Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:55 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The former manager of a program that oversees Iowa livestock farms and manages their millions of gallons of manure says a state fund established for the program has been illegally tapped for other uses. Gene Tinker was laid off in August after 14 years as the coordinator of animal feeding operations at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. He says there should be plenty of money in the program’s fund to pay his salary if officials followed a state law that mandates the money not be diverted.

ALBIA, Iowa (AP) — A former southern Iowa teacher has pleaded guilty to charges related to the sexual exploitation of a 16-year-old girl. Zachary Thomas Simpson, a 29-year-old former teacher and coach in the Albia Community School District, pleaded guilty Friday to sexual exploitation by a school employee and violating two no-contact orders. Police arrested Simpson in June after the girl reported having sex with him at least twice. Simpson was sentenced to five year in prison with the possibility of parole.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A woman accused of abducting her three daughters in northwest Iowa has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping charges. The Sioux City Journal reports that 25-year-old Danica Arzaga entered a written plea Thursday to three counts. The children previously been removed from Arzaga’s custody and placed in another relative’s care.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Police say officers have arrested a Marion man who left his baby son in a van at a Cedar Rapids restaurant parking lot before returning hours later. Police say Trevor Brickson pulled into the lot Wednesday afternoon, spent 20 minutes hanging around the restaurant and then left. Station KGAN reports that restaurant workers found the baby 15 minutes later and used a pry tool to get the baby out. Brickson’s attorney didn’t immediately return a call Friday.

Due to the expected rains Saturday, the CCHS Foundation’s Trailing for Tatas breast cancer awareness walk at Lake Anita has been cancelled. For those who ordered shirts, they will be available for pick-up at Casey’s in Anita. Please contact Dawn Marnin, CCHS Foundation Director, at 712-243-7409 if you are unable to pick up your shirt.

Officials with the Lenox Community School District have announced classes will dismiss at 1-p.m. due to an alleged threat that apparently came in the form of a note. Parents are requested not to pickup up their children until 1-p.m.  The school was said to be in lockdown until 1-p.m.  No one is allowed to enter or exit the building until classes are dismissed. It’s not clear what type of threat was made.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A woman accused of abducting her three daughters in northwest Iowa has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping charges. The Sioux City Journal reports that 25-year-old Danica Arzaga entered a written plea Thursday to three counts.  Authorities say Arzaga took the two 8-year-olds and the 4-year-old from their home in Royal on Sept. 19. The children were found abandoned in Sanborn later that day. She was arrested Sept. 20 in Sioux City. The children previously been removed from Arzaga’s custody and placed in another relative’s care.

A northwest Iowa woman who was a victim of the mass shooting in Las Vegas on October 1st will be laid to rest Saturday. The funeral for 33-year old Carly Kreibaum, of Sutherland, will be held Saturday morning at 10:30 at the R.L. Johannsen Center in Sutherland, with burial at Waterman Cemetery in Sutherland. Visitation with the family will be held today (Friday) from 4:00 until 8:00 pm, also at the R.L. Johannsen Center.

Kreibaum leaves behind a husband and two young children. A Fundraising Dinner for the Kreibaum family will be held Sunday from 10:30 until 1:00 at the Johannsen Center in Sutherland. In addition, Security State Bank in Sutherland has opened an account for donations to the family.

(Radio Iowa)

About a dozen people who are buried in the Clarinda Cemetery will be revived by historic re-enactors this weekend as Page County residents portray everyday citizens from the community’s past. Trish Okamoto, curator of the Nodaway Valley Historical Museum, says this year’s cast of characters includes three Civil War veterans who survived the Andersonville, Georgia, prisoner-of-war camp where the Confederate Army held Union soldiers.  “They’re buried about two sections away from each other, the three gentlemen,” Okamoto says. “Halfway in-between, there will be an old card table, like an old wooden table out on the front lawn, as old men used to do, sit around telling stories. So, the three gentlemen will be there telling their story and as the story progresses, of course, the gentlemen pass through history. So that one will get up and walk away, and there will be one left.”

Okamoto says 11 former residents will be featured during the cemetery walk. She says doing the research on each of the departed takes about a year.  “And the stories come from various places,” she says. “Old obituaries, old records, to crumpled up pieces of newspaper that come in with other artifacts into the museum that we open and there’s a story.”

Okamoto will be portraying a country school teacher from the 19th century named Phoebe Griffith who claims to have met a mermaid while touring Bermuda. A sea maiden may or may not make an appearance this weekend. Okamoto stresses this is not a scary event. The annual cemetery walk, a fundraiser for the museum, includes no ghosts or zombies.

(Radio Iowa, w/Thanks to Sarah Boden, Iowa Public Radio)