• Ahh, the post-COVID travel boom. A tourist in Rome who carved his name on an inner wall of the ancient Colosseum could face 2-5 years in jail.
• A corporate, billionaire-controlled social media platform is quickly being replaced by a corporate, billionaire-controlled social media platform. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg summed it up in one Tweet.
• United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has apologized for using a private jet to get from New Jersey to Denver amid his airline’s meltdown from cancelled and postponed flights. “Taking a private jet was the wrong decision because it was insensitive to our customers who were waiting to get home,” he said.
• The site of what was the high-end seafood restaurant Oceanaire in the downtown Performing Arts district has been sold. The buyer? The owners of the Diamond Cabaret strip club. They plan to open a Bombshells restaurant, which is a Hooters knock-off that features female servers wearing low-cut military-style uniforms.
• Meanwhile, the restaurant that could do no wrong has started doing nothing but wrong. Following last week’s no-tips fiasco, Casa Bonita’s new South Park owners have now cracked down on Etsy artists using the iconic restaurant’s image. Westword editor Patty Calhoun noted the irony since South Park “regularly depicts real people and places, right down to their logos.”
• A cameraman for the New York Yankees-Baltimore Orioles baseball game suffered an orbital fracture when an errant throw from second base to first base struck him in the face.
• The King Soopers employee who filmed the viral video of shoplifters stealing a shopping cart’s worth of laundry detergent has been fired for violating the company’s policy against employees chasing or intervening in a theft.
• July 3 was the hottest day ever recorded globally.
• Researchers have discovered the first case of CTE in a female athlete, an Australian rugby player.
• A Subway franchise in Savannah, Georgia, removed a marquee sign that read, “Our subs don’t implode.“
• A woman in Parker burned down her own home and her next-door neighbor’s when she threw used fireworks in a recycling bin. The residual heat of the fireworks eventually ignited the other materials in the bin, which led to the fire.
• The swim beaches at the Chatfield and Cherry Creek reservoirs are currently closed due to high E. coli levels.
• In case you are keeping track, $600 is the going rate for sex with a PT’s Showclub stripper. That’s according to a law enforcement investigation that may close the club permanently.
• Old LoHi restaurant Root Down is suing new LoHi restaurant Rooted, alleging trademark infringement.
• Fox31 has an open meteorologist position now that Jessica Lebel left, and not everyone is impressed with the salary range: “I’m sorry, but a (meteorologist) in Denver with a science degree should be paid more than the manager of a Panda Express.”
• A Lakewood woman who – at the moment – is unknown made national headlines with her racist rant against a Latino family that was sharing her apartment complex’s pool. The rant was recorded and shared via social media.
• This week gave us the most TMZ Sports headline of all time: No. 1 overall NBA draft pick Victor Wembanyama’s security guard allegedly slapped singer Britney Spears outside the Aria hotel and resort in Las Vegas.

So, who won the weeK?

• Denver’s iconic Republic Plaza building will not become what Kyle Clark speculated would be the world’s largest Spirit Halloween store after its owners secured funding to keep it out of bankruptcy.
• Shaquil Barrett may have left the Denver Broncos for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but his heart remains in Colorado. He and his wife just dropped nearly $5 million on a house in Parker.
• Last month’s heavy rains in Colorado have made our entire state drought-free for the first time in four years.
• Notable Denver bankruptcy attorney Brad Dempsey has taken the interim CEO position at Tattered Cover, likely giving the iconic bookstore its best shot at surviving.