Girl Scouts Lindsay Kaplan and Lily Baughman present the check. (Courtesy photo)

Girl Scout Troop 3216, which includes The Lamplighter School’s fourth-grade girls, donated $1,000 worth of their cookie sales this year to the school’s Campaign for the Future.

The money will go toward paying for the campus’ land that Lamplighter bought from its neighbor The Hockaday School in late 2010.

The staff at Marsh Middle School wants to get seventh-and eighth-graders thinking about college early. With support from its corporate sponsor Fidelity Investments, two Teach for America teachers have organized a five-day field trip for students to visit 10 universities around Texas.

On June 4, 52 students and 31 parents will hit the road. But first, they’ll attend workshops on planning for college and the application process. Each of the participating students hopes to be the first in their family to graduate from college.

Teach for America instructors Courtney Isaak and Will Cullen raised $64,000 for the trip, starting with a $10,000 grant from Fidelity. Additional support came from local businesses and the Terry Family Foundation.

The trip includes tours at Baylor, Rice, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Woman’s, Trinity, University of Houston, University of North Texas, UT-Arlington and UT-Austin.

Last month, the Keller city manager announced that he was firing himself in a budget-cutting move, and the Tarrant County community of 40,000 would save some $176,000 in salary.

Or not, as the case may be. Dave Leiber at the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth did a little reporting, proving once again why a good newspaper is the taxpayer’s best friend. He discovered that by the time the bosses in Keller got done handing out raises and hiring a new assistant city manager, they had spent more than two-thirds of the savings.

Meanwhile, Lieber notes, Keller’s city employees got just a 1 percent raise last year, their first in three years, and a one-time $1,500 stipend. Also, more than 20 staff positions have been eliminated in the last two years.

Sound familiar? I guess we aren’t the only ones with elected officials who preach fiscal discipline but practice something else entirely.

It’s official: The new mixed-use development at the northwest corner of Central Expressway and Walnut Hill will be anchored by coveted grocer Trader Joe’s, according to a front-page story in the Dallas Morning News.

We suspected this might be the case when Leon Backes of Provident Realty told us they were looking for a “relatively small” anchor and retailers not yet seen in the Dallas market.

He said the development, which is being called Preston Hollow Village, will be walkable with limited surface parking in an effort to get away from the typical strip-mall shopping center we around the neighborhood.

Provident is a partner with Missouri-based Kroenke Holdings, which bought the land in November 2010.

This will be the second Trader Joe’s in Dallas but the first to come in with new construction. The grocer announced a spot on Lower Greenville last December, taking over the old Arcadia night club. Locations also are planned in Plano and Fort Worth. Wondering what all the Trader Joe’s fuss is about? Advocate editor Keri Mitchell explains its cult following.

Preston Hollow Village is considered one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in Dallas right now. The entire development will take several years to complete.

It is if you believe city manager Mary Suhm, who told the council on Wednesday that there is enough money to restore some services that have been cut since the bloodletting started four years ago. Or, as Suhm put it, “restore some things we cannot do without.”

Which raises a host of questions, not the least is how we did without them in the first place. Or whose fault it is that we had to do without them.

Which is why I’m not holding my breath waiting for any of those essential city services to be restored. These pronouncements have always been as much shell game as fact, part of the way that Suhm manages the council to her will. After all, how many of us got 10 percent raises when our company was cutting costs and laying off employees?

After years of attempting to tighten security at DISD, a citizen’s budget committee has recommended that the district consider eliminating metal detectors from the district’s middle and high schools. The DMN reports that the proposal was buried in the unveiling of new Supt. Mike Miles’ big Destination 2020 plan last week.

The citizen’s budget proposal, if eventually enacted by DISD’s school board, would supposedly speed up the movement of students into and out of schools, reduce the manpower required to man detectors (generally two to four staffers or volunteers are required to staff each detector) and save lots of money. Alternative schools (typically filled with students who have caused disturbances at neighborhood schools) would continue to have detectors.

The group suggests polling principals and teachers about the detectors and adds that installing security cameras “may prove to be meaningfully more effective at a lower cost to school budgets and culture.”

The DMN’s story points out that during the past three school years, the TEA reports that there have been at least 21 incidents of guns being found in DISD schools and 24 instances where illegal knives were confiscated (blades longer than 5.5 inches).

It’s not known where the metal detectors were responsible for identifying the weapon in these instances or whether having detectors deters students from attempting to bring weapons to school.

So the point to ponder here is whether the “mental insurance” provided by having a couple of metal detectors at a few of the school’s entry points outweighs the cost of providing the “insurance.”

Four passes to the 2012 HP Byron Nelson Championship just landed on my desk. They can be used for any day of the tournament (today through Sunday).

The 1st person to email “I Love the Advocate” to mriney@advocatemag.com gets four one-day passes to the tournament and 20 food & beverage vouchers.

On your mark, get set, GO! …

To celebrate National Museum Day, the Meadows Museum is offering free admission and a guided tour at 11 a.m. Friday. You can see collections that feature Spanish art, Picasso prints and “Wave” by Santiago Calatrava. In the lobby, don’t miss the dramatic suspended sculpture of “Carmen” made with retired costumes from the New York City Opera.

City Cafe on Lovers Lane presents a photography exhibit by John Derryberry, “Extra Large: The Big Picture.” He’s known for his larger-than-life portraits of people. The reception is 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday with champagne and hors d’oeuvres.

Norwood Flynn Gallery closes its current exhibition “Meal Time” with a reception and artist talk by Andrew DeCaen 6-8 p.m. Saturday. He explores the theme of food in his screen prints, drawings, etchings and lithographs.

See a Preston Hollow Design Home during a benefit for Galaxay Counseling Center 7-10 p.m. Saturday at 6830 Waggoner. “La Bella Vita” features Italian and Mediterranean food, drinks, wine tastings and a silent auction. Tickets are $75 each or $125 for two.

A 1-gallon dianthus is $8 at the Hillcrest plant sale

If you’re looking to brighten up your home this spring, swing by the plant sale 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at Hillcrest High School. Proceeds benefit the class of 2013 for year-round senior activities.

The prices are reasonable, too. There are more than 20 plants priced from $5 to $20.

The sale takes place on the south side of the school off Aberdeen. Bring cash.

Meridian’s wines make are enough to make a wine writer crazy. Sometimes, they’re really, really well done, and do things like make the $10 Hall of Fame. Other times, they taste like the grocery store wines that they are, and their $10 Hall of Fame worthinness seems very hard to believe.

Hence my trepidation with this review. The sauvignon blanc ($6, purchased, widely available) is an exceedingly well-made wine, and sets a high standard not only for Meridian, but for all grocery store wine at this price. It has lots of tropical fruit (pineapple and mango) in a very forward style, which gives the impression of sweetness. But since it’s sauvignon blanc, there is plenty of citrus and California-style grassiness to balance the fruit. And, hard as it may be to believe, I think there is minerality at the back — about as common in a $6 wine as me not being able to come up with a simile here.

Drink this chilled on its own, or with almost any kind of warm weather white wine dish. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2013 Hall of Fame. Please, Meridian, don’t let me down.