Dept. store Santa photos’ local origin; gifted-education task force’s suggestions; Safeway & Stratolaunch now connected; another year-end honor for Megan Rapinoe & co.

A corporate buyout means New Seasons Markets is leaving Seattle; a photographer’s last goodbye to the Viaduct; cops attack anti-fascist protesters at Westlake; Sea-Tac makes rules for facial-recognition scanners.

Allbirds doesn’t like Amazon’s knockoff shoes; rideshare minimum wage passes city council; downtown’s holiday star will rise again; a looming Xmas tree shortage.

Anti I-976 lawsuit filed; Tulalip Tribes remember a ‘chief of chiefs’; Megan Rapinoe shout-outs Colin Kaepernick; high-school teacher allegedly threatens to shoot students.

City and county suing to stop I-976; Sawant’s seeing a late-vote comeback (again); protesters don’t like cruise ships (or docks for them); why this Sounders FC MLS Cup game might matter more.

The cost of hatchery salmon (and hence of dams); Starbucks to host voter events; UW College Republicans lose their charter; long live Dia de los Muertos.

The new Sea Mar Museum showcases NW Latinx heritage; Sawant gets Council colleagues’ support; ICE is detaining kids in a “secret” southwest WA facility; Microsoft gets that big Pentagon cloud contract instead of Amazon.

MoPOP celebrates Minecraft’s lo-res play power; did a City Council hopeful once post a strange egg-donor ad?; Boeing tries to explain the unearthed MAX-pilot texts; Brandi Carlile won’t be at the same ‘Powerful Women Summit’ with the ex-Homeland Security chief.

A Wing Luke Museum exhibit explores Asian Americans and the ‘beauty myth’; anti-Sawant flyers sent to other councilmembers’ districts; Amazon’s not the only big PAC money source; someone at Boeing knew the MAX had troubles.

A Tacoma mag tries to spark new interest in both Tacoma and print media; Dow Constantine slams back against an ICE PR offensive; a big gas leak hits the U District; feeling broke on $100,000 a year.

A local artist links racial & climate crises; a WA sheriff has to give up his guns due to a protection order; Eyman insults an un-amused Seattle City Council; are online games (and online everything) meant to be addictive? (Well, duh…)

Young activists’ ideas become an art exhibit; the local CEO inside the Ukraine affair; Boats Afloat Show floats away to Everett; Seattle’s biggest ‘soot polluter’ is a recycling plant.

Caffe Vita workers fired or quit over a new policy on homeless giving; did Boeing quash a preventive MAX fix to save money?; Melinda Gates vows $1B to fight the gender gap; Morrissey concert scrapped.

Two Seattle-connected people (one of whom I’ve known) win MacArthur grants; Felix Hernandez will start his last game; McCormick & Schmicks owner to buy Restaurants Unlimited; climate protesters are ordered to disperse from the state capitol.

A new novel depicts the early WA logging scene; Dow Constantine wants more films made here; ‘bronze birch borer’ beetles feast on our trees; you say ‘micromobility,’ I say ‘bikes.’