The first quasi-sorta-positive thing out of the new DC regime has happened. By poaching two WA State Senators, that body now has a temporary tie. We make further glances at instant pipeline protests; more looks back at the Womxn’s March; Seattle’s not-that-purely-progressive past; and one beloved bar surviving by kicking out another.

Life During (domestic) Wartime begins here with some vital guidance on making an effective, long-term opposition to bigotry and brutality, and many protest/reaction event listings. Plus: A lawsuit against encampment “sweeps;” a chance to end GOP control of the state Senate; and whither the band name “Thunderpussy”?

One day to rest up, make plans, and enjoy the calm before the GOPocalypse. So read up today about those weird restaurant-inspection icons; a possible municipal lawsuit against OxyContin’s makers; politicians who want to ban wind farms; and a UW Muslim student on the activist front lines.

A local Af-Am activist says we shouldn’t try to go back to some perceived past golden age of the U.S., but to create a more equitable country at last. We also view MLK and pro-school-funding rallies; Boeing’s (and American industry and labor’s) racist past; a strange Amazon request to the FCC; and Seattle having one-quarter of the world’s very-richest people.

A local teen activist explains part of What Must Be Done this Martin Luther King Day. Additional glances today are paid at the still shrinking Eddie Bauer empire; lessons from our past about “how to deal with fascists;” a proposed “quiet zone” for orcas; and bike sharing’s death and non-resurrection.

Besides our big book announcement (see below), we’ve got word about the Snoqualmie River “ice circle”; local pols defending health care; an opioid near-death seen up close; the death of a transit advocate; and lots of MLK Weekend activities.

Video evidence shows that police-shooting victim Che Taylor was left to bleed on the ground for almost eight minutes. We also discuss a potentially misguided effort to industrialize a suburb; big sign-ups for the local Women’s March; a girls’ school adding boys (in a separate facility); Korean fashion coming to town; and the usual dozens of weekend activity listings.

Our Thursday e-roundup concerns a Mexican-born Seattle artist with a new twist on Day of the Dead iconography; a new phone area code for the region; a man who allegedly held his own family hostage with a bow and arrow (among other things); one more Amazon skyscraper site; and yet another iconic figure’s demise.

In our midweek missive: An activist on how white “allies” can work for racial justice without, you know, taking everything over; park-and-ride lots’ popularity; still hyper-inflating home prices; good news for Queen City Grill diners; and yet another tragic celebrity death.

Following the holiday break we catch up with tales of hospital execs who really don’t want Obamacare to get gutted; the BBC discovering Seattle as a hotbed of the Resistance; Amazon’s potential future with driverless trucks; and the welcome, forthcoming return of King Donut-Teriyaki-Laundromat!

Despite the materialistic and/or post-pagan trappings of the season, the oft re-imagined, re-interpreted figure of Jesus remains at the core of our society’s yearly winter-solstice rituals. And he really is a great guy if you separate what he said and did from what some of his supposed followers have said and done.

Meanwhile, in Friday’s news we’ve got a call for an environmental study on a 15-year-old oil pier; big fines against a payday lender; more “youth jail” dispute developments; and the possible peak/slowdown of the overheated local apartment market.

I still disagree with the longstanding lefty meme that everybody outside “our” subculture is a fascist. And, I still insist we have to drop that notion if anything good is to survive. In more news-y news, there’s a condo tower planned for the International District, a little real-estate paperwork fee that does a lot for housing; two teenage boys implicated in the Mt. Vernon cop shooting; and an idea to build more Space Needles! (But not necessarily more Chihuly galleries.)

A new report depicts the state’s mental-health system (which Gov. Inslee has already vowed to fix up) as a shambles. Other items today discuss whether Af-Am cultural institutions can follow the population into the ‘burbs; new plans to support “affordable” housing; the fish factory at the ex-Weyerhaeuser campus is dead; the coal-train scheme in Whatcom County may be resurrected; and the usual dozens of weekend activity options.

Meet the South Park family who just might be role models for us all. Further subjects this day include a tragedy compounded by a sincere journalistic error compounded by a fake-news site’s disdain for facts; a victory for tenants; the end of the tussle to replace Pramila Jayapal in Olympia; and more on the Sounders’ triumph.

Finally! Snow in the city, spectacular and beautiful (and rare and very temporary). Non-meteorological topics this day include gift books for the budding political activist in your family; a new, almost-1,200-unit residential complex; another local alt-media source needing support; a woman who videoed her own racial hate crime; and the usual umpteen weekend things-2-do.