Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN), is a nonprofit, non-partisan, citizen-run media organization generously supported by readers, sponsors, and businesses.
EPLN provides local, accurate news and information about issues important to Eden Prairie, including:
- City and public school government and issues
- Businesses, economic and development initiatives
- Outdoors, arts, and culture
- Sports
- Spiritual matters
- Politics and power
- Issues of diversity, social justice, and rights
- Civic organizations, community events, and more.
EPLN in the News
EPLN was featured in an Eden Prairie Community Foundation “News Makers” segment. The interview of EPLN Working Group Chair Jenifer Loon details several aspects of EPLN here.
Feb. 13, 2021 – EPLN featured in local television access program “Democratic Visions” by Jeff Strate Feb. 3, 2021 – EPLN featured by The Institute for NonProfit News as “the happiest journalism news of the new year” Out of the Ashes left by Alden Global Capital, a Community Saves its News Jan. 13, 2021 – EPLN featured on KARE 11 “Community funded online newspaper launches in Eden Prairie” Dec. 28, 2020 – EPLN listed is an “intriguing development” and one of the gains in MinnPost’s “Year in Review: What we lost, and gained, in Minnesota media in 2020” Dec. 4, 2020 – EPLN featured in StarTribune “Eden Prairie residents launch news site to replace shuttered local paper” Nov. 13, 2020 – EPLN “preserves local reporting” as featured in City of Eden Prairie Community Report Oct. 30, 2020 – EPLN is “working to fill the void” in MinnPost’s “Losses in local news pile up, with just a few glimmers of hope trying to fill the void” Aug. 18, 2020 – EPLN featured on KARE 11 “Eden Prairie residents hope to revive local paper” Aug. 4, 2020 – EPLN featured in StarTribune “Eden Prairie residents launch nonprofit news website”
EPLN policies
EPLN has policies that address advertising, donor transparency, editorial independence, and equity and inclusion. You can download EPLN policies by clicking the “Download” button.
EPLN donors
In accordance with non-profit guidelines and public transparency EPLN donors are noted here.
EPLN Reporters and Contributors
EPLN stories and photos are produced by a team of volunteer editors, reporters, and contributors whose backgrounds make them well-suited to this citizen-run effort.
45 posts
Jim is a retired teacher currently keeping busy as a reserve teacher, tutor, and Eden Prairie High School softball coach. Jim’s career began as a journalist, photojournalist, and editor before working in healthcare public relations and later earning a master’s degree in special education. Jim and his wife, Sue, a registered nurse, have lived in Eden Prairie for more than 25 years. Their two children, Jen and Matt, graduated from EPHS and live in Eden Prairie. Jim and Sue have four grandchildren.
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43 posts
Prior to moving to Eden Prairie in 2000, Brad served as an newspaper editor and hard news reporter. In Eden Prairie he worked as an executive in high-tech firms, including ADC Telecommunications and Allot Communications. More recently he has worked in high-tech firms in Minnesota and in Silicon Valley while residing in Eden Prairie. Brad graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BA, and has a Master of Business Communications degree from the University of St. Thomas (UST). Brad is currently researching high-tech entrepreneurial leadership for a doctorate from the UST-School of Education. “Brad the Dad” has three children, one grown, two in Eden Prairie schools, and especially enjoys exploring Eden Prairie’s trials and lakes with his wife Sandi.
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1 posts
Kathie Case Growing up in Bloomington and living most of her adult life in Eden Prairie, Kathie Case is a Minnesota girl through and through. Kathie spent 18 years as a flight attendant with Northwest Airlines and for the past 20 years or so has been a health instructor, offering training in CPR, AED, and First Aid. Building on a lifetime of interest in history, including purchasing an 1874 Eden Prairie farmstead in 1988, she has served in the Eden Prairie Historical Society for most of the last 30 years, first as vice president and for more than a decade, now, as president. Along with her husband, Ron, Kathie has four adult children who attended and graduated from Eden Prairie schools, five grandchildren, and one very special puppy named Sota! She’s passionate about keeping the stories, memories, and artifacts of those who came before us alive and remembered for future generations.
