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

• Where would you take a $100,000 check that is also a suicide note - to the cops or to the bank?

  published May 14, 2009

  John Francis Beech had a date with destiny last summer. He counted down the days on a calendar in his garage, crossing out each day leading to... More >>

• Doing the math on Christo's Arkansas River wrap

  published May 12, 2009

  "Over the River," the plan by husband-and-wife artists Christo and Jeanne Claude to stretch almost six miles of silvery fabric over the Arkansas River between Canon City and Salida at a cost of arou... More >>

• Colorado's answer to swine flu: Close the prisonsr

  published May 07, 2009

  You got to love the way officials in this state think. According to this item in the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Department of Corrections has decided to ban visitors and volunteers from ... More >>

• Tonight at the Wynkoop: Author Andrew Nikiforuk reveals Canada's dirty oil secrets

  published Apr 30, 2009

  Most Americans probably don't know that Canada has replaced Saudi Arabia as our primary source of imported oil. And fewer still have any idea that much of the Canadian oil, refined into gasoline at ... More >>

• First 100 daysr Ken Salazar gives himself an A

  published Apr 29, 2009

  Probably no other member of the Obama Cabinet has racked up as many frequent-flier miles over the past three months than former Colorado Senator Ken Salazar. As the new sheriff in town at the Depart... More >>

• Is the death penalty worse than life in the holer

  published Apr 28, 2009

  Last week, a bill to end the death penalty in Colorado squeaked through the House of Representatives by one vote; it reaches a Senate committee on Wednesday afternoon, April 29. The abolitionists ma... More >>

• Bill Ritter, John Suthers and endless dithering over sentencing reform

  published Apr 22, 2009

  The push to ban the death penalty in Colorado might actually be going somewhere this year -- but the same can't be said for comprehensive sentencing reform. Under pressure from district attorneys an... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Forgiving my Columbine High School friend, Dylan Klebold

  published Apr 17, 2009

  The last time Chad Laughlin saw his buddy Dylan Klebold, the two almost smashed into each other in the parking lot of Columbine High School. Laughlin was driving his Mistubishi Galant, headed off-ca... More >>

• Obnoxious North Carolina students leave Tom Tancredo speechless

  published Apr 15, 2009

  Tom Tancredo cut short a planned speech on immigration at the University of North Carolina on Tuesday after a group of protesters sparked what the former congressman has described as a "small riot."... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Ken Salazar gets wild at Rocky Mountain National Park

  published Apr 10, 2009

  Without much fanfare, more than 2 million acres across the West became wilderness when President Barack Obama signed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act two weeks ago. On April 9 Secretary of th... More >>

• Convict advice for Joe Nacchio

  published Apr 09, 2009

  Now that former Qwest CEO and convicted inside trader Joe Nacchio has been ordered to report to prison on April 14 -- and presumably has to file his income tax return a day early -- we want to make ... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Ken Salazar's Colorado cabal at Interior

  published Apr 07, 2009

  This week's feature, "The Zen of Ken," deals with the formidable challenge facing Colorado's own Ken Salazar at the Department of the Interior. It also notes in passing the growing contingent of pol... More >>

• Why Germans care so much about Columbine

  published Apr 01, 2009

  A film crew from Munich-based FOCUS TV Produktions was in our southwest suburbs during the past few days, interviewing people whose lives have been altered by the Columbine shootings ten years ago -... More >>

• Ken Salazar wants windmills in the ocean, but first he'll have to save the Interior Department

  published April 2, 2009

  On January 21, Ken Salazar walked into the Department of the Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C., and found a crush of employees waiting... More >>

• A web memorial for Whitney, 1990-2009

  published Mar 31, 2009

  Last week I wrote about the shocking death of 18-year-old Whitney deMoraes Hendrickson -- "On a Dark Day, Celebrating a Good Life" -- and the remarkable community response to the tragedy in Colorado... More >>

• The mystery of Lou Pai revisited

  published Mar 27, 2009

  A blog by The Atlantic's James Fallows gives a shout-out to a 2002 Westword feature, "The Mystery of Pai," dealing with one of the more mysterious figures in the Enron debacle. Fallows was apparentl... More >>

• On a dark day, celebrating a good life

  published Mar 23, 2009

  Once a year for several years, I sat across a table from a slender, graceful girl named Whitney DeMoraes Hendrickson. This happened during my annual pilgrimage to Colorado Springs, when I would have... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  The long, long journey to an all-inclusive Justice Center

  published Mar 17, 2009

  They're going to need some pretty big signs to hold all the names of the august Denverites honored at the city's new justice complex. After a contentious, sometimes bitter and racially charged proc... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  The bigger the nuisance, the tougher the fix

  published Mar 13, 2009

  On Monday, March 9, shortly after one in the morning, Denver police had a call of shots fired at an apartment house down the block from my home, in an otherwise placid section of west Denver. Accord... More >>

• Denver's eight worst intersections

  published Feb 18, 2009

  In this week's Westword, Alan Prendergast looks at the future of traffic in Denver. In reporting his story, he got the scoop on Denver's worst intersections. The police keep track of the city's mos... More >>

• Denver's latest traffic plan depends on getting you out of your car

  published February 19, 2009

  Read a list of Denver's eight worst intersections... More >>

• A Van Cise reprise in the Justice Center debate

  published Feb 13, 2009

  As Christoper Osher reports in this Denver Post article, Mayor John Hickenlooper has added one more to the list of candidates whose names might end up on portions of the new city justice complex: Va... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Stimulate me: Local panhandlers launch their own bailout appeal

  published Feb 12, 2009

  Not so long ago, downtown panhandlers merely had to proclaim their misfortunes -- disabled, homeless, stranded, just got out of the hospital or the military, pregnant, or any combination of same -- ... More >>

• Art and wealth: getting your assets on canvas

  published Feb 09, 2009

  This much I know: Russ Fitch is a retired investment advisor who grew up in Illinois, moved to Colorado in 1972, worked for the EPA at one point and now lives in Heather Gardens with his wife, JoAnn... More >>

• Ken Salazar extinguishes a Bush fire sale

  published Feb 04, 2009

  Ken Salazar, the new Secretary of the Interior, who spent much of last week traipsing around the Denver area declaring that there's a new sheriff in town, has taken what he calls "an important first... More >>