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

• Fracking: Congress needs to drill into the issue, says Diana DeGette

  published Nov 14, 2011

  As reported in this space on Friday, a new study from Common Cause tracks how oil and gas interests spent $747 million on lobbying and campaign donations since 2001 to win congressional support for "f... More >>

• Fracking: Gas industry pours $747 million into lobbying and Congress

  published Nov 11, 2011

  Colorado well pads. As the oil and gas industry has turned increasingly to hydraulic fracturing to extract reserves, fears about groundwater contamination from the toxic chemicals used in "fracking" h... More >>

• Fort Lyon prison could live again as wind farm: The answer, my friend, is blowin' in your face

  published Nov 10, 2011

  It's distressing to learn that the good folks of Bent County are shelling out thousands of dollars a month to lobbyists in an effort to "repurpose" the decrepit, soon-to-be-shuttered state prison at F... More >>

• Darrell Havens: Lawsuit reinstated in police shooting that left him paralyzed

  published Nov 08, 2011

  A federal judge has ruled that Darrell Havens can proceed with his lawsuit against the Arvada police officer who shot him during a car-theft sting operation in 2007, leaving him a quadriplegic. The d... More >>

• James Hibbard: $1.6 million in settlements reached in coroner sex harassment fiasco

  published Nov 04, 2011

  Former Adams County Coroner James Hibbard was term-limited out of a job last year, but folks in that county are still paying for the strange way he ran his office. County officials have agreed to shel... More >>

• Pinon Canyon "Working Together" event teaches grassroots lesson in military-expansion battle

  published Nov 03, 2011

  In the long struggle by southern Colorado residents opposing expansion of the Army's Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, one of the most striking aspects of the story has been the broad range of support for t... More >>

• Rob Ziegler's "Seed": Paonia writer's debut novel a rip-snorting apocalypse

  published Oct 31, 2011

  What is it about Paoniar That scenic, green-leaning Western Slope haven of old hippies, envirojournalists and organic gardeners has produced yet another grim work of post-apocalyptic, steampunk sci-fi... More >>

• Ken Salazar hawking solar "sweet spots" for an energy boost

  published Oct 28, 2011

  Yesterday, after three years, more than 80,000 public comments, and countless hours reviewing ponderous economic and environmental issues -- in other words, pretty speedy for government work -- Secret... More >>

• Plastic bag bans: Mountain towns vow to "help change lifestyles"

  published Oct 27, 2011

  In the classic 1967 drama The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman's character is offered one word, just one word of advice from an avuncular businessman: plastics. "There's a great future in plastics," the man w... More >>

• Colorado Supreme Court: Neglected and abused kids shouldn't trust their lawyers

  published Oct 26, 2011

  One of the most basic principles of the American legal system is the guarantee that what you tell the attorney representing you is confidential and can't be disclosed without your permission. That's a... More >>

• Balanced Justice: New study seeks to make dollars and sense out of criminal justice policy

  published Oct 24, 2011

  Criminals aren't terribly skilled at performing a cost-benefit analysis before embarking on their disastrous ventures, which they usually end up describing as "bad choices, Your Honor." That's all the... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Colorado's cold case backlog: 1,518 murders still unsolved

  published Oct 21, 2011

  This week's cover story, "The Victim Lobby," delves into the growing power of the victim rights movement and the sometimes clashing agendas of groups within that movement. But there's one issue crim... More >>

• Michael Hancock speaks on the "unspeakable pain" of his sister's murder (VIDEO)

  published Oct 20, 2011

  This week's cover story, "The Victim Lobby," examines the victim rights movement in Colorado -- its remarkable growth and accomplishments, as well as the controversy over who truly "speaks" for victim... More >>

• Billions Behind Bars: Colorado's prison industry gets its closeup in CNBC special (VIDEO)

  published Oct 19, 2011

  A few years back, reporting on a convention of prison officials and vendors who supplied them with everything from stab-proof vests to suicide-proof toilets, I noted that America's spending on the cor... More >>

• Ken Salazar: BLM decision on Vermillion Basin a classic bit of Kenmanship

  published Oct 18, 2011

  The long-awaited, much-debated Bureau of Land Management plan for oil-and-gas drilling on public lands in northwest Colorado has something in it to annoy everybody. In other words, it's the kind of c... More >>

• 

  COVER STORY

  How victim rights became a juggernaut shaping spending, laws and the future of punishment

  published October 20, 2011

  Newly elected as a state representative, Pete Lee hit the Capitol last January fired up with big ideas. The biggest of them all was the... More >>

• Jered Engbring: Colorado's hottest bachelor vows to bring it in Cosmo hunk-off

  published Oct 17, 2011

  So one day you're just a typical aircraft mechanic and engineering student who loves young women in tank tops and being outdoors -- flying, hiking, camping, mountain biking -- and the next you're off... More >>

• Limon prison memos: A new form of cruel and unusual punishmentr

  published Oct 13, 2011

  One of the guilty pleasures here at the Crime & Punishment Desk is occasionally visiting the madness on display at The Real Colorado Department of Corrections, an anonymous blog by someone calling him... More >>

• Darrell Havens: Expert challenges police version of shooting that left 19-year-old paralyzed

  published Oct 12, 2011

  In an affidavit filed in federal court, a veteran cop turned high-profile private investigator claims that an Arvada police officer who fired on an unarmed suspect during a car-theft sting operation i... More >>

• John Williams: Denver novelist is dead and living in France

  published Oct 11, 2011

  John Williams would have relished the irony. The University of Denver professor's astonishing novel Stoner landed with a thud when it was first published in 1965. Forty-six years later, and seventeen ... More >>

• Lora Thomas: Ethics complaint highlights bitter feud between coroner and sheriff

  published Oct 10, 2011

  Any way you slice it, the very, very, very strained relationship between Douglas County Coroner Lora Thomas and Sheriff Dave Weaver can't be good for homicide investigations in the county. Both sides ... More >>

• Thomas Silverstein: Judge rules conditions at supermax not "extreme"

  published Oct 05, 2011

  Federal judges in Denver are of two minds about the kind of punishment doled out at the supermax penitentiary in Florence. While one is allowing a Tanzanian terrorist's complaint about the prison's re... More >>

• Thomas Silverstein: Judge rules conditions at supermax not "extreme"

  published Oct 05, 2011

  Federal judges in Denver are of two minds about the kind of punishment doled out at the supermax penitentiary in Florence. While one is allowing a Tanzanian terrorist's complaint about the prison's re... More >>

• Thomas Silverstein: Judge rules conditions at supermax not "extreme"

  published Oct 05, 2011

  Federal judges in Denver are of two minds about the kind of punishment doled out at the supermax penitentiary in Florence. While one is allowing a Tanzanian terrorist's complaint about the prison's re... More >>

• Charles Farrar: Last-gasp appeal of sex-abuse case claims prosecution misconduct

  published Oct 03, 2011

  Nine years into a 145-year sentence for sexual abuse -- a crime that his alleged victim insists never happened -- Charles Farrar has now filed what may be his last, best hope for freedom. It's a hand... More >>