Mudhoney bassist (and Harborview ER nurse) Guy Maddison tells COVID tales in a podcast; area health leaders blame public gatherings for COVID resurgence; Amazon now outsells Walmart (sort-of); Afghan refugees are headed our way.

Wing Luke group exhibit ponders Asian American beauty standards; music fest at the Gorge linked to 160+ COVID cases; wildfire smoke makes COVID worse; more on the trends seen in the new census data.

Pop-art posters honor Indigenous women preserving the planet; Edgar Martinez gets a statue; WA COVID cases surpass a half million; ACLU sues to stop the city charter-amendment drive.

The new ‘Skid Road’ book’s parallels to the older one; more institutions impose vaccine requirements; controversial PCC president quits; city attorney Pete Holmes is out of the general-election race.

Tech tycoons hype a buzzword from a dystopian (local) novel; an unnamed live-music gig was a ‘superspreader event’; Sound Transit salvages its rail-building plan; incumbent city attorney Pete Holmes drops to #3 in the latest vote count.

What we know (and don’t know) after the primary election’s first ‘ballot drop’; local COVID conditions return to ‘substantial transmission’ level; rain’s brief return may re-return; an old (but fake) totem pole is taken down at a Tacoma park.

Seattle Deconstructed Art Fair returns; feds find ‘improprieties’ at Alabama Amazon union vote; city eviction moratorium extended two months; Seattle Rep to stage a musical named after the mechanical shark from ‘Jaws.’

‘Seattle Walk Report’ sequel book is out; the SPD commander blamed for CHOP response says he was framed; the Lummi Nation’s traveling totem pole gets to DC in a drive to save sacred spaces; the NYT seems to think Seattle’s in Silicon Valley.

Local band Prom Date’s new Britney Spears tribute EP; new COVID case counts are close to last summer’s; Boeing ‘ekes out’ its first profits since ’19; southern resident orcas are finally back in WA waters.

Familiar Pike/Pine flower vendor recovering after being struck by a car; more responses to last weekend’s many shootings; more counties want everyone back in masks (at least while indoors); rural schools have more anti-LGBTQ bullying, and more faculty apathy toward it; Mariners go down 6-0 in first inning, go on to win.

Remembering the pandemic with tattoos; everybody’s asked to mask up again (at least indoors); racism/sexism claims at Amazon Web Services and Seattle Park Dept.; differing responses about cruise ships’ return to Seattle.

One man’s search for free, public ‘writing spaces;’ COVID testing’s in demand again; a subdued Olympic hype this time around; The NY Times discovers we make and like beer in Seattle.

Photos of COVID health-care workers shown big on a building wall at night; Sue Bird’s latest honor at the Olympic opening ceremonies; the Seattle Kraken’s finally a team (almost); eastern WA’s wildfire smoke blows all the way to NY.

New life (and maybe a new club) in R Place’s old building; Jeff Bezos had his costly li’l suborbital space trip; the Kraken’s about to have its Expansion Draft party/telecast; OR’s Bootleg Fire is so big, it ‘makes its own weather.’

Performers and others re-gather in Chinatown-International District; Canadian border reopens Aug. 9; some of Durkan’s ‘missing text’ recipients identified; Bezos will go into space today (and, yes, come back).