• You think your co-workers suck? A hiker had to be rescued when was left behind by 14 coworkers on a “team-building” climb of Mount Shavano in Chaffee County. The hiker fell behind when freezing rain and high winds hit, and then became further lost when his co-workers removed items they had used as trail markers as they descended ahead of him.
• Of course, your co-workers could be even worse. A Wells Fargo employee in Arizona died in her cubicle and it took four days for her co-workers to realize it.
• The U.S. Surgeon General has released his office’s latest warning: parenting may be harmful to your mental health.
• University of Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders has banned The Denver Post columnist Sean Keeler from asking questions during press conferences due to what Sanders calls a sustained pattern of “personal attacks.” Sanders isn’t wrong – Keeler is a sports columnist who is more interested in provocation than insight, but calling out a guy for being a bully by being an even bigger bully is no answer.
• Arcane rules for how and when flight attendants get paid has forced many of those without seniority to near poverty and homelessness.
• U.S. Open No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev has sued a respected journalist in Germany for reporting about the allegations that he abused his former girlfriend – despite Zverev paying a six-figure settlement to the woman.
• Bryan ‘B-Large’ Avila was let go from KTCL 93.3 as part of a broader round of iHeartMedia layoffs.
• It doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to question whether the line between researcher and advocate is getting blurred when it comes to efforts to legalize drugs such as marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms.
• New Hampshire is running out of phone numbers, and locals are worried that the state will have to add a second area code. What’s the big deal, you might ask. “While some outsiders won’t understand the unifying effect it has, (a single area code) is part of our shared identity,” according to Gov. Chris Sununu.
• Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky has unveiled a new marketing campaign that is leaning into its rough online reviews. One of the campaign’s taglines – “Experience what has disappointed millions of people for over 225 years!”
• The historic baseball stadium used in the Hollywood blockbuster “A League of their Own” caught fire and is a total loss. Built in 1937, the stadium was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• It was probably inevitable, but 9News anchor Marc Sallinger called his wife, a 9News reporter, the wrong name on air. She is Kelly Sallinger, but goes by her maiden name, Kelly Reinke, professionally.
• Actress Aubrey Plaza hasn’t watched her performance in “White Lotus” because she can’t remember the password to her Max streaming account.

Who won the week?

• The PRSA Gold Picks awards were announced this week. Using the highly proprietary Denver PR Blog formula (3 points for the Grand Gold, 2 points for Gold and 1 point for silver), the biggest agency winners were:
  • SchroderHaus – 11 points – 4 gold, 3 silver
  • Linhart PR – 6 points – 3 gold
  • CIG – 6 points – 2 gold, 2 silver
  • Meadows PR – 5 points – 1 Grand Gold, 1 gold
  • JKD & Company – 5 points – 2 gold, 1 silver
• Barefoot PR has added Vikki Wong as a PR associate.
• Sage Marketing Group has added Tina Martinez as opportunity manager.
• Andrew Kenney, formerly of The Denver Post and most recently Colorado Public Radio (CPR), has accepted the editor position at CPR-owned Denverite.
• 9News is adding an additional hour of local news in the 3 p.m. time slot. Eric Anderson is pretty sure this is just a ploy to have more newscast inventory for political ads as we approach the November elections.
• Douglas County will rename Lucent Boulevard as Kendrick Castillo Way. Castillo heroically charged an armed classmate during the 2019 STEM School shooting.
• Major League Baseball is 121 years old, so there aren’t a lot of “firsts” to be had. But Boston Red Sox catcher Danny Jansen managed one this week. He is the first player in MLB history to play for two teams during one game. The game – the Red Sox vs. the Toronto Blue Jays – started June 26 and was rained out in the second. Jansen was then traded from the Blue Jays to the Red Sox, and he played for the Red Sox when the game was completed this week.
• NFL owners are about to get even richer. The league agreed to allow private equity firms to purchase minority stakes in teams. I’m not 100% sure what the impact will be, but I’d bet my house that everything from season tickets to hot dogs to beer will get more expensive to help give those PE firms the return they expect.
• Speaking of wealthy football people, the Kelce brothers – Jason and Travis – signed a $100 million podcasting deal with Amazon‘s Wondery division. If Travis can sign 20 more deals like that, he’ll start to approach the net worth of his girlfriend, Taylor Swift.

