‘African Streetwear’ in a pop-up storefront; City Council passes SPD hiring incentives; Bill Gates’s role in getting Inflation Reduction Act passed in US Senate; Calif. Amazon air-freight workers walk off.

AI engineer creates a jazz band with a robot vocalist; selling Seattle rain to LA tourists; Starbucks wants feds to stop unionization votes; religious ‘crisis pregnancy’ centers offer medically questionable ‘abortion pill reversals.’

Four decades of Seattle microbrews (some less micro- than others); COVID lockdowns were good for area birds; Harborview’s overcrowded and won’t take most new patients; West Seattle bridge reopens on 9/18.

Graphic-novel creator Jim Woodring gets a ‘New Yorker’ paean; right-wing culture warriors get even more aggressive/stupid; monkeypox vax doses to get smaller; wine (including winery tourism) is now a bigger biz in WA than apples.

A Northwest-themed ‘Cards Against Humanity’-clone game; pro-MAGA rival inches ahead of Rep. Herrera Beutler; regional ‘arts and culture sector’ still struggling; original Kidd Valley burger joint to close.

Gatherings old (the hydros) and new (‘KEXP 50’); Amazon wants to buy the maker of Roomba vacuums; an early Amazon investor/consultant dies at 82; metro areas across the NW have severe housing shortages.

Former burger-joint site to become 25 stories of ‘student’ housing; Comic Con will require masks after all; Reagan Dunn concedes Congressional run; Linda Derschang shrinks her food-drink empire.

A women-led exhibition tries to show how art and tech can coexist; updated primary totals don’t change much; how city-council districts might be redrawn; two Black Muslims sue Alaska Airlines after getting kicked off a flight.

Hope for a cleaner Duwamish; first primary ballot drop shows few signs of a ‘red wave;’ why today’s COVID strains are so threatening; City Council votes to end grocery workers’ hazard pay.

GameWorks arcade’s reopening; coach Pete Carroll has COVID (and councilmember Sara Nelson might); interim city neighborhoods chief becomes deputy mayor; crashed ferry’s captain resigns.

Seafair Torchlight Parade’s reassuring (if smaller) return; state AG Ferguson, Seattle Pacific U trade barbs; what Jon Talton gets wrong about Starbucks (and Seattle); Bill Russell RIP.

Ferry crash and truck explosion (at separate places) snarl traffic; the heat wave now comes with a side order of air pollution; Amazon loses $2 billion (Wall St. loves it); Cranium creator dies of COVID.

Military-radio transmitter site with salmon and hiking trails; hot-osity just keeps on; a GOP Congressional candidate’s ties to the Proud Boys; an arrest warrant for the harasser at Rep. Jayapal’s home.

Artist Romare Bearden’s conservative modernism; all the heat (and heat clichés) you can stand; City Council passes ‘abortion sanctuary’ bill; Beacon Hill to get a French language K-8 school.

Local startup’s fake coffee put to the test; how Amazon is and isn’t different under Andy Jassy; local Audubon Society wants a less slavery-connected name; a milestone of sorts for this li’l e-missive.