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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2011 Stories by Alan Prendergast

• Up With Pups aerial show: An airborne canine event

  published Feb 10, 2011

  If you love Cirque de Soleil, can't wait for Denver's first Aerial Acrobatic Arts Festival, coming in May -- and, oh yeah, happen to like dogs -- then the upcoming pooch-oriented aerial show Don't Kil... More >>

• Gas-drilling oversight bill killed by the House: What's the fracking pointr

  published Feb 08, 2011

  A bill that sought to increase the reporting process for water-quality complaints related to oil and gas drilling in Colorado died quietly at the statehouse yesterday, with Republican lawmakers insist... More >>

• Ray Wagner: Inmate gets a year in the hole for refusing to lie in death-penalty caser

  published Feb 07, 2011

  Last month's "not guilty" verdict in the murder trial of inmate Alejandro Perez put an end to six years of costly missteps and setbacks for Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers and her... More >>

• Scott Howard: Does "smoking gun" memo prove he was targeted by prison gangr

  published Feb 04, 2011

  This week's cover story, "The Devil's Playground," presents Scott Howard's account of enduring rape and extortion by a notorious white supremacist gang in Colorado's prisons -- and then battling the i... More >>

• Scott Howard: Inmate's history of obtaining bogus refunds tip of prison-tax-fraud iceberg

  published Feb 03, 2011

  This week's cover story, "The Devil's Playground," recounts the ordeal of Scott Howard, a Colorado inmate extorted and sexually assaulted by the 211 Crew prison gang. But it's also about Howard's hist... More >>

• Alejandro Perez verdict: A stunning rebuke of Carol Chambers' death-penalty chaser

  published Feb 02, 2011

  Last week's acquittal of Alejandro Perez in the murder of another inmate at the Limon Correctional Facility provides fresh ammo for critics of Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers, who... More >>

• 

  COVER STORY

  Raped and extorted by a prison gang, Scott Howard was called a "drama queen" by corrections officials

  published February 3, 2011

  In January 2010, Scott Howard, a 39-year-old federal prisoner, made his way briskly into a hearing room in the Robert F. Kennedy Justice... More >>

• Hot dog! Bailey's Coney Island diner could be yours -- for $499,000

  published Jan 31, 2011

  The Coney Island Boardwalk diner, a weinie-shaped culinary adventure that began operations on West Colfax in the 1960s and later moved to Aspen Park and then Bailey, could soon be on the move again. T... More >>

• Welfare cheats using ATMs at strip clubsr Representative Dan Pabon's got his eye on you!

  published Jan 28, 2011

  It's inspiring, really, the way state lawmakers pull together when a matter of great social consequence is at stake. Such seems to be the case with the rapid move through committee this week of House ... More >>

• Eric Zinn, mayoral hopeful, wants Denver to lose a million pounds

  published Jan 27, 2011

  In a crowded field of folks vying to be Denver's next mayor, Eric Jon Zinn has one particular candidate in his sights that he's hoping to beat: Mayor McCheese. The 17th Street tax attorney wants De... More >>

• Lynn Coleman seeking high flyers for Aerial Acrobatic Arts Festival

  published Jan 26, 2011

  Big Air ski-jumping in Civic Center Park not enough spectacle for your A call for fans and practitioners of high-flying acrobatics -- on trapeze, hoops, fabric and other riggings -- is now underway fo... More >>

• Douglas Bruce preventative measures: Are legislators trying to outlaw himr

  published Jan 25, 2011

  After the uproar over three tax-cutting initiatives on last year's ballot, at least two bills introduced in the 2011 legislative session are designed to head off similarly furtive petition strategies ... More >>

• Wildlife bridge contest: Winning West Vail Pass entry "elegant" yet practical

  published Jan 24, 2011

  A New York team has won a unique international competition to design a special bridge for wildlife crossing I-70 west of Vail Pass, the first structure of its kind ever proposed for the United States.... More >>

• Jacob Christenson arson case: Denver Post backpedals on story, confused about kid stuff

  published Jan 21, 2011

  Cloaked in secrecy, juvenile court matters are so rarely covered in Colorado that it's been instructive watching the Denver Post fumble a bit in its reporting on Jacob Christenson, the eleven-year-old... More >>

• Carol Chambers and the Jacob Christenson "arson" case: Let's talk

  published Jan 19, 2011

  Prosecutors are fickle creatures. Ask them about some case that isn't high-profile enough to make headlines, and they'll probably tell you that they can't discuss it -- and it's none of your business ... More >>

• Ladies of the Brown: The semi-secret history of a great hotel

  published Jan 18, 2011

  Evalyn Walsh McLean was famous for the blowouts she threw on short notice at the Brown Palace for Denver's society swells -- ice elephants filled with caviar, Bollinger '26, dance bands, the works. Bu... More >>

• Monica Broncucia-Jordan, Adams County coroner, begins term with firings aplenty

  published Jan 17, 2011

  Plagued by massive turnover in recent years, the Adams County Coroner's Office is starting the new year with a clean slate -- really clean. Newly elected coroner Monica Broncucia-Jordan, a former empl... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Jacob Christenson, age 11, facing arson trial in Parker over fire that "just happened"

  published Jan 14, 2011

  Jacob Christenson of Parker would like everyone to know that he is very, very sorry about the events of May 9, a few weeks before his eleventh birthday. He did light a piece of paper on fire, but he h... More >>

• Gory prison video of Joey Estrella's murder, disemboweling shouldn't be released, court rules

  published Jan 12, 2011

  Gruesome video footage taken at a Colorado federal penitentiary of two inmates taunting guards and mutilating the corpse of their cellmate won't be released to the news media any time soon -- even tho... More >>

• Bill Ritter's commutations draw praise, bitter rebukes

  published Jan 10, 2011

  Only days after I posted a few remarks about Bill Ritter's play-it-safe approach to pardons and his reluctance to commute excessive sentences, the departing governor delivered a slew of bolder pardons... More >>

• Mike Carona, "America's Sheriff," headed for Littleton federal prison

  published Jan 07, 2011

  Disgraced ex-lawman Michael Carona, a former hot property in California Republican circles and once dubbed "America's Sheriff" by an admiring Larry King, has lost his appeal on corruption charges and ... More >>

• BP oil-spill report identifies a failure of management -- and regulators

  published Jan 06, 2011

  A chronic whine from oil and gas interests has to do with the glacial, foot-dragging pace of government. But a presidential commission report on the British Petroleum offshore well explosion that kill... More >>

• Beaver Lady Sherri Tippie explains how to give a dam, save a river

  published Jan 05, 2011

  Twenty-five years ago, hairdresser Sherri Tippie persuaded Aurora officials to let her trap beaver that were gnawing trees on a golf course and relocate rather than kill them. Since that first trapp... More >>

• Crocs blocked: How one wrong word cost the company $230,000

  published Jan 03, 2011

  Crocs, the Niwot-based maker of brightly hued, comfy-ugly clown shoes, has had more than its share of PR disasters, from the hysterical reports of Crocs-shod kids getting toes nipped in escalators to ... More >>