• Some people are so stupid that the Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board developed an Instagram filter that alerts amateur photographers when they are standing too close to wildlife. Apparently the old method of letting you know you are too close – having a buffalo gore you – was considered suboptimal.
• The City of Aurora unexpectedly announced a new police chief, and community groups were not happy that they did not have the usual chance to weigh in on the decision. Given that Aurora has had five police chiefs in five years, city leaders may have been looking to avoid the usual process.
• So many Denverites are watering their lawns at 5 am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays that it is threatening the supply of locally stored water. Water officials are asking homeowners to switch to Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, instead.
• Google and California lawmakers reached a landmark agreement that will direct millions of dollars to local newsrooms, but there is one problem: many news outlets want no part of the deal.
• MIT announced the composition of its first freshman class since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled race-conscience admissions in colleges unconstitutional, and the impact is clear. The number of Black students dropped 62% and the number of Latino students dropped 27%.
• A federal judge blocked the launch of a new streaming service called Venu Sports from Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery, agreeing with competitor Fubo that it is anticompetitive.
• The family of French actor Alain Delon has declined to honor his request that his beloved Belgian Shepherd be euthanized and buried with him.
• Harley-Davidson has joined John Deere and Tractor Supply Co. in distancing itself from previous DEI initiatives after it too was targeted by conservative activists.
• World No. 1-ranked tennis player Janik Sinner‘s claims that he tested positive for steroids twice because of a spray his masseuse exposed him to were good enough for the sport’s anti-doping authorities. The International Tennis Integrity Agency‘s decision has infuriated most of Sinner’s competitors.
• Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta lost a piece of a patient’s skull while treating him for a brain hemorrhage. Doubling down on its incompetence, the hospital then billed the patient for a synthetic replacement.
• Critics aren’t impressed with an 8-foot statue of his wife that Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg commissioned.
• In one of the unlikelier feuds, Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill – considered the fastest player in the NFL – has challenged Olympic gold medalist sprinter Noah Lyles to a 50-yard race. The offer follows months of taunts between the two.
• Taliban leaders in Afghanistan have banned the sound of women’s voices singing or reading in public.

Who won the week?

• Dovetail Solutions added Trina Foster as vice president.
• The Denver Broncos named QB Bo Nix as the teams starter for the regular season. He will be the first rookie to start a season for the Broncos since John Elway.
• Jim Pittenger of Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs fame has rebounded from the closure of his ballpark restaurant and opened a popup restaurant inside the food hall at the Denver Milk Market.
• The outrageous Colorado School of Mines football roster photos have become an annual tradition, and 9News reporter Scotty Gange breaks down this year’s best.

• The new Ford Amphitheater in Colorado Springs celebrated its opening weekend with a concert by OneRepublic and 144 noise complaints from neighbors. Just wait until it starts booking EDM acts.
• Molson Coors is getting out of the craft beer business, announcing that it will shut down its AC Golden Brewing Co. subsidiary and sell several of the more valuable craft brands.
• The Colorado Department of Transportation had to go back to the drawing board for an intersection it is in the middle of building in Poncha Springs when it realized that one of the turns was too tight for semis. CDOT said the redesign will blow both the original Oct. 1 deadline and $7.1 million budget.
• Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol shocked the company by announcing that he is leaving to take the CEO job at Starbucks. Shares of Starbucks jumped more than 24% by the market close, while shares of Chipotle fell almost 8%. Niccol relocated Chipotle’s headquarters from Denver to Newport Beach, Calif., to be closer to his home when he became CEO in 2018.
• Did American Jordan Chiles win a bronze medal in the gymnastic floor exercise? No … then yes … then no again. Judges originally graded Chiles’ routine 1/10th of a point too low, then corrected it, then uncorrected it when they determined the challenge from the U.S. coach came four seconds too late. The result is she has to return the bronze medal.
• With the conclusion of the Paris Olympics Sunday, Los Angeles is now on the clock to host the 2028 Summer Games. L.A.’s mayor has promised to ban cars from the sites hosting events in part by spending $1 billion leasing buses, and expressed confidence that traffic won’t be a problem because traffic turned out not to be as big a problem as expected when L.A. last hosted the Olympics in 1984. I’m sure nothing has changed since then.
• Notre Dame has suspended its men’s swimming program for at least one year over gambling violations.
• Russia is at it again. Just weeks after a prisoner swap, it sentenced an American ballerina to 12 years in prison for donating to a Ukrainian charity and arrested a U.S. citizen for allegedly attacking a police officer.
• The doctors and personal assistant to actor Matthew Perry have been charged with providing the ketamine that killed him. The actor was allegedly spending $55,000 per month on ketamine at the time of his death.
• The U.S. Climate Prediction Center is predicting Colorado will have a hot, dry fall, which will keep our wildfire risk higher than normal.
• Some of Brazil‘s best nude beaches have a problem: not enough nudists. They are being overrun by clothed visitors.
• Hacking personal information such as Social Security numbers and dates of birth may finally come to an end now that there’s no unhacked data left.

