Starbucks’ ‘craziest’ idea yet; Portland police chief taunts antifa protesters; can bad air get carbon fee passed?; remembering Aretha Franklin.

More Meinert accusers, now willing to be named; ‘date-rape drug’ seized at Belltown nightclub; will a ‘private’ Spokane speech doom the GOP’s midterm chances?

Drag protesters at Amazon’s shareholder meeting; Durkan’s big new shelter plan; LCD license plates and their discontents; harassment claims against ex-UW track coach.

Still more public-works budgets busted; Seattle and the ‘dream of the ’90s’; the cost of Sawant’s city-printed rally posters; a new apt. complex in the wrong colors.

A cartoon guide to economics; who is, isn’t at city/Amazon summit; minor pot convictions in Seattle are erased; thoughts on the Winter Olympics; dozens of weekend events.

For your Thursday perusal: everyone loves net neutrality except (some) corporations and the politicians they own; simply “praising” black women’s not enough; Fisherman’s terminal gets bigger; light-rail expansion to speed (slightly) up.

For your Thursday edification: Sung and unsung heroines of history; local sports legend sued for harassment; original 13 Coins’ last day; new Viaduct demolition schedule.

“Seattle High School Memorial Stadium” is named for the 800 names on its front wall, of locals who died in WWII. There’s a drive to make sure the names remain in any rebuilt stadium. We discuss that in our Tuesday letter, as well as the young man from our state found among the Virginia white-supremacist marchers; memories of the NW’s last total eclipse; a consumer review of one of the new bike-share systems; and Costco caught peddling mis-branded jewelry.

We’re still waiting to know all that’s in the last-nanosecond state budget deal. As for things we CAN tell you about this Fri. morn: Ed Murray’s still not running for re-election; original Cobain-made art coming to the Art Fair; more about the young man shot by officers for holding a pen; and a proud anniversary for a proud nation (alas, not ours).

In your big holiday-weekend MISCmedia MAIL: The Pike Place Market’s new part, or at least part of that new part, is now open; Folklife’s last hurrah?; the White House hates rail transit and old people getting jobs; Nike’s overseas labor policies are back in the news; and gazillions of weekend activity listings.

An oh-so-Seattle-esque alt-dating site dies, due to a lack of (promised) investment. It’s on the same day that the Viaduct-replacement tunnel finally officially exists; two different outfits say they want to run a “solidarity rally” the same day as a big LGBTQ event in DC; Rep. Jayapal sez she wants more of us in college; and Titleist and Costco continue their golf-ball war.

It’s just a coincidence that there’s a computer-animated feature out now called “The Boss Baby,” and that the title role is voiced by Alec Baldwin, and that ads show the baby in a suit and tie with orange-ish hair. Really. In more deliberate occurrences, we note Daniel Ramirez’s freedom (at least for now); neighbors who want more public amenities in the expanded Convention Center; Jeff Bezos’ even greater (on paper) wealth; and the little Belltown restaurant that got big.

An Italian band was supposed to start a US tour at KEXP. Instead, it got handcuffed, interrogated, searched, and jailed by immigration cops, then shoved on a plane back. Not a happy tune. Further e-missive subjects include a war of spray-painted slogans; a “compromise” about the (really wide) new Alaskan Way; a revolution in comics distribution to match the revolution in the works themselves; and the precarious state of some sewage-eatin’ microbes.

International Women’s Day, and the call for a “Day Without a Woman” strike, have caused disunity and charges of “white privilege.” I also turn my eye to the White House’s war against Planet Earth; anti-Sikh violence a century ago and now; the city “sweeping” the homeless from a site the city had originally encouraged; and an impasse over the “levy cliff.”

A hundred and two years back, Seattle had the nation’s first citywide general strike. Now some folks want to stage another one as the next big national protest. We speak as well of Chris Hansen’s latest arena-scheme revival; legal action against Five-Hour Energy; weird eyeglasses with built-in video cams; and Seattle’s last full-time newspaper art critic leaving.