Author: EPLN Guest Editorial

By Stan Rolfsrud Whenever pedaling the 2.3-mile nature trail around Staring Lake in Eden Prairie, I can’t help but think of my old friend Tom Lapic. He was my Chanhassen Villager editor back in 1990, and I think the most unique ever. If ever he had an issue that we needed to talk over, he’d suggest a nice long hike around this convenient lake, the perfect size to work out almost any problem. He was a 30-something, junk-food vegetarian bachelor at the time, a failed priest (sorta, I teased), a tree-hugger, and, gasp, a proud liberal when radio talk was…

About the writer: Nancy Wagner has lived in Eden Prairie with her family for over 20 years. She writes here about her experience of living through loss following the death of her son, Jonas Wagner. I just started a Bible study on moving “from fear to faith.” Our first assignment was to identify our fears. Turns out I have more than a few. And they no longer have to do with my kids missing the bus, inevitable bad hair days or the speeding tickets I’ve deserved. No, my fears have upped their game quite a bit. My biggest fear EVER…

When we think of spring, we often think of all things bright and beautiful. We imagine the sweet smell of the warming earth and the sound of a bird’s melodious song. We dream about blooming flowers, tulips, trilliums and the like. Yet there is another early riser that gets a jump on most plants each year, often forcing its way through stubborn snow banks before anyone else. It’s the skunk cabbage. The skunk cabbage is an aptly named flowering plant that quite literally stinks, giving off a rotting odor to attract flies and beetles that will pollinate its tiny and…

In this tribute, George Adzick remembers Bill Holte, who passed away last month at the age of 97, as a beloved teacher, coach, and friend. Adzick holds dear the memories of the positive influence and guidance Holte provided him during his time growing up in Eden Prairie. By George Adzick There is a certain kind of light that shines on a community. It is a light that spans a number of years so uncommon that the members of the community who have been served by that light mourn when it is extinguished, and a part of us is lost. If…

Editor’s note: This guest editorial by Dean Edstrom describes a seminal moment in history. It occurred 60 years ago today. It is also a story about today. It describes how the interplay of information, freedom, and education can inform, or warp, civil society and discourse. Ultimately, it describes one of the ways – a free and factual, independent press – Americans’ have retained their freedom and how they can keep it. EPLN Guest Editorial by Dean Edstrom Sixty years ago today, on August 13, 1961, the East German government closed the border between East and West Berlin. It commenced the…