Officials with Cass County Public Health have announced the availability of seasonal influenza vaccinations and upcoming community clinics. In the County, the clinics will be held:

Tuesday, October 15th from 3 to 5:30 pm at Rex Pharmacy in Atlantic.

Thursday, October 17th, from 4 to 6 pm in the lobby at UnityPoint at Home (formerly Cass County Home Care).

Friday, October 18th, from 8 to 11 am at the Griswold Medical Center. And, 1 to 4 pm at the Massena Medical Center.

Friday, October 25th, from 9 am to 12 pm at the Anita Health and Wellness Center.

Tuesday, November 5th, from 4:45 to 6:45 pm at the CCMH cafeteria.

Charges for flu vaccinations at the community events, for individuals choosing to pay privately, will be: $30 for seasonal vaccine; $35 for Flu-mist (those 2yrs-49yrs); and $45 for the high-dose vaccine (those 65 and older). Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Humana, and hawk-i can be billed. To allow Cass County Public Health to bill these insurances, please have your card available.

Cass County Public Health will be giving flu vaccinations for students during school time at all Cass County schools in the next couple weeks. Schools distributed consent forms electronically by email, which were due back to the school by October 14. If you didn’t get a consent form contact the school.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The city of Council Bluffs has settled a lawsuit with two Omaha, Neb., men who sought millions of dollars after the courts concluded they were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned for 25 years. The lawsuit filed by Terry Harrington and Curtis McGhee was scheduled for retrial Tuesday before a federal jury in Des Moines. The first trial ended in mistrial last year after jurors disagreed on the verdict.

The two men seek compensation from the city and two former police detectives for years in prison after their conviction for the 1977 shooting death of a retired police captain. Harrington and McGhee were released in 2003 after the Iowa Supreme Court found prosecutors committed misconduct by hiding evidence.

Federal court documents show a judge has ordered details of the city settlement sealed.

A woman from Montgomery County was arrested Monday afternoon on theft charges. According to Red Oak Police, 37-year old Rachel Charise Kathleen Hadden, of Red Oak, was taken into custody on a Red Oak Police warrant, and two Montgomery County warrants, for Theft in the 5th Degree. Hadden was being held in the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center on $2,300 cash bond.

The Shelby County Emergency Management Agency has updated the fire danger warning signs in the county. Emergency Coordinator Bob Seivert says the signs will stay in the moderate category to start the week. He says showers forecasted this morning did not materialize and the winds are once again strong out of the southeast.

The winds will elevate the danger of a wild fire spreading quickly while also gaining fuel by creating drying conditions. The Shelby County EMA will update the situation again on Thursday.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports a Pacific Junction man faces 2 counts of Child Endangerment. 33-year old Timothy Eugene Truhlicka was arrested Friday morning at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office. No other details were provided. Truhlicka was being held in the Mills County Jail on $2,000 bond.

That same day, 26-year old Amber Rose Pearson, of Pacific Junction, was arrested on a warrant charging her with 2 counts of child endangerment. She was also arrested for being a fugitive from justice. Pearson’s bond was set at $14,000.

On Saturday, Mills County deputies arrested 50-year old Ernest Leroy Runyon, of Hastings. Runyon was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault. He was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail. And early Sunday morning, 27-year old Kristen Ann Svendsen, of Bellevue, NE, was arrested on Applewood Road.  Svendsen was charged with OWI/1st offense. Her bond was set at $1,000.

Officials with the Atlantic Police Department report the arrest on Saturday, of 48-year old Floyd Johnson. The Wiota man was charged with OWI/2nd offense, and brought to the Cass County Jail.

The A-PD reports also, an Atlantic woman was cited for Failure to obey a traffic control device following an accident Friday evening near the intersection of 7th Street and Hospital Drive. Officials say a vehicle driven by Sue Bierbaum, of Atlantic, was traveling south from the HyVee parking lot, when she entered the intersection on a red light and hit an eastbound vehicle driven by Daniel Pross, of Atlantic. No injuries were reported. Damage from the accident amounted to $20,000.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Department reports the arrest last Friday night of a Cass County man. 49-year old Douglas Allen Bissell, of Atlantic, was arrested at around 11:30-p.m Friday, following an investigation into an accident that occurred on north Kilworth Street in Exira, Friday evening. Bissell faces  OWI/1st offense, and Failure to Maintain Control charges. He was brought to the Audubon County Jail and released after appearing before the magistrate.

Officials say Bissell was traveling east on Washington Street in Exira, when he made a left turn onto north Kilworth. As it continued north on Kilworth, Bissell’s 2011 Ford struck a legally parked 2002 Dodge owned by Alan Seehusen, of Exira. No injuries were reported. Damage from the crash amounted to $14,000.

One person was injured following a chase and crash in Pottawattamie County, Sunday night. Omaha television station KETV reports the chase began in Mills County and ended south of Council Bluffs, near the Lake Manawa exit.

The Iowa State Patrol said Mills County deputies began chasing an SUV near Glenwood. The driver lost control and crashed at around 11:40-p.m.  They were pulled from the vehicle and taken to a hospital for treatment of possible, critical injuries.

No other details have been released.

The State of Iowa will use a 250-thousand dollar federal grant to bolster a program that pays gas stations to install “blender” pumps that incorporate a higher percentage of corn-based ethanol in motor fuels. Most Iowa stations offer a 10 percent ethanol blend. Governor Terry Branstad says the goal is to boost usage of a 30 percent blend. “It’s my understanding that 30 percent is kind of the ‘sweet spot’ in terms of the best fuel efficiency with an ethanol blend,” Branstad says.

Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey says the expanded sale of E-30 will help Iowa maintain its leadership position in the ethanol industry. “Not only on the production side, but on the consumption side,” Northey says. E-30 is not approved for use in all vehicles, just the 10 percent of U.S. vehicles that are “flexible fuel” models. Some of the federal grant money will be used for blender pumps the dispense “bio-diesel” which features a soybean-based fuel additive.

Gas station operators and farm co-ops that sell fuel will be able to apply for the grants for blender pumps this spring. Representatives of Iowa’s petroleum and renewable fuels industries attended Governor Branstad’s news conference this morning (Monday) for the “fueling our future” program announcement. “Unlike Washington, D.C. where they’re always fighting and you have this big clash going on between ‘Big Oil’ and renewable energy, we actually have petroleum marketers and the renewable energy association cooperating here in Iowa, working together,” Branstad says. “And obviously that’s very beneficial to our economy, to our farmers and also to our environment.”

There are 41 ethanol plants in Iowa and 25 percent of the ethanol produced in the U.S. comes from Iowa. About 17 percent of the country’s biodiesel comes from the dozen biodiesel plants here.

(Radio Iowa)

The head of the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement says larger quantities of purer methamphetamine produced by Mexican drug cartels and trafficking organizations have been showing up in Iowa. Director Steve Dejoode recently briefed the Governor’s Drug Policy Advisory Council about trends in the meth trade in Iowa. He says the product offered by Mexican meth cooks now is different than what we saw from 1998 through 2006.

“The average purity level I think we were seeing then on methamphetamine was anywhere from 14 to 40-percent,” Dejoode says. “The purity levels that I’m seeing are from 98 to 100-percent.” Dejoode says the purer meth can potentially bring a higher price on the streets for dealers, and it raises concerns for those trying to combat the problem.

“It may have an impact on addiction and success of treatment potentially, and then the potential for overdose complications or death,” DeJoode explains. He says while Iowa meth labs haven’t gone away — as much as 90-percent of the drug sold in Iowa comes from across the border.

(Radio Iowa)