Northern lights’ local spectacle shines; Kraken’s regular-season launch thrills & disappoints; county council strips Kathy Lambert’s committee chairs; Boeing imposes employee vax mandate.

County Councilmember race-baits a (white) election rival; SPD prepares for firings of unvaxxed cops, while Inslee might impose a private-sector vax mandate; Melinda French Gates joins ‘Forbes 400’ on her own.

A concept for a ‘car-free Aurora Avenue;’ the state predicts our current bad COVID wave will continue; mayoral candidate Lorena Gonzalez reveals her big homelessness strategy; the Kraken is born.

Recalling a scandalous 1935 kidnapping case; 30 years of a Seattle ‘alternative’ institution; the city eviction moratorium’s extended until mid-January; no more ‘764-HERO’ (the phone hotline, not the local band).

A Tacoma park’s old storybook statues are up for auction; Cafe Racer’s ready for its re-re-reopening; Microsoft’s keeping office workers at home for ‘the foreseeable future’; and, yes, there’s that grim anniversary.

A network-TV tribute to Bam Bam singer Tina Bell; a ex-Amazon worker admits to “rigging” third-party sales platform; cops and crowds at a nighttime Pike/Pine arrest scene; an officially anti-vax-mandate county needs to rent a morgue van.

New nonlinear film explores Billy Tipton’s life and secrets; hospitals overflow with COVID patients again, as local sports teams demand attendees be vaxed; Rep. Jayapal wants to declare Amazon an ‘illegal monopoly.’

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.

Remembering a local icon of cartooning and TV; why one Black activist won’t back Bruce Harrell for mayor; court upholds state ban on forced ‘conversion therapy’ against gays; Pacific Galleries antique mall might be saved.

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.

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.

Big touring exhibit of African-American art and history comes to Tacoma; state, federal eviction moratoria end, while COVID cases and hospitalizations explode anew; huge Oregon wildfire now mostly contained.

Julia’s on Broadway drag cast goes on strike; WA reaches another grim COVID milestone; attorneys claim Children’s Hospital operating-room mold has had 100 victims; a suspect’s arrested in the 2020 slaying near the CHOP protest zone.

Ste. Michelle wines sold to a private-equity firm; Kshama Sawant would rather face a recall vote in November than in a primary; who gave the word to shut the East Precinct last year; Hoquiam police post ‘jokes’ about a troubled man who jumped from a bridge.