Who won the week?

• GFM|CenterTable Vice President Amy Moynihan has joined the Boulder Board of County Commissioners Cultural Council.
• Dana Lauren Berry, senior director of Public Relations and Communications at Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, has joined the board of directors at the nonprofit Runway to Hope.
• Workwear brand Dickies selected Carbondale’s Backbone to provide public relations, affiliate marketing and influencer management services.
• Former CBS4 meteorologist Chris Spears left the station two years ago to open a home-and-garden decor shop in Olde Town Arvada. He has now returned to television, this time with 9News.
• The DCPA has leased a 25,000 square foot building south of downtown that will hold an upcoming immersive experience: “Monopoly Lifesized: Travel Edition.“
• The temperature may be in the 90s in Denver, but that hasn’t stopped Vail, Keystone and Breckenridge from announcing their opening dates for the 2024-25 ski season. Right now, Breck is first on Nov. 8.
• The Waltons, owners of the Denver Broncos, are spending nearly $50 million on a residence in the exclusive Polo Club neighborhood in Cherry Creek North. 
• Arguably the greatest coach in the history of NCAA athletics has announced his retirement. Anson Dorrance led the University of North Carolina‘s women’s soccer team to 22 national championships. His record was 934-88-53.
• The street artist Banksy has been on a tear in London, unveiling new pieces each day over the past week and a half.

• The Paris Olympics conclude this weekend and they have been celebrated as a return to what people expect from the games (no COVID, monster TV ratings, few human rights concerns, etc.). But not everything has gone well:
  • It’s every announcer’s nightmare. Leigh Diffey, NBC‘s announcer covering the men’s 100-meter sprint, botched the call, loudly proclaiming that Jamaica‘s Kishane Thompson had beaten American Noah Lyles. In Diffey’s defense, it took a photo finish to determine that Lyles had edged Thompson by 0.005 seconds.
  • Speaking of Noah Lyles, he only won bronze in the 200 meter, but he apparently placed third while battling COVID.
  • France insists on holding the swim portion of the triathlon in the Seine River, whose E. coli levels bounce between tolerable and unacceptable daily. This week, Belgium withdraw from the mixed relay triathlon after one of its athletes who previously swam in the Seine fell ill.
  • Ryan Gosling may be Canadian, but he apparently was afraid of angering his U.S. fans when he appeared at the Paris Olympics wearing a generic hat featuring only the Olympic Rings.
  • “Saturday Night Live” star Colin Jost was sent home from covering the surfing competition after he cut his foot and got a staph infection. Who knew covering Olympic surfing was more dangerous than participating in it?
  • Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic learned that one NBA MVP is not enough to defeat four NBA MVPs. But he sure looked good trying. It is a shame that the way the bracket played out that Team Serbia will only get to play for a bronze medal. They are clearly the second-best team in the tournament.
• Financial firm TIAA is planning to close its Denver office, which will affect 1,000 jobs in our city.
• A judge ordered the Penrose, Colorado, owners of a funeral home that stored nearly 200 decaying bodies and gave families fake ashes to pay $950 million to the victims’ relatives. The ruling is largely symbolic because the owners don’t – and never will – have $950 million.
• Private equity firms are buying up veterinary practices, and the results are not good for pets, pet owners or vets.
• Fox31 morning anchor Ashley Ryan‘s sleep issues have forced her to leave the station.
• Rapper Travis Scott‘s legal woes continue. He was arrested in Paris for allegedly assaulting a hotel security guard.
• Let’s pour one out for cougars across the city – Elway’s in Cherry Creek North is closing.
• Organizers cancelled two Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna after authorities discovered an ISIS-al Qaeda bomb plot. I’m really hoping this results in a revenge song against ISIS.
• A reporter who had no previous journalism experience in Wyoming has been fired for stealing some quotes, fabricating others and using AI to write stories. One of his giveaways: a paragraph in one of his stories that included a line intended just for him from his AI tool: “This structure ensures that the most critical information is presented first, making it easier for readers to grasp the main points quickly.” Thanks to Corey Hutchins‘ “Inside the News in Colorado“ newsletter for sharing that story. You should sign up for it.

