• University of Texas tennis player Maya Joint earned $126,000 by winning a few matches at this year’s U.S. Open, but she isn’t allowed to accept it if she wants to maintain her NCAA eligibility. “But University of Texas QB Quinn Ewers makes $1.7 million from ads for Dr Pepper, Hulu and others,” you might say. Apparently NIL ad money and prize money are treated differently. The NCAA never fails to disappoint.
• The Paris Olympics and Paralympics may have just ended, but a battle is brewing over whether to keep the Olympic Rings on the Eiffel Tower. Paris’ mayor announced that she plans to keep the rings indefinitely, a decision that is not sitting well with many Parisians, including the family of the tower’s designer, Gustave Eiffel.
• Edelman‘s decision to hire former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley who served in the Trump Administration may be strategic, but it isn’t going over well with some employees. Axios reports that her hiring “has impacted morale and the tongue-in-cheek hashtag #MEGA — Make Edelman Great Again — has been circulating among teams.”
• On May 27, it hit 100 degrees in Phoenix, and it has been 100 degrees or hotter every day since – a now 111-day streak that sets a new record each day. The previous record of consecutive 100+ degree days was 76 set in 1993.
• Two Delta planes collided while taxiing in Atlanta, knocking off the tail section of one of the planes.
• Facebook has been removing posts from federal and state agencies that warn local residents about active wildfires. Officials are frustrated because in many rural communities it is one of the most effective way to alert and update residents on evacuations.
• The S.E.C. – the government agency, not the athletic conference – fined Keurig $1.5 million for claiming that its single-use plastic coffee and tea pods are more recyclable than they really are.
• The Miami-Dade Police