• Former Denver Bronco Ed McCaffrey has been fired as head football coach at the University of Northern Colorado after posting a 6-16 record over two years.
• The Brown Palace had to cancel its Thanksgiving reservations due to a fire at the historic hotel.
• The Denver Broncos waived running back Melvin Gordon following the team’s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. Gordon was the Broncos’ leader in carries and rushing yards, but also fumbles.
• A Business Insider investigation found that Amazon’s Alexa is a “colossal failure” that is on pace to lose $10 billion this year. Perhaps relatedly, Amazon recently announced plans to eliminate 10,000 jobs.
• Luxury fashion house Balenciaga SA has apologized for a “holiday” ad campaign that featured little kids holding teddy bears dressed in bondage gear.
• Elon Musk says he plans to reinstate accounts that previously violated Twitter’s terms of service. The shift in policy has stoked fears that hate speech will increase on the platform.
• The Associated Press’ James LaPorta, the journalist who incorrectly reported that Russian missiles crossed into Poland killing two civilians, has been terminated. An AP spokeswomen said, “When our standards are violated, we must take the steps necessary to protect the integrity of the news report.”
• A professional wrestler who travels Appalachia and southern states as “The Progressive Liberal” is shocked – SHOCKED – to find that conservative audience members try to hurt him.
• Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for her role in defrauding investors. The good news for Holmes? She has a chance of running into reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, both of whom received prison sentences this week for fraud and tax evasion charges.
• The FIFA World Cup started this week and there have been some shocking results on the pitch (Saudi Arabia defeating Argentina, Japan beating Germany). However, much of the news has been about FIFA’s heavy-handed tactics to prevent host country Qatar from be embarrassed by its abysmal human rights record.
• The NFL sent the Arizona Cardinals to Mexico City for its Monday night game against the San Francisco 49ers as part of the league’s efforts to export the game and its culture. The plan may have worked too well: the Cardinals fired one of its coaches, Sean Kugler, before the game for allegedly groping a woman in the Mexican capitol.
• Gutless administrators at the University of Arizona have allowed students and others to attack student journalists at the school.

So, who won the week?

• Richard Fierro and Thomas James are being credited for stopping the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs. The pair acted quickly to disarm the shooter.
• Could Deion Sanders be the next head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes?
• Former Disney CEO Bob Iger, a legend who guided the company through some of its most successful years, has returned after his hand-picked successor had some high-profile missteps.

Luxury fashion house Balenciaga SA has apologized for a “holiday” ad campaign that featured little kids holding teddy bears dressed in bondage gear.

• Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift. Good luck!
• NBC News national correspondent Miguel Almaguer appears to be suspended. He has not appeared on-air since the network retracted his story that shared false information about the attack on U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
• Twitter offices had to be shut down late this week amid a mass exodus of workers. Elon Musk may be proving that employees will only put up with asshole, narcissistic CEOs if there are pre-IPO stock options involved. Alas, Twitter isn’t a start-up.
• The answer to the clue “This TV show is under fire for cavalierly using a recent murder as a trivia question” is Jeopardy.
• Comedian and noted car enthusiast Jay Leno suffered third-degree burns on his face and hands when a vintage car he was working on caught fire. As a result, his appearance this weekend at the Bellco Theatre in Denver has been cancelled.
• Being fired as a reporter is tough enough, but having your news director invite you to a Hardees so he can fire you just adds insult to injury.
• Have you ever wanted to be a police chief? Apply now with the City of Aurora and you might get it. They currently have zero applications for the position. Meanwhile, it turns out the city’s new interim police chief, Art Acevedo, “has a history of misconduct and was a frequent guest on InfoWars, founded by conspiracist Alex Jones.” This should end well.
• The University of Virginia football team cancelled its final home game after three of its players were shot and killed. A former UVA teammate was arrested for the shooting.
• Denver-area Uber and Lyft drivers are only netting about $5.50 an hour, according to a new report from Colorado Jobs With Justice. That is about one-third of what they would make if they earned minimum wage in the city.
• Denver Broncos linebacker Aaron Patrick has sued the NFL, ESPN, Kroenke Sports and Entertainment and the L.A. Chargers after he tore his ACL in a sideline collision at the Chargers’ stadium. He landed awkwardly on a mat covering wiring.
• FIFA selected Qatar to host the World Cup 12 years ago, and today – two days before the 2022 FIFA World Cup starts – Qatar announced that it is going back on its agreement and will ban alcohol sales at stadiums. Budweiser has to be thrilled about its $75 million sponsorship of the tournament.
• A truck in which actress Denise Richards was a passenger sustained bullet holes following a road rage incident in L.A. Monday.
• The Great American Family network, a start-up competitor to the Hallmark Channel, announced it will not feature gay and lesbian couples as part of its line-up of Christmas movies. I’m guessing you can expect a lot of Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A commercials, and not many others.

So, who won the week?

• Katie Knoch has founded Hard Knoch PR.
• Backbone Media is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
• GBSM held a ribbon-cutting for its new office space in LoDo.
• The City and County of Broomfield named Julie Story Director of Communications.
• Maura O’Neal and Lyn Schneider joined GroundFloor Media | CenterTable as Senior Directors of Communications & Content.
• Jenn Kostka Beck is joining Mile High United Way as Vice President of Marketing.
• CBS4 Executive Producer Kelly Clark is leaving the station to join the Archdiocese of Denver as Director of Public Relations and Publications.
• Edelman CEO Richard Edelman was placed on a list of Americans under financial sanctions by Russia. Sometimes you are measured by who your enemies are.
• Jeff Bezos and partner Lauren Sanchez have awarded singer and philanthropist Dolly Parton $100 million as part of the Bezos Courage and Civility Award.  
• Billionaire Phil Anschutz won an appeals court ruling giving him an $8 million Colorado tax refund. Remember that every time you hit a pothole.

• Crypto bro Sam Bankman-Fried saw his $16 billion fortune evaporate almost overnight after his company FTX filed for bankruptcy. It may not have technically been a Ponzi scheme, but it was something close.
• Twitter. Where to begin? The company’s plan to allow anyone to pay $8 to become “verified” that has now been placed on hold after widespread fraud? The ADL and NAACP promoting advertiser boycotts? An FTC warning against violating the company’s consent decree? Having to beg some laid off employees to return?
• A new $300 million resort being developed at Keystone is mired in lawsuits and allegations of fraud.
• Mercurial tennis star Nick Kyrgios apologized and reached a financial settlement with a fan he accused of being “drunk out of her mind” during a Wimbledon Men’s Final match. Kyrgios agreed to donate $22,000 to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, a charity chosen by the fan.
• Yale University is under fire for its policy requiring suicidal students to withdraw and later reapply for re-admission. Mental health advocates warn that is a policy that encourages students to hide mental health struggles.
• It was a bad week for tech workers. Twitter, Lyft and Stripe all had layoffs affecting Colorado employees. And Facebook parent company Meta also announced plans to lay off more than 11,000 workers.
• Aurora interim Police Chief Dan Oates has only had the job for six months, but he’s pissing off local community activists like a veteran.
• Henry, Vail’s first avalanche rescue dog, passed away at the age of 15. Vail posted this video honoring Henry.
• Tyson Foods‘ CFO was arrested for trespassing and public intoxication after he fell asleep in the wrong house. How does a guy like that become CFO at a Fortune-100 company? I’ll give you a hint: his name is John Tyson.
• The 2022 FIFA World Cup is the target of an “anti-sponsor” marketing campaign by brewing company BrewDog. The tagline: “Let’s be honest: Qatar won it through bribery. On an industrial scale.”
• Did Kanye West fire an employee for asking to listen to Drake in the office? Rolling Stone says yes.
• Jane Gross, a female sportswriter who broke barriers and opened locker rooms in the 1970s, passed away. She was 75.

So, who won the week?

• GroundFloor Media | CenterTable, Turner PR, TDA_Boulder, Fortnight Collective and Booyah Advertising led the list of Colorado companies on Outside Magazine’s Top 50 Best Places to Work.
• Marina Salais-Robbins and Haley Henning have joined Linhart PR as account executives. 
• KALC-FM (Alice 105.9) was the highest-rated radio station in the Denver market in the latest Nielsen rankings.
• Lisa Cutter, the only public relations executive running for a Colorado State Senate seat, was elected.
• The Denver Broncos haven’t lost a game in two weeks (a bye week helped).
• Pete Webb has come out of retirement to rep former Colorado Parks and Wildlife director Dan Prenzlow.”
• Pie Insurance named Joshua Brost VP of Marketing.

Lisa Cutter, a longtime member of Denver’s PR community, defeated developer Tim Walsh last night in the race for the Colorado Senate District 20. Cutter previously represented Colorado House District 25 until redistricting shuffled the legislative map. During her tenure in the House, one of her signature causes was media literacy, and she was successful in funding a Media Literacy Advisory Committee to help schools better educate students on policies and curriculum.

Outside Magazine is out with its 2022 list of the 50 Best Places to Work, and once again Colorado has dominated the list. Twenty-five businesses based in Colorado made the top 50, while California was next with just six. Interestingly, Boulder-based companies represented 12 of the 50 winners (clearly, cost of living wasn’t one of the criteria)

The Colorado communications, digital marketing and advertising companies that made Outside’s 2022 list were:

#2 GroundFloor Media | CenterTable
#3 Turner PR
#12 TDA_Boulder
#13 Fortnight Collective
#16 Booyah Advertising
#31 Choozle
#46 Backbone Media
#48 Cactus

• Denver’s first snow of the season resulted in a 100-car pile-up on Sixth Avenue.
• NBA superstar Kyrie Irving looked at Kanye West’s last month and said, “Hold my beer.”
• TikTok star Katie Sigmond is facing charges after hitting a golf ball into the Grand Canyon. That stunt follows others she has done, including bowling with a pumpkin and throwing a fake cinder block at cars.
• Wolves have started to make a comeback in Colorado, but it won’t last long if they can’t learn to stay on our side of the Colorado-Wyoming border.
• A 65-year-old man was arrested at a youth flag football game in Highlands Ranch after his “handgun fell out of his pants and fired when he picked it up.“
• After recent cheating scandals in professional chess and fishing, it looked like we had hit rock bottom. But now we learn that the world of professional cornhole is under investigation. The allegation: illegal beanbags.
• The San Antonio Spurs cut guard Joshua Primo, the 21st pick in last year’s NBA draft, after multiple allegations that he exposed himself to women.
• Denver Public Schools is now feuding with the Denver Housing Authority over a plan to close a school in the Sun Valley neighborhood. DPS says not enough kids are enrolled, but DHS is investing $4 million in housing projects that it says will significantly increase the number of kids in the neighborhood starting next year.
• Elon Musk is expected to begin laying off half of Twitter’s employees beginning today.
• Organizers have cancelled Nederland‘s 2023 Frozen Dead Guy Days due to operational hurdles and a “lack of partnership” with the town. The event inexplicably attracts more than 20,000 people annually.
• The city of Idaho Springs agreed to pay a 76-year-old man $7 million after one of its police officers tased him for basically no reason. For context, the city’s annual operating budget for its police department is $1.26 million.
• Qatar is so concerned about being exposed as a terrible host city for the 2022 FIFA World Cup that it is offering soccer influencers free airfare, game tickets, hotel rooms and spending money in exchange for positive social media posts.
• She may have sold tens of millions of albums and won an Emmy, Grammy and Oscar, but it turns out we have been pronouncing singer Adele’s name wrong for more than 15 years.
• Alabama’s three largest newspapers will stop printing next year and move to digital-only subscriptions.
• Did the CBS Sunday Morning show get paid for hosting a celebrity interview at the New York Botanical Gardens and not disclose it?

So, who won the week?

• GroundFloor Media | CenterTable’s Get Grounded Foundation awarded nearly $85,000 to 19 nonprofit organizations. The 2022 round of funding brings the foundation’s lifetime cash donations to more than $325,000.
• Barefoot PR celebrated its 12th anniversary.
• Bradley Chubb not only exited the dumpster fire that is the 2022 Denver Broncos after being traded to the Miami Dolphins, he received a $110 million contract extension from the Dolphins for his trouble.
• All of us. The midterm election happens Tuesday, which means the end of all the political ads.
• Colorado’s Charlotte’s Web will be the official CBD supplier to Major League Baseball.
• Lena Horne is now the first Black woman to have a Broadway theater named in her honor.