"Part D" is a Medicare prescription-drug benefit that began this year to save many senior citizens thousands of dollars, but millions of people will soon enter the "doughnut hole" in which they get no coverage.

At an Iowa Citizen Action Network press conference concerning Part D earlier this summer, retired Davenport senior and Part D activist Jim Hughes said, "This is a hoax, this health-care industry" about the gap in coverage between $2,250 and $5,100 where seniors and disabled people pay for 100 percent of their drug costs. This gap is referred to as the "doughnut hole."

On Native Soil made its debut Monday evening, August 21, on Court TV. It is a documentary hosted by Kevin Costner and Hilary Swank on the grassroots efforts of 9/11 victims' families and loved ones to hold the United States government accountable for the tragedy that changed our nation forever.

The film acknowledges in no small measure that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda are clearly the mass murderers responsible for the deaths of thousands on 9/11. But their evil was perpetrated because of the aggregate failure of our government on many levels, including failed policy and preparedness as reported in the 9/11 Commission's final report, but mostly "a failure of imagination."

An effort to restore a sedge meadow is underway at Nahant Marsh. The Friends of Nahant, along with landscape designer Alec Schorg (of Aunt Rhodie's Landscaping & Design Studio) and several community volunteers counted plants two Sundays in July and August. The counting is the first step in a vegetation survey in a meadow located at the northern edge of the marsh. The sedge is a rare reed-like grass with a solid stem. There are at least three species of sedge in the meadow. The sedges are competing with reed canary grass, an invasive plant that is taking over much of the four-acre meadow. The survey is designed to help decide which management techniques (mowing, burning, spraying) will work best to manage this land. The meadow restoration is part of a revised management plan at the marsh. In addition to the meadow, efforts are moving forward to extend the trail, hire a naturalist, and enclose the observation deck as a handicapped-accessible observation blind.

It's nearly college football season, which means Iowa fans can look forward to another Top 25 squad, and Illinois fans can pray for respectability and then look forward to basketball season.

But maybe avid boosters ought to consider their own critical role in the ills of college athletics. Namely, they ought to recognize that they're supporting of the exploitation of college-sports stars. (Full disclosure: As a University of Illinois graduate and fan, I'm part of the problem.)