Jordan Cub Scouts met to hold their Pinewood Derby Monday evening. The derby was held at Jordan Elementary School.

The committee assigned by the Jordan School Board to make recommendations for district budget cuts met for the last time Monday evening and settled on a list of cuts totaling more than $360,000. That's almost where committee members hoped to be. At the beginning of the meeting, superintendent Kirk Nelson said the reduction goal was $400,000.

After ranking all suggested items A-D, A bearing the highest recommendation to cut and D bearing the recommendation to remove the item from consideration, the following items will be presented on the A list:

Ruth Anne Maddox, a staff writer for the Shakopee Valley News
who was killed in a domestic incident in November, was posthumously named the Southwest Newspapers 2008 Journalist of the Year last Friday.

The award annually recognizes outstanding contributions by the reporters and editors who staff Southwest Newspapers’ seven weekly newspapers: Chanhassen Villager, Chaska Herald, Eden Prairie News, Jordan Independent, Prior Lake American, Savage Pacer and the Valley News.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) have released plans to complete a Tier 1 final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a future Highway 41 crossing of the Minnesota River near Shakopee and Chaska.

Known as "C-2," the proposed river crossing corridor was selected from six alternatives that the FHWA and MNDOT studied in the Draft EIS. This corridor would connect to both Highway 169 near its existing Highway 41 intersection and to the new Highway 212 near its intersection with Carver County Highway 11.

The annual Jordan Holiday Tour of Homes will be held from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13. The Tour will begin at Iris Valley General Store, 415 S. Broadway St. Tickets are $10 if purchased in advance or $12 on the day of the tour. Look in the Dec. 11 issue of the Jordan Independent for more information about the six families and two businesses on the tour.

Radermacher's Fresh Market held its holiday open house Friday evening. Here are some photos of the event.

The publisher of the Jordan Independent has also been named publisher of the Shakopee Valley News by Southwest Newspapers.

Laurie Hartmann, a Prior Lake resident, succeeds Stan Rolfsrud, who has retired after 35 years with the company. He will keep the honorary title of publisher emeritus.

Fifty years ago, Washington acknowledged the Jordan Commercial Club's protest in regard to discontinuing trains through Jordan.

For more information, read the Looking Back column in the Dec. 4 issue of the Jordan Independent. Read it online in the Print Edition section, or subscribe by going to www.jordannews.com/subscribe.

Seventy years ago, your local newspaper told the story of Scott County's oldest map.

For more information, read the Looking Back column in the Dec. 4 issue of the Jordan Independent. Read it online in the Print Edition section, or subscribe by going to www.jordannews.com/subscribe.

Shannon Fiecke and Pat Minelli report:

Ruth Anne Maddox was only weeks away from being free from her troubled marriage and back in her home state of Indiana when she was found beaten to death in her Prior Lake home Wednesday last week.

The Shakopee Valley News reporter’s husband, Charles Anthony “Tony” Maddox Jr., has been charged in her death. On Friday, bail was set at $1 million in the 43-year-old man’s initial appearance in Scott County District Court. He remains in custody in the Scott County Jail.