Obama protects bad doctors

Re "Why is Obama hiding IDs of dangerous doctors?" (Editorials, Dec. 18): An 18-year-old senior having consensual sex with his 17-year-old girlfriend can be charged with statutory rape and branded a sex offender for the rest of his life. His name is available on the Internet for the world to see.

However, doctors who in some cases have lost or settled hundreds of malpractice suits resulting in millions of dollars are having their identities protected thanks to our illustrious leader, President Obama.

Why have the National Practitioner Data Bank, which was created to track bad doctors, dentists and other health care providers, if it can't be used to identify them?

Two dumb kids vs. educated, greedy, but inept doctors. The young man (or woman) has his life in his hands. The doctor only has hundreds of lives in his incapable hands.

– Marge Ward, Fair Oaks

Catholic charities stir anger

Re "Charities shut in same-sex dispute" (Page A6, Dec. 29): The Catholic Church feels discriminated against because it will no longer receive state funds to support a charity that does not assist gays.

The Catholic Church is a large landowner but pays no property tax. The Catholic Church is a rich private entity but pays no income tax.

If the constitutional separation of church and state is real, then the Catholic Church and any other religious entity should receive no state funds until they start paying taxes. It is the height of hypocrisy to complain about not receiving government funds if you are not paying taxes.

– Bill Price, Sacramento

Keep church and state separate

Church-based charities have no business using public money to fund operations if that church discriminates against classes of people or violates state or federal laws in the use of that money.

Why is this fact, which parallels our constitutional tenet of separation of church and state, so difficult to grasp?

– Steve Cirrone, Sacramento

If not the river, then where?

Re "Homeless forced out along river" (Page A1, Dec. 29): Who are the anonymous city officials who ordered police to evict or arrest people who have nowhere legal to sleep? To what equally illegal place do they want the people to move? – Greg deGiere, Sacramento

A kind gesture in holiday rush

Good people do good things, even in the after-Christmas exchange rush. I was in Walmart. It was crowded and I was in a hurry. When I went to check out my purchases, my purse was missing.

Every thing I have read about thieves taking purses from carts came to mind. What was I to do? No wallet, no phone, no gift cards, everything gone in a flash.

The clerk was very helpful and called the office to see if it was there. That was useless. People who take purses don't turn them in.

But my purse was there. A woman and her grandson turned it in after finding it on the floor. Relief, joy and a sense that what you read about greed and dishonesty could be overstated.

– Janet Zeitman, Roseville

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