The 2012 annual fair in Freeborn County kicked off appropriately enough with a birth – in a bathroom near the Cattle Barn. A baby boy was born Tuesday to parents who both work for the carnival group Merriam’s Midway Shows, the Austin Daily Herald reports. Dale Merriam, a semi-retired owner of the traveling carnival, said the mother had worked just Monday night until after midnight setting up for the fair. A collection was being taken for the parents.

Two men are dead after their car rolled into Mille Lacs Lake just after midnight Sunday morning. A passenger in the backseat suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The Minnesota State Patrol says alcohol was detected in the driver and both passengers, but it's unclear if it was a factor in the crash.

Gov. Mark Dayton was sending off Ted the turkey at the Capitol Friday when the free bird escaped from his wire cage and made a break for it. Ted was eventually apprehended and will travel to Washington D.C. next week for an official pardon from President Obama.

The Bemidji Pioneer says eight schoolchildren were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after their school bus overturned when a semitruck hit it from behind.

A driver who survived a fatal crash and lost her Chihuahua in the accident recovered the dog six days later. Residents on a farm not far from the crash site three miles north of New Richland were able to catch the dog, Mia, and arranged for a reunion for grateful owner and Waseca resident Mandi Kauffman, the Albert Lea Tribune reports.

The family tells Thisweek Newspapers they came home to find their house destroyed -- with a broken window, screen and shards of glass all over. To their surprise, the burglar was a turkey, who they found completely at home on their couch.

The 51-year-old woman was taken to a hospital for non-life threatening injuries after a train struck her vehicle after she had stalled on the tracks