The Public Safety Building block will remain a hole in the ground for now; various year-end thoughts about the city, state, and nation; should/could public transit be free?

Red pandas temporarily escape their zoo enclosure; state Supreme Court OKs youth-jail funding; black hotel guest proves he’s a paid guest, gets kicked out anyway.

A classic Chinese restaurant closes; remembering journalist Rick Anderson and soccer coach Sigi Schmid; 12-step groups for tech addicts.

Faiths come together to help out on the holiday; good news for (some) local fish stocks; hotel-worker protections shut down; what Boxing Day means to me.

Xmas thoughts as parts of Christendom implode on their own hypocrisy; more scary things to do with CGI; teacher disses online racist, gets threatened by the online racist’s fans.

Windstorm 2: The Sequel smashes big trees and power lines all over; there’s no ambulance strike (yet); another Legislator’s workplace behavior is looked into; things start to get brighter (we hope).

The Mariners’ stadium gets a new name; Durkan names two new dept. heads; car-share companies merge; the mass-child-detention horror continues.

One of Seattle’s least-known museums revealed; a new SDOT director’s picked; new attempts to save the salmon; are our orcas too antisocial?

“Torrey Pines” animator’s new project; abusive ex-priests sent to Spokane; Durkan’s new housing push; Redmond’s now more diverse than Seattle.

Downtown protesters target Chase’s Trans-Mountain Pipeline role; Bumbershoot was lonely this year; will Bremerton get a Quincy Jones town square?; how to properly describe Amazon.

Remembering all the orcas caught for display in private aquaria; Inslee’s new budget (and tax) plan; Amazon wants to put a spy-cam on your doorbell; Dave Reichert’s a GOP suck-up to the end.

Anti-HQ2 forces gather in NYC; don’t expect the Phoenix NBA team to come here; hate-crime charges follow Lynnwood bar fight; are Seattle-Tacoma ferries coming?

Inslee’s presidential hopes get clearer; Jeff Bezos goes to ‘South Park’; a local trial focuses on the rights of kids in immigration court; ‘the Hitler analogy’ gets a modern-day update.

Some CHPB neighbors want city to help pay for outside-the-gates security; waterfront neighbors don’t want to pay for big redo; Inslee’s big clean-energy plan; green-card crackdown plans denounced.

Classic Ballard diner suddenly shutters; useful things made from Boeing fiber leftovers; cop retaliates against man who’d cussed at him; Amazon loves pomposity.