I got quite an earful from a reader this morning who was pointing out what she thinks is a grammatical mistake in a story in today's paper. (It was really a very common colloquialism that many linguists would argue has become its own new term.)

My caller was awfully upset that The Star "would print something that sounds like a hillbilly or some other uneducated moron would say."

A caller just now brought up a topic that's been a constant at my lines through the years: The number and size of photographs in the print edition of The Star.

Longtime readers will recall that I've devoted quite a bit of space to debates over the more visually-oriented redesign that debuted back in 2006. Editors' and designers' goal was to create a more colorful and dynamic newspaper than many seen in the U.S.

Two readers today have praised the objectivity of a wire story today about the few surprises in his recently-released tax data. However, they also pointed to one detail they found extraneous and biased.

Not a reader concern, but my own: Today's print edition runs the corrections on Page A3. Nothing wrong with that, as sometimes the space dictates it, especially when the column is on the long side.

The problem is that there isn't the note on Page A2 that usually points to them when they run elsewhere. I think it's very important to keep this consistent. Readers should always know where to look for the corrections.

Callers in recent days have asked why The Star and KansasCity.com seem to have dropped the ball on news about two people in the news in recent months.

Late last summer, Mayor Sly James' son Kyle C. James turned himself in to police, where he was booked and charged with assault for a disturbance in the Westport area.

I just got off the phone with a caller whose bookmark for The Star's "Prime Buzz" blog was giving him odd results -- stories listed out of order, and some links to content that don't work.

That's because the old "Prime Buzz" is no longer. It's been incorporated into the new Midwest Democracy site, which will combine content similar to the old "Prime Buzz" in collecting political coverage throughout the upcoming election season.

An interesting point to ponder: Should The Star give voice to laypeople who cast doubt on overwhelming scientific consensus?

The question relates specifically to today's story about debate in a Kansas legislative committee over whether the state should allow parents to opt out of what are now mandatory vaccinations.

Here's one where I'm not getting the same impression about a story as a reader -- but I'm willing to allow that it's one of the more subjective types of calls I deal with.

A caller today told me she was "very offended by the obvious bias the article about using technology in the classroom showed toward (Notre Dame de) Sion."

"This is the equivalent of an ad for Sion and is totally unfair to the other Catholic schools in town," she continued. "This is not an innovation."

I spoke to a caller earlier this morning who was pretty upset that nobody was answering the phone in the Sports department at approximately 8:40 a.m.

I pointed out the note at the bottom of the second page of every Sports Daily section that asks people to call after 5 p.m. That's because many staffers at newspapers -- particularly those who cover sports events, which happen primarily in the evening -- work much later hours than the 9-to-5 workday.

Email is always the best way to contact anyone, obviously, because there are no time constraints.

I had a conversation with a reader about a fundamental of photojournalism recently -- and it made me realize how poorly those in the news business communicate some of those basic tenets to their audiences.

The caller was concerned by the photograph that ran on the front page of the Jan. 13 paper to illustrate that day's centerpiece story on Kan. Gov. Sam Brownback's new tax plan proposal, part of which would eliminate the home mortgage interest deduction.