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"

More

2009 Stories by Alan Prendergast

• Prosecuting Douglas Bruce, and other exercises in masochism

  published Nov 11, 2009

  Back in 2002 a Westword cover portrayed the ever-irascible Douglas Bruce as a pit bull. The story was about his long-running battle with Denver officials over dilapidated properties, but the image is ... More >>

• New site studies why (and where) wildlife cross the road

  published Nov 09, 2009

  A newly launched website allows Colorado motorists to log on and report sightings of wildlife along the I-70 corridor between Golden and Glenwood Springs. While handy for alerting highway maintenance ... More >>

• Fast-track this: Five untapped Colorado energy sources

  published Nov 06, 2009

  The Department of the Interior just designated six renewable energy projects, including a 400-megawatt solar tower, as "fast-track" developments deserving of the highest priority. All six of the proj... More >>

• Swine flu protocol: Children and inmates first

  published Nov 04, 2009

  In the movie The Dark Knight, the Joker conducts a nail-biting sociology experiment by rigging bombs on two ships -- one loaded with ordinary folk, the other transporting prisoners. A detonator for ea... More >>

• Will new blood breathe life into Ritter's clemency boardr

  published Nov 03, 2009

  Last month's feature, "The Forgotten," focused on clemency -- an executive power that prosecutor-turned-governor Bill Ritter has been reluctant to use. We showed how modifying the sentences of even a ... More >>

• And Colorado's prettiest town is... you must be joking

  published Nov 02, 2009

  It's been at least a week since our fair state made it on any Most Livable, Charming, Fittest or Drunkest list. So thank heavens for the folks at ForbesTraveler, the "luxury travel authority from insp... More >>

• Attorney Mark Brennan suspended over contentious cookbook case

  published Oct 30, 2009

  The Colorado Supreme Court's disciplinary judge has finally issued a ruling in the long-running saga of Mark Brennan, the pugnacious attorney who won a $1.2 million judgment against the City of Denver... More >>

• Denver Water wants you to use less, pay more

  published Oct 29, 2009

  News that Denver Water is planning to jack up rates in 2010 by thirteen percent isn't really news. Last year, the utility stuck the average residential customer with a $20 hike; this year it's $40. Ov... More >>

• Found object #26: Lost entry in snow-day-haiku/photo contest

  published Oct 28, 2009

  Trapped in surprise storm Bovine love trumps chill weather Moo cow asks: Got flaker... More >>

• Why rich college kids can sell dope and you can't

  published Oct 26, 2009

  In the long-foundering, ever-festering war on drugs, there's just about zero truth to the idea of zero tolerance. As anyone who's studied the prison population can figure out, certain groups dealing i... More >>

• Disbarred attorney/ex-social worker facing charges involving drugs, kids, porn and "conspiracy to commit sexual conduct in penal institutions"

  published Oct 23, 2009

  The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies looks into all sorts of bad behavior in numerous trades and professions. Not many DORA complaints can compete, though, with the staggering range of alleg... More >>

• Clemency candidate #8: The ice cream lady

  published Oct 22, 2009

  This week's feature, "The Forgotten," explores an option for cutting prison costs that Governor Bill Ritter hasn't tried -- clemency for prisoners who may have received excessively long sentences and ... More >>

• Clemency candidate #7: The 400-year man

  published Oct 21, 2009

  This week's Westword feature, "The Quality of Mercy," looks at an option for cutting prison costs that Governor Bill Ritter hasn't tried -- reducing prison time for inmates who may have received exces... More >>

• Clemency for these six prisoners could save millions and serve justice -- so why won't Governor Ritter try it?

  published October 22, 2009

  Among Governor Bill Ritter's hits and misses, few actions have drawn as much criticism as his proposal to release thousands of inmates months... More >>

• Before Ritter, Colorado's governors proved that clemency's risks came with rewards

  published October 22, 2009

  The lack of More >>

• Salazar moves forward -- and backward -- on oil shale leases

  published Oct 20, 2009

  For decades, energy companies and the federal government have tinkered with ways of trying to extract the vast hydrocarbon fuel reserves buried in rock in western Colorado and eastern Utah. Secretary ... More >>

• Scott "Fear Factor" McInnis is very, very concerned about your safety

  published Oct 19, 2009

  Governor Bill Ritter's modest proposal to parole hundreds of inmates a few weeks or months before their mandatory release date, thereby cutting millions from the state budget, has become the political... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Five things to do on Feral Cat Day

  published Oct 16, 2009

  Today, October 16, is National Feral Cat Day. This is not really a day of celebration; it's more of a day of scolding and sobering statistics, since the growing phenomenon of feral cats has a lot to d... More >>

• Huddled masses yearn to breathe free -- and check out Harry Potter

  published Oct 15, 2009

  The Denver Public Library hosted a naturalization ceremony for more than a hundred new citizens from dozens of countries Thursday morning. The ceremony has been a tradition at DPL for more than a dec... More >>

• For sale: supermax prison, like new

  published Oct 13, 2009

  State representative Glenn Vaad was appalled to discover recently that corrections officials have delayed opening a $200-million supermax because of Colorado's fiscal woes. There's nothing that offend... More >>

• Going retro with the 5-0 Broncos

  published Oct 12, 2009

  I'm not generally in favor of so-called NFL "legacy" games, in which teams are required to wear their hideous and humiliating uniforms of yore and the fans are barraged with waves of schlock and nosta... More >>

• Caught on camera: Big cat on I-70 prowl

  published Oct 09, 2009

  For months, dozens of motion-sensor cameras along I-70 between Golden and Glenwood Springs have been snatching nocturnal images of wildlife, in an effort to study how elk, deer, bears and other specie... More >>

• Is trying juveniles as adults cruel and unusualr

  published Oct 08, 2009

  The Denver-based Pendulum Foundation has made some significant progress in challenging the laws that can send juveniles to adult prison, serving life without parole for violent crimes committed when ... More >>

• Ken Salazar: No more horsing around

  published Oct 07, 2009

  In a teleconference with reporters today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar declared that his department's wild-horse management program "is simply not working" and proposed a new way of dealing w... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  OMG! Douglas County teens face horrors of sexting

  published Oct 06, 2009

  I am back from the front lines of the kiddie porn wars with some shocking news: The prosperous, sprawling suburbs of Douglas County conceal a steamy underbelly of underage sexual exhibitionism. Youth ... More >>