An overnight house fire in Eagan shorted out the home’s doorbell which alerted the sleeping family to the blaze. Smoke alarms were not working, but the doorbell managed to wake up the mother and two children in the house and they were able to make it to safety.

A southern Minnesota mother is calling her baby girl a hero. Samantha Meeks told the Albert Lea Tribune her family may not have made it out of their home if wasn't for her daughter crying. The home was destroyed.

A family that farms near Watkins in Stearns County came home over the weekend to discover a fire had destroyed their cattle barn -- but not the cattle. The sheriff's office reports a passerby noticed the flames and tried to alert the family. Finding them not at home, he turned the animals loose himself.

It's been nearly a week since the first of two windstorms swept through northern Minnesota. Crews working to restore power in the area of Grand Rapids and Deer River say there were still 1,000 customers without electricity Sunday, down from 14,000 at the peak of the outage.

A fire that likely started early Friday in the basement of the once-grand Columbian Hotel in the small western Minnesota town of Ortonville quickly consumed the structure, firefighters said. The building had been under renovation, the Star Tribune reports.

He's 93 and suffers from dementia. She's 83 and gets by despite a brain tumor and diabetes. They've been married 66 years but are in danger of being turned out of their home at the end of the month after a grandson illegally plummeted them into debt. Pioneer Press columnist Ruben Rosario writes they need 'a miracle' to avoid homelessness.

A 6-year-old boy from St. Paul was pulled from a swimming pool Friday night at a Hopkins country club where he was celebrating at a birthday party, police say. Club employees performed CPR on the child, and an ambulance brought the boy to the Hennepin County Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead. The Associated Press reports the death has been ruled an accident.