Early next Friday, small groups of people will visit parts of the county in the middle of the night. They’ll be led by people who’ve experienced homelessness, and they’re going to count the number of people they see going through it themselves.

The event is called Count Us In and it happens one night every January. Last year, volunteers counted 11,643 people living without homes in King County: 6,158 were staying in shelters or transitional housing, and 5,485 were sleeping in vehicles, in abandoned buildings, in tents, or on the street. Here’s the full report.

Our area’s still getting bigger and more expensive. Will this year’s count grow? We’ll have to see. But whatever we learn on January 26 should help us and our government get a better sense of how we can help more of our neighbors live good lives here.

Want to help? AllHome, the agency that runs the count, is looking for volunteers to help outside Seattle, especially in Tukwila, Kent, Auburn, Federal Way, and East King County. Learn more about the count here, and register to volunteer here.

Thanks to reader Al Boss, a Count Us In volunteer himself, for the heads-up.

‘Why not me?’ Lots of women ran for office locally and nationally last year, and a lot more are expected to do it in 2018. We’ve got a woman mayor, two women senators, and a majority-women city council. Guess we’re right on trend. (The Seattle Times)

Everyday Black. Walk into the new exhibit at the Northwest African American Museum, and you’ll be surrounding by beautiful faces. Local photographers Zorn Taylor and Jessica Rycheal have filled up “Everyday Black” with portraits that show “Black people didn’t have to be stereotypically superhuman or in some way broken to be noticed.” Want to see museum director LaNesha DeBardelaben take you through it? Watch our video here. (South Seattle Emerald)

No smoking? You can’t smoke in Seattle parks, but you can do it in King County parks — for now. The county is considering implementing some kind of ban on smoking in its parks and stadiums. That might sound all well and good if you’re not a smoker, but when Seattle debated its own ban in 2015, people pointed out that the ban would disproportionately affect people experiencing homelessness. (The Stranger)

Wait — this is illegal? Thanks in part to that time a person in Hawaii accidentally sent out an alert warning of an imminent missile attack to the state’s entire population, people in Washington are asking if we should allow ourselves to plan for nuclear disaster. Believe it or not, that’s been illegal since 1984. (MyNorthwest)

THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY 🙌

We’ll see you tomorrow. — The Evergrey