its own weather.’

Performers and others re-gather in Chinatown-International District; Canadian border reopens Aug. 9; some of Durkan’s ‘missing text’ recipients identified; Bezos will go into space today (and, yes, come back).

Julia’s on Broadway drag cast goes on strike; WA reaches another grim COVID milestone; attorneys claim Children’s Hospital operating-room mold has had 100 victims; a suspect’s arrested in the 2020 slaying near the CHOP protest zone.

Ste. Michelle wines sold to a private-equity firm; Kshama Sawant would rather face a recall vote in November than in a primary; who gave the word to shut the East Precinct last year; Hoquiam police post ‘jokes’ about a troubled man who jumped from a bridge.

Fifty years and change since the ‘turn out the lights’ billboard; 2 (of 6) SPD officers are cited for being part of the DC siege; heat-wave death counts are still rising; a tireless advocate for the homeless dies.

Beth’s Cafe reopens; smaller-scale music fest to take Bumbershoot’s place this fall; King County councilmember tries to prevent huge light-rail project delays; yes, climate change had a role in the recent heat wave.

Tlingit art on a new postage stamp; how Amazon affected Seattle and vice versa; big Pentagon cloud contract rescinded; state of emergency declared over WA wildfire danger.

White Center gay bar destroyed by fire; new Amazon CEO enters as worker-organizing drives continue; activists sort out how to make Aurora Ave. less pedestrian-hostile; still waiting for the border to reopen.

Locally-written opera explores Tacoma’s 1885 anti-Chinese expulsion; more music clubs and other spots reopen; payroll-tax opponents appeal the court dismissal of their suit; the pandemic slowed but didn’t stop local population growth.

Thoughts on the re-released ‘Streetwise’; the regional heat-wave death toll climbs; a heat-stricken BC town succumbs to wildfire; Microsoft rebrands itself as ‘the anti-Apple.’