Chaska's football team is sweating out two-a-day practices this week to get ready for a Saturday scrimmage at Wayzata.

The Hawks kick off the season on Thursday, Aug. 28 at home against Lakeville North.

Enjoy this selection of photos.

The 2008 State Amateur Baseball Tournament got under way at Chaska's Athletic Park on Thursday, Aug. 14 with Fergus Falls facing Detroit Lakes in the first round of Class C competition.

Fergus Falls won the game 3-2 in the 11th inning, as Alex Conboy singled in Ben Brimhall.

Detroit Lakes tied the game with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, thanks to a two-run single by Matt Olson that scored Terry Haus and Phil Kirchner.

The tournament continues at Shakopee and Chaska with Class C action on Friday night.

Photos from the Warped Tour at Canterbury Park, Shakopee, Minn. Aug. 3, 2008

The Scott Carver Threshers festival took place last weekend in St. Lawrence Township. Here are some videos of just a few of the sights and sounds from the event:

Chaska High School and Stanford University graduate Tim Mattran is making the most of his first NFL Training Camp with the Minnesota Vikings.

Mattran, an offensive lineman, wears No. 68 for the Vikes.

Minnesota's first preseason game is 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 8 against Seattle at the Metrodome.

Enjoy this selection of photos from the team's scrimmage Friday, July 31 with Kansas City at the Chiefs' training-camp facility at River Falls, Wis.

Locals lost one of their favorite hangouts when C.J.s Coffee and Wine Gallery closed earlier this year. But new owner and manager Ann Clifford has renamed it and will reopen as School of the Wise East on Oct. 1. Changes include expansion into the former Maggie Moo's ice cream store and transforming it into a wine bar, lowered ceilings in the main cafe to increase acoustics for live music, moving the stage for better sight lines, an expanded wine list, a new menu.

Students from Martial Arts America of Chaska put on a demonstration of techniques and forms at Chaska River City Days on Saturday, July 26, 2008.

The three-day annual festival runs through Sunday.

Enjoy this selection of photos.

The secret of the
blue star home

By Forrest Adams

Most household and business budgets are tight these days, but property owners may be able to save on their energy and utility costs by investing in the ENERGY STAR.

“Green starts with blue. The blue is the ENERGY STAR,” said Mat Gates, CEO and Building Science Consultant from Residential Science Resources.

Jessica Huang is learning more and more what it’s like to be a young writer. She is a student in the University of Missouri’s Journalism programand recently she wrote a musical with her friend Charlie Title. “The inspiration for the play came from a story my friend told me of her time spent in Madagascar. It’s a love story of a white foreigner that falls in love with a native Madagascaran girl, and as things do, it spirals out of control." She and Title presented the musical at the Chaska Community Theatre on July 19, with members of the Chaska Valley Family Theatre. The video shows excerpts of their musical.