Author: Stuart Sudak

After a day of playing hooky from school, noted fictional teen nonconformist Ferris Bueller offered this sage wisdom: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.” Ferris is right. Sometimes, we need to hit the pause button on the voyage forward to kick around the past. This is the time of year when news organizations look back at all the stories of the past calendar year. Recent history is rewound, retold and sometimes updated, usually in end-of-year top story lists. I decided to craft my own list of 10…

An Eden Prairie McDonald’s employee was honored at the store Wednesday, Dec. 29, for her quick thinking in jumping out the drive-through window to help a choking female customer. On a break from work and with her family in attendance, Sydney Raley, 15, of Edina, stood in her McDonald’s uniform as Paul Ostergaard, the restaurant’s owner and operator, praised her decisive jump into action. During the short recognition ceremony, Ostergaard recounted what happened while the Edina High School sophomore worked the drive-through at the end of her shift on Dec. 18. After being handed a food bag, he said a…

Sydney Raley’s hero moment is making quite an impression on America. The story of how the 15-year-old Edina teen jumped out of a drive-through window at the Eden Prairie McDonald’s where she works to save a woman choking on a chicken nugget has gone viral in a big way. First told by KARE 11, the news segment on Sydney’s quick-thinking jump into action on Dec.18 has been picked up by other NBC affiliates across the county, as well as CNN, the Today Show, USA Today, and the New York Post. Scroll through the comments on any of the online stories…

Five suburban mayors pledged Friday, Dec. 17, to work together on a regional response to address a rise in property and vehicle-related crimes in the metro area. That announcement comes in a joint statement signed by the mayors of Eden Prairie, Bloomington, Edina, Minnetonka, and Plymouth. The mayors crafted the groundwork for the statement during a meeting at Eden Prairie City Center. Initiated by Eden Prairie Mayor Ron Case, the meeting’s aim was for the southwest suburban leaders (also attending were each of the city’s police chiefs and city managers) to gather and discuss a collective response to the crimes. “There were…

Seven-year-old Adam Christopher Scott is your typical Eden Prairie kid. The first grader at Oak Point Elementary School plays basketball and video games, collects sports cards, roots for the Vikings and the Wild, and likes to trek outside on snowy days with his brothers, Ryan, 13, and Matt, 10. “We’re definitely going to play snow football this year because we barely played it last year,” said Adam, the youngest of Bryn and Dave Scott’s three children. However, there is one way the youngster stands out from his peers. Adam is a budding actor with a recurring role as Hugo in…

Jenifer Loon will become the eighth person to lead PROP in its 50-year history. The former Minnesota state representative from Eden Prairie will take over as PROP’s executive director on Jan. 1, 2022. She will replace Janet Palmer, retiring at the end of the year after being executive director since 2015. Loon, an Eden Prairie resident for 23 years, said she is thrilled and humbled to help lead PROP into its next 50 years of “compassionate service to others.” Founded in 1971 on the principle of neighbors helping neighbors, PROP (the acronym for People Reaching Out to People) does so by donating…

A 29-year-old St. Paul woman reportedly stole a vehicle from an Eden Prairie gas station on Nov. 16, then led police on a high-speed chase. According to a Hennepin County criminal complaint, Marissa Sojourner Clobes was charged with theft of a motor vehicle and fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle. Both are felonies. Eden Prairie police responded to a vehicle theft call from Speedway gas station, 13195 Pioneer Trail, at 6:34 a.m. Nov. 16, the complaint stated. The owner of a 2007 Honda Accord told police he left the car running with the keys in the ignition while…

An Eden Prairie man has been arrested and charged in federal court with fraudulently applying for more than $2.1 million in COVID-19 relief funds. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Minnesota, Harold Bennie Kaeding, 72, applied for the loans through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program between April and December 2020. Court documents state that Kaeding used close family members’ names to submit the loan applications in the name of four Minnesota entities: Harbor Holdings Corp; Harbor Corp; AutoPay Inc.; and Voyager Shipping Company. These entities filed no tax…

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas outside the Cummins-Phipps-Grill House. Yes, there’s no blanket of snow yet. But leaning on a wood stand within the sightline of motorists driving by the historic farmhouse at 13600 Pioneer Trail is an assemblage of green Fraser fir evergreen trees vying for a good home this holiday season. When those leave the Eden Prairie Optimist Christmas Tree Lot tied to the top of vehicles, trees stacked nearby on the ground will replace them until they, too, are gone. The tree lot is open until Dec. 19 or until the trees last. All proceeds…

Need some last-minute advice preparing your Thanksgiving dinner? Well, Eden Prairie resident, dad and foodie Rob Barrett knows a thing or two about preparing a turkey and all the fixings. Luckily, all his web-based guidance is just a click away. Since 2007, Barrett has been the host and producer of Cooking for Dads, a longstanding series of how-to-cook videos that have garnered millions of views on his YouTube channel. Lately, though, he has been doing more live TV and radio appearances than videos. Barrett, who has worked in the marketing and music industry producing music and commercials, strives to help “those who…