Sunday, May 19, 2013
News
Trapped
After the Colorado Springs Police Department reassigned 29 officers in April 2007 to answer calls for service instead of working traffic, revenue from traffic tickets has plummeted, and it's not likely to bounce back.
End of the road
"It's almost like a dream. It's almost hard to believe."
If not here, where?
"If they clean out the camps, where are they going to go?"
LandCo's legacy
Questions are once again nagging the city's U.S. Olympic Committee retention deal, now that a grand jury has indicted Ray Marshall and James Brodie of LandCo Equity Partners on 33 felony counts.
Noted: County foreclosures decline
Also: Marijuana support, Merrifield ready to run, reform bill hurts women and more.
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Long story short
Just when the city thinks it's in the clear on its controversial U.S. Olympic Committee deal, it gets another pie in the face.
Columns
Tug-of-war for the museum
The Colorado Springs City Council and El Paso County Board of Commissioners have had their differences, but in a special joint meeting, they had only one item on the agenda: saving the Pioneers Museum.
Beware of all the rats
I've actually been thinking about and preparing this column on rats for several weeks, and I will now pause for all of you to say, "Oh yeah, it sure looks like it."
Two tales of 3-9 coaches
Sunday afternoon, a head coach of a struggling major-college football program was fired after suffering through a 3-9 season. Though a few of those losses were close, and others came to teams ranked in the national polls, that didn't matter.
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Letters
Rider's perspective on city buses, making money off the churches, questioning local focus and more.
IQ: You shouldn't have ...
For a touch of sanity with your holiday shopping, take a cue from these folks.
Demonization of marijuana winding down
For most people, "reefer madness" no longer refers to the ridiculous 1936 fright movie, but to the insane cost of criminalizing a weed that does far less damage than alcohol.
Reform's fine print matters
Remarkably it seems that there are some small yet significant benefits included for gays in the landmark comprehensive health care reform bill that passed the House last month.
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Advice Goddess
Three's a crowd, even if one of you is dead.
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Stranger than fiction
All the weird news that's fit to print.
Food & Drink
Grinders, no gab
Even if customers dining at the counter have a large flat-screen to watch, the standoffishness needs to change.
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Side dish
New pizza parlor, Vietnamese menu makeover, Wine & Swine Tasting and more.
Music
Shine on brightly
McBride is no stranger to success, but she began to realize her recently released album, Shine, was something different after some early feedback from her father.
Trance-Europe express
Five years after being described by Rolling Stone as "Air without irony," Zero 7's Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker are still amazed by the persistence of comparisons to the French electronica duo.
Steady as he goes
It's a different Pete Yorn who made the new album, Back & Fourth, than the one who made its predecessors. And nobody knows that better than Yorn himself.
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Big gigs
Upcoming concerts here and around the region.
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Playing around listings
Who's playing where, and when, at area venues for the next week.
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Reverb
I thought I'd treat you to a special little ride in the Adam Leech wayback machine, to my interview with AFI — way before AFI stood for "A Fire Inside" and way, way before the members became spokesmen for sulky tweenage outcasts.
We All Have Hooks for Hands
"Some of us were self-taught musicians, so we don't really have an idea of how to write stuff, like how you're supposed to. So everything is kind of a natural occurrence of how we feel."
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Sound Advice
Lady GaGa, The Chesterfield Kings, David Bowie
Film
Things fall apart
A powerful film that represents the stress fractures pulling apart many military families.
Just another good fella
Everybody's Fine is exactly the kind of role that Robert De Niro doesn't need right now, one so low-key and inoffensive that he doesn't seem to know how to play it.
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Opening this week
Armored, Brothers, Transylmania and more.
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Cinefiles
Paper Heart, Four Christmases, Fight Club: 10th Anniversary Edition
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Movie picks
Our reviewers' recommendations for films playing around the area.
Visual Arts
Stuff it
Leonard's The Story of Stuff, is an entertaining tale of global production and consumption patterns, and their connections to larger social and environmental issues.
Stage
Werewolves of Little London
"There is some truth to the rumor that the holidays are fatal for the theater ... this play is an alternative to, or maybe an antidote for, the holiday season."
Our town, revisited
Originally staged and produced in 2007, the show offers an unbiased snapshot of Colorado Springs and its relationship with evangelical Christianity during the time of Ted Haggard's ousting from New Life Church.
Calendar
Special Section
Best Of 2009 wrapup
The party happened just two nights ago, but the blackmail materials are already in.
Pugs, pipes and plate armor
As you look for local shopping options this holiday season, consider swinging by a few of these places. Whether more into venison or vacuums, your gift-list beneficiaries wouldn't want it any other way.
Unexpected Gift Guide '09
So you don't want to suffer through the mall for your holiday shopping ... but who's got the time to find those nooks and crannies? In keeping with Independent tradition, a couple of us interns humbly answer: I guess we do.
Secondhand chance
If you're shopping this season, you're probably not looking first and foremost for atmosphere. You're looking for deals. And chances are, if you stop into any pawn shop on your way to the mall, you'll find a good one.
Redefining rogue
Why not buy your friends and loved ones books for the holidays? Books are cheap, and if things get desperate, they make great kindling once the power gets turned off!
