Who Had the Worst Week?

• Former Loveland police officer Austin Hopp faces up to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree assault during the arrest of a 73-year-old woman with dementia.
• Two months after the devastating Marshall Fire, debris clean-up for Boulder County homeowners has not yet started due to a lawsuit over the selection of a controversial company.
• Westword continues to publish mug shots of individuals arrested for – but not convicted of – crimes, despite widespread acknowledgement of the damage it can do to people’s lives and the disproportionate impact on people of color. Even worse, Westword is using the mugshots as clickbait on social media.
• A disagreement over subpoena power between Denver Auditor Tim O’Brien and the Denver City Council has gone nuclear.
• United Airlines must pay $2.3 million to two flight attendants whom the airline fired for watching an iPad during a break. The pair’s attorney successfully argued that United’s disciplinary system was nonsensical and applied inconsistently.
• She may be the greatest women’s tennis player of all time, but Serena Williams is still fighting the same indignities that affect other people of color.
• Major League Baseball cancelled the first two series of the season – or “MLB has canceled the Rockies first 5 losses of the season,” as CPR’s Vic Vela put it – when owners and players were unable to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.
• A JetBlue pilot was removed from the cockpit and registered 0.17% on a breathalyzer, more than four times the limit allowed by the FAA. I’m not sure what’s scarier – a drunk pilot or the fact that the FAA allows pilots fly when they register 0.04% on a breathalyzer.

So, who won the week?

• Ten Coloradans will participate in the 2022 Winter Paralympics that start today.
• A Colorado judge has affirmed that DIA owes Adams County more than $30 million for noise violations.
• Jackson Hole lift supervisor Peter Landsman just completed his quest to ride all 2,381 chairlifts in the country. It took him 22 years, and a ski resort in remote Alaska was the toughest one to check off.
• PR agency senior account executives saw their salaries rise 25% on average, according to PRWeek’s latest salary survey.
• Prolific sci-fi and fantasy author Brandon Sanderson set a goal to raise $1 million over 30 days on Kickstarter to self-publish novels he wrote during the pandemic. He blew past his goal in 35 minutes on his way to $15.4 million in just 24 hours.