After a two-month closure for remodeling, Anchor Art Space in downtown Anacortes will reopen this Friday, March 5, the evening of the art walk, announced co-owner Jean Behnke.

“Swell food for salty dogs,” proclaims the awning above the entrance to Adrift, owned by Nicole Holbert. Inside, the Anacortes restaurant delivers on the promise, serving delicious locally grown food in a décor with a whimsical nautical theme.

US Senator Maria Cantwell called Tuesday's first flight of the Boeing 787 "a game changer." US Senator Patty Murray said "the sky is not only the limit, it’s often the destination.”

There was a quote of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s printed on the Whidbey Island Bank statements this month: “The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.” It actually made me feel good.

Seattle business journalist Robert Spector makes the point in this book that mom & pop stores aren't about something small, but about something big. He says 90 percent of all US businesses are family owned or controlled.

Mom & pop stores have always brought people together, fostering a sense of neighborhood identity and camaraderie, and are the glue that connects people in big cities and small towns alike, including here in Anacortes.

Long fascinated by the “direct connection” people feel as merchants and customers when they do business in neighborhood shops, and responding to the growing “buy local” movement across the country, Spector sets out to discover the state, and the state of mind, of independent retailing in America.