Welcome to our Wednesday newsletter.

ATTENTION WHITTIER! We will be in your neighborhood at the end of next week for our neighborhood listening tour. Charlie and I have started a list of places we want to visit in Whittier and it honestly could be a full-week tour. Email/text us and let us know where we should visit.  We will for sure be floating around on Friday, March 11. Tour times and locations TBA.

Education Minnesota announced its 25 semifinalists for Minnesota Teacher of the Year, which includes the two Minneapolis Public School candidates.  Music teacher Edward Barlow at Anwatin Middle School and 9th grade English teacher Aberdeen Rodriguez at Edison High School were chosen as semifinalists from the initial field of 77 candidates. Before the winner is announced in May, this group will be whittled down to 10 finalists. May the odds be in our favor.

Let's do that hockey. Tonight, the boys Minneapolis hockey team has a shot at making history. No Minneapolis team has made the state hockey tournament since Edison got there in 1994. Minneapolis high schools have played under combined banner since 2010, and when they face off with Delano at the St. Louis Park Rec Center at 7 p.m., they'll have a lot of people across the city pulling for them. If you can't make it tonight, you can stream the game for free here.

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LINK ROUNDUP 🔗

The Minnesota Department of Education runs the Minnesota Report Card which  gives people easy access to understandable district and school data. Happy searching! (Minnesota Department of Education)

The birds are chirping which means it's birding season. Here is the March forecast for birds. (Explore Minnesota)

A Twin Cities woman that has an eerily similar background to me, just won a Swedish reality show. "Allt för Sverige," is a long-running show that seeks to reconnect Americans of Swedish heritage with their Scandinavian roots. (Axios)

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COMMUNITY ACTION 💪

‍The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board meets at 5 p.m. You can watch the meeting live here. There is a proposal to expand a contract with BTR Architects. BTR is working with the Park Board's Spark'd Studios Project, formally known as Creation Spaces, to create or update spaces at Whittier Recreation Center, Harrison Recreation Center, and Luxton Recreation Center. If you want to share anything with the board, you may submit your comment in writing to be included in the record and shared with commissioners. Send your comment to OpenTime@minneapolisparks.org by noon.  You can also share your thoughts in-person by attending the meeting at 2117 West River Road N.

Do you want to tap maple-family trees, including box elders, and make your own syrup? The Kingfield Neighborhood Association is running their popular Community Sap Tap Back. For $20, you can get a kit that can be used to tap sap from any privately-owned tree in the maple family. Order your kit now because on March 12 and 19 there will be sap boils at  Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park. You can watch the transformation of your mostly watery sap turn into a concentration of sweet syrup (spectators invited).

I don't like throwing things away, but when I am forced to (self-directed), I always hem and haw about if I can recycle it, if it's safe to put in the trash, ad nauseam. Thankfully, the City of Minneapolis has a searchable disposal guide. I searched candle jar, CD player and plastic bag with varying degrees of success.  Ridwell, a paid service, is also operating in Minneapolis if you want to ethically dispose of your junk that way.

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OUT & ABOUT 🛵

Honkey-tonk, country band Trailer Trash and country singer-songwriter John Magnuson are playing at Driftwood tonight. Show starts at 7 p.m.

Reynaldo Moreno is playing at the Troubadour Wine Bar on Hennepin Ave S. every Wednesday this month from 7-9 p.m.

‍Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park has open gym hours after school from 3:30-5 p.m. for ages 6-19. You need an Active Pass, so make sure this form is filled out before you attend (the form is available in Hmong, Spanish, and Somali at the bottom for this page). After school open gym is a time specifically for basketball, soccer, catch, or simply running off steam. Parents and caregivers may supervise or join in play with their children. Times and dates listed are subject to change based on availability.