Our Thursday news rundown includes: Murray’s housing-levy details; making the Oregon occupiers pay for the law-enforcement work against them; Urban Outfitters claims the Navajo don’t own their own name; fast-food outlet drops franchise to escape franchise-level minimum wages; remembering a comedy patriarch.

Among other endlessly-repeated Groundhog Day topics: The need for artists to own up to their role in gentrification; UW students just scraping-by; a new challenge to the broadband duopoly; is Seattle really “all that” as a lit center?; the looming end of the oldest local TV studios.

A new month finds us still dealing with old problems: vast homelessness in Seattle and Tacoma; the still-not-over siege in eastern Oregon; the floundering of Seattle’s bike-share program; GOPers vs. reality.

The year’s first month ends with the Oregon siege still grinding on; Republican legislators still acting creepily; the homeless crisis still lingering; rivers again threatening to flood; and Paul Allen allegedly shutting down his just-opened gallery. Plus the usual scads of weekend activities.

As the Oregon siege apparently winds down, we also discuss still more GOP pro-bigot tactics; past attempts to clear “The Jungle” homeless encampment; a “rebuilding year” at Boeing; and ancient relics found at Oregon State’s football stadium.

A slow news day became a weird news night. We mention the tragedy at “The Jungle” and the mayor’s response to it; the strange (but predictable) twist in the Oregon militia standoff; more state Republican creepiness; the economic bigness of Seattle music (for everybody but musicians); and whether Seattle’s tech biz is immune from another “bubble.”

Today, we attempt to understand why some GOP women are acting so sexist; follow the Legislature’s halting steps toward school reform; hail an “analog gaming” initiative; and witness the second (or is it third?) coming of “mom punk.”

On the day after an NFL playoff day that our boys had no part of, we discuss the much-delayed dawn of the First Hill Streetcar; Bill Gates sells out (again); a lucid voice against the Oregon militia doodz; and a new Seattle arts org gives a big grant to an established NY artist (with great radical credentials).

Tim Eyman’s convoluted screw-the-state initiative is just as unconstitutional (and sleazy) as we all knew it was. Also in your weekend digest: A planned office tower’s big middle finger to the streetscape; another scheme to tilt the Electoral College rightward; plans for the world’s biggest ethanol refinery; the 747’s slow demise; the usual scads of weekend stuff-to-do.

Your pre-pre-weekend newsletter includes: A paid-membership library opens; more GOP hate-talk; a formerly top-rated radio station disappears; tech-biz sexism; “Planet X” may exist, but would now be “Planet IX.”

As the Obama Era’s final year begins, we discuss gated lots for people who live in vehicles; plans to legalize extant pot-delivery services; big expansion plans for the Victoria Clipper; and the UW’s plans to raze more of its brutalist old dorms.

A lot of people said a lot of things on MLK Day, including a call for the “abolition” of the SPD. Also: An Oregon militia occupier’s child-exploitin’ business model; a female Legislative Republican asks teen girl visitors if they’re virgins; whether Seattle’s got another housing bubble going on; and more Seahawks post-mortems.

Searching for the real MLK; still lovin’ the Seahawks; the earliest drive-up “strip malls;” (still) trying to save film in Washington. All this and more in your Monday missive.

Another pre-Seahawks playoff weekend begins with the sad fate of (some of) the Waterfront Streetcars; a poignant account of surviving poverty thru music; a fetishistically disgusting legislative proposal; fear of immigration raids; and the usual gazillion weekend activity options.

A good friend of mine is trying to survive kidney disease while keeping her indie bookstore alive. Also: how to keep artists in town; a pact on reviving Ride the Ducks; mental-health crises; making tech products “For Women.”