Local firm’s ‘metaverse platform’ of virtual offices; Seattle’s building lots of (costly) apartments; SAM’s reimagining its ‘American art’ collection; wildfire smoke comes back to Seattle bigtime.

West Seattle Bridge to finally reopen; a lot of Seattle still works from home; Pierce County to dispense antidote drug Narcan from vending machines; Guild 45th theaters coming down.

Africatown’s new community center opens in a gorgeous ex-fire station; a gruesome stabbing and house fire in Montlake; what we’re only now learning about COVID deaths in WA prisons; saying the unsayable about the Ms’ chances.

A Stranger writer’s history of queer comedy in TV sitcoms; school in Seattle starts at last; NYT essay lauds Seattle’s JustCare housing program; Starbucks to spend millions on store automation (while still union-busting).

What it’s like to be carless (by necessity) in Seattle and its suburbs; teachers’ strike continues; the potential eco-threat from Canadian ‘tailings dams’; remembering an artist in non-narrative film.

Gospel choir leader Rev. Patrinell Wright RIP; Central Cinema workers walk out in solidarity with a trans colleague; Starbucks has a new CEO; ‘NYT’ finds a Seattle in recovery mode.

Playwright August Wilson’s Seattle legacy; Kent teacher strike continues; does ‘suppressing’ wildfires just make the crisis worse?; while local media seem to care only about cops, the Seattle Fire Dept.’s also understaffed and spending millions in OT pay.

Sausage and hydro-racing mogul Art Oberto RIP; Seattle teachers’ union still negotiating a contract; ex-Garfield swim team member alleges ‘sexual hazing;’ Ms’ rookie superstar Julio Rodriguez signs a mega-deal.

Mural about NW baseball history at the Ms’ new bar (where Pyramid used to be); King County has seven new e. coli cases; that supposed ‘Gorge shooter wannabe’ now apparently wasn’t; Starbucks finds a reason to close another unionized store.

An LP-size moth shows up in a Bellevue garage; Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price quits to fight sexual-assault charges; Homegrown sandwich drivers go on a one-day strike; Seattle’s ‘lost the battle against air conditioning.’

The (skimpy) truth about early Seattle madam Lou Graham; Dr. Fauci comes to town to get an award; City Council adds protections for abortion patients; US fascists take the gloves off and put the dog whistles down.

A Northwest-themed ‘Cards Against Humanity’-clone game; pro-MAGA rival inches ahead of Rep. Herrera Beutler; regional ‘arts and culture sector’ still struggling; original Kidd Valley burger joint to close.

Gatherings old (the hydros) and new (‘KEXP 50’); Amazon wants to buy the maker of Roomba vacuums; an early Amazon investor/consultant dies at 82; metro areas across the NW have severe housing shortages.

Former burger-joint site to become 25 stories of ‘student’ housing; Comic Con will require masks after all; Reagan Dunn concedes Congressional run; Linda Derschang shrinks her food-drink empire.

GameWorks arcade’s reopening; coach Pete Carroll has COVID (and councilmember Sara Nelson might); interim city neighborhoods chief becomes deputy mayor; crashed ferry’s captain resigns.