Sausage and hydro-racing mogul Art Oberto RIP; Seattle teachers’ union still negotiating a contract; ex-Garfield swim team member alleges ‘sexual hazing;’ Ms’ rookie superstar Julio Rodriguez signs a mega-deal.

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.

Another ‘only from Archie McPhee’ product at Xmas; Christian schools with ‘lax protocols’ lead in student COVID cases; Pacific Place ‘goes indie’ amid ‘ghost malls’ tide; remembering WA’s first Black (and non-Indigenous) settler.

Art installation combines AI technology with religion; Councilmember Mosqueda decries ‘misinformation” about proposed SPD budget cuts; is WA approaching COVID ‘herd immunity’?; Broadway will be temporarily DIckless.

New book chronicles a local architect’s life and work; more Mandate Monday #1 fallout; Edmonds school reverts to remote learning; state charges Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer with lying to officials.

Beth’s Cafe, just reopened, is now re-closed; Proud Boys use anti-vax/anti-mask excuses for their hostile ‘rallies;’ a tentative union pact over state-worker vax mandate; ‘Compassion Seattle’ city-charter campaign dead (again).

Panama Hotel’s preserved artifacts from WWII internment victims; Children’s Hospital promises to become anti-racist; Amazon’s on another hiring spree here and worldwide; what if COVID doesn’t really ‘go away’?

Walker Rock Garden site is partly sold, being redeveloped; a Pike Place Market legend passes; Aplets & Cotlets maker possibly saved; OSHA data confirms high injury rates among Amazon warehouse workers.

Remo Borracchini’s Bakery closes after 99 years on Rainier Avenue; Bellevue Arts Museum head quits; rallies in Bellevue and Edmonds oppose anti-Asian hate crimes; WA’s homeless rate was rising before the pandemic’s start (we don’t know about after).

The Aplets & Cotlets factory’s set to shut down; a big online concert tonight will benefit WA’s live-music community; a year of the Canadian border closure; the potential ‘domino effect’ of the Alabama Amazon union vote.

Space Needle New Year’s fireworks are canceled (again), to ‘go virtual’ this year; COVID outbreak at a WA Frito-Lay plant; police pepper-spray and topple an old man with PTSD at a Capitol Hill protest; can the unfinished Convention Center expansion plan be redirected?

The Gods Themselves’ fashionable pop escapism brightens your weekend; Gov. Inslee ‘scolds’ Monroe prison protesters; new unemployment claims keep a-soarin’; no Capitol Hill Block Party this year.

What will emerge and ebb during the twelve months in which many things must change.

Dept. store Santa photos’ local origin; gifted-education task force’s suggestions; Safeway & Stratolaunch now connected; another year-end honor for Megan Rapinoe & co.

Amazon critics stage a pre-Black Friday PR blitz; a judge hears the case for an I-976 injunction; the Paul Allen estate’s fate is still unsettled; no more Pagliacci Pizza on Broadway or Albertsons in Magnolia.