COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – A Council Bluffs emergency family shelter has been given a makeover to provide additional learning opportunities and activities to engage children and teenagers. The Daily Nonpareil reports that a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Tuesday to dedicate the children’s library at MICAH House, which includes a new hand-painted mural. The shelter’s executive director, Jaymes Sime, said the mural was painted by Allison Dethlefs during the summer.

One room at the shelter is now an educational room featuring a miniature bank, engineering lab, hospital and grocery store where children can play and learn how such facilities function. A third room has been transformed into a Teen Center outfitted with computers, where teenagers can relax, do homework, watch movies and play games.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports three, recent arrests. On Monday, deputies arrested 26-year old Marshall Brandon Fischer, of Atlantic, on a District Court warrant for Probation Violation. Fischer was taken to the Cass County Jail where he remains held on $10,000 bond.  That same day, deputies arrested 26-year old Mykel Allen Thoren, of Atlantic, on a District Court warrant for Failure to Appear and an Atlantic Police Department warrant for Theft 5th Degree. Thoren was taken to the Cass County Jail where he remains held on $10,000 bond.

And on Tuesday, Cass County deputies arrested 42-year old John Stratton Eichelberger, of Atlantic, after he turned himself in at the Cass County Sheriff’s Office on an Atlantic Police Department warrant for Simple Assault. Eichelberger was subsequently released on $300 bond.

In an update to our report Monday morning, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office today (Thursday) said a 12-year old female was injured during a rollover accident last weekend, southwest of Atlantic. The accident occurred at around 12:05-a.m. Sunday, at the curve on 582nd and White Pole Road (the AT&T curve) near Lewis. A 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan driven by 39-year old Alejandrina Lopez, of Atlantic, went out of control due to the slippery road surface. The van entered the north ditch and tipped over onto its passenger side. The juvenile female in the vehicle was transported to CCMH via Medivac.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – An appeals court says Iowa’s largest health insurer improperly refused to pay claims for expensive life-saving drugs for patients with a rare blood disease. The court ruled Tuesday that Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield searched for reasons to deny millions of dollars in claims for drugs used to treat hemophilia, an inherited condition in which patients suffer excessive bleeding.

The medicine at issue, so-called factor drugs, is injected by patients at home so they don’t bleed to death. The ruling means a judge will calculate how much Wellmark owes Iowa City pharmacist Michael Stein. Wellmark is pledging an appeal.

Stein, a provider in Wellmark’s network, dispensed the drugs to 24 patients around the country. He sued Wellmark after the company refused to reimburse him for $7 million in claims.

The recent report on the health of the state showed an issue when it comes to vaccines for older children. The Iowa Department of Public Health’s Don Callahan oversees the immunization program. “In the health ranking, the adolescent immunization rate was low in Iowa, and that’s true. We definitely have more children, more adolescents in Iowa who could be receiving vaccines,” Callahan says.

He says Iowa ranked 44th in the report that looked at three types of vaccines. He says the T-dapp vaccination for whooping cough was one, the menigicocal vaccine that prevents meningitis, and the human papillomavirus virus which can help prevent to different types of cancer. Callahan says as students move toward their teen years, they require different types of vaccinations.

“Children are required to receive vaccines when they enroll in school but these vaccines are different, these are vaccines that are recommended for adolescents,” Callahan says.”So we do pretty good in the state of Iowa regarding childhood immunizations, but we really need to focus on our efforts for immunizations for adolescents.” He says they have been trying to improve the adolescent vaccination rates.

“…A couple of years ago we implemented a T-Dap, the whooping cough vaccine for entering into secondary school. So that is providing a platform four our adolescents to receive that vaccine as well as menigicocal and the H-P-V vaccine,” according to Callahan. You can learn more about Iowa and the 2015 America’s Health Rankings report at: www.americashealthrankings.org.

(Radio Iowa)