It’s beyond swelter-y out there, just in time to keep folks home who’d been aching to get out and about at last; other things also happened.

A big picture book of local storefront murals; a major heat wave’s still on the way; an early state reopening’s unlikely; a longtime social worker’s past and present battles.

Online educational TV show for kids of color wins national awards; Black UW Police officers claim racist abuse; a major city landmark reopens at last; Microsoft hits $2 trillion in total stock valuation.

Another big historic U District church is razed; ‘critical race theory’ isn’t what the far right says it is; south King County’s vax rate still lags; online petitions ask Jeff Bezos to go into space and stay there.

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?

The new novelty of real museum-going; King County goes maskless on 6/29; from whence Seattle’s primary-campaign money is coming; remembering Vancouver’s 2011 hockey riot.

Lumen Field vax site closes; the annual prediction of a center-right ‘backlash’ in Seattle politics; major local chef accused of sexual misconduct; remembering a film nut (in a town of film nuts).

A big new online encyclopedia of NW hiphop; the Puyallup Fair’s on for this year; several building unions back the Sawant recall drive; (faint) praise for (some) street chaos.

Will Central Disrict’s library ‘Soul Pole’ come back?; 100,000 drivers’ licenses to be restored; Idaho’s battle between the far-right and the farther-right; KingCo’s small-business contracts ‘overwhelmingly’ go to white-owned companies.

Cafe Racer’s fourth opening will be at a second site; federal, state vaccination stats differ; could the Canadian border finally, partly, reopen?; a double-anniversary and new-project announcement.

Yep, WA’s getting a lottery for the vaccinated; Jazz Alley reopens next week; Bitter Lake encampment residents speak out; Microsoft’s software revenue gets virtually funnelled through Ireland and Bermuda, ends up untaxed.

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.

A children’s book explains abortion; democracy vouchers’ potential impact in this mayoral race; the state reopening countdown hits the 30-day mark; it’s the wrong time for so many state ferries to be broken.

Art consortium builds a blocky Seattle cityscape in Minecraft; three Tacoma officers charged in Manny Ellis’ killing; racism charges against Seattle Office of Arts & Culture by an ex-administrator; MacKenzie Scott tries to give away big money.

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.’