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

City Council approves big aquarium expansion; 737 MAX ‘whistleblower’ to testify; Megan Rapinoe gets another big honor; a plea to cartoonist David Horsey.

Settlement in suit over oil spills at Columbia dams; money raised to save a threatened Catholic church; the non-money case for a wealth tax; guess where the pro-Amazon council candidates got the most votes?

An Amazon billboard hints at what Bezos really wants; did Fred Meyer really give away a baby in 1949? (hint: no); UW football coach suddenly quits; a new Boeing venture’s name has an old ‘ring’ to it.

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.

AB-InBev gulps down Washington’s pioneer microbrewer; a US family with a ‘Case Against Boeing’ (and a famous relative); the next City Council might explore new wealth taxes; hockey’s most famous face gets pulled.

More Sounders victory kudos; the Seahawks make their own nationally-televised statement; Children’s Hospital’s got toxic mold again; WeWork wants T-Mobile’s CEO.

City Councilmember Kshama Sawant rises again; Sounders make winning the MLS Cup look easy; Congress members have another ‘concern’ over the 737 MAX; the Centralia Massacre a century later.

AEG wants out of running Bumbershoot; outdoor-wear maven Gert Boyle dies; the Snoqualmie Tribe buys Salish Lodge and nearby lands; our long local political trudge is almost over.

Boeing CEO’s contrition to Congress; Sounders go to their third title game in four years; Pioneer Square buildings to get way-gentrified; a tiny-home-village turf war apparently ends badly for all.

Women’s sports and the continuing fight for equity and respect; police chief Best’s (possibly taking-sides) Tweet; Muilenberg goes to Congress; wanna buy a geoduck (not enough do)?

A BC Sikh leftist may be Canada’s next ‘kingmaker’; area rivers are flooding early and big; a big Boeing exec shuffle; Ferguson fights to keep federal clean-water rules.

A puppet salmon’s sermon about driving less; could Amazon be broken up and survive?; a UK family has its own tale of mistreatment by US border officers; the Mariners are now in sole possession of a major baseball record.

Tula’s Jazz Club shutters; Intiman Theatre might not be saved after all; more new (weird) Amazon Echo/Alexa products are introduced; can we wish away the “tech bro”?