Migrating murals depict and honor migration; state insurance commissioner Mike Kreidler accused of mistreating staff; Blaine B&B charged with aiding cross-border smuggling; pioneering LGBTQ counseling agency closing.

Seattle mansion’s seller denies alleged indirect connection to an American horror story; UW resident physicians stage a brief walkout; some local bands don’t mind what used to be called ‘selling out;’ remembering an original Mariner.

Russell Wilson and Ciara open a fashion boutique in U Village; COVID down big in western WA, still high in the east; Melinda French Gates to go her own philanthropic way; Rotterdam may dismantle a historic bridge so Bezos’ new megayacht can go through.

Sara Porkalob’s taking her one-woman musicals to NY; WA’s paid family leave fund could soon run out; Rudy Giuliani’s coming to (somewhere in) King County in March; a relative paucity of COVID-related local news items today.

Seattle-raised filmmaker at old ‘spaghetti western’ filming locales; student ‘sickout’ planned at several schools; non-emergency surgeries put on hold due to COVID surge; WA’s Cascade mountain passes all finally reopened.

New Bumbershoot promoters promise a return to the arts festival’s roots; a drive for racial equity in Snohomish after a 2020 far-right rally; Seattle’s eviction ban will last at least until Valentine’s Day; local cable/Internet company changes its name (again).

Holiday season, city snow both go away; Seattle schools to hold COVID testing day in lieu of classes; Bruce Harrell privately sworn in as mayor; it was a particularly deadly year on WA state roads.

Ex-Seattle singer Mark Lanegan tells of his COVID nightmare; BC partly locks down again; two Tacoma officers exonerated over Manuel Ellis’ death; Seahawks clinch their first losing season in a decade.

There’s a new local-arts mag (on paper!); some retail storefronts are going delivery-only; one year of COVID vax shots in WA; Boeing sells two Renton office buildings cheap.

The ‘revered and reviled saxophonist’ gets an HBO doc; Space Needle fireworks will be back (sort-of); full hospitals can’t send folks to full nursing homes; Bruce Harrell’s niece will be his chief aide.

‘Recall Sawant’ early returns are as predicted (and as incomplete); Seattle’s population growth outpaced the ‘burbs in the 2010s; Amazon Web Services had a big outage; more homeless folk are ailing from a highly preventable condition.

‘Internet Ends’—or will it?; Comic Con returns (even with at least some stuff about comics!); Sawant recall backers spending big; COVID protocols cancel UW basketball game.

More floods attack the hard-hit BC interior; the Crocodile has its third grand opening; a labor group claims Amazon under-reports worker COVID cases; the city settles with Charleena Lyles’ family for $3.5 million.

Flooding and its impacts aren’t over in WA and BC: state Redistricting Commission fails to finish its job in time; Bruce Harrell’s big transition team; the connection between Bill Gates, nuclear power, and JCPenney.

New book recalls a beloved U District hangout; fired WSU football coach sues over vax mandate; Ferndale aluminum plant could reopen; a trans-woman politician in Cobain’s old hometown.