To be clear, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has not recommended certain weight reduction drugs to State Health Plan customers.

Recently I had to be hospitalized at WakeMed because of a sudden cardiac condition. My care was exemplary. The bed was luxurious. The equipment was state of the art. I am grateful for all of this.

Regarding your Feb. 6 editorial "Parents speak": Using the survey you quoted as evidence of the satisfaction of Wake County families with the public school system is ludicrous.

Regarding the Feb. 5 article "In-home services go over budget": Medicaid's Personal Care Services program is slated to be cut by nearly 50 percent without regards to effect on the individual receiving care.

In Rick Martinez's Feb. 3 column ("Debt's demands"), he argued that the national debt is rising uncontrollably. How does he propose to deal with it? Reducing spending will send our country into a death spiral of high unemployment.

It is unfortunate that your Feb. 4 news article "Perdue: SEANC speaks for state workers" devoted so much space to opponents of workers' rights and their same, tired arguments.

On Jan. 4.

So, Wake County is proposing to close the library in Garner. A library that serves the needs of many people south of the capital, some of whom are low-income. However, the county will maintain libraries in other, more affluent areas.

Regarding your Feb. 5 editorial suggesting that gays should be allowed to serve openly in our military: I served in the Air Force for 25 years. Gays were quickly discharged. Some gays were harmed. Quick separation was therefore essential.

A Feb. 5 letter about bus service at the Raleigh Amtrak station said: "Disembarking, a passenger finds a telephone number to summon a bus that may arrive within the next hour.

I think it is unwise and shortsighted to sacrifice the utility and appropriateness of building the proposed Clarence Lightner public safety complex to ideological idolatry. Raleigh is going to need the center.

Letter-writers Jan. 29 were right to object to your disappointing coverage of the president's State of the Union address with an Associated Press analysis that could have been crafted by Fox News. Your headline and photo cutline just added to the insult.

There has been much news that many prison inmates are now eligible for release due to having met requirements of laws in effect at time of their sentencing for capital offenses.

In his Jan. 28 column "The logic of free speech," George Will ignored any mention of the four dissenting justices in the matter of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

The Supreme Court decision allowing corporate money to take over political campaign messages might push our democratic process over the edge of the abyss on which it has long teetered.

I applaud the retrospective view of the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro sit-in that Jack Betts provided in his Feb. 2 column.

I had to laugh at Michelle Obama telling our local CEO that she had to sit still and no yawning if she was to sit next to Mrs. Obama at the State of the Union speech.