House of Cards

Mountain Knolls, a federally-subsidized housing project that has offered relatively spacious apartments to low-income tenants for more than 20 years, is now set in one of the fasting growing parts of town. And the new owners of Mountain Knolls is cashing in on that change. Low-income tenants have until the end of November to pack up and move.

• by Malcolm Howard

Panel to confront public-health enemy #1

As the battle over the right to bear arms rages on, an upcoming panel discussion at Centennial Hall will explore the effects of guns, not only on our culture, but on our health.

• by Cara DeGette

White supremacists come home to the Springs

A rash of anti-minority hate posters slapped up on telephone polls downtown - and illegally inserted into copies of the Independent - have some in the city wondering if Colorado Springs is home to a new, well-organized, white hate group. The answer: probably not.

• by Malcolm Howard

Triple Play

If Terrence McNally's name is not a household word yet, you may be living in the wrong house. McNally has won four Tony awards in five years, and you couldn't ask for a better playwright to open this year's fourth annual Gay and Lesbian Theater Festival.

• by Owen Perkins

Writing Wrongs

The newest study by the National Assessment of Educational Progress reveals that only 25 percent of American kids write at their grade level. But the report did contain contained hope and solutions -- including the recommendation that kids should use computers.

• by Donna Ladd

City should stand up for affordable housing

There is perhaps no better proof that the free market doesn't magically solve all ills than the affordable housing crunch now facing Colorado Springs (see "House of Cards," our cover story). It's time that city leaders recognize this reality and dedicate the money necessary to help leverage private and federal funds needed to build and maintain affordable housing in our growing city.

Marc Sawtelle

Meet Marc, whose 419.6 pound pumpkin recently won the Pumpkin-thon, an annual fundraiser for Silver Key.

• by Kathryn Eastburn

IQ: The advantages of living in Colorado Springs

Every week, the Independent takes to the streets, in search of your opinion on the latest, breaking news.

• by Matthew Fullen

Budget time for the city

Once again, it's October. And although that may not mean much to sensible folks, it means a lot to the nine ample egos who occupy the equally ample chairs at the City Council dais. It's budget time, and our pitifully underpaid Councilmembers will have to work for their miserable stipends.

• by John Hazlehurst

The wages of growth

The latest "executive fax" from the Greater Colorado Springs Economic Development Corporation, designed to inform "leaders" in the area, tells those in charge what those not in charge already know: a nickel's worth of wages will get you a penny in the Pikes Peak region.

• by Kathryn Eastburn

Home Is Where the Truffles Grow

When Rossano Bossi settled in Colorado Springs, he decided to bring the food of the Italian Piemonte region to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. A few months ago, Bossi opened an Italian gourmet deli in the shadow of Cheyenne Mountain, in the new Safeway shopping center at the intersection of Highway 115 and South Academy. A few visits there and all I can say is, I'm ready for a trip to Piemonte -- and thank goodness I don't need a jet plane to get there.

• by Kathryn Eastburn

The Straight Edge of Vegans

Veganism is an Ism with a capital I: a belief system around which diet and daily life choices are constructed and followed out in great detail. But for those who've chosen the vegan lifestyle but find its constraints too limiting, there is a way out.

• by Brennen Florey

2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten

Thriving on the success of "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," Williams is gradually losing her anonymity as one of the best unknown artists of her day.

• by Owen Perkins

Tom Waits' "Mule Variations"

Waits is serving up his recipe of soup-kitchen spirituality, juxtaposing pared-down primitive percussive grooves with lyrics that alternate between simplified fill-in-the-blank zipper songs and gritty images that fuse together in moments of eloquence.

• by Owen Perkins

The Playlist

The Independent offers up reviews of Leftover Salmon's "The Nashville Sessions" and Mandy Moore's "So Real."

• by Owen Perkins and Kristen Sherwood

Playing Around: Hash Brown

This week we highlight Hash Brown who will be performing with the local New Mules at the Jos Muldoons, Thursday, Oct. 7, 9:30 p.m.

• by Kristen Sherwood

Stars Over Iraq

Bold, adventurous and in-your-face, "Three Kings" brings to mind Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H" for its brash irreverence, and Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocaplyse Now" for its stylistic filmmaking, though it is not as great as either of those films.

• by Kathryn Eastburn

Keep the Dream Alive

You can never have too many David and Goliath tales, even of the sports genre. And "Mystery, Alaska" is a worthy addition to the genre.

• by Andrea Lucard

The Wannabe Yuppie

As long as there is new money, there will be belly laughs to spare at the expense of Moliere's Monsieur Jourdain, the title character in "The Bourgeois Gentilhomme," whose enduring comic escapades as the wannabe gentleman give some much-needed insight into that elusive French sense of humor that baffled the world for centuries, even before Jerry Lewis.

• by Owen Perkins

Contemporary Classics

"The only thing I hear dancers say about my work is that they are scared to death," said Ronen Koresh, choreographer and artistic director of the jazzy, Philadelphia-based Koresh Dance Company, who brings his company to the Pikes Peak Center on Friday, Oct. 8. His name and intensity may remind you of the Branch Davidian leader, but put David out of your head -- this guy expects your complete attention.

• by Tess Powers

Event Listings

If there's something going on, we've got it listed here.

Seven Days

What's happenin' this week in the big city -- highlights from our listings.

• by Kristen Sherwood