• There’s a lot of pent-up anger at Winnie the Pooh, apparently. A studio is developing an R-rated live-action/animation hybrid series about Christopher Robin. Variety described the series: “Christopher Robin is a disillusioned New Yorker navigating his quarter-life crisis with the help of the weird talking animals who live beyond a drug-induced portal outside his derelict apartment complex.” Earlier this year, a low-budget indie film, “Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey,” had its one-night-only run extended. The plot: Winnie the Pooh and Piglet brutally murder 11 people.
• The biggest drama in the Denver Nuggets-Minnesota Timberwolves playoff series occurred after game 5 when the Nuggets eliminated the Wolves. Frustrated by missing a last-second shot that would have sent the game to overtime, Timberwolves guard Anthony “Don’t Call Me Goose” Edwards went on a one-man tirade, running into a security official as he ran off the court and then allegedly swinging a folding chair that struck two women. Denver Police held up the Wolves’ bus to the airport to cite Edwards for third-degree assault.
• It was a tough week for media scoundrels. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and CNN’s Don Lemon were both fired for, well, a multitude of sins. And NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell was fired for having an inappropriate relationship with a colleague.
• The Riverside County (Calif.) Sheriff’s Department lost 60 pounds of meth when the target of a sting operation quickly fled in his car after the buy. The chef’s kiss: Sheriff’s Department officials criticized the drug dealer, saying his high-speed escape exhibited a “disregard for public safety.”
• There is nothing worse than a self-inflicted PR crisis, but that is exactly what Bud Light did when it first engaged with a transgender social media influencer and then quickly backed away from that decision. It is the same three-act play I have written about countless times before: Act 1: Tweet something controversial about a 50-50 issue. Act 2: Feel the withering backlash from 50% of the people; try to quickly back away from the issue. Act 3: Incur the wrath of the 50% of people on the other side of the issue for trying to back away from it; slowly realize that you have now pissed off approximately 100% of people.
• New CU Buffs football coach Deion Sanders told the world in his introductory press conference what he planned to do – completely turn over the team’s roster, encouraging players who went 1-11 last year to transfer other places. But seeing the sheer number of CU athletes in the transfer portal has sparked some soul-searching about the real-life impact on players.
• A bipartisan group of county treasurers are warning metro Denver homeowners that they should expect their property taxes to increase as much as 50%.
• Financial realities have sidelined RTD‘s plans to purchase 17 electric buses. The transit system cancelled its order when it realized it does not have the funds to expand its maintenance and operations facilities to accommodate the buses. 
• A German magazine editor was fired for publishing an AI-generated “interview” with racing legend Michael Schumacher. The magazine promoted the interview as Schumacher’s first since he became incapacitated after a 2013 skiing incident in which he hit his head on a rock.
• Singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran has been in a New York City courthouse this week defending himself against a lawsuit brought by the heirs of Marvin Gaye. They allege Sheeran’s song “Thinking Out Loud” stole the musical composition of Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On.”
• New York Times v. Sullivan strikes again. Chad Burmeister, a Colorado businessman suing 9News and Kyle Clark, reportedly wound up paying a $30,000 settlement to cover the media outlet’s legal fees just to extricate himself from his own lawsuit and subsequent appeal.

So, who won the week?

• 9News reporter Luis de Leon announced his departure from the station.
• Actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought a bottom-tier Wales soccer team as what appeared a joke. In the intervening two years, they have have become beloved in the team’s town of Wrexham and this week the team finished first in their league and will be promoted next season.
• Mattel has released its first Barbie doll featuring a character with Down Syndrome.
• A Cherry Creek High School senior is getting recognized for his Rubik’s Cube portraits.

IABC Colorado is offering a half-day workshop focused on corporate communications on May 4. It starts with lunch and a case study from Ball Corporation Director of Internal Communications, Renee Robinson and then moves into a Communication Playbook workshop with Steve and Cindy Crescenzo of Crescenzo Communications. 

