Alan Prendergast
Westword
Denver, CO, United States
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Past articles by Alan:
Freddie Glenn, Convicted in Grammer Murder, Seeks Parole After 47 Years in Prison
After 47 years in prison, he went before the Colorado parole board this fall, for the fourth time in thirteen years. His story has changed over time. → Read More
Cannabis Could Transform Moffat Into Kush, a Mecca of Marijuana Tourism
Moffat could be transformed into Kush, making the San Luis Valle a mecca of cannabis tourism, similar to California’s Napa Valley. Area 420 is just the start. → Read More
How Lease Deals Have Truckers Hauling a Load of Debt
The Pathway suit in federal court in Denver is one of several across the country that have been filed by drivers — hailed as heroes of the pandemic for keeping the supply chain intact — challenging what they claim are predatory leasing schemes. The cases have exposed dark corners of a chaotic and highly competitive... → Read More
Coroner Spurns Broomfield After Elijah McClain Autopsy Questions
Before renewing a contract with the Adams County Coroner's Office, Broomfield City Council members had some questions about how that agency had conducted its 2019 investigation into the death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain → Read More
Zen Magnets Calls It Quits After New Ruling in Eight-Year Fight
Shihan Qu, who started the company out of his home in Boulder in 2009, says the demise of his business won't solve the child-safety issues that the seesaw litigation was supposed to address. Zen Magnets has been ordered off the market by December 21. → Read More
Joby Weeks Pleads Guilty in $722 Million Bitcoin Scam
The plea, entered November 5 in federal court in New Jersey, is the third deal the government has reached with former promoters and principals of the BitClub Network, which promised high returns to customers who purchased shares in a cryptocurrency "mining pool." → Read More
Water Wars and Hidden Riches on Colorado's High Plains
Southeast Colorado may be the state's most neglected corner. But after a series of droughts the locals are seeking to conserve, diversify, and promote the area's little-known but astonishing canyon country. → Read More
In Death of Elijah McClain, Did Officials Ignore the Obvious?
Nearly a year after he died, the official version is under fresh attack. → Read More
The Rise and Fall of a Bitcoin Mining Scheme That Was "Too Big to Fail"
The promoters promised a machine that printed money and a golden goose. But the BitClub Network collapsed in what may be one of the largest cryptocurrency frauds of all time, taking Coloradan Joby Weeks down with it. → Read More
Sculpture Commemorates CU Boulder Chicano Activists Killed in Car Bombings
A sculpture on the University of Colorado campus recalls the 1974 deaths of six Chicano activists in Boulder. → Read More
Bridey Murphy Turned Pueblo Into the Paranormal Capital of the Universe
How a hypnotized housewife's tales of reincarnation turned Pueblo into the center of the paranormal universe. → Read More
Au Pairs Win $65.5 Million in Settlement of Suit
A $65.5 million settlement reached in Denver's federal court this week is being hailed as a major step toward reforming the federal government's troubled au pair program. → Read More
Richard Boccardi Might Still Have the Last Laugh, After Years of Lockdown
Out of the 10,000 felons on parole in Colorado on any given day, half of them will be back in prison for a parole violation or a new crime within three years — an intransigent core of repeat offenders that has become a major factor in the state’s soaring prison budget. For many years, Richard Boccardi was one of... → Read More
Columbine Survivors a Case Study in Trauma From Mass Shootings, Twenty Years Later
Twenty years ago, the attack on Columbine was the deadliest high school shooting in American history. Subsequent mass shootings have produced higher body counts. But Columbine, with its infamy-seeking teen killers, elaborate planning and impotent police response, remains the singular tragedy that every new eruption... → Read More
Jeff Johnson's Release: Life After Life Without Parole
Sentenced to life in prison for a crime that occurred when he was seventeen, Jeff Johnson is one of the first of Colorado's juvie lifers to be released. → Read More
Colorado Lynching Victim Preston Porter Jr. Will Be Commemorated in Limon November 17, 2018
A group of social justice activists seeks to bring renewed attention to Colorado's long-buried history of lynchings — and to confront one particularly shocking and grotesque episode. → Read More
Decades-Long Battle Over Historic Cielo Vista Ranch in Costilla County Headed Back to Court
Colorado's longest-running land dispute enters a new round of lawyerly arguments this week, sixteen years after an historic court decision that awarded to hundreds of Costilla County residents rights of access to a mountain property that their ancestors had used in common. → Read More
Blagg Juror George Montano Says His Company Punished Him For Serving on Panel
A juror in the Michael Blagg murder trial last spring has filed a lawsuit against his employer, claiming that his supervisors pressured him to find a way to duck jury service — and retaliated against him after he spent six weeks on the panel that found Blagg guilty of killing his wife. → Read More
Long Hours, Low Wages and Lawsuits Plague the Federal Au Pair Program
Thousands of former au pairs are part of a class-action suit filed in Denver. → Read More
H Unit at Colorado's Federal Supermax Is a Special Sort of Hell
There may or may not be a special place in hell for terrorists, but there is a special place in Colorado for them — a place for jihadists, conspirators, failed suicide bombers, and more. Its name is H Unit. → Read More