Who won the week?

• DIA set a record for passenger traffic in 2023, and it is up an additional 9.2% in the first half of 2024.
• Douglas County is the third-healthiest in the country.
• I’m not sure how many football games he’ll win, but University of Colorado Buffaloes head football coach Deion Sanders knows a thing or two about marketing. He announced this week that his team will hold one of its practices at All-City Stadium in Denver. My guess is the Colorado State University Rams will do the same at some point next year.
• If you have a spare $48.5 million, you can buy a Colorado ranch that served as one of the nation’s most iconic recording studios.

• We’re a week into the Paris Olympics, and many, many things have gone very well. But not everything:
  • South Korea demanded a meeting with the head of the IOC after it was mistakenly introduced as North Korea during the opening ceremony.
  • Olympic officials followed that up by playing the wrong national anthem for South Sudan prior to its men’s basketball game against Puerto Rico.
  • The Nigeria women’s basketball team wasn’t allowed to board the delegation’s boat for the opening ceremony. The players and coaches were told there were already too many people on board.
  • Very few world records have been broken in swimming, and experts are blaming a shallower-than-usual pool.
  • If you had Iraq and judo for the first positive doping disqualification, you are a winner.
  • Paris organizers apologized for part of the opening ceremonies that featured drag queens that some say evoked Leonardo da Vinci‘s famous painting, “The Last Supper.”
  • Italian high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi lost his wedding ring in the Seine River when he waved a little too vigorously during the boat ride to the opening ceremonies.
  • How bad is the food in the athletes village? Even the British are complaining.
  • Eurosport, which broadcasts the Paris Olympics in Europe and parts of Asia, fired swimming commentator Bob Ballard after he mocked participants in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay, saying, “Well, the women just finishing up. You know what women are like … hanging around, doing their makeup.”
  • Speaking of the Seine, heavy rains caused E. coli levels to spike in the river, forcing the postponement of triathlon training sessions.
  • Sadly, Samoan boxing coach Lionel Elika Fatupaito died from a heart attack in the athletes village.
• Omnicom PR agencies, including Porter Novelli, Ketchum and FleishmanHillard, have quietly been conducting layoffs.
• Hosting the Oscars has always been a high-wire act, and most of the time not flopping is the big win. So it isn’t a surprise that comedians John Mulaney and Jimmy Kimmel have already passed on hosting next year’s show.
• Champagne sales are down 12% this year, which many are blaming on the idea that there is “not much joy in the world.” That checks out.
• “On the heels of spots like Bistro LeRoux, Enzo’s End and Cochino Taco’s Edgewater location calling it quits in July, D Bar announced … that its last day of service at its Uptown location is Sunday, August 4.”
• Stop me if you have heard this one before: Meta has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle a claim it violated regulations. This time it was a facial recognition suit in Texas.
• Extreme heat this summer has turned soda cans into “little bombs” that spontaneously explode on Southwest Airlines flights. Unlike other airlines, Southwest doesn’t refrigerate its cans because it doesn’t serve perishable food and so it isn’t required to have refrigerated storage.
• Are the Monforts slum lords?
• A former Denver Police Academy recruit is suing the City and County of Denver and Denver Health alleging that he lost the use of his legs following a brutal beating that was part of a “hazing ritual.”
• The latest TikTok-inspired cocktail: Coke and marshmallow fluff. You won’t be able to put the glass down. Literally.
• A Florida woman was arrested after being pulled over during a traffic stop when an officer spotted a bag in her car labeled “Bag of Drugs.” It contained … wait for it …  crack, meth and pills.

Who won the week?

• Good for them, sad for us. Denver lost two notable media professionals to retirement over the past week. Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish has retired after more than 40 years as a journalist, and 9News meteorologist Ed Greene has ended a 47-year career in Denver.
• The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was freed as part of a complicated prisoner swap. His employer has the fascinating behind-the-scenes details of how it happened.
• A more American-friendly time zone and the Peacock streaming service have helped to increase NBC’s television ratings for the Paris Olympics by 79% over the previous Tokyo games.
• The NFL is no doubt cheering a decision by a trial judge to throw out a $4.7 billion judgment because the jury did not follow his instructions closely enough.
• Marvel‘s “Deadpool & Wolverine” set the record for largest R-rated movie opening weekend in history with $205 million.