It was a long process, but Myers Group CEO Tyler Myers said a lease was signed and downtown Juneau can look forward to an improved grocery store called Foodland IGA.

The Washington State-based retail and real estate management firm purchased Alaskan & Proud and Friday inked the deal for the 47,000-square-foot space in Foodland Plaza.

“As of this morning we finally got everything taken care of,” Myers said by phone from Seattle. He’d visited Juneau a couple of weeks ago and said he liked what he saw. All of the store’s employees told him they wanted to stay on, he said.

The ice breaker that helped found McMurdo Station on Antarctica, was once the flagship of Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd and performed a record-breaking 39 Arctic and Antarctic deployments is in a Vallejo, Calif drydock as backers of a plan to save it from the scrap yard plead its case.

Alaska Senator Mark Begich sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) this week in a bid to save the vessel, an idea that also has support from Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

City planning commissioners voted Tuesday to support the Red Dog Saloon’s proposal to use hanging baskets and potted plants instead of in-ground landscaping as it adds square footage.

The commission also approved the popular downtown bar and restaurant’s planned 540-square-foot expansion.

The expansion and a variance allowing the business to remove existing landscaping as part of an overall plan to redesign the area with an old west motif received unanimous support.

The Alaska Congressional Delegation drew praise from a timber industry group and Sealaska Corp. for leading the charge against application of the federal 2001 Roadless Rule in Alaska’s national forests.

Environmental groups, however, were less enthused.

Democratic Sen. Mark Begich and Republican Rep. Don Young this week introduced legislation to repeal the rule in Alaska’s national forests. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski co-sponsored the Senate measure.