IABC Colorado Communications Workshop
Thursday, May 4 from 11:30 am – 4:30 pm
Ball Corporate Headquarters
9200 West 108th Circle
Westminster, CO 80021
Register

• Denver Public Schools board member Auon’tai Anderson may be the best known of his peers, which makes a recent poll showing him with the support of just 9% of registered Denver voters that much more damning.
• The new 13-foot metal fencing around the White House wasn’t enough to keep out one shifty intruder – a toddler who squeezed through the bars. Secret Service officers walked across the North Lawn to retrieve the kid and reunite him with his parents at a nearby gate.
• Fox agreed to settle Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit for $787.5 million, an admission that its hosts were knowingly sharing lies about the company’s voting machines when they alleged widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
• Buzzfeed announced it will shut down its Buzzfeed News division. It won a Pulitzer Prize, but it wasn’t enough to keep the financially troubled division afloat.
• In what can only be described as a metaphor for his 2022 season, Denver Broncos QB Russell Wilson crashed his golf cart into a bunker, causing it to flip over. Wilson was not hurt.
• Southwest Airlines temporarily grounded all of its planes on Tuesday due to “equipment issues.” The ground stop follows last December’s holiday meltdown that cost the airline more than $1 billion.
• Netflix had a hell of a week:
  • The streaming service announced it would begin enforcing password-sharing restrictions in the U.S. and shut down its once-pioneering DVD-by-mail service.
  • It also botched its live “Love is Blind” reality show reunion episode, proving that it is not as ready for live events as it thought. Meanwhile, brands ranging from Hulu to McDonalds to the San Diego Zoo took the opportunity to roast Netflix on social media during the delay.
  • And one of the stars of the Netflix show “Beef,” David Choe, is desperately trying to suppress episodes of his old podcast in which he describes behavior that made him what he called “a successful rapist.” Choe says the descriptions were “performance art,” but he has filed DMCA take-down notices to two women who posted copies of the podcast in order to bring attention to his statements.
• The already-cash-strapped Douglas County School District agreed to pay its former superintendent $833,000 to settle a wrongful termination claim. Meanwhile, the board of the also-cash-strapped Denver Public Schools has now paid mediators $43,000 to help board members get along with each other better.
• Denver City Auditor Tim O’Brien isn’t happy that DIA disagreed with seven of his 10 recommendations to improve the procurement and construction process for its Great Hall project. O’Brien’s audits usually remain under the radar, but he chose to conduct a full-blown media and social media blitz in an attempt to embarrass DIA for dismissing him.
• Ron Baker, the executive director of the Colorado public pension system PERA that manages billions of dollars in assets, went on leave March 8 and no one will say why.
• There’s nothing more inspiring than a CEO who earned $2.5 million in bonuses the past two years castigating employees who are frustrated that their bonuses have been cancelled.
• Inexplicably, New Zealand planned a contest for children under the age of 14 to hunt and kill feral cats for cash prizes.

So, who won the week?

• Nicole Yost has been named the City of Loveland’s first Director of Communications and Engagement.
• A couple in Wheat Ridge hosted a party bus full of basset hounds to celebrate their dog’s birthday.
• Maybe the Los Angeles Dodgers are the good guys after all. Andrew Toles has not played a game for the Dodgers in four years due to ongoing mental health issues, but the club has resigned him each year since to essentially a $0 contract to allow him to keep his health benefits to continue treatment.
• The key to old age: Tennis, pickleball and … burlesque dancing?

