code: def read_shapefile(fname, region_col=None, **kwargs):
      
      gdf = gpd.read_file(fname, **kwargs)
      if region_col is not None:
          gdf = gdf.rename(columns={region_col: 'region'})
      if 'region' not in gdf.columns:
          raise IOError('Must provide a region column')
      gdf['region'] = gdf['region'].str.upper()
      return gdf
docs: Read a shapefile for use in regional plots. Shapefiles must have a
      column denoted as "region".
  
      Parameters
      ----------
      fname : string
          path to shapefile to be read by geopandas
      region_col : string, default None
          if provided, rename a column in the shapefile to "region"