By BRIAN BETHEL, Scripps Howard News Service

Medicare will cover more preventive services this year and seniors who are on the drug plan can look forward to a price break in the program's infamous "doughnut hole," a gap in prescription drug coverage.

Among the major changes for 2012:

ABILENE, Texas - To Cheryl Moore, co-owner of the Stephenville Cattle Co. sales barn here, when horse slaughter ceased in the United States five years ago, legislators took an entire industry hostage.

"They held us captive to foreign countries -- Mexico and Canada," she said.

To Betty McLoughlin, learning about Medicare fraud is a necessary evil.

Newly announced GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry is finding himself in the spotlight over the cooperative education and scientific agreements Texas has forged with the Aga Khan, the leader of a Shia Muslim sect.

A new study suggests that taking the painkiller acetaminophen during pregnancy may increase the risk of asthma in children.

SNYDER, Texas - There's an alien conspiracy afoot at the Snyder Police Department, at least on the NBC television show "The Event."

The town, or at least a fictional facsimile, has played a prominent role in the program's recent story line, with action aplenty at a Hollywood representation of the Snyder Police Department.

While health care pundits debate over when women should have mammograms, 2,000 men diagnosed with breast cancer this year are in the shadows.

One of them is Marshall Anderson, 52, who works as a medical technologist with Texas Oncology in North Carolina. He takes care of parents all day, but never imagined that he would be diagnosed with breast cancer.

ABILENE, Texas - Nonprofit organizations -- from food banks and the arts community to churches and hospice centers -- have largely been left out of the debate over health care reform, advocates say.

That is the conclusion of Tim Delaney, president and chief executive officer of the National Council of Nonprofit Associations.

After being lost for eight days on an unforgiving Gulf of Mexico, James Phillips now finds himself in an equally strange place.

On his way to New York City on Monday afternoon to appear on CBS' early morning news show, Phillips admitted in a phone interview that his newfound celebrity status is not the sort one fantasizes about.

Beneath arena lights and the occasional cloud of West Texas dust, a team of ropers chases down a calf, which is flipped and tied with impressive speed.Cheers erupt, a time is given, competition continues and the scene is repeated again and again -- with varying degrees of success.