She’ll be leaving office after her first and only term as mayor – meaning our Thursday call-ins are now finite. A look how her term has been characterized, and a look at the state’s response to foster kids with advanced needs for care. And finally, one family’s exploration of gender.

This time last year, we could still leave our houses and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” celebrated its 25th birthday by hitting #1 on the Billboard charts. And while correlation does not imply causation, it felt like time to look back on those halcyon days when we could sing carols indoors with our friends, lips unmasked.

Never – and besides, it’s been a rough year. A look at the state’s pattern of issues following the guidelines it sets around foster youth. And this week’s chat with Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan.

According to a 2018 budget report, the Department of Children, Youth, and Families missed its own deadline to bring kids back from out of state facilities where they are suffering physical and emotional abuse. Bill Radke spoke with InvestigateWest reporter Rachel Nielsen about her reporting of this ongoing story.

The budget’s been passed and the holidays are underway – including for Mayor Jenny Durkan. In this week’s conversation, she spoke with Bill about what got funded, what got left out, and how the city and region are preparing for a possible vaccine (and a likely surge in cases before we get there).

When you can’t socially distance in the Antarctic research facility, what’s a Coast Guard icebreaker to do? Why the Count von Count’s census dreams might be dashed. And what happens when we look into the face of a wild animal, and it looks back.

This week, a Coast Guard icebreaker called the Polar Star is heading out to sea. Normally they would head to Antarctica, stopping to see penguins in southern New Zealand along the way. But the pandemic has upended that plan, so rather than midnight sun they’ll be heading to the dark northern ice of the Arctic.

The Northwest Detention Center places more incarcerated people in solitary confinement than any other facility in the nation, says a new report from the University of Washington’s Center for Human Rights – and it’s not close.

When you see an owl, what comes to mind? Maybe wisdom, majesty, excellent eyesight. But owls are also a gift, says nature photographer Paul Bannick. And Seattle has been blessed by at least one non-native, snowy present from the frozen north.

Seattle is currently playing host to a mysterious, inspiring, Hedwig-esque visitor from the north. This week’s conversation with King County Executive Dow Constantine. And a look inside the solitary confinement cells at ICE’s Northwest Detention Center.