A criticism from a caller this morning about the front-page story about letters written by Scott Roeder, who is accused of killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller:
"I believe Scott Roeder is nothing but a cold-blooded murderer, and he's getting exactly what he wanted by The Kansas City Star giving him all this attention," said the caller. "He wanted to make this big statement, get all the publicity, and your paper made it happen."
Several readers have contacted me about Sunday's Page A-1 story about the International House of Prayer on Red Brige Road.
"Enough about a church on the front page," said one caller. "That's what you have a religion section for on Saturdays. I wish to register my disapproval for having to see about a religious order in my Sunday paper."
After this, I promise you won't see the word "comics" here for quite some time. But I do need to answer three questions I've heard quite a bit.
The reader survey the Features department conducted to identify some of readers' least-favorite comics has been closed for a few weeks. It generated many thousands of responses.
However, as I wrote before, the results of a group of volunteer respondents aren't really valid market research, and choosing the comics is in no way a democratic process. The comics selection is edited, just like everything else in the paper.
A reader asks why there are two columns by Mary Sanchez in today's print edition.
Mary has two separate assignments. She writes a column for The Star, focusing largely on local issues. This one usually runs Mondays and Thursdays in the Local section.
A caller has a very good question about mentions of the recent Supreme Court ruling on a discrimination case involving firefighters in New Haven, Conn.
Today's column in the Local section by Mary Sanchez refers to the "white New Haven firefighters."
But what about Lt. Ben Vargas, one of the plaintiffs, who is Puerto Rican?
Several readers have had comments on my Sunday column about objections I've heard to The Star's publishing diary entries by Gloria Squitiro.
This time, though, I've heard much more from people who think the diaries were news and should have been reported. As one caller said:
A reader sent me the photo above of her copy of today's Page A-9. If she hadn't shared it with me, I'd have never known this problem existed.
Last night, come copies of the paper came off the presses with three legs of type missing from the "Public Safety" column. I asked one of the overnight editors what happened, and he told me it was some kind of a computer glitch, obviously.
Some readers have objected to The Star's ongoing coverage of the diary of Gloria Squitiro, wife of KC Mayor Mark Funkhouser. They object particularly to The Star's publishing (edited) entries from the journal.
"It is a grotesque violation of privacy, as far as I see it," said one caller. "I don't know if you've ever kept a diary yourself, but how would you feel if someone found it and put it out there for everyone to read?"
A caller makes a very fair point about today's Page A-1 story on the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonya Sotomayor. Some of the questioning in the hearing focused on this remark she made in 2001:
"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life."
A reader makes a very good point about the ongoing coverage about former City Hall mayoral aide Ruth Bates' lawsuit against Mayor Mark Funkhouser and his wife Gloria Squitiro.
The reader says she follows the developments with some attention, but she doesn't read everything The Star publishes about it. Today's story was confusing to her because she couldn't remember several details about the suit, including what Bates was asking for as a settlement.
