If you are from Seattle, the abundance of high-quality salmon is something you probably don’t often think about. I don’t even remember the last time I had a conversation with a Seattle local about fishing.

Seattle houses one of the biggest fishing fleets in the country, and from the words of Dr. Peter Knutson, “I think most people in Seattle don’t realize how lucky they are to have a fishing fleet in the middle of their city. There is no other major American city that has that.”

Rock climbing was never really seen as a sport for average folk. However, this has changed over the years. Though they can still be found, the old stereotype of a dirtbag hippie rock climber has evolved into many different forms. Nowadays, your average tech bro can be an everyday rock climber.

Matt Perkins, co-founder and president of the Washington Climbing Coalition (WCC), pointed out indoor rock climbing gyms as a factor that forever changed the landscape of rock climbing.

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 14 will be back on Jan. 7 with a fresh batch of 14 queens competing for the crown and title of America’s next drag superstar. This is no ordinary season either.

Bosco (they/them), a Seattle local and regular performer in Capitol Hill, will be joining the cast. The promo, which dropped Dec. 2, stunned with its Candyland-esque board game fantasy that showcased the queens with their sickening bold colorful looks.

Last week, information leaked that Seattle Central Interim President, Yoshiko Harden, proposed to Seattle Colleges District Chancellor, Shouan Pan, that he cut four professional programs: the Seattle Maritime Academy, the Wood Technology Center, Seattle Culinary Academy, and the Apparel and Design Program. The interim president’s recommendation came despite the success of these programs at attracting students and launching the professional careers of their graduates.

Sex work is not only illegal in the eyes of the law in the Phillipines, but also in the eyes of the general public. In 2010, Senator Pia Cayetano filed Senate Bill No. 2341, also known as the “Anti-prostitution Act”. Cayetano emphasized her fears in the bill stating, “Today, the number of persons exploited in prostitution has already reached the millionth mark. Let us not wait for this number to grow even more. Let us not wait for the day when we outrank all the other nations with most number of prostitutes. Let us not wait for the day when our country will be recognized as the “Haven of Prostitution”. Let us uphold the dignity and the rights of all men, women and children. Let us stop prostitution.” But this bill was far from enough to keep the numbers from growing.

As someone who was raised in Luzon (the northern main island of the Phillipines), Islamic culture was peripheral for me. The things I knew about Islam were through what I heard from people around me, and I didn’t really know who they were.

During my visit back to my country, I made sure to explore this side of my heritage. The Philippines was an Islamic state before it was Catholic. I visited Mindanao, a southern island where the majority of the Muslim community resides. Speaking with locals, there was a clear disconnect between the majority Catholic North and the Islamic South.

SCC’s new interim president, Bradley Lane, has plans to bring life back into the school’s ecosystem. Starting out as an English instructor at North Seattle College before becoming the Vice President of Instruction and Planning in SCC, Lane is no foreigner to SCC’s culture. When the opportunity to become SCC’s president opened up, he quickly grabbed it, “I was excited and thrilled to get to come back into the place that I know and loved.”

There are plenty of stories that need to be told, whether it be about Capitol Hill’s most beloved cat, or the struggle of international students. But unfortunately, being a journalist involves more than just writing stories, and sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. To get a sneak peek of what the industry’s like, I spoke with Chase Burns, a Seattle-based journalist, who used to be an arts and culture editor for The Stranger and is currently the editor for The Ticket, a Seattle Times calendar website.

Established in 1995, Seattle Go Center, or formally known as Nihon Ki-in Go institute of the West, is the first Go center in North America. The Nihon Ki-in (The Japanese Go association) and one of Go’s most notable players, Kaoru Iwamoto, funded the Go center in hopes of preserving and fostering the culture of Go across the globe.

The M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery is currently featuring the work of students from the Seattle Central Woodworking program. The show, organized by filmmaker, photographer, and Seattle Central Carpentry student, Shann Thomas (they/them), includes wood creations accompanied by poetry. The exhibit will run until Jan. 26.

The featured artists belong to the Youthbuild program by Youthcare, a program that aims to provide students of South Seattle College’s Georgetown campus an opportunity to have a state-certified, pre-apprenticeship while being able to work on their general education.