Views of an empty Microsoft campus (except for construction crews); the state passes 200,000 COVID cases; the first vaccine doses are on the way; another shooting at another right-wing Olympia protest.

A quiet, (very) socially distanced holiday time; COVID cases cancel a UW football game (and maybe the rest of the season); 45 percent of state’s restaurants could fold within a year; new push for NW light rail.

A live Santa greets kids from inside a plastic ‘snow globe;’ ‘several’ COVID positives among the UW football squad; a bomb scare at the Spokane County Democrats’ office; imaging ‘a future where Amazon rules the world.’

Getting young adults to take masking/distancing seriously; end to federal aid could imperil local COVID response; Seahawks’ and Huskies’ late-game comebacks fail; Olympia MAGA rally member shoots at counter-protesters.

‘Cascadia’ group wants four big, all-new cities; City Council passes budget with some SPD cuts; a massive (but multi-day) state COVID case count; an appropriate Christmas carol for this ‘bleak” year.

Art posters remember ICE detainees; COVID cancels college football’s Apple Cup; homeless advocates try to squat empty Tacoma school building; Seattle seafood co. accused of horrid working conditions and wage theft.

Big new book captures old local metal bands; Seahawks’ stadium has its fourth name (but only one ‘name sponsor’); SPD budget to be cut but not ‘defunded;’ West Seattle Bridge to be fixed (but it won’t be quick).

‘Sonics Forever’ podcast gathers basketball memories; another record day for COVID cases in the state; Amazon enters the prescription-drug biz; sex robots for old folks?

Artist Tariqa Waters’ colorful new Bellevue group show; state health officials would rather you not have a big Thanksgiving; Europe hits at Amazon’s trade practices; what to do to stop a coup.

Author Ted Chiang on how sci-fi doesn’t always mirror science and vice versa; how this cultural era can end (and why it must); a fatal police shooting in Woodinville; the city starts a real-estate entity to save and nurture art spaces.

Mixed emotions (and arrests and a hospitalization) at post-election protests; activist’s soul-searching after a #MeToo callout; UW football debut canceled due to COVID; SIFF’s planning an online-only 2021 fest.

Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe commit to the future (and so should we); another police shooting of a Black man (in southwest WA) brings protests and counter-protests; new COVID cases rise back to July levels.

More on the ‘Keep Music Live’ fund drive; Durkan’s hand-picked ‘Equitable Communities Initiative Task Force’ and its discontents; conflicting tales about the Portland protest shooting suspect’s killing in Lacey; the state’s COVID response boss gives her notice.

An ‘Indigiqueer’ drag performer wants real Native inclusion in the arts (not just slogans); more evidence of tech-biz sexism; Gates says COVID vaccine could be close; another failed try to track a ‘murder hornet’.

Right-wing talker Dori Monson loses Seahawks game-day gig; Seahawks respond with the comeback win of the year; Microsoft workers can largely stay home-based into next year; deputies may have shot Tommy Le when he was already face-down.