Sub Pop retail shop opens beneath a mostly-empty Amazon tower; WA records its lowest new-COVID-case count of the year; a Native-homeless advocate runs for mayor; no, Bill Gates doesn’t want to kill you on behalf of any lizard men from outer space.

Sanity (or something like it) comes to America; past inauguration memories; vaccines still in short supply; state GOP cracks down on its own ‘moderates.’

‘Mario’ games you’ve probably never seen; state tries to speed up vaccination pace; ‘Twin Peaks’ Roadhouse might close for good; Nikkita Oliver to teach Seattle U law students about ‘abolition.’

Yakima’s local caste system as an example of the ‘American Gentry;’ Tuesday storm’s lingering damage; state starts next vaccination phase as COVID cases still increase; Hope Solo describes USWNT soccer as a ‘mean girls’ club.’

Canadian artists depict Seattle’s CHOP protests; still more local fallout from the DC coup attempt; a quiet but ‘weird’ opening to WA’s legislative session; how the Storm’s Sue Bird helped get Raphael Warnock into the US Senate.

Local reactions to the DC coup attempt (plus a smaller break-in at the Governor’s Mansion in Oly); UW expert on predicting the pandemic’s decline; Teresa Mosqueda won’t run for mayor; one of the last 747s is being sold as parts on eBay.

Remembering past women’s-rights leaders; WA’s got the nation’s 3rd lowest COVID rate (though WA GOP apparently wants to make it worse); regional cooperation on homelessness goes awry; can Seattle get real police oversight?

Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic leader quits, claims systemic racism at parent organization; a local singer becomes a social-media meme as ‘Bean Dad’; local Catholics want archbishop to speak up about abusive priests; some computer-animated New Year’s weirdness fictionally set at the Space Needle.

Mukilteo’s new longhouse-inspired ferry terminal opens; the state’s COVID restrictions are re-renewed; homeless advocates kicked out of Fife motel; how to move forward from an awful year (not just ‘back to normal’).

Seven Gables Theater movie memories; the local COVID curve’s still ‘flattening’ for now; Seahawks clinch division title; ‘excessive force’ lawsuit against the SPD could cost the city $600,000 or more.

Cal Anderson Park encampment swept, 21 protesters arrested; ‘J.P. Patches’ costar Bob Newman dies; some restaurant workers say they don’t necessarily want to go back to indoor-dining work yet; the ‘Twin Peaks’ connection to tonight’s planetary conjunction.

A still-closed Henry Art Gallery puts its art on buses; the first local vaccine shots get taken; more post-ethnic sports team names are on the way; Tim Eyman hates face masks (duh).

Light sculptures on the waterfront depict ‘seeds for a future culture;’ UW scraps another football game; first local vaccine doses arrive; far-right extremists threaten state election officials.

Views of an empty Microsoft campus (except for construction crews); the state passes 200,000 COVID cases; the first vaccine doses are on the way; another shooting at another right-wing Olympia protest.

A live Santa greets kids from inside a plastic ‘snow globe;’ ‘several’ COVID positives among the UW football squad; a bomb scare at the Spokane County Democrats’ office; imaging ‘a future where Amazon rules the world.’