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1 posts
Vijay Dixit Vijay Dixit left his professional career to champion distraction-free driving after a distracted driver killed his 19-year-old daughter, Shreya, on Nov. 1, 2007. Vijay and his wife Rekha, with their surviving daughter Nayha, established the Shreya R. Dixit Memorial Foundation www.shreyadixit.org with the mission to transform the driving culture. The charity works with individuals, businesses, and communities in making distraction-free driving part of a healthy lifestyle. Vijay has been recognized by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety for his work in education and has also authored “One Split Second,” a book about the epidemic of distracted driving – how it kills and how we can fix it. He has written many commentaries on the subject of distracted driving.
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6 posts
Frank graduated from Stanford University and did graduate study at Princeton and the University of Wisconsin toward a Ph.D. in English. He also took graduate business courses at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Illinois’s North Central College. He taught college English and British literature at a two-year University of Wisconsin Center System campus in Marathon County, Wis. For 26 years he worked in purchasing, product development, and general management at light manufacturing companies in the Chicago area. He later owned a company that imported custom-made products from China. In 2016, Frank and Pamela, his wife of 50 years, moved to Minnesota to be near their son, who lives in northeast Minneapolis.
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12 posts
Kelley moved to Eden Prairie in 2004 with her husband Matt and her four children. She graduated from Bethel College in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Business and Leadership. Kelley has been a real estate advisor for over 23 years. She is active in the community and a dedicated Eden Prairie volunteer. Her volunteer experience includes The PROP Shop, Eden Prairie Historical Society, Eden Prairie News, and others. She looks forward to bringing news to Eden Prairie’s residents through both her stories and photography.
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1 posts
Jody is an Eden Prairie resident of 26 years who designs websites, volunteers for nonprofits, knits, hikes, and finds solace and joy in writing. She is also a mom and the owner of a mischievous rescue pooch who chews up business cards. Her happiest days are those when she is behind the camera in the studio or the woods.
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27 posts
An Eden Prairie resident since 1994, Jeff Strate has served as an organizer for local open-space preservation initiatives and get-out-the-vote parks improvement referendums. Jeff has also served on the Eden Prairie Human Rights and Diversity Commission, conservation area planning task forces, the Southwest Light Rail Community Advisory Committee and the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Land Trust. Jeff studied journalism and mass communication at the University of Minnesota and professionally has been a television producer/journalist and occasional host or reporter in the Twin Cities, New York, Boston, and Trenton and has written for websites and magazines. He is currently a producer of award-winning community access programing through Southwest Community Television (SWTV).
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6 posts
Stuart Sudak Stuart Sudak is a longtime freelance journalist based in Minnesota. Over the years, he has written for newspapers, magazines, websites, and corporations. Stuart also served as an editor at several newspapers in Minnesota and Illinois, including the Eden Prairie News from 2000-05. He lives in Chaska with his wife Tracy and three children. To view some of his recent work, visit https://www.clippings.me/users/stuartsudak
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23 posts
Mark joined the Eden Prairie News as a reporter in 1979, just five years after its start, and spent the next 34 years in various roles including editor and publisher, as well as general manager of the parent company, Southwest Newspapers. He also published Edible Twin Cities magazine. His encore career is serving the nonprofit Eden Prairie Community Foundation as executive director. Mark and his wife, Roma, have two grown sons and a daughter-in-law, and have lived in Eden Prairie since 1984.
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13 posts
Ryan is an Eden Prairie native who grew up here and graduated from Eden Prairie High School in 2012. Since graduating from the Missouri School of Journalism in 2016, he has gone on to produce content for companies such as USA Hockey, Team USA, the Star Tribune’s High School Hubs and more. He is currently a freelance sports writer and production assistant at FOX Sports North.
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EPLN Support Staff
Ben Hymans is a technologist with a broad background, and experience at multiple fortune 50 companies. He has led technology teams at Best Buy corporate, as well as here in Eden Prairie at Optum. He brings a variety of skills to support the EPLN website and related technology. Eden Prairie is home-base for Ben, but he frequently travels around the U.S with his wife Kristy and young son, on a mission to visit all the National Parks.
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Join Us
EPLN welcomes new writers, photographers and others who want to contribute to this effort. To learn more about EPLN send an email to editor@eplocalnews.org
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