One of the best things about working here is that I’m constantly surrounded by creative and interesting people.
It’s been a hell of a hot summer, exploding the top off thermometers with triple-digit readings across the country. As we’re learning, week after week of this debilitating heat intensifies wildfires, causes electric grids to fail, kills millions of wild animals (including fish!), burns up cr…
It’s been a wild news week for those of us who follow election fraud. It’s got me thinking a lot about Shakespeare.Being a former English teacher, I am an unrepentant Shakespeare fan. While all of his works are enjoyable, I’m a big fan of the tragedies. When I taught high school English, I m…
As a regular reader of the Colorado Springs Independent, you may be more likely than the average Pikes Peak region resident to cultivate an exploration of all things arts. You may be a music fan, or a passionate theatergoer, or a regular at gallery openings.
As you may have noticed, the culture wars in America have heated up again, and, in some cases, the pressure points are so stressed that you worry something might well explode.
Sept. 11, 2001 started out just like any other morning. It was a Tuesday. I got up, gave thanks for another sunrise, got myself and my son (18 months old at the time) ready for the day and dropped him off at daycare — this was my routine since becoming a mother.
Can you feel it? The weather is still warm — warmer than usual, actually — but fall is near. Pumpkin spice, Halloween decorations on grocery store shelves, and the occasional red leaf peeking out from under the green all serve to alert us to the changing season. Nights are cooler and the hus…
The Republican Party held what its leaders called a “big tent” meeting in Teller County on Aug. 28, and across the state on other dates. But calling it “big tent” is as far away from the truth as is possible.
Our plates are empty, and our meals will never be the same. Colorado Springs lost a great culinary artist on Aug. 26. If you have ever dined at Four by Brother Luck, Swiss Chalet, La Petite Maison, La Creperie, Antlers Creek Golf Course or 32 Blu, you probably have experienced Chef Mike’s cr…
We’ve always gotten crazy emails at the Indy. People write to us about their conspiracy theories, their cures for COVID, their opinions about abortion and other social issues.Here are a few examples from the last couple of days.One guy says he can prove Dominion tampered with voting machines…
Taking a new job and moving to Colorado Springs was a big move for me, and not just because of the distance involved.As someone who’s worked full-time in education for over 10 years, returning to journalism is a pretty major gear shift. It’s not only my first time living in the great state o…
I was dismayed by recent public comments from Rep. Pico (HD-16) denouncing the badly needed Federal funding headed to our community.
The United States Constitution establishes a civilian-military Chain of Command with civilians at the top and our military at the bottom.
Last Saturday, I received a text from one of my kiddos saying that they had COVID and would I send them and their roommate some games and puzzles to keep them entertained while in quarantine. In this case, the roomie is my youngest child. Knowing the texter to be a bit of a kidder, I said “w…
Re: Doug editorial
Vaccine hesitancy is a real thing — for all kinds of reasons, depending on who you’re talking to.Some people say they don’t want the government telling them what to do. Some say they don’t know what’s in the vaccine. Still others say it was developed too quickly and could be dangerous. Some …
Dinner with Jay-Z or $500,000?
Doug Lamborn wants you to have your rapist’s baby. If you’re a woman, that’s among the more grotesque things you can read.
At eighteen I was raped by a roommate’s boyfriend who broke into our home when I was alone. Nine weeks later, after avoiding thinking about it because it was too awful, I found out I was pregnant.
The 20th anniversary of the tragedy of 9/11 was different from all the others. That’s because, after so many years, the lens we’re looking through has changed so dramatically.
I drive a lot. I’m no long-haul trucker, but I commute, roundtrip, about an hour to an hour and a half every weekday. That adds up.So, of course I found some info that basically says commuting will put you in an early grave. Longer commutes leave little time for exercise, they expose commut…
Autumn is upon us, and so is the news fatigue. For those of you looking for a quick, succinct update on national news, this one’s for you. I’m, like, 65% sure this is what’s been happening.Federal investigators are now asking for Rudy Giuliani’s emails and texts after an office raid in April…
There was a popular song in the late '80s that spoke of “the end of the innocence.” It came to mind in 1999 with the massacre at Columbine High School. That tragedy was not only physically close to Colorado Springs, but emotionally close as I had a family member there that day who thankfully…
I’m going to take this space today to thank the readers who have devoted their time to share thoughts about some of our daily columns. I appreciate the feedback and I know my fellow journalists do as well.
Being a photojournalist is not a job; it’s a privilege. I remember that every time I lift the camera to my eye and push that little black button.
There could be no celebration as the Afghan war finally comes to an end. At best, there can be mixed emotions, but mostly there’s sorrow and there’s regret. As Americans, we never like to say we’ve lost, but this time it’s unavoidable.
When I first moved to the Springs as a teenager in 1999, Powers Boulevard bordered rural land — there was the airport east of Drennan Road and a McDonald’s on Constitution Avenue; Dublin Boulevard marked the outskirts of town. This was well before the city was represented on any Top 10 lists…
Back in 1963, the Bronx Zoo tucked a small exhibit into the Great Apes House between the orangutan and gorilla cages. It was a mirror with bars in front of it and a plaque above that read, “The Most Dangerous Animal in the World” — an invitation for Homo sapiens visitors to consider their an…
As universities welcome students to a new academic year, the question of pandemic-related trauma and its impact is rising to the surface. Last year’s classes were largely online, which means many students are now experiencing their first year on campus. It will take a little time to see how …
As a writer, I get stuck every so often straining for the right words to tell my story. Over the years, though, I’ve learned when to quit tying myself into mental knots over sentence construction, instead stepping back and rethinking where my story is going.
When I moved to Colorado just over four years ago, I thought I was done with journalism. The last daily newspaper I’d worked at in Texas had pretty much ruined it for me. It was everything I felt like a media company shouldn’t be.
I am thinking more of late that some are pushing the whole COVID and vaccine hoax conspiracies for the sole purpose of further polarizing our society. If that’s the case, I find it deeply troubling and extremely sad. It does not bode well for our collective future.
You probably know the names Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel, Allyson Felix, April Ross and Alix Klineman.But how about Allysa Seely, Hailey Danz, Jessica Long and Susannah Saroni?The first group, all gold-medal winners in the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games, are household names now.Seely, Danz, Long …
The Twitter goldmine strikes again.A few nights ago, I did my daily/nightly search for a couple of stories to read via social media. Rarely am I disappointed.I found a story about a "high school football team" comprised of a few kids but mostly grown-ass men posing as 5-star college recruits…
At the Indy, our commitment to truth comes first.
‘In the kingdom of love there is no competition; there is no possessiveness or control. The more love you give away, the more love you will have.” These words, by poet John O’Donohue, have guided me for several decades. This simple sentiment is a whole sermon in two sentences.
America’s economic and political inequality has led workaday Americans to exclaim: “The system is broken. Let’s fix it!”
In the latest news from Big Lie country, Mesa County’s embattled Clerk Tina Peters has left the building.
Life behind bars can be ugly — incarcerated people can spend years in solitary confinement, watch as guards and inmates fight, see family members drift away as they are moved from facility to facility.
I am an obsessive documenter.
