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 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published September 8, 2005

  "Duke of Oil"

• 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"

More

2012 Stories by Alan Prendergast

• Louie Lucero, accused of torturing women, insists relationships were consensual

  published Feb 16, 2012

  This arrives a little late for Valentine's Day, but Louie Lucero has an unusual approach to romance that's bound to send any female into orbit -- and probably to the hospital. The southwest Colorado... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  John Severin, comics giant, enters another dimension

  published Feb 15, 2012

  Legendary illustrator John Powers Severin, whose 60-year career in the comics world stretched from the dawning of MAD magazine to the Silver Age at Marvel to a gay revival of the Rawhide Kid and beyon... More >>

• Thomas Wierdsma, private prison exec, accused of seeking to deport daughter-in-law

  published Feb 13, 2012

  A high-ranking official at one of the nation's largest private prison operators has been accused by his daughter-in-law of intimidation and harassment in a Boulder domestic dispute -- including threat... More >>

• Big Oil making big profits on declining production

  published Feb 08, 2012

  It's official: 2011 was a record-busting year in the oil industry, with the five largest companies -- BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Royal Dutch Shell -- reporting all-time-high profits ... More >>

• Brain injuries contribute to criminal behavior, or are they a side effectr

  published Feb 07, 2012

  For decades researchers have attempted to fathom how the "criminal mind" differs from that of the average citizen. Now it appears there's often one critical physiological difference -- a significant p... More >>

• Police misconduct records and more to be off-limits under two new bills

  published Feb 06, 2012

  Despite the obligatory squawks from lawmakers about the need for transparency in government, few of their actions are quite as transparent as their efforts to shield internal bureaucratic processes fr... More >>

• Make My Day Better bill: Okay to use deadly force at workr

  published Feb 03, 2012

  A running gag in the classic comedy Raising Arizona is that just about everybody in the vicinity of Tempe is packing heat -- even the pimple-faced kid at the convenience store, who whips out a Dirty H... More >>

• Doug Lamborn's oil-shale move: Is he a cheap date for the energy industryr

  published Feb 02, 2012

  I know, I know. There are lots of other folks out there struggling to make ends meet, unsung worker drones subsisting on sweatshop wages. But let's face it: Doug Lamborn is underpaid. I'm not talkin... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Josiah Sher: Death for accused hit man, or just very expensive trialr

  published Feb 01, 2012

  News that Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers is seeking the death penalty for Josiah Sher, the alleged trigger man in a double-murder-for-hire case in Castle Rock, doesn't exactly co... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Killer sheepdogs and five other top terrors of the backcountry

  published Jan 30, 2012

  Anyone thinking about abandoning the safety and comfort of the big city for a trip to Colorado's savage backcountry, take heed. Not only might you be braving the caprices of nature and the hardships o... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Charles Farrar: Appeal denied in sex-abuse case despite "victim" recanting

  published Jan 27, 2012

  "My options are narrowing," says Charles Farrar, phoning from the Sterling Correctional Facility. And so they are. Farrar has just learned that his handwritten appeal of his 145-year sentence for ch... More >>

• Video: Wild horse roundups featuring burros being "hotshotted" are kinder, gentlerr

  published Jan 26, 2012

  In the war of words over the plan to round up thousands of wild horses on federal lands, it's the images that speak loudest. Even as the Bureau of Land Management argues that the thinning of herds is ... More >>

• Water wars: Colorado River activists to rally at EPA against more diversions

  published Jan 25, 2012

  In the next few weeks, federal regulators will decide whether the Upper Colorado River needs additional protections in the face of growing demands from thirsty Front Range towns. Which is why hikers, ... More >>

• Pinon Canyon foes blast Army's plans for helicopter missions

  published Jan 24, 2012

  Lately, ranchers and community leaders in southeastern Colorado are feeling a bit like the battle-weary Michael Corleone of The Godfather Part III. Every time you think you're out, they pull you back ... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Shell settles one royalty dispute with feds for $25 million

  published Jan 23, 2012

  This week's cover story, "Drilled, Baby, Drilled," reports on the efforts of a group of federal auditors to hold energy companies accountable for underpaid royalties on oil and gas leases. On the eve ... More >>

• Denver International Airport's revised expansion plan cheaper but still flighty

  published Jan 20, 2012

  The good news about Denver International Airport's ambitious South Terminal Redevelopment Program (STRP) is that it's only eight months behind schedule and a projected few million bucks over its half-... More >>

• Video: John Baker, homeless singer in Aspen, seeks TV and movie deals

  published Jan 19, 2012

  Famous for its ski bums, Aspen also has a modest contingent of real bums -- although the homeless shelter downtown isn't exactly as celebrated as the haunts of the 1 percenters. But that may soon chan... More >>

• Ken Salazar's plans for tourism in San Luis Valley generates protests

  published Jan 18, 2012

  Two weeks ago, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar surfaced in Alamosa, surrounded by state leaders, to present the results of a federal study aimed at promoting tourism and conservation in the San ... More >>

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  COVER STORY

  Drilled, Baby, Drilled: The strange battle to keep Big Oil from cheating

  published January 19, 2012

  Three years ago this month, outside some drab federal offices in Lakewood, a bespectacled man sporting a white cowboy hat and a bolo tie stood... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Phil Anschutz remains elusive in The New Yorker

  published Jan 17, 2012

  Few people can endure the scrutiny involved in a lengthy New Yorker profile with their mystique intact. But the magazine hardly makes a dent in the armor encasing Phil Anschutz, despite the wealth of ... More >>

• Private prisons' blueprint for success: more lobbying, less security

  published Jan 13, 2012

  The use of private prisons by states and the federal government continues to increase, yielding billions in annual revenues for two dominant companies in the industry -- despite a lack of solid resear... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Bobby Maxwell, fed whistleblower, earns $7.5 million in oil company battle

  published Jan 12, 2012

  It took nine years of fighting for money the government insisted it wasn't owed. It probably cost him his job, too. But last week, former federal auditor Bobby Maxwell and the Justice Department fina... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Dougherty Gang members Ryan, Dylan and Lee-Grace send Colorado love

  published Jan 11, 2012

  Last summer's wild multi-state crime spree by the Dougherty Gang -- two scary-looking brothers and their stripper sister -- understandably drew some superheated media coverage, what with Lee-Grace Dou... More >>

• Terrell Griswold: Mother questions inmate's "natural" death in private prison

  published Jan 06, 2012

  On October 28, 2010, a 26-year-old inmate named Terrell Griswold was found slumped over and unresponsive in his cell in the Bent County Correctional Facility, a private prison in southeastern Colorado... More >>

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  FEATURED STORY

  Juvenile lifers targeted for rape, excessive isolation in adult prisons

  published Jan 04, 2012

  Juveniles doing time in adult prisons, surrounded by older and stronger criminals, rarely fare well. But juveniles serving sentences of life without parole in the United States face particularly daunt... More >>