To Albert Lea’s Baby New Year.

Congratulations to Sky Jensen and Quinten Youngblood-Amos who are the parents of this year’s Baby New Year in Albert Lea.

Their daughter, Latalya Anasa Youngblood-Amos, was born at 6:43 p.m. New Year’s Day at Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea. She weighed 7 pounds, 10 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long.

We wish this baby and her family the best in the days to come.

 

To the shooting death in Albert Lea.

Many details have not yet been released surrounding the officer-involved shooting death that took place Thursday morning in an alley between College and Court streets.

Regardless of the details, we are sad this took place in our community and sad to see the effect it is having on community members, many who are divided about the situation.

Albert Lea’s last officer-involved shooting took place in November 2001.

Our thoughts go out to all involved in this incident and their families as the community awaits more information from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

 

To the new education center slated to be built for the Southern Minnesota Education Consortium.

We are pleased to hear plans for a new $4.1 million education center that is expected to be built this year to address the needs of students with special needs at Grand Meadow, Lyle, LeRoy-Ostrander, Southland, Kingsland, Alden-Conger and Glenville-Emmons school districts.

The 13,000-square-foot building is expected to be built off of Interstate 90 and Highway 56 in Mower County and will house an alternative learning center and level-four programming.

This consortium allows these smaller school districts to come together to offer the best programming for their district’s students, without having to transport their students to bigger districts further away.

We applaud the collaboration.

Construction on the building is expected to begin in April and be completed by late December.

 

To another report of possible arson.

Last month, the Albert Lea Fire Department ruled that a fire that destroyed an Albert Lea home on Fifth Street was caused by arson, and now this week, authorities have announced they are investigating a new report of arson — this time at Mason Auto Sales, east of Hayward.

Deputies and firefighters were dispatched to the business, at 86974 Freeborn County Road 46, Wednesday afternoon for a report of a fire in the office. Smoke was coming from the roof, but no flames were visible from the outside. Authorities stated there were no signs of forced entry to the front doors, but they did find a broken window.

Authorities said two cars and a safe containing vehicle titles were missing.

We hope firefighters and law enforcement are able to find the people involved with these fires and that no others will take place in the coming weeks.