Wildfire Crisis (Spokane): Authorities arrested 37-year-old Spokane resident Aaron Farinacci on suspicion of deliberately starting the Old Trails Fire, as three fast-moving blazes around Spokane destroyed 700+ structures and drove about 65,000 people from their homes, with drought and heat blamed for worsening conditions. Public Health & Preparedness (Puget Sound): Emergency managers say smoke from the Spokane fires could drift toward the North Olympic Peninsula, but Seattle/Tacoma face the bigger risk, prompting reminders to prepare with air filtration and “clean air” rooms. AI Compute (Anthropic): Anthropic reportedly signed a $10B deal for computing capacity with Nvidia-backed cloud startup Volta Infra, underscoring the race to secure power for Claude as demand surges. Space Tech (Eclipse Space): Seattle-area AccelerComm is helping Eclipse Space design 5G satellite communications for customer-owned constellations, targeting direct-to-device and broadband links. Data/Privacy (Seattle-area industry): New Engen hired Nik Hengel to lead advanced analytics and measurement strategy, reflecting how AI is reshaping marketing evaluation and experimentation. Policy/Grants (Washington ties): A bipartisan Senate spending deal would keep federal funding through Dec. 11 and pause new grant criteria, with Washington’s Patty Murray among the negotiators.