Beth’s Cafe, just reopened, is now re-closed; Proud Boys use anti-vax/anti-mask excuses for their hostile ‘rallies;’ a tentative union pact over state-worker vax mandate; ‘Compassion Seattle’ city-charter campaign dead (again).

Local artists’ big metal bird with movable wings; charter-amendment backers appeal court ruling to remove it from Nov. ballot; school starts today amid precautions and fears; Children’s Hospital’s first COVID death.

The ex-Baltic Room’s got a new name; the ‘Nirvana Baby’ resurfaces; determining the ‘pandemic’s toll on kids’ brains;’ Microsoft AI software’s programmed to impersonate a local writer.

Locally-made, no-budget ‘Hunting Bigfoot’ film now showing; Boeing safety engineers speak out against management; philanthropist-arts promoter Kay Bullitt dies; when the delta variant (and the pandemic) just might finally end.

Mt. Rainier’s a lot less snowy and icy these days; state auditor’s office sez city’s ‘Black Brilliance Project’ grants were barely within the law; Portland police allowed far-right rally members to mostly just do their thing; 15 writers in search of Utopia.

Art-world celeb and UW grad Chuck Close dies; frustration among doctors, nurses as delta variant rages on; why encampment residents don’t want to move into shelters; Redhook (and the Seattle microbrew scene) turn 40.

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.

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.

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.

Water-themed playground coming to new Waterfront Park; does Seattle’s ‘urban village’ zoning perpetuate inequality?; the heat wave sickened Columbia River salmon; nine bars are or were temporarily closed due to COVID exposures among staff.

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.

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.’