Readers Write (May 5): Fairview hospital, Newt Gingrich, Wal-Mart, Minneapolis, police chief, Amy Senser

I must take strong exception to D.J. Tice's April 28 commentary ("Pay up front? Be still my beating heart"). Buying a breakfast sandwich is an optional choice, but emergency care for many medical conditions is not. Medical providers have a right to expect payment for treatment given, but they should also publish upfront what they will and will not do based on patients' financial ability. Patients then can make informed decisions. These medical providers don't have the right to use a patient's medical or mental health condition to, in effect, extort money from them for care.

JOHN AGA, COTTAGE GROVE

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Tice gave a couple of examples of how hospitals could pay for patients who couldn't be "cajoled ... into paying their fair share." They included higher prices, increased insurance premiums, bigger taxes or all of the above. What about lower executive compensation? When CEOs of health care providers earn excessive salaries and those same providers try to "cajole" sick or injured people into paying upfront, I believe the priorities of said providers are a little mixed up.

NATHAN BIGBEE, BLOOMINGTON

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Amazing, isn't it? Now that the wild and bumpy ride of Newt Gingrich's bid for the White House has came to a screeching halt, so has his intolerance for Mitt Romney.

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Having worked internationally for several decades during my career, I can tell you that in some countries it would be impossible to do any business without greasing the skids. As an example: In Brazil, very little gets done without intervention. If you need a driver's license, you hire the appropriate "fixer," and the license magically appears. Importing anything without a fixer was certainly possible if you didn't mind waiting a year or so. The bottom line is that bribery was institutionalized. Of course, one never paid a bribe directly, but paid only for the services of a fixer. I agree with those who condemn the wholesale sign-off on bribery, but would caution people not be too naive about the way business gets done in other countries.

JOHN F. HETTERICK, PLYMOUTH

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Did you really think that the main headline on the April 29 Opinion Exchange cover ("Ain't no love for the heart of the city") would attract people back to the heart of the Minneapolis? What type of grammar is this anyway? Maybe your interest was in further dividing us? You could have said "Inner cities struggle to grow" or "Suburbs continue to outgrow the cities."

The inner cities simply do not offer large yards or the ability to live directly on water. We spend a lot of time outdoors. We wanted a big garden, and we like putting our canoe on the water from our own back yard. I imagine we are not the only ones who feel this way.

The heart of the city is filled with good people -- hardworking, and full of life and character. "Ain't no love" is not only improper, it's offensive.

WILL NAGLE, APPLE VALLEY

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Congratulations to Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan on his retirement ("Dolan steadied city's police force," editorial, April 28). As a business operator in north Minneapolis, I've had the opportunity to see Dolan strategically transform one of the toughest areas of the city into a much safer place to conduct commerce. He used solid, fair police practices and collaborated with business, religious and community leaders. Enjoy your retirement, chief. You deserve it.

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Why were we all waiting hour by hour for a verdict in the Amy Senser trial? Because we had all been weighing the evidence and sorting through our own emotion-tinged judgments of her actions and explanations since the trial began. I'd come to the conclusion that I could not convict her and might even believe her.

Yet her lack of courage to stop and help, her failure to come forward sooner, her unwillingness to spare her stepdaughter the scrutiny of speculation and her resistance to simply doing the right thing was hardly to be admired. And what about those deleted text messages?

With all my doubts, I still want Senser to turn into a heroine, someone noble. And she can do that. I want her to face her sentence with courage and humility, not blaming the jury, the system or the media. The verdict might appear to her to be the worst thing that could happen. But if she handles matters better now, she could earn back more respect than an acquittal ever could have given her.

LINDA SIMPKINS, VINING, MINN.

I saw on the local news that many of the jurors were in tears as the verdict was read. Save your tears. Senser will get a wrist slap of less than a year or do no time at all through the appeals process. Jurors did the right thing in convicting her. Don't loose sleep over this. You're going to be irritated with what happens next.