A retired Bellevue arts docent’s own ‘Barbieville;’ zoning reform is among the bills dead in the Legislature; WA’s COVID ‘R number’ has gone way down; Harrell’s ‘State of the City’ speech repeats big, vague promises.

Burke Museum exhibit explores the bio-diversity of tiny spaces; Microsoft, Expedia to bring office workers back; Spokane co. makes fake face masks just for show; Sawant wants to keep the city’s eviction ban going.

HBO movie ‘Kimi’ exploits Seattle tech-biz hype; city eviction moratorium to end in 2 weeks; forensics team believes Durkan’s phone was deliberately set to delete texts; REI management releases anti-union podcast.

A Seattle civil-rights lawyer’s new documentary; a Kent school library can keep its LGBTQ books; Bellevue’s housing is now costlier than Manhattan’s; a Cascade volcano’s at a ‘very high risk’ of erupting.

Art installation recalls pre-gentrification Central District; outdoor mask mandate (only) ends next week; city didn’t allocate funds for new SPD hiring bonuses; Amazon’s US employment tops a cool million.

Documentary on local bands surviving COVID shutdowns; some late-model cars are now stuck on one radio station; polls show big support for affordable-housing measures; Starbucks finds a justification to fire union organizers.

At the Africatown Plaza groundbreaking; why an ‘endemic’ COVID will still be dangerous; Harrell reiterates tough-on-crime rhetoric and revives old tactics; activists claim Amazon algorithms recommend chemicals for use in suicide attempts.

Art and storytelling keep WWII internments remembered; Inslee wants a statewide plan against homelessness; a seed shortage hinders the replanting of burned forests; Nancy Pearl decries school book bans.

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.

Sony’s buying local game maker Bungie; Breanna Stewart’s staying with the Storm; a pizza franchisee settles a back-wage dispute for $2 million; a 95-year Seattle radio tradition ends today.

Could Seattle Central College shrink (or worse)?; in-person homeless count will occur after all; Durkan thought about turning East Precinct over to hand-picked Black ‘community leaders;’ Clint Dempsey and Hope Solo named to US Soccer Hall of Fame.

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.

Could public housing replace part of a major Seattle street?; Orcas Island’s got its own housing crisis; COVID cancels, postpones more events; state sues Google over tracking users who don’t want to be tracked.

A 118-year-old building on Broadway, with a notorious history, could be razed for affordable housing; the last original Ventures member dies; free COVID tests from the state go fast; Zags’ rift with a superstar, anti-mask alum.

Memories of the shop Coffee Messiah; original artist will help restore the CD’s defaced MLK mural; WA omicron infection rate’s still awfully big; PCC’s downtown opening isn’t THAT fiscally courageous.