New plays address racial-justice struggles (here and elsewhere); downtown business leader sees signs of recovery; Meta/Facebook has another big round of layoffs; remembering the first modern bank failure to hit Seattle hard.

New Peter Blecha book links ‘40s-‘50s Seattle R&B to ‘50s-‘60s Northwest garage rock; more on Rep. George Santos’ alleged link to an alleged Seattle ATM thief; 1st & Pike cherry trees to be replaced; Silicon Valley Bank crash’s local effects.

Shawn Kemp’s side of Tacoma parking-lot incident; COVID’s still killing folks here; online activists try to stop a big new Alaska oil-drilling project; a Capitol Hill institution insists it’s not getting redeveloped.

A jazz legend and other influential Black Seattleites of the past; down to the wire for social-housing initiative; could tech layoffs being another Seattle slump?; 777 almost crashes in Pacific.

Airing a seldom-heard voice in the homeless crisis (that of an actual homeless person); works by local Black artists you can see (and some you can’t yet); FTC may sue Amazon; another hunger strike at the ICE jail in Tacoma.

CNN digs Scarecrow Video; two socialist bloggers don’t dig Sawant’s new project; Ron DeSantis names local right-winger to Fla. college’s board; a major Cascades glacier completely disappears.

Your chance to see the new Convention Center complex; activists announce City Council runs; solving homelessness will have a price tag; your chance to help me out by buying cool old stuff.

UW Dance tries to diversify both participants and curriculum; giant Convention Center addition opens at last; pro-choice march passes by two big local Catholic institutions; a wish to bring NW passenger rail back to the ‘50s.

Modern urban mid-rise buildings & their discontents; judge sanctions city over Durkan’s missing texts; some Sounders FC fans don’t want Providence as the team’s new jersey sponsor; did Amazon lie to financial lenders about warehouse safety?

Local comix creators’ LGBTQ protagonists; is Twitter closing its Seattle office?; biotech ex-CEO won’t be charged with assaulting his then-wife; some year-end thoughts.

Local Xmas records of note; downtown crime is apparently ‘on the decline;’ area hiring remains strong despite tech layoff; massive waterfront highway gets an Indigenous ‘honorary name.’

Supporters and allies greet Drag Queen Story Hour; Councilmember Lisa Herbold won’t run again; US senators question a tiny WA bank’s role in Big Crypto; should Amazon ‘rethink its business from scratch’?

Tom Dyer’s 40-song ode to Oly; marking 10 years since the same-sex wedding spectacular at City Hall; window shot at Renton drag-queen story hour site; FTC sues to stop Microsoft from taking over Activision Blizzard.

1875 shipwreck remains found off WA coast; gun background-check law may finally get enforced; magic-mushroom therapy begins in Oregon; faulty Xmas-tree lights cause major house fire.

‘Running While Black’ author’s new KCTS series; court again rejects SPD officers’ suit against Sawant; Amazon to keep selling antisemitic video; does the state really need an ‘organized retail theft task force’?