Local/global music legend Bill Rieflin passes; Seattle cruise-ship season put on hold; Microsoft imports 240,000 face masks from an unnamed country; Steve Ballmer won’t move basketball’s LA Clippers here.

Local kids stage a pop-up art walk; is the local COVID death rate slowing?; how faulty respirators sickened Hanford cleanup workers; it’s really not the time to visit the WA coast.

Another special weekend edition full of virus-related (more or less) headlines, plus more pictures of a city forced to go on hold.

COVID takes a major figure in local science and political thought; unearthing the crisis’s confusing early days at Life Care Center; a year without SIFF (sniff); a dance fest, imagining a better future for humanity, may or may not have a future itself.

One barmaid’s temp-closing words of reassurance; a year without St. Patrick’s Day; Sawant repurposes her ‘Amazon tax’ proposal; Joe Biden wins WA’s Presidential primary.

Gov. Inslee’s set to close all restaurants/bars, further limit public meetings; Tim Eyman makes a horse’s ass of himself again; Ride the Ducks gone is for good; the lighter side of not touching your face.

Owner of a now-shut eatery wants more from local officials than just ‘social distancing’ mandates; lots more closures & cancellations; Legislature’s last moves to shore up transportation budget; what to do instead of shaking hands.

All public events in a three-county area are either banned or heavily restricted, depending on size; lots more school districts are closing; Joe Biden takes the presidential-primary lead; Boeing’s year-to-date orders are in minus figures.

The state may ban all 250-or-more local public gatherings; there’s no WA presidential primary winner yet; Boeing workers split on latest contract offer; at least it’s a great time to take a quiet urban bike ride.

1918 ‘Spanish’ flu pandemic compared to now; many more COVID reactions and 1 more death; state may ask developers to promise ‘net environmental gain;’ MOHAI gets Seattle’s most famous accordion.

A lot more coronavirus updates and reactions; a strange rare creature that’s even more endangered by virus-panic; two more Bellevue College leaders fired after art-statement alteration; Seattle magazine’s got a new local owner.

Bellevue College de-censors mural artists’ statement about white locals who liked the WWII internments; Inslee wants a Swedish labor pact now; does the city’s Navigation Team really get people off the streets?; neo-Nazis accused of harassing reporters and activists.

Car crash topples a front-yard sculpture made of rotting wood; Swedish strike to be immediately followed by lockout; some local companies won’t let employees visit China; remembering a beloved musician who apparently did himself in.

University Book Store turns 120; Gov. Inslee’s carbon-cap law partly survives state Supreme Court; Microsoft vows to become ‘carbon negative’; Julia Sweeney defends her ‘Pat’ character as more ‘annoying’ than androgynous.

Some parts of the region will get a bunch of snow, maybe; Boeing had more orders canceled than delivered in ’19; Sawant’s latest ‘Tax Amazon’ plan still isn’t fully revealed; Ken Jennings disses Courtney Love.