Springs police ask for audit

Spy files cited in request

• by John Dicker and Terje Langeland

Affordable housing or double dipping?

The state of affordable housing in Colorado Springs depends on your definition of affordable.

• by John Dicker

We're just getting started

A decade ago, when we launched the Independent, my dad toasted our staff with: "Go forth, have fun, do good and make money -- in that order." I am pleased to report that we have done all three.

• by John Weiss

X!

As you undoubtedly know by now, The Colorado Springs Independent is just a few years away from its teeny-bopper years. Yes, we're 10 years old and hosting a birthday bash to celebrate our pre-early-adolescence with the entire community this Friday downtown in Alamo Square Park outside the Pioneers Museum.

• by Noel Black

Keeping an eye on things

Local leaders like to hail Colorado Springs as a "World Class City," but in reality it's a mad, mad, mad, mad town.

• by Cara DeGette

Tickling the ivories

So you think you've got what it takes to be a famous pianist, if only you had the time? Well, now you've got some company.

• by Joe Kuzma

Predictions of things to come

Admit it: You never thought we'd make it, did you? You never thought that the scrappy little 24-page tabloid with the unreadable fonts, weird layouts and lefty editorial rants could survive for more than a couple of months, did you?

• by John Hazlehurst

IQ: Long, strange trip

When the Independent launched its first issue in the fall of 1993, Bob Isaac was mayor and Colorado for Family Values and anti-tax activist Douglas Bruce were the local media's darling.

• by Bob Campbell and Lola Garcia

Bus, sweet bus

By the time Heather Malberg was 25, she had worked 32 jobs. She had never gotten fired, but along the way learned a lot about herself, and especially what she didn't want to do.

• by Kenneth Wajda

A world of words

When I was 7, I wrote a story about the adventures of a doorknob who rolled himself around a house.

• by Kathryn Eastburn

Gastronomic improvements

In a brave new world crowded with look-alike business parks, convenience centers, gated communities and shopping malls, restaurants are a refuge.

• by Kathryn Eastburn

Playing Around: Cerulean City

Cerulean City formed in Brooklyn, N.Y., last year, and are now well on their way into their second year.

• by Noel Black

Uplifted

My film-reviewing partner, John Dicker, calls it nature porn. But hey, the kid's from New York; what does he know?

• by Kathryn Eastburn

Guild bid to benefit area musicians

The Colorado Springs Symphony Guild announced Saturday that it has bought the music library of the now-defunct Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra for $101,000 at an auction held last week in Denver.

• by Noel Black

Gallery of Contemporary Art faces budget crisis

The Gallery of Contemporary Art at UCCS is facing major budget cuts that will likely affect the quality of its shows, said gallery director and curator Gerry Riggs.

• by Noel Black

Talkin' trash

Here's a funny coincidence for you: Two theaters in this midsized city put on two interconnected one-act plays within six weeks of one another -- one with an entirely male cast, the other with an entirely female cast.

• by Andrea Lucard

Return of the native

Colorado Springs native Kent Nelson's latest novel, Land That Moves, Land That Stands Still, is the muscular, moving story of the hard-wrought lives of three women running a 4,000-acre ranch on the high plains of South Dakota.

• by Kathryn Eastburn

We're Ten!

Quotable Quotes

10 Republicans who've kept us in business

Don't blame us -- you elected them

• by Cara DeGette

Where are they now:

Staff of life

Introduction

Stories with legs

• by Cara DeGette

History Repeats itself

10 years at City Hall

• by Cara DeGette

School House Rocks

The Independent goes to class

Earth First

10 years on the environmental beat

10 Cover Stories That Count

The cover story is the centerpiece of the Independent. We looked through 10 years worth of covers and chose the 10 that we felt best illustrated the breadth, depth and impact a solid cover story can pack.