Remembering a local icon of cartooning and TV; why one Black activist won’t back Bruce Harrell for mayor; court upholds state ban on forced ‘conversion therapy’ against gays; Pacific Galleries antique mall might be saved.

Judge tosses shelters-and-sweeps charter amendment initiative; Seahawk-turned-doctor hospitalized with COVID, as cases exceed region’s hospital capacity again; Oly protest derides mask/vaccine mandates.

Art-world celeb and UW grad Chuck Close dies; frustration among doctors, nurses as delta variant rages on; why encampment residents don’t want to move into shelters; Redhook (and the Seattle microbrew scene) turn 40.

Water-themed playground coming to new Waterfront Park; does Seattle’s ‘urban village’ zoning perpetuate inequality?; the heat wave sickened Columbia River salmon; nine bars are or were temporarily closed due to COVID exposures among staff.

New life (and maybe a new club) in R Place’s old building; Jeff Bezos had his costly li’l suborbital space trip; the Kraken’s about to have its Expansion Draft party/telecast; OR’s Bootleg Fire is so big, it ‘makes its own weather.’

It’s beyond swelter-y out there, just in time to keep folks home who’d been aching to get out and about at last; other things also happened.

Will Central Disrict’s library ‘Soul Pole’ come back?; 100,000 drivers’ licenses to be restored; Idaho’s battle between the far-right and the farther-right; KingCo’s small-business contracts ‘overwhelmingly’ go to white-owned companies.

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.

Robotized Amazon warehouses have more human injuries; Durkan’s budget keeps libraries closed but offers only minor SPD cuts; Boeing said to be pulling 787 work out of Everett; why WA can’t have more college slots; local housing prices still rising.

Bill Gates the Elder passes; Inslee bashes climate denial from the White House; Durkan-friendly ‘activist leader’ gets high-paying city job; Ms game called on account of smoke.

Waiting for our worst-in-the-world air to clear as wildfires slow down; Pier 58 couldn’t wait to be dismantled; the case for state deficit spending in a crisis; Seahawks win season opener while Storm drops to #2 playoff seed; steady COVID progress continues (so ‘why does it feel like we’re stuck?’).

A horrible couple of days for fires, smoke, winds, evacuations, and power outages throughout WA; more remote-schooling glitches; City Council approves scooter rental pilot program; SPD reform efforts get a new court-appointed ‘monitor.’

Sending WWII-era Japanese souvenirs back to Japan; Cal Anderson Park ‘swept’ again; police-oversight cases skyrocket; making a ‘City of Literature’ that tells more people’s stories.

Coach Pete Carroll makes an impassioned speech for racial justice; a Portland ‘Proud Boy’ right-wing protester is fatally shot; local COVID infection rates are down a little; so are Seattle rents.

Early primary-election votes show several progressives leading, Tim Eyman losing; Durkan and Best don’t want any significant SPD cuts; is Microsoft getting too cozy with the White House?; were violent feds sent to Portland just to appear in campaign ads?; Pat O’Day RIP.