The Green Team

The Green Party and their new found labor union and Reform pals got together last weekend in Denver and decided that Al Gore and George W. Bush make them want to Ralph. It may not be a sleeper of a presidential election year after all.

• by Cara DeGette

The budding party

With a common theme of ecological wisdom, grassroots democracy, social justice and peace and nonviolence, the Greens are organized as a political party, or movement in some form, in 95 countries on every continent.

• by Cara DeGette

Collecting delinquent child support a deadbeat effort in El Paso County

With El Paso County rated the worst county in Colorado for enforcing child support collection, and with Colorado rated one of the worst states in the country, the heat is on the Board of County Commissioners to turn things around.

• by Bob Campbell

Slip Slidin' Away

City Councils recent approval of back-to-back agenda items one to approve building more houses on a dormant landslide and the other to pay off homeowners whose dwellings have recently slid into oblivion suggests the shaping of a two-headed monster.

• by Bob Campbell

The Outsider

Colorado Springs is, to use that wonderful military euphemism, a "target-rich environment."

• by John Hazlehurst

What I'd ask the candidates

I've often toyed with what questions I would ask candidates running for national office to gauge their values, priorities, introspectiveness, and candor. After much consideration, here's what I'd ask them.

• by Jim Terr

Nancy Wellborn

Ethereal yet earthy, instructive yet playful, Nancy Wellborn contradicts contradiction. Through art, healing, and "spiritual gardening," she seeks to repair the illusory separation between the material and spiritual worlds, between humanity and Nature.

• by Rebekah Shardy

Gardening Daze

No garden is ever done, not until were "done." In the meantime, I'm making new gardens, re-thinking old ones, my roots digging deeper into these soils, rocky remnants of ancient oceans.

• by Laura Spear

IQ: The Age of Apathy

Folks, I am one of the members of the high school graduating class of 2000. Most of us who are a part of "Generation Y" were born and have lived under three presidents: Reagan, Bush and Clinton. None of us even have the satisfaction of being disappointed about having once had a fine leader standing in the front of our country and now having a putz for a president.

• by Matthew Fullen

WWJD ASAP

Heart bypass

This weekly feature is designed to provide a follow-up to stories which originally appeared in the Independent's news pages.

Red, White and Green

Last weekend I found myself blessedly deprived of a car for two whole days so I finally harvested this summer's first crop of arugula and radishes. My weekend turned into a green and red kitchen orgy, a veritable Martha Stewart orgasm.

• by Kathryn Eastburn

Rhu-Tang Clan

I don't know about your neighborhood, but every spring it seems our neck of town is awash in rhubarb. So here are a few suggestions that will allow you to at least make a dent in your supply (or that of your neighbors should you know someone with a patch).

• by Malcolm Howard

Ritual on the Rocks

The Samples did it. Big Head Todd and the Monsters did it. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band did it. Even Dan Fogelberg did it. Its a rite of passage for Colorado bands. And now its the String Cheese Incidents turn.

• by Owen Perkins

Beneath the Sonar

Some offerings from SuperEgo Records, Not Lame Records, and Bohemian National, among other upstart labels, prove well worth the hunt.

• by Michael Salkind

Playing Around: Sons of Cream

This week we highlight Sons of Cream, who will be performing at the Tres Hombres on Friday night.

• by Kathryn Eastburn

Minorpiece Theater

As much as director Phillip Haas might have gotten the 1930s period costumes and cars correct, as strong as the performances were by Sean Penn and Kristen Scott Thomas, as delightful as the film may be for Italophiles, ultimately Up at the Villa only provokes second-rate nostalgia.

• by Andrea Lucard
• Tags: Reviews, R, Phillip Haas, Sean Penn and Kristin Scott Thomas, Historical Fiction

Rebel Hubbub

The Patriot is a concept movie surprisingly similar to director Ridley Scott's Gladiator. The two movies uncomfortably meet in establishing a 21st-century breed of spectacle enhanced, historically referenced, yet impure grand-scale films trapped inside a dead-end capsule of Spielberg-infected dramatic flatness.

• by Cole Smithey
• Tags: Reviews, R, Ridley Scott, Mel Gibson and Jason Isaacs, Action, Historical

Moody Blues

Often, fiction about rural, blue-collar life is male-based; macho and rugged. Maureen Gibbon, in her debut novel Swimming Sweet Arrow, turns this recent tradition on its head by giving us the female point of view.

• by Michael Salkind

Blow to the Head

Can we like a character who has the emotional fuse of a sociopath? Adam Berlin, in his debut novel Headlock, answers this literary question, oddly, in the affirmative.

• by Michael Salkind

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