The clouds recall the volcanic beheading. The cap cloud rising thousands of feet above the summit recalls Rainier's earlier elevation, estimated by the angles of high lava flows to have been around 16,000 feet. As the clouds divide and slip to the Mountain’s lee, her monstrous head is severed and thrown, as if in aggregate motion.

Topping, tall and tanned with a full head of sun-blonde hair, wearing white slacks and a steel gray raw silk blazer looked every inch the Hollywood mogul drug money allowed him to be. Mundy gone, Topping took the chair across from Wallingford, shaking his head in exasperation with Victor. One-time college roommates, they had a long history, reaching from fraternity hijinks through shady property deals hidden in the complexity of Wallingford Evergreen’s operations to, now, after Topping’s business pulled him into deals with a couple of otherwise legitimate looking guys with one foot in the L.A. drug world, expansion into big-time crime. It always worked out the same: Topping with the scheme, Victor with the capital and an insatiable drive for more.

The environmental group Wild Fish Conservancy has applied for permits to lease state tidelands in Puget Sound now leased by Cooke Aquaculture for Atlantic salmon net pens.

Falconer had Kim’s Wrangler. His A4 was in the shop. The Jeep had vinyl sides. Enough to keep out the rain earlier, but noisy and none of her CDs appealed. Somehow Pearl Jam and Nirvana had passed him by. Dave Mathews? Not right now. He drove home on the two-level viaduct that walled the city away from the bay, always a love-hate experience: great views of the container docks and mountains, the office buildings reflecting the summer’s late-setting sun, but why from a speeding car? The 50-year-old dirty concrete viaduct between downtown and the city’s historic piers sent waves of noise crashing onto the streets below. Tourists walking among the fish and chips shops had to raise their voices to tell each other how quaint it all was.

Meridian Avenue traces a long route from Green Lake north to Edmonds, and it likely traces an Indian path connecting key food sites and a military highway begun when America feared a war with the British. Imaginary mastodons can be "seen."

Carl’s office in the Tower Building at Seventh and Olive was just two blocks from Nordstrom. In less than five minutes he pushed through the aluminum-framed glass doors and rode the elevator alone to the 17^th floor. “I’m here but no calls.” Taking a handful of pink message slips and wanting no questions, Carl conjured a business-like urgency to get past Rosalyn, his receptionist.

Even when they reopen, restaurants have to downsize the limits on how many customers they serve. Some restaurants have turned that excess capacity to cooking for healthcare workers.

Congressman Greg Walden, a Republican who has held the sprawling seat since 1998, suddenly retired. Walden may have been feeling the pressures of a district that is leaning — at least in places like Bend, Hood River, the Dalles, and Ashland — more to the left.

Carl Barclay and Victor Wallingford met for lunch in a private dining room on the 15th floor of the Washington Athletic Club where Victor was immediate past president. The room was trimmed in dark wood. Above he wainscoting there were paintings of bird-hunting scenes.

For decades, Seattle boomers have been tripping off to Port Townsend for weekends of beach walks, wooden boats, gift stores and good food.  Visitors...

Images of armed agents in riot gear lobbing tear gas and stun grenades loom large in Trump’s latest campaign ads pressing his message of “law and order” and warning that Americans won’t be safe unless he is re-elected in November.

Falconer, barefooted but wearing jeans and a light blue button down shirt, Oxford cloth, sleeves rolled up, picked up the local news sections of both Seattle dailies and his coffee cup and walked across the roof deck to the other penthouse that was the office for Falconerblog.com. Perched on the edge of the building overlooking Ballard Avenue, the space had windows almost all the way around. Blonde bamboo floors and varnished fir trim salvaged from an old school before it was demolished gave the office – despite the clutter of computers and newspapers – a warm feel even on cloudy days.

"Theatres need to stop worrying about how they can reopen in a reduced form, and look out for other models of production in different spaces and to different audiences."

A policy of self-isolation appears – or appeared – to have been working. British Columbia has experienced just over 3,500 cases of the coronavirus, and 193 deaths. Washington has witnessed 52,635 cases and 1,501 deaths. B.C. has a population of 5.1 million, compared to 7 million for her neighbor to the south.

Clearly, the problem lies neither with native intelligence nor education. The problem is that the population of the deep south have developed a herd immunity to facts.

“Looks like we found where the Carkeek floater was killed and you are going to love it, Eric, just love it. I guarantee. You ever write this one, it’ll be a great story.” The caller was Bobby Harms, way too enthusiastic about his work. “Want to meet me for a look?”

We are, in this new country, this America, facing our own existential question -- can we, someone wrote today, save our dysfunctional Congress, where the aim is no longer governance in the public interest, but merely retention of power and privilege?

Once fans tire of the puns generated by the Kraken name -- lame stuff like Krakhouse and Krakheads -- they'll get around to more substantive matters like welcoming a team mascot...

In one respect Carl Barclay looked forward to the monthly delivery. He loved the blast of heat that welcomed him as he stepped out of Victor Wallingford’s plane in Burbank. In that moment he would think about retiring and getting out of Seattle permanently to somewhere warm. Who cared if the Southern California sky was never really blue?

Each day this month we're serializing Dick Lilly's crime mystery "Nothing Left to Lose." Hidden in plain sight, an industrial-scale meth lab in a former biotech building in Seattle’s tech hub quietly pumps out millions of carefully hidden profits for the scion of one of the city’s old-line wealthy families. That is, until agents from an Afghan rebel group show up looking for a cut and bodies start washing up on Puget Sound beaches."

There may be 20 bears in the Cascades. There may be two. At times, if you assume that they wander back and forth across the Canadian border, there may be none. But the habitat remains. The recovery plan calls for restoring a population in a place where bears can obviously live.

Given the shutdown of the economy, you might expect that retail sales would be significantly down from the first half of 2020. They're not.

We know more about herd immunity in these pandemic days, but as the nation struggles with how or whether to reopen its schools, the notion of inducing it by deliberately exposing children to the corona virus is trending on social media.

The trick is to say no, ever so politely, and in a way that discourages the favor-seeker from persisting. Practicing inflection is key.

The main reason America failed to enact broad social programs like health insurance and family leave is racism. Such steps were defined by Republicans as unfair benefits for racial minorities.

Libraries, public safety, transportation, and schools -- are all failing to get the long-term basics right.

We should focus on being a good place to live, tapping our great ability to create urban neighborhoods. We have terribly underinvested in this as we have rapidly built apartment towers without the needed urban amenities such as schools, playgrounds, and safe open spaces.

In 2005 the owners of Third Church tested the market for their building and received an offer from a man who seemed committed to converting Third Church into a performance and lecture hall. Didn't happen.

The new state population estimates show Kittitas County growing 3.4 percent last year, and 7.6 percent over the last three years, both figures tops in the state.

Weary people and businesses, who have been leaning forward in anticipation of the restored freedoms of the next phase, are sagging in their saddles, realizing that we’ve been set back.