We recently received a number of complaints about our decision to publish a story (Wednesday, Sept. 17) about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama backing a plan to clean up the Great Lakes. The story was not the issue, callers complained because we published it on the bottom of the obituary page.

This is not intended to be a slight to the candidate, and is, in fact, a compliment. The obituary page is a "high traffic" page. Studies have shown that it is one of the best-read pages in the newspaper. Many of our readers turn regularly to the obituary page and, for that reason, the Obama story on that page ensures that it had good exposure.

We should also point out that stories about the state, nation, world and politics regularly run on the obituary page. Several stories about GOP presidential candidate John McCain have appeared in the past on this page.