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

2010 Stories by Alan Prendergast

• Meth house fixer-upper in Northglenn just needs a little TLC -- and a wrecking crew

  published Sep 23, 2010

  When methheads start cooking their own product, they're rarely as fastidious as Walt and Jesse in Breaking Bad. The cost of decontaminating a former lab can run into tens of thousands of dollars, as ... More >>

• Xcel clean energy plan: Poll shows wide support for dumping coal plants

  published Sep 21, 2010

  Xcel Energy's proposal to spend $1.3 billion to convert several of its aging, high-polluting coal plants to natural gas over the next decade in response to a new state law is drawing fire from coal in... More >>

• Telluride town council tells grocers that plastic bags aren't the future: Paper, damn it!

  published Sep 20, 2010

  The town of Telluride is just weeks away from becoming the first municipality in the state to ban plastic bags at grocery stores and other retailers -- a move that keeps the mountain town in the vangu... More >>

• Dan Maes: Five October surprises to expect from the campaign of the Kansas superspy

  published Sep 17, 2010

  Call us jaded. GOP gubernatorial hopeful Dan Maes has spun so many bizarre and jaw-dropping yarns, about everything from his generous mileage reimbursements to being fired as a Kansas cop because he d... More >>

• Dan Maes's latest explanation for being fired as a Kansas cop: Evildoers (and girlfriends) beware!

  published Sep 15, 2010

  It's hard to pick a favorite claim by GOP gubernatorial hopeful Dan Maes. His accounts of himself, from "I did so drive 80,000 miles" to his denunciation of Denver's bike program as a UN plot to his ... More >>

• Christo's "Over the River": High art meets the local commute in the Wall Street Journal

  published Sep 13, 2010

  As the official public comment period ends for Christo's "Over the River" project, the dialogue over the much-debated, $50-million landscape wrap seems to have devolved into two quite separate convers... More >>

• Amendments 60 & 61, Proposition 101: Is $6 million not enough to defeat themr

  published Sep 10, 2010

  Opponents of three tax-slashing ballot initiatives say their polling shows that the measures might actually be approved by voters -- despite a multi-million-dollar ad blitz starting this weekend desig... More >>

• Uranium miners in Colorado defend their livelihood in (of all places) The New Yorker

  published Sep 09, 2010

  When a national magazine starts its examination of southwestern Colorado "uranium widows" with a glimpse of a woman drilling for ore while clad only in "sandals, denim shorts, and a bra," I brace myse... More >>

• West Vail Pass wildlife bridge: Will design contest help save endangered animalsr

  published Sep 08, 2010

  An international competition to design a special wildlife bridge for West Vail Pass has announced five finalists for the $40,000 grand prize -- two teams from New York and one each from Toronto, Phila... More >>

• Fracking: Wyoming jumps ahead of Colorado in regulation of hydraulic fracturing fluids

  published Sep 07, 2010

  While Colorado officials fret over whether drilling regulations are too tough, this month Wyoming will become the first state to require energy companies to disclose what's in the mysterious, highly t... More >>

• Supermax opening in Colorado: Is lawsuit-filing Troy Anderson on "the list" to move therer

  published Sep 03, 2010

  This week, without much fanfare and after months of budget-related delays, state officials opened one wing of Colorado's second supermax prison, designed to hold "the most disruptive offenders" who h... More >>

• Douglas Bruce 60-61-101 court appearance: Is he stonewalling Dr. Evil or political bogeymanr

  published Sep 02, 2010

  Memo to process servers: The best place to find Douglas Bruce over the next few days is the Denver courtroom of Judge Brian Whitney. That's where Bruce sat this morning, listening to process servers e... More >>

• Marijuana activists attack state rep Mark Waller by smearing ranch dressing on his carr Yummy!

  published Aug 31, 2010

  On the heels of reports about a burglar using a bong as a weapon in a Fort Morgan home invasion comes a claim by state representative Mark Waller that a recent assault on his car -- with salad dressin... More >>

• Cuchara Valley: Can Colorado's lost ski resort rise againr

  published Aug 27, 2010

  A promising plan to revive the Cuchara Valley ski area in southern Colorado -- complete with zip line, tubing hill, a halfpipe for snowboarders and a seventy-room hotel -- has folks in Walsenburg and ... More >>

• Labia-lift searches of female prisoners have to stop, ACLU tells Ari Zavaras

  published Aug 26, 2010

  A few months ago we first reported on the "labia lift" -- an extremely invasive search process that the Colorado Department of Corrections has started using at its Denver women's prison. Now the Ame... More >>

• Aron Ralston meets James Franco: 127 Hours trailer skips the surgery

  published Aug 25, 2010

  The first trailer for 127 Hours, director Danny Boyle's much-anticipated movie about amped-up Colorado climber Aron Ralston, is now making the rounds of websites and moviehouses. It's sure to whet ap... More >>

• Dead heat: A lively race for Arapahoe County coroner highlights some sickly politics

  published August 26, 2010

  The oddly popular county coroner races in Colorado have led to some wild contests this year. But for real drama, consider the choice Arapahoe... More >>

• John Salazar land swap deal drawing national attention -- and heat

  published Aug 24, 2010

  An unusual land swap deal on the Western Slope orchestrated by Representative John Salazar, one that would benefit his largest campaign contributor, is starting to draw scrutiny well beyond disgruntle... More >>

• Douglas Alward: The puzzle behind an inmate's escape

  published Aug 23, 2010

  A 48-year-old violent inmate somehow walked away from the Sterling Correctional Facility last night, putting area law enforcement on high alert. The last time Douglas J. Alward busted out of a Color... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Police "excessive force:" Denver quietly settles James Watkins suit over another LoDo incident

  published Aug 18, 2010

  This week's feature, "The Asphalt Jungle," examines how better policing, including surveillance cameras, helped to quell years of street violence during Let Out in lower downtown. But cameras are al... More >>

• 

  COVER STORY

  Asphalt jungle: For years, Denver police thought this parking lot was the most dangerous spot in LoDo. What's changed?

  published August 19, 2010

  The photograph offers a moment frozen in time: Four teenage girls playing dress-up, looking impatiently into the camera. An image nobody would... More >>

• Lou Smit's death won't end the search for an intruder in JonBenet Ramsey murder case

  published Aug 12, 2010

  Lou Smit, who passed away Wednesday at 75 after a battle with cancer, was the kind of hard worker who never got the hang of retiring. In his case, the work was homicide investigation. And sticking w... More >>

• Payday loans at 45 percent APRr Sign me up!

  published Aug 10, 2010

  More than a hundred new state laws go into effect on August 11, dealing with everything from clean energy to so-called "smart" government. But one of the most hard-fought reforms is House Bill 1351, w... More >>

• John Salazar: Land swap aids big donor

  published Aug 09, 2010

  While Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has been enduring a summer of media broiling over everything from the BP oil spill to federal wild-horse roundups, his brother John has been coolly and quie... More >>

• Dan Maes: First-day proclamations of the new administration

  published Aug 06, 2010

  This is shaping up to be one lively governor's race, what with GOP hopeful Dan Maes suspecting a UN agenda behind Denver's bicycle program, promising layoffs of state workers and an unshackling of the... More >>