Email Author Alan Prendergast

Awards

• 2011 - Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, published February 11, 2010

  "You're in Bad Hands"

• 2011 - Best of the West/First Amendment Funding, Inc., published September 30, 2010

  "Black Out"

• 2011 - Best of the West/First Amendment Funding, Inc., published November 4, 2010

  "Like an Open Book"

• 2011 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published February 11, 2010

  "You're in Bad Hands"

• 2011 - Society of Professional Journalists/Colorado Chapter, published February 11, 2010

  "You're in Bad Hands"

• 2010 - National Council on Crime and Delinquency/Prevention for a Safer Society Award, published October 22, 2009

  "The Quality of Mercy"

• 2010 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published May 14, 2009

  "The Giveaway"

• 2010 - Maggies: The Magazine Awards of Western Publishing, published February 11, 2010

  "You're in Bad Hands"

• 2009 - Society of Professional Journalists/Colorado Chapter, published April 10, 2008

  "Miles and Miles"

• 2008 - Sigma Delta Chi Awards/Society of Professional Journalists, published August 16, 2007

  "The Caged Life"

• 2008 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published February 8, 2007

  "The Punisher"

• 2006 - National Council on Crime and Delinquency/Prevention for a Safer Society Award, published December 8, 2005

  "Catch-16"

• 2006 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published May 12, 2005

  "If the Shoe Fits"

• 2006 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published June 23, 2005

  "Welcome to America"

• 2006 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published September 8, 2005

  "Duke of Oil"

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2012 Stories by Alan Prendergast

• Big Oil making big profits on declining production

  published Feb 08, 2012

  ​It's official: 2011 was a record-busting year in the oil industry, with the five largest companies -- BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Royal Dutch Shell -- reporting all-time-high p More >>

• Brain injuries contribute to criminal behavior, or are they a side effectr

  published Feb 07, 2012

  ​For decades researchers have attempted to fathom how the "criminal mind" differs from that of the average citizen. Now it appears there's often one critical physiological difference -- a signif More >>

• Police misconduct records and more to be off-limits under two new bills

  published Feb 06, 2012

  ​Despite the obligatory squawks from lawmakers about the need for transparency in government, few of their actions are quite as transparent as their efforts to shield internal bureaucratic proce More >>

• Make My Day Better bill: Okay to use deadly force at workr

  published Feb 03, 2012

  ​A running gag in the classic comedy Raising Arizona is that just about everybody in the vicinity of Tempe is packing heat -- even the pimple-faced kid at the convenience store, who whips out a More >>

• Doug Lamborn's oil-shale move: Is he a cheap date for the energy industryr

  published Feb 02, 2012

  ​I know, I know. There are lots of other folks out there struggling to make ends meet, unsung worker drones subsisting on sweatshop wages. But let's face it: Doug Lamborn is underpaid. I'm not More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Josiah Sher: Death for accused hit man, or just very expensive trialr

  published Feb 01, 2012

  ​News that Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers is seeking the death penalty for Josiah Sher, the alleged trigger man in a double-murder-for-hire case in Castle Rock, doesn't exa More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Killer sheepdogs and five other top terrors of the backcountry

  published Jan 30, 2012

  ​Anyone thinking about abandoning the safety and comfort of the big city for a trip to Colorado's savage backcountry, take heed. Not only might you be braving the caprices of nature and the hard More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Charles Farrar: Appeal denied in sex-abuse case despite "victim" recanting

  published Jan 27, 2012

  ​"My options are narrowing," says Charles Farrar, phoning from the Sterling Correctional Facility. And so they are. Farrar has just learned that his handwritten appeal of his 145-year sentence More >>

• Video: Wild horse roundups featuring burros being "hotshotted" are kinder, gentlerr

  published Jan 26, 2012

  ​In the war of words over the plan to round up thousands of wild horses on federal lands, it's the images that speak loudest. Even as the Bureau of Land Management argues that the thinning of he More >>

• Water wars: Colorado River activists to rally at EPA against more diversions

  published Jan 25, 2012

  ​In the next few weeks, federal regulators will decide whether the Upper Colorado River needs additional protections in the face of growing demands from thirsty Front Range towns. Which is why h More >>

