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| |  | Jessica Dobson of Deep Sea Diver performs with Pearl Jam at Climate Pledge Arena. (Jim Bennett / Getty Images) |
| Our Favorite Seattle Music from 2025 | Today on the podcast, Jane, I, and music journalist Martin Douglas discuss our favorite 2025 tracks from Seattle bands. And, we created a playlist to carry y’all through the end of the year. Enjoy! [🎧 City Cast Seattle] | - Taking the Temperature of Seattle’s Music Scene: Dave Segal interviewed musicians and venue operators to find out how they're doing amidst the closures of Madame Lou’s and Here-After, and what paths they see toward a more prosperous creative future. [The Stranger]
- Sub Pop Says Farewell to Sea-Tac: After 12 years at the Airport, the Sub Pop Store will be closing on December 31, 2025. They invite fans to come “take some lovingly curated ‘junk’ home.” [Sub Pop]
- In-Depth Seattle Music Reporting: Check out Martin’s farewell Throwaway Style column for KEXP here. And, as a personal recommendation, listen to the podcast he was part of creating: a 10-part series about Black Constellation, an artist collective with Seattle roots and cosmic reach. [KEXP]
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| What Seattle’s Talking About |
| Trump Admin Orders WA Power Plant to Keep Burning Coal 📌 | The Trump administration has ordered Washington’s last coal-fired power station to continue burning coal weeks before it was scheduled to convert to natural gas fuel. WA officials say they aren’t ruling out the possibility of a lawsuit over the order. This comes amid Washington’s broader shift to use cleaner energy. [Washington State Standard] | - Under Trump, 15 Coal Plants Had Retirements Delayed: This is mostly due to an expected rise in electricity demand, a surge largely driven by the rise of high-powered data centers needed to train and run AI models. [DeSmog]
| | Seattle Holds The Belt For Millennials 🏆 | More than one million Seattle metro area residents, about 32% of the total adult population here, are part of the millennial generation. We’re number 1! Ahead of Denver, Austin, Portland, and Chicago. You’re welcome, and also I’m sorry! [Seattle Times] | |  | The WA ferry fleet currently has just 21 vessels with hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance. (Andrew A / Unsplash) |
| Austerity, Except When It Comes to Ferries ⛴️ | Gov. Bob Ferguson wants to spend $1 billion to buy three new state ferries. And, in the meantime, he wants to spend an additional $150 million to help keep the oldest boats in Washington State Ferries’ fleet on the water. If approved, the state would have six hybrid-electric boats in the pipeline, nearly halfway to its goal of replacing 13 aging, diesel-powered boats before 2040. [Seattle Times] | | City Attorney Ann Davison’s Legacy 🔒 | Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison has more than quadrupled drug prosecutions during the last few months of her term. City council passed a law empowering the city attorney to prosecute people for drug possession and use for the first time in the city’s history in 2023. Incoming city attorney Erika Evans has said diversion to treatment and services, not prosecution, “should be the default response for people dealing with substance use disorder.” [PubliCola] | | WA Pushes Back Against Federal Attacks on Trans Youth | Late last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed rules that would bar hospitals and other medical providers from receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds for any services if they also offer gender-affirming care to youth. Pediatricians and legal experts in WA expressed outrage at yet another federal effort to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors nationwide. Attorney General Nick Brown’s office said they were “discussing our options” for a lawsuit. These medical services remain protected in Washington. [Seattle Times] | | Keep Dreaming of a White Christmas, Seattle 🌧️ | If you want snow for Christmas this year, you’re going to have to head to the mountains, where the Cascades could get up to 8 inches by the end of today. However, there are still road closures, so plan your routes before you go. Here in Seattle, it’s just going to rain. [Axios] |
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It’s the season when old friends come home to visit. In that spirit, can I recommend adding to your personal archive by taking photos with friends in one of Seattle’s 30 photobooths? Ashley and I put together a guide to all of them with the help of a local expert. 📸 | | — Sam |
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