‘Cascadia’ group wants four big, all-new cities; City Council passes budget with some SPD cuts; a massive (but multi-day) state COVID case count; an appropriate Christmas carol for this ‘bleak” year.

‘Sonics Forever’ podcast gathers basketball memories; another record day for COVID cases in the state; Amazon enters the prescription-drug biz; sex robots for old folks?

After a lot of work, the Duwamish River’s a lot less toxic these days; Washington’s COVID cases surpass 100,000; the city’s LGBTQ Commission wants Durkan out; Seattle U’s getting its first non-priest president ever.

Wizards of the Coast sued over role-playing-game spinoff novels; a ‘fall surge’ in regional COVID cases could be here; Durkan asks Seattle cops to stay; ballots just keep a-coming in.

Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme make a streaming holiday special; will we ever get to a ‘phase 3’ reopening?; 16 arrests at another Capitol Hill protest; gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp’s book compares gun laws to the Holocaust.

A local dancer’s tale of depression, drink, and survival; COVID outbreak at Salish Lodge; Durkan to disband Navigation Team after all; Inslee threatens Boeing’s tax breaks if it moves 787 work out of Everett.

A local artist’s constructions depict life in our chaotic times; seeking the truth among online seas of lies; a new local documentary explores social costs of imprisonment; almost half of King County adults work from home now.

Bill Gates the Elder passes; Inslee bashes climate denial from the White House; Durkan-friendly ‘activist leader’ gets high-paying city job; Ms game called on account of smoke.

A local sci-fi author imagines transforming ‘oppressors’ into ‘kin;’ a techie dad parses the tech glitches facing remote schooling; a wildfire destroys a small eastern-WA town; a local sports broadcasting legend dies.

Stage and live-event workers rally for ‘restart’ help; new police chief shuffles staff; a false COVID rumor spreads quickly from a local Twitter post; yet another bombastic White House threat against Seattle.

Sending WWII-era Japanese souvenirs back to Japan; Cal Anderson Park ‘swept’ again; police-oversight cases skyrocket; making a ‘City of Literature’ that tells more people’s stories.

A new Amazon wrist band warns if you’re not ‘happy’ enough; comparing our age to a cheesy BDSM movie (NOT ‘50 Shades’!); the Storm joins the pro-sports strike; CHOP murder victim’s dad sues for $3 billion.

SAM and (later) Frye Museum to reopen; more COVID cases among the unhoused; why the Seattle public-safety status quo isn’t working for many; authors and publishers complain to Congress about Amazon’s power.

Senator (and fishstick-family scion) Gorton’s legacy as Seattle’s baseball savior and a sane Republican; Inslee declares a wildfire emergency; a lot of mail-sorting gear’s been removed in the region; the Mariners win a game for once.

Tri-Cities composer honors atomic bombings’ 75th anniversary; Cliff Mass goes anti-anti-fascist, loses radio gig; UW researchers’ ‘protein scaffolding’ could help make better vaccines; SPD responds to critics with a new web site.