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

2012 Stories by Alan Prendergast

• 

  COVER STORY

  Arapahoe County's district attorney race could prove a lethal election

  published October 18, 2012

  For Ethan Feldman, the siren's call came as he presided over his courtroom in Arapahoe County, watching a procession of newly stamped... More >>

• Byers's Big Feed: Art! Music! Beer! Roasted bison!

  published Oct 12, 2012

  The tradition of the small-town social is vanishing even faster than Colorado's small towns. All the more reason to head out to the eastern plains this weekend for The Big Feed, a unique blend of art ... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Lamar coal plant faces possible civil penalties, customer revolt

  published Oct 01, 2012

  The news keeps getting worse for a coal-fired power plant in Lamar that was supposed to provide cheap electricity for southeast Colorado. Already a target of criticism for cost overruns, operational f... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Sexy letters -- and Men's Healthr -- banned by new prison censorship rule

  published Sep 27, 2012

  A recent push by state prison officials to crack down on the sexual content of inmates' mail has greatly expanded the range of books and magazines intercepted by prison censors, including such staid f... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Gary Lee Davis: Colorado's last volunteer for the death penalty

  published Sep 21, 2012

  This week's feature, "The Happiest Man on Death Row," delves into Colorado's execution of Joe Arridy, a man with an IQ of 46, for a murder he almost certainly didn't commit. It happened in the 1930s, ... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Eddie Ives's botched execution and replacing the noose with the gas chamber

  published Sep 19, 2012

  This week's cover story, "The Happiest Man on Death Row," examines the 1939 execution of Joe Arridy, a Pueblo man with an IQ of 46, for a murder he probably didn't commit -- and the twenty-year battle... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Albert Abeyta: Prisoner's coma-inducing latex allergy triggers lawsuit, burning questions

  published Sep 19, 2012

  A prisoner's lawsuit against the Colorado Department of Corrections, claiming a latex allergy so severe that he's suffered burns and respiratory problems when touched by glove-wearing guards, appeared... More >>

• 

  COVER STORY

  Joe Arridy was the happiest man on death row

  published September 20, 2012

  Joe Arridy didn't ask for a last meal. It's doubtful that he even understood the concept. He was 23 years old and had an IQ of 46. He... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Dorothy Rupert on the prison industry and being a game changer

  published Sep 18, 2012

  There was a time in the mid-1990s when Dorothy Rupert, then a state senator from Boulder, made a point out of touring every prison in Colorado. No easy feat, since at the time the state had the fastes... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Fracking-regulations battle on federal lands heats up

  published Sep 10, 2012

  Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar is on record as saying that hydraulic fracturing methods to extract oil and gas "can be done safely," but he's not overly impressed with varying state rules overs... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Photos: Gates preservation bid rejected by landmark commission

  published Sep 05, 2012

  College student Eugene Elliott's campaign to save remaining buildings at the old Gates Rubber factory on South Broadway from demolition, the subject of last month's feature "Trouble in the Rubble," h... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Joanne Richardson: Voters won't get to choose Summit County coroner's successor

  published Aug 29, 2012

  Some government jobs are too important to be left up to the whims of voters. That, at least, seems to be the thinking behind the exit strategy of Summit County Coroner Joanne Richardson, who announced... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Chad Hemmat: $2 million verdict against law firm in "toothless cooties" case

  published Aug 28, 2012

  A Denver jury has awarded a verdict of more than $2 million, including $1.5 million in punitive damages, to a former client of Anderson, Hemmat & Levine in what amounts to a legal malpractice case aga... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Troy Anderson lawsuit: Supermax must provide outdoor rec, judge rules

  published Aug 27, 2012

  In what amounts to a landmark decision, a federal judge has ruled that the conditions of solitary confinement at the Colorado State Penitentiary constitute "a paradigm of inhumane treatment" and must ... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Clarkson group home controversy: Operator says residents "real losers in this battle"

  published Aug 24, 2012

  Update: I just heard from David Warren, executive director of Open Door Ministries, whose zoning permit for a boarding house at 740 Clarkson for recovering addicts and alcoholics was recently declared... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Ex-client sues lawyer Chad Hemmat over "toothless cooties" case

  published Aug 21, 2012

  The law firm of Anderson, Hemmat & Levine doesn't keep its light under a bushel. Commercials and billboards across the Front Range boast of how hard the personal-injury firm fights for its clients. Th... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Photos: Gates Rubber factory -- urban explorers' dream or urban nightmarer

  published Aug 20, 2012

  This week's feature, "Trouble in the Rubble," looks into the controversies triggered by student Eugene Elliott's effort to save what's left of the Gates Rubber Company complex on South Broadway from d... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Gates factory: Urban explorers still eager to prowl abandoned plant

  published Aug 15, 2012

  For most of its life, the Gates Rubber plant on South Broadway made tires, hoses, fan belts and other industrial wonders. Since the place closed down nearly twenty years ago, though, its chief product... More >>

• 

  COVER STORY

  Can a single student with $250 change the fate of the Gates Rubber factory?

  published August 16, 2012

  Eugene Elliott caught his first glimpse of the ravaged Gates Rubber Company complex three years ago. He was driving in Denver one day, and here... More >>

• Eric Swanson: "Big bitch" charges dropped in Mayhem concert assault

  published Aug 13, 2012

  Eric Swanson is still headed to prison for an attack on another concertgoer at the 2010 Mayhem Festival. But the length of his sentence won't be anything like the mountain of time -- up to 64 years --... More >>

• Page Turner

  published July 26, 2012

  Donald Kueck was a Mojave Desert hermit who had a way with bobcats, snakes, ravens and squirrels. He was also paranoid, doped up and lethal... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Video: The art and mischief of Justin Simoni

  published Aug 03, 2012

  Denver gonzo athlete Justin Simoni's singular achievement this summer in the Tour Divide, a 2745-mile mountain bike race that crosses the Continental Divide 39 times between Canada and Mexico, is the ... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Video: Justin Simoni on what it takes to ride the 2,745-mile Tour Divide

  published Aug 02, 2012

  This week's cover story, "Going to Extremes," focuses on triple-threat Justin Simoni, a Denver artist and performer who also finished first last month in the single-speed division of the world's tough... More >>

• 

  COVER STORY

  In the world's toughest bike race, Justin Simoni rode from disaster to triumph

  published August 2, 2012

  In the stillness of a summer afternoon, the hours baking away in the clay-oven heat of southwestern New Mexico, Justin Simoni began to wonder... More >>

• 

  FEATURED STORY

  Tonight: Deanne Stillman's Desert Reckoning at Tattered Cover

  published Jul 30, 2012

  Deanne Stillman's richly textured works of nonfiction about life and death in the Mojave Desert involve more than casual research, and consequently take some time in the writing -- from eight to ten y... More >>