The head of a mental health crisis center in southern Iowa expects it to close at the end of the month due to a lack of funding. Jackie Sharp is executive director of Oak Place in Centerville. She says after a grant ran out, the regional mental health authority has refused to fill the funding gap. And state officials haven’t set up rules that would let Oak Place bill Medicaid for services to patients.

“I don’t put a lot of faith in us continuing after October 31st,” Sharp says. “I think my alternate plan is to take care of the graduates that we’ve had and help my staff transition.” The center opened three years ago and has won praise for providing economical care in rural Iowa, where mental health treatment options are scarce.

“Without funding, we’re closed,” Sharp says. “And I have a fear for the other 10 crisis stabilization homes in the state, that they will follow our lead and close due to lack of funding.” Sharp made her comments on Iowa Public Radio’s “River to River” program.

The Centerville facility serves patients from Appanoose County and three other neighboring counties. Advocates say once the center closes, the state will pay about 900-dollars-per-day for psychiatric hospital stays for a Medicaid patient who’d get significantly less expensive care, closer to home, in Centerville.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Strange as it seems, Iowa Democrats can expect to see Donald Trump at the state party’s annual marquee fundraiser next month. That is, in the form of actor Alec Baldwin, the walking parody of the Republican president. The actor who received an Emmy award last month for his running parody of Trump on Saturday Night Live is to be the keynote speaker at the state party banquet in Des Moines on Nov. 27.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — It took jurors only hours to find a Davenport man guilty in the 2016 fatal shooting of his parents. The Scott County jury deliberated less than three hours before finding 21-year-old Sean M. Freese guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors argued Freese shot 58-year-old Kevin Freese and 57-year-old Donna Freese with a semi-automatic rifle in the early morning hours of Oct. 5, 2016. Freese faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

NASHUA, Iowa (AP) — Chickasaw County authorities say they’re investigating an accident in which an 8-year-old boy at an orchard was wounded by a gunshot fired from a nearby gun range. Authorities say the child was wounded Sunday at the Apples on the Avenue orchard, which is near one of several ranges operated by the Nashua Fish and Game Club. An orchard spokesman couldn’t be reached Monday. The gun club president declined to comment. The boy is being treated at an Iowa City hospital.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — The second of four finalists to be Iowa State University’s next president is senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Georgia, Athens. Pamela Whitten will visit the Ames campus Tuesday and meet with staff and students.

An actor who won an Emmy for portraying Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live” will be the keynote speaker at the Iowa Democratic Party’s fall fundraising banquet. Alec Baldwin was last month’s winner of the Emmy for best supporting actor in a comedy series. He’s a long-time supporter of Democrats. Troy Price, the chairman of the Iowa Democratic Party, says Baldwin has vowed to help Democrats win across the country in 2018.

“He has committed to helping us rebuild the party here in Iowa and rebuilding the party across the country and so we’re really excited to have him here,” Price says. The party’s annual fundraiser was renamed “The Fall Gala” a year ago. This year’s edition will be held on Monday evening, November 27th, and Price says his phone blew up once the news was out that Baldwin was the headliner.

“I’ve gotten a few phone calls and some texts,” Price says, with a laugh. “The response has been great. People are really excited about this.” The Iowa Democratic Party’s chairman says he knows “some folks who’ve been working with” Baldwin. “They reached out to me about even if this would be a possibility and we said: ‘Yes.’ We extended an invitation and we’ve been going back and forth over the last several weeks,” Price says. “It worked out for him to come out on the 27th of November, so we were able to lock him in.”

The party’s annual fundraiser traditionally features hot meals on china plates, served by waiters to ticket holders. And the audience sits in a darkened banquet hall, with the speech-makers standing on a brightly lit stage. Price says he and his staff are “still figuring out” what the night will look like.

“Regardless of what’s served or how the event is structured, people are going to have a great time, I can promise them that,” Price says. But do not expect a recreation of a Saturday Night Live skit. According to Price, Alec Baldwin will appear “as himself,” with a message about the state of politics in America. Baldwin will arrive on Iowa’s political stage a few weeks after the release of a book he’s co-authored. The satirical book about Trump’s presidency is titled “You Can’t Spell America Without Me.”

The Iowa Democratic Party’s fall fundraiser — formerly known as the Jefferson-Jackson Day Dinner — has served as an organizing test for presidential candidates in the years when it’s held just weeks before Iowa’s Caucuses. Previous speakers include Vice Presidents Al Gore and Joe Biden as well as former President Bill Clinton.

(Radio Iowa)

The house where Iowa’s infamous axe murders took place more than a century ago is one of the focal points of this weekend’s Paranormal Summit. Two adults and six children were slaughtered in 1912 in the two-story house in the southwest Iowa town of Villisca. Dave Pares, who oversees the conference, says paranormal investigators will be presenting evidence from several mysterious locations.

“One of them deals with Villisca, the Axe Murder House,” Pares says, “and we actually have some really interesting imagery that has been collected.” Some believe the house is a hotspot for otherworldly activity because the murders were never solved. Pares says a second, undisclosed Iowa site will be featured at the summit, which draws the curious from all across the region.

Pares says, “Another investigation took place in a town in Iowa in an old building and we actually have thermal infrared pictures of a, literally, a ‘ghost’ that goes across the shelving units.” The Paranormal Summit is being held on Friday, that’s Friday the 13th, on the campus of the University of Nebraska – Omaha. Pares, an adjunct professor of geography and meteorology, is faculty advisor for the U-N-O Paranormal Society. He says they seek out logical, scientific, rational explanations for the various phenomena.

“We’re highly skeptical about everything and we actually use science to try to drive down into what’s the real deal here into the investigation,” Pares says. “Is it valid or we are just collecting a bunch of nothing?” At the annual summit, there will be a presentation at 6 P-M Friday about the investigations conducted across the region in the past year and people will be shown the equipment that’s used. Afterwards, they’ll get the chance to use that equipment on what’s known as a “ghost hunt” on the Omaha campus.

Pares says, “The ghost hunt is going to begin at 9 o’clock and it gives a little more time to go to the various sites around campus that we’ve detected activity.” Believers and doubters are all welcome, he says. The event is open to the public and will be held at the C-PACS building at U-N-O. Admission is $10 and all proceeds go to the American Red Cross for hurricane relief.

(Radio Iowa)

The Page County Sheriff’s Office says a woman from Coin reported on Monday, that sometime between early Sunday morning and Monday mid-day, someone had stolen her vehicle parked outside her residence. The missing vehicle is a red 2001 Pontiac Grand Am 4 door with Iowa License plate FJP 800.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the Page County Sheriff’s Office at 712-246-5193 or their local Law Enforcement agency.

Vehicle similar to the make and model reported stolen

Audubon Police Chief Matt Starmer reports the arrest on Sunday, of 36-year old Tanya Lynn Snyder, of Audubon. Snyder was arrested for Disorderly Conduct and Public Intoxication 3rd or subsequent offense. She was transported to the Audubon County Jail.