Author Neal Stephenson defends utopian fiction; COVID-related staff shortages affect schools, bus service, and more; three more state senators test positive; two Cascade passes still closed.

Post-Xmas lights (and, oh yeah, the big snow); state sez Amazon won’t let it inspect warehouse safety conditions; PETA tries to deliver coal to Starbucks CEO in an anti-dairy protest; GameWorks stops working.

Ex-Seattle singer Mark Lanegan tells of his COVID nightmare; BC partly locks down again; two Tacoma officers exonerated over Manuel Ellis’ death; Seahawks clinch their first losing season in a decade.

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.

Indigenous contemporary art to view this T-Day weekend, highlighting a list of mostly cultural items left over from recent newsletter issues.

An out trans woman becomes a high school homecoming queen; King County’s got its first POC (interim) sheriff; a 75-year-old Black woman (and police-accountability activist) is struck with a motor oil can in a racist street attack; what’s so negative about being told to be ‘positive’?

The hidden history of a local jazz hall as it’s about to be commemorated; Seahawks, coach Pete Carroll hit a new nadir; SPD keeps full funding for unfilled jobs; Amazon, MS can bid again for a redrawn Pentagon cloud contract.

Temporary ‘COVID Remembrance Project’ now underway; UW football coach Jimmy Lake’s suspended for one game; 9 percent of Boeing’s US workers want a vax exemption; how has Amazon changed fiction?

Foss Shipyard suddenly closes; state eviction moratorium ends; cash incentives offered to new SPD officers; this year’s local elections have the same big-money interests backing the same business-as-usual candidates.

‘Ghost kitchen’ and other costume ideas; state eviction moratorium’s end nears again; last-minute big bucks pour into local elections; Amazon’s quarterly profits fall by almost half.

Local eco-origins of ‘Dune;’ state antitrust suit against big chicken producers; ‘a new Black arts center’ to anchor a CD mixed-use project.

Local music vet Ken Stringfellow denies several women’s sexual-misconduct claims; more windstorm fallout; another judge upholds state vax mandate; Amazon’s employee-leave policies said to have many major flaws.

The Kraken’s home debut is a triumph (except for the game’s outcome and the lack of regular TV); Mandate Monday #2 is here; 40 overboard cargo containers added to the usual local windstorm damage; is it racist to note Bruce Harrell’s past defense of Ed Murray?

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.

Non-Van Gogh ‘immersive’ art ‘experiences’ around town; Mandate Monday #1 finds few affected workers ousted (except WSU football coach Nick Rolovich); a rich white guy thinks racism’s dead and ‘the free market’ did it.