New coffee chain uses ‘barista bots;’ Harrell wants controversial sonic tech to track down gunshots; Mackenzie Scott divorces hubby #2; GOP Legislative candidate admits his past anti-Jewish Facebook meme post.

Back to regular (albeit wild) local winter weather and its side effects; school and other COVID test sites reach max capacity; UW researchers’ union drive proceeds; Duwamish Tribe gets a little more land in a community donation.

Indigenous contemporary art to view this T-Day weekend, highlighting a list of mostly cultural items left over from recent newsletter issues.

A literary mag has a ‘scary’ Hanford essay; a classic-cartoon producer dies in Gig Harbor; leaked emails support claims of sexism at Microsoft; the city settles a major police-killing lawsuit for half a million.

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?’).