We’ve got a plethora of Halloween weekend events and a few costume-related pleas. We additionally have stuff about more attention given toward the opioid crisis now that upscale white people are in it; Metro scrapping problematic old buses while confronting problematic new buses; the brief life of the “V2” pop-up arts space; Amazon’s grocery ambitions; and the Sounders living to play another day.

Ivan, the late discount-store caged gorilla, now stands proud and free as a statue. Among further Thursday topics: Attack ads come to local political races at last; Providence hospitals stop using religion as an excuse to stiff worker pensions; some Sonics Arena opponents still oppose it; and “socially responsible” video games.

Chris Hansen now says he can build a basketball and/or hockey arena without tax $$. Other stuff today:  Google assembles its own e-tail program; more landlords kick out Section 8 tenants; a lawyer turned slam poet; and the Old Spaghetti Factory will serve its last Spumoni in December.

There’s a baseball stadium that’s been in use for 103 years, none of which featured a championship home team. But it might soon. Closer to home, we mention attempts to heal the state’s political divisions (or at least understand them); a bus-shelter removal plan put on hold; a search for an alert system for sexual-assault attackees; and a guy turning unwanted LPs into visual art. Plus: the death of America’s most hate-filled cartoonist.

Tie scores are a lot rarer in pro football than they used to be, but the Seahawks managed to achieve one (in a game they objectively should’ve lost). We additionally take peeks at the latest media mega-merger deal; anti-you-know-who slogans good and less-good; more details of Mayor Murray’s homelessness master plan; a violent-crime allegation buried in media side topics; and a remembrance of newspaper “consumer” columns and of one of their best curators.

So you stocked up on canned goods, canceled your weekend plans, and all for just a few minutes of torrential downpour followed by the usual autumn sogginess. (Turns out the real storm here was at Friday’s homeless-bill hearing.) We additionally talk about Hope Solo’s possible next career move; a gay-rights garden planned for Broadway; a sidewalk with solar panels; how to make the police force more diverse; and an old, old town with a new name.

Former local TV news star turned GOP state boss Susan Hutchison defends the indefensible remarks of a certain Presidential candidate. We additionally think about the rival homelessness plans and their implications (real and imagined); saving some of the “ramps to nowhere”; a police-reform plan presented; and the sudden death of an artist/teacher/shaman.

Washington’s new high-school football powerhouse is a Catholic school named for an Irish-American bishop, and known for recruiting the state’s biggest, bulkiest teens. Elsewhere today:  J.J. Abrams (heart)s the Wash. election-funding initiative; the Seattle Times dislikes lobbyist-written legislation (but only if those lobbyists champion the needs of poor people); one of Belltown’s last “artsy” apartments gets sold; the “Uber-ization of health care”; and how NOT to save the whales.

As WSU prepares a Hanford museum, local activists propose a unilateral nuclear-weapons scrap. Additional topics this Thursday include a clever local response to a traditional-gender-roles “action fashion” shoot; hydro power’s eco side effects; a drive to “democratize” artificial intelligence; the ascendant Sounders; and a soap-opera master’s final fadeout.

The big book party was such a success, we might hold another. (Watch this space for particulars.) For now, though, it’s back to the daily grind of local news digestin’, which this day includes some allegedly tacky actions by exhibit organizers against two Af-Am artists; a concept to help the environment by re-opening coal mines (?); a video game set at a space station called “Tacoma”; and lotsa local sports wins.

Before the weekend is done, our splendiferous “LOSER” book reissue party (Sunday evening at Vermillion, 11th between Pike and Pine) will occur. But before then you can read about a highly deserving arts-award winner; the case against the “youth jail”; the still-deepening morass that is the municipal homelessness response; the World Trade Organization (remember them?) siding with Boeing; and an idea for a vastly scaled-down walkway aside I-5.

One of Seattle’s last indie pharmacies will soon reach its expiration date with no refills. We speak as well about a UW minimum-wage analyst’s alleged conflict-O-interest; public schools filled to overflowing (again); Marshawn Lynch talking more about social justice than about his own business ventures; another potential Boeing “tax windfall”; and the Storm season’s sudden end.

Organizers of an “ethnic role models” event at John Muir Elementary weren’t wiling to let a school district-issued “cancellation” notice stop ’em. We additionally examine lawmakers who get campaign $ from Big Pharma while officially denouncing prescription-opioid abuse; folks who want to stop the gigantic Convention Center expansion; a new concept in short- and medium-term residential rentals for techies who might be fired next year; and sports victories for all but the Seahawks.

We begin with three lists totaling 100 all-time Northwest indie-rock records. We continue from there with (alas) false state-income-tax allegations; anti-Muslim bigotry hitting home; what the costly homelessness consultant didn’t directly look into; a former “Drunk of the Week” (or was she?) suing; and the Mariners’ streak continuing.

I’d mentioned it here on the site (see below), but today I get to tell my newsletter all about my LOSER book reissue finally coming out. Our regular headline fodder features tribal protests against fossil-fuel trains; the Asian Art Museum’s expansion plans; GOP candidates who don’t like that their Presidential nominee’s coming to the area; the loss of an International District activist; and a bad local sports day.