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’).

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.

Church stages ‘ICE cage’ nativity scene; judge OKs Cal Anderson encampment sweep; next vaccine shipments to WA cut back; Inslee’s next budget proposal includes a capital gains tax (again).

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.’

Inslee keeps restaurants, bars, etc. closed three more weeks (restaurant industry assn. doesn’t like it); Seattle School Supt. Denise Juneau won’t ask for another contract; big-biz group wants city’s big-biz payroll tax tossed out.

Mayor Durkan’s not running again; SPD ruled in contempt of protest-response court order; 16 new COVID cases at King County Jail; GOP legislators want to rein in governor’s emergency authority; Sounders FC’s final-minutes comeback means another MLS Cup match.

Getting young adults to take masking/distancing seriously; end to federal aid could imperil local COVID response; Seahawks’ and Huskies’ late-game comebacks fail; Olympia MAGA rally member shoots at counter-protesters.

An old idea about why Seattle attracted Scandinavians; a ‘Nation’ article disses the UW’s ‘modeling team’ org. and the Gates Foundation; King County to partly bail out Convention Center expansion project; ‘rapid response teams’ going to understaffed nursing homes.

Space Needle New Year’s fireworks are canceled (again), to ‘go virtual’ this year; COVID outbreak at a WA Frito-Lay plant; police pepper-spray and topple an old man with PTSD at a Capitol Hill protest; can the unfinished Convention Center expansion plan be redirected?

Local photog’s shots of national racial (and racist) historic sites; Amazon warehouse work is officially riskier than logging; pandemic economy hits nonprofits (and their clients) very hard; historically comparing COVID, AIDS, and the ‘eugenics movement.’

New kids’ book ‘Panda Demick’ looks on (and for) the bright side; state starts COVID tracking phone app; Tacoma ICE jail uses solitary confinement heavily; make your own ‘restoration of federal sanity advent calendar.’

Microsoft’s business-meeting surveillance and ‘scoring’ plan; local doctor’s COVID precautions pay off; Amazon accused of warehouse-safety cover up; UW football’s big comeback win.

Woodland Park Zoo’s new walk-thru light show; where most new COVID infections occur in King County; Amazon Web Services has a big outage in the east; a street sign honors a late local Black theater producer.