• Pinon Canyon foes blast Army's plans for helicopter missions

  published Jan 24, 2012

  ​Lately, ranchers and community leaders in southeastern Colorado are feeling a bit like the battle-weary Michael Corleone of The Godfather Part III. Every time you think you're out, they pull yo More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Shell settles one royalty dispute with feds for $25 million

  published Jan 23, 2012

  ​This week's cover story, "Drilled, Baby, Drilled," reports on the efforts of a group of federal auditors to hold energy companies accountable for underpaid royalties on oil and gas leases. On t More >>

• Denver International Airport's revised expansion plan cheaper but still flighty

  published Jan 20, 2012

  ​The good news about Denver International Airport's ambitious South Terminal Redevelopment Program (STRP) is that it's only eight months behind schedule and a projected few million bucks over it More >>

• Video: John Baker, homeless singer in Aspen, seeks TV and movie deals

  published Jan 19, 2012

  ​Famous for its ski bums, Aspen also has a modest contingent of real bums -- although the homeless shelter downtown isn't exactly as celebrated as the haunts of the 1 percenters. But that may so More >>

• Ken Salazar's plans for tourism in San Luis Valley generates protests

  published Jan 18, 2012

  ​Two weeks ago, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar surfaced in Alamosa, surrounded by state leaders, to present the results of a federal study aimed at promoting tourism and conservation in t More >>

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  COVER STORY

  Drilled, Baby, Drilled: The strange battle to keep Big Oil from cheating

  published January 19, 2012

  Three years ago this month, outside some drab federal offices in Lakewood, a bespectacled man sporting a white cowboy hat and a bolo tie stood... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Phil Anschutz remains elusive in The New Yorker

  published Jan 17, 2012

  Few people can endure the scrutiny involved in a lengthy New Yorker profile with their mystique intact. But the magazine hardly makes a dent in the armor encasing Phil Anschutz, despite the wealth of More >>

• Private prisons' blueprint for success: more lobbying, less security

  published Jan 13, 2012

  ​The use of private prisons by states and the federal government continues to increase, yielding billions in annual revenues for two dominant companies in the industry -- despite a lack of solid More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Bobby Maxwell, fed whistleblower, earns $7.5 million in oil company battle

  published Jan 12, 2012

  ​It took nine years of fighting for money the government insisted it wasn't owed. It probably cost him his job, too. But last week, former federal auditor Bobby Maxwell and the Justice Departme More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Dougherty Gang members Ryan, Dylan and Lee-Grace send Colorado love

  published Jan 11, 2012

  ​Last summer's wild multi-state crime spree by the Dougherty Gang -- two scary-looking brothers and their stripper sister -- understandably drew some superheated media coverage, what with Lee-Gr More >>

• Terrell Griswold: Mother questions inmate's "natural" death in private prison

  published Jan 06, 2012

  ​On October 28, 2010, a 26-year-old inmate named Terrell Griswold was found slumped over and unresponsive in his cell in the Bent County Correctional Facility, a private prison in southeastern C More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Juvenile lifers targeted for rape, excessive isolation in adult prisons

  published Jan 04, 2012

  ​Juveniles doing time in adult prisons, surrounded by older and stronger criminals, rarely fare well. But juveniles serving sentences of life without parole in the United States face particularl More >>

• Ken Salazar: How green is his San Luis Valleyr

  published Jan 03, 2012

  ​On Wednesday, Alamosa-born Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will return to his roots -- again -- as part of a long-simmering effort to promote tourism and conservation in Colorado's much-p More >>

• Aspen's "slums": New book stirs outrage among town's glitterati

  published Dec 29, 2011

  ​It's holiday week in Aspen, and this New Year's weekend is shaping up as the busiest party binge at the resort in years -- a time for Hollywood celebs and other one-percenters to pack the slope More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Robert Hood: A former supermax warden's resolutions for 2012

  published Dec 28, 2011

  ​A former warden at the highest-security prison in the country -- the federal supermax prison outside Florence -- has some intriguing advice for fixing the nation's troubled, budget-draining cor More >>