When the Davenport Museum of Art brought in Lauren Greenfield's Girl Culture exhibit in 2003, it was the institution's boldest exhibit to-date. A venue not known for being confrontational showcased Greenfield's high-gloss photographs with their blunt, distressing messages about the status of girls and women in the world.

This fall, the DMA's descendant, the Figge Art Museum, will be getting edgy again, but in an entirely different way. In addition to the current show of landscape photography (on display through October 8) and an upcoming display of African-American quilts (November 18 through February 11), the Figge will have two exhibits that are likely to alternately unsettle, excite, and confound audiences. And even the landscape and quilt shows break some boundaries.

Now is as good a time as any to remind ourselves of the community issues that still need constant vigilance and nonnegotiable accountability. City Administrator Craig Malin figures prominently in this, as do the city council (both collectively and individually) and department heads.

If a city-related problem exists, there is a general protocol to follow. Contact your alderman so that he or she can delegate it to City Administrator Malin and to the appropriate department head(s). Requests from individual aldermen cannot legitimately be negated, refuted, or denied by the mayor or other aldermen. Each alderman is considered an employer of City Administrator Malin, department heads, and all city staff.

St. Ambrose has become the first credentialed physical-therapy residency program in Iowa - and one of only 12 orthopedic residency programs in the country. The status was conferred by the American Physical Therapy Association. Offered in collaboration with Rock Valley Physical Therapy, the Orthopedic Physical Therapy Residency Program is a post-professional experience providing employment and clinical mentoring, upper-level academic and continuing-education classes, and teaching opportunities in a defined area of specialty practice. The residency program is the latest addition to the SAU Doctor of Physical Therapy Program and promotes standards of quality and consistency in the teaching and practice of physical therapy. For more information, contact the physical-therapy department at (563) 333-6403 or go to (http://www.sau.edu/pt).

"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."