A caller objects to a sentence in a story yesterday about Nick Jordan, who won 76 percent of the vote in the primary for Kansas' 3rd U.S. House District.  The story referred to "a conservative who got a free ride in the primary like Nick Jordan did this year."

"It makes it sound like he didn't even have to campaign, like he was running unopposed," said the reader.  "I think that term sounds very disparaging, regardless of who it's applied to. I've always thought of a 'free ride' going to someone who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth, but here he had an opponent, Paul Showen, who could have possibly run."

Many of the events in this year's Beijing Olympics will pose a big problem for morning newspapers in North America. 

The time-zone differential means that a lot of what goes on will take place early in the day -- meaning that people will know the big results du jour long before going to bed.

How should a newspaper cover the games then, in this increasingly plugged-in world?  There won't be much surprise in news that's almost 24 hours old.  Of course KansasCity.com will keep things updated and fresh, but the paper can't in the same way.

The Star's Joe Posnanski and Mechelle Voepel are both in Beijing to cover the Olympics, and The Star's Dave Eulitt is one of 12 taking photographs for McClatchy.  Should they focus on more analysis, then?  What's the balance?

A super-nice caller pointed out something that The Star doesn't keep straight: Where does Democratic AG Chris Koster candidate live?  Recent stories have said both Harrisonville and Raymore, both in Cass County.

Jeff City correspondent Jason Noble points out that Koster identifies Raymore as his residence on his questionnaire for the Jackson County Committee for County Progress.  The paper needs to be more consistent on this one.

A reader e-mailed this morning with his objections to Sunday's Glenn McCoy cartoon, which depicted Barack Obama kissing a woman labeled "Press."

The reader thought the cartoon racist because the "Press" figure is white, and asked The Star to drop him from its roster.

Hrm.  I don't usually bring things up just to disagree with them, but I have to say that I don't get this at all.  Frankly, I think it's racist to imply that Obama should be depicted only with, what, a biracial woman, I guess.

Am I off base?

A reader asks why he can't find "Weird News" in today's or yesterday's FYI sections.

That's because, well -- it was accidentally left off the pages.  I've alerted the Features department about the omission.

Since the launch of The Star's Sprint Connection blog, I've heard a somewhat bewildering range of reactions from readers about it.

"It's nothing but bashing Sprint all the time," said one caller recently.

But another writes that "the language the writer uses does nothing but make Sprint look good."

When I read it, I see positive and negative -- though obviously every person brings something different to it.

Sprint is the largest employer in the metro area, so I think it's only natural that the paper should report on it closely.  But is the balance off in Sprint Connection?  That's up to you.

Multiple readers felt today's Page A-1, which featured a story about comedian Stephen Colbert's mock-insults of Canton, Kan. was too much at the top of the page.

"Who cares what a cable comedy show host says?" asked one.

I'm with the readers here.  Colbert might be funny to some, but his audience is a niche -- and one that a lot of journalists fall into.  He parodies blowhard political commentators.  You have to be invested in that world to appreciate him (and it especially helps if you're critical of his largely conservative targets). 

I thought the story was just fine, and pretty funny.  But it was overplayed here.

Alan Hoskins has circulated a press release about the fate of dogs at the soon-to-close Woodlands race track.  It quotes Bryce Peckham, Animal Health Officer for the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission, saying the dogs will not put down, but will instead all be placed in new homes.

Fine.  However, the press release contains a categorically false statement about a July 26 story that appeared on Page A-1 of The Star:

"Peckham was particularly irate about a remark made in The Kansas City Star by one person close to the track who said 'some dogs would be killed.'"

A reader is extremely upset at today's story about using DNA to solve property crimes.  She fears it will clue burglars in to what police might be able to use to find them later.

"You don't give a criminal instructions on evading detection," she said.  "Why would you let them know if they leave a cigarette butt behind or a bite out of some food, that might be a way to catch them?  It was excellent for reading, but I am concerned about the public safety aspect of this information."

I just ran some numbers on how many published corrections The Star has run this year.  As of July 31, there have been 255 in 2008, versus 304 for the same period last year.

That's a good direction -- but it doesn't mean it couldn't be better, either.