By Shannon Fiecke, Correspondent

Having lost out on the last batch of federal stimulus dollars, the next best shot for the Interstate Highway 494 and Highway 169 interchange will come next Wednesday, March 17 at a meeting of an important, but little-publicized advisory board.

Eden Prairie’s most historic piece of property is now in the keeping of the Eden Prairie Historical Society. The Eden Prairie City Council approved a lease agreement Tuesday evening that would allow the historical society take responsibility for upkeep and improvements to the Cummins-Phipps-Grill Homestead, 13600 Pioneer Trail.

According to the Eden Prairie police, there has been a spree of vehicle break-ins in the past three days. A total of 30 vehicle break-ins occurred over the course of three days early this week. The suspects are targeting parking lots near apartment complexes, hotels and fitness clubs and are looking to steal purses, GPS units and laptops. Police advise keeping your valuables with you and out of your vehicle.

The Eden Prairie City Council approved a conditional-use permit for the Eden Prairie Dunn Bros. within the Smith-Douglas-More house. The business, which has grown over the years to be a community gathering spot, now has a clearer set of guidelines about what can and cannot go on at the property, which is owned by the City. Among the official allowed uses is amplified music on the patio, something that the tenant, Ann Schuster, was looking to secure.

As he prepares to leave the nest, Charlie Crocker reflects on the busiest job at EPHS

They said, as long as he was cool with wearing tights, “I could get the job,” said Charlie Crocker. That was three years ago, and since that time, Crocker has dutifully donned the Eagle suit for game after game at Eden Prairie High School. Life as the Eagle mascot might be one of the busiest gigs at EPHS, but it's something that Crocker, now a senior, has set his sights on since he was a little kid.

“I’ve always wanted to be the mascot.”

This year’s Eden Prairie High School Winterguard show goes in different direction from last year’s child-like frolic. How different? The title of the show is “Hitchcock.”

The group’s show is set to the score of “Psycho,” with occasional audio clips of famed director Alfred Hitchcock.

“It’s really suspenseful and full of surprises,”said senior Jessica Hanson.

Winterguard director Molly Norton got the idea for the show based on an album she discovered a few years ago, titled “Music to be Murdered By.”

Being a native Kansan, I was delighted by the news that Topeka, Kansas unofficially renamed itself "Google, Kansas" in an attempt to curry favor with Google and be named a test city for an ultra-high speed broadband project.
Think of it as magic fairy dust for cities to get super-fast Internet. Topeka is known for jumping through hoops for even less ambitious causes, having temporarily renamed itself "ToPikachu" back in 1998 to recognize the "Pokemon" madness, according to the Topeka Capital Journal.

Also, the city jumped on KFC's offer to fill potholes, for some reason. The photo on the following link pretty much sums that up:

http://cjonline.com/news/local/2009-04-09/kfc_picks_topeka_for_pothole_f...

Duluth is in the hunt as well, as evidenced by the following delightful YouTube clip:

By Karla Wennerstrom

With residents lining the halls of the Administrative Services Center, and after hours of discussion Tuesday, the Eden Prairie School Board approved the facilities option that will make Oak Point Intermediate School the site of a K-6 Eagle Heights Spanish Immersion School and another K-6 school.

In addition, the option OK’d by the board on a 4-3 vote sends the district’s fifth and sixth-graders back to the elementary schools. The district is to have six schools that serve kindergarten through sixth grade.