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.

Extreme weather closes passes, drowns drivers, collapses a house; explaining the SPD’s CHOP-era deceptions; 10,000 dead from COVID in WA as hospitals fill up again.

Two UW profs praise ‘Don’t Look Up’ as climate-change metaphor; all major WA mountain passes closed; medical leaders say we’re near a hospital crisis point; ‘big rent hikes’ coming once they’re allowed.

Guild 45th theater sign comes down, but will the building also go?; Snohomish Co. exec has COVID (along with many others); SPD spread misinfo during CHOP; one year since you-know-what.

Harrell’s inauguration speech rejects arguments made by some of his own election supporters; AG Bob Ferguson recovering from COVID, as quarantine facility opens in Auburn; Kent mayor wants apparent neo-Nazi cop to resign.

Back to regular (albeit wild) local winter weather and its side effects; school and other COVID test sites reach max capacity; UW researchers’ union drive proceeds; Duwamish Tribe gets a little more land in a community donation.

Holiday season, city snow both go away; Seattle schools to hold COVID testing day in lieu of classes; Bruce Harrell privately sworn in as mayor; it was a particularly deadly year on WA state roads.

Heidelberg beer returns to Tacoma; WA hits another record in daily new COVID cases, as many New Year’s Eve events get canceled; our current cold snap may fade away at last.

Photo book recounts the Bertha tunnel project and its many complications; climate change’s role in our current cold snap; “Hoarders” reality-TV creator will work for Bruce Harrell; more proof that music streaming sucks for artists.

Local deep freeze continues; WA COVID cases skyrocket, as King County buys 300,000 home tests; would-be customer lacerates bartender who asked for vax proof; Beacon Hill Garden House saved.

Deep freeze follows snow, with expected impacts; King County COVID cases double in a week; a local law firm may open its own coffee house as it downsizes its offices; WSU football gets a bowl game after all.

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.

Longtime local artist Carl Smool’s got a crowdfunding drive; Tim Eyman’s assets to be liquidated; serious cold (and maybe snow) on tap for holiday weekend; state AG Bob Ferguson isolating with COVID, as omicron variant takes hold in western WA.

A new book pays tribute to Seattle architect Paul Hayden Kirk; we’ll get very cold temps (and maybe also snow); Seattle grocery workers’ ‘hazard pay’ won’t end after all; UW modelers predict a massive COVID wave by February.

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.