• Denver’s Regis University has seen a 51% decline in undergraduate enrollment over the past decade, causing concerns about the long-term viability of the school.
• The Wells Fargo “cash register” building downtown is a bird-killing machine.
• Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the Suncor refinery in Commerce City is accused of releasing harmful air pollutants. This week it was sulfur dioxide.
• The new MLB pitch clock has shaved about 30 minutes off the length of the average baseball game, but it has had one unintended consequence: fewer beer sales. The Colorado Rockies announced they are extending last call from the end of 7th inning to the end of the 8th to combat the decline that could cost the team millions of dollars.
  • Perhaps relatedly, Denver Police are giving the “attack” on Rockies mascot Dinger seemingly more attention than it gives to, say, catalytic converter thefts. No one was hurt in the incident that The Denver Post described as “interrupting” Dinger’s dance routine, but there is now a $2,000 reward for information about the assailant.
• HBO is synonymous with prestigious programming (“The Sopranos,” “The Wire,” “Succession,” “Veep,” “Euphoria,” etc.), so naturally the marketing geniuses at Warner Bros. Discovery have decided to rebrand the company’s HBO Max streaming service simply Max.
• NPR dealt a high-profile blow to Twitter when it announced it would suspend its activity on the platform due to Elon Musk’s decision to label NPR first as “state-affiliated media” and then “government-funded.” NPR said, “We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility,” which is not going to help Musk’s efforts to bring back wary advertisers.
  • PBS announced it will follow NPR’s lead, as did local NPR affiliates CPR and KUNC.
• Much of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is underwater after a storm dumped more than two feet of rain on the city in 24 hours.
• Likely the last time you heard about the Boeing 737 Max, it was related to the FAA’s 18-month grounding in 2019-2020 due to problem with, well, crashing. The 737 Max has reappeared in the news this week because Boeing announced it would reduce deliveries of the aircraft due to a “non-standard” manufacturing process used on parts in the planes’ fuselages. Bon voyage!
• Fox News and AM radio host Sean Hannity is accusing car manufacturers such as Ford, Volkswagen, BMW, Mazda, Volvo and Tesla of conspiring against conservative talk radio by eliminating AM frequencies from their car stereos. The car manufacturers say that interference from electromagnetic frequencies from electric car motors causes a buzzing noise and a weak signal.
• In an announcement that will surprise absolutely no one, promoters say that “fraudulent activity” was found during ticket sales to an upcoming concert at Red Rocks.
• Portland edged out Denver to take the title of the nation’s top city for marijuana. You can decide for yourself whether Portland or Denver had the worst week in that scenario.

So, who won the week?

• Amber Miller launched her own consulting firm, Mountains & Plains Strategies.
• The longtime owner of Beau Jo’s announced he is selling the pizza chain to his employees. He is establishing an Employee Stock Option Plan that will give each of the 252 employees an ownership stake.
• Fox31 anchor/reporter Joshua Short has accepted a position at WNDU in South Bend, Ind.

• Tesla employees have reportedly been spying on customers through cars’ cameras and microphones and sharing the most embarrassing. videos with fellow employees.
• An ornery moose that moved into the courtyard of the Mountain Village Apartments in Steamboat has residents uneasy.
• FBI officials in Denver are warning people not to use free public phone charging stations because of the threat of malware.
• The LSU women’s basketball team won the national championship, but the team’s celebration has been overshadowed first with a feud between LSU star Angel Reese and Iowa star Caitlin Clark, and then a feud no one saw coming between Reese and first Lady Jill Biden.
• Colorado taxpayers are subsidizing million-dollar weddings in resort towns like Aspen through an obscure economic incentive program. One of the biggest beneficiaries: actor Kevin Costner.
• Elon Musk continues to punch out at his enemies. This time it was NPR that felt the impact when Twitter officially labeled it “state-affiliated media” – the same designation that propaganda outlets like the Russian-government-owned RT and the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily newspaper receive.
• The company behind the proposed Park Hill Golf Course development hit yet another roadblock this week when Denver voters rejected the plan roughly 60%-40%.
• The line to sue Kanye West got longer this week when two former teachers at his private school Donda Academy alleged the school violated state regulations.
• Bud Light’s partnership with transgender TikTok star Dylan Dulvaney has triggered some conservatives, most notably singers Kid Rock and Travis Tritt, who took to social media to rail against the company.
• Our city continues to be ripped apart by one of the most controversial issues in a generation – pickleball.
• Samsung engineers inadvertently disclosed trade secrets when they submitted confidential source code to ChatGPT and asked it to check for errors and optimize the code. Anything submitted to ChatGPT is retained and used by its engineers to improve the service.

So, who won the week?

• John Elway officially retired from the Denver Broncos this week. His tenure as GM was a little rocky, but history will be very kind to his legacy of two Super Bowl wins as a player and one as a GM.
• The Colorado Rockies delivered a 1-0 win in their home opener against the Washington Nationals. The best news: the new pitch clock helped keep the game to just two hours, 18 minutes.
• Mike Johnston and Kelly Brough elevated from the other 14 candidates for Denver mayor to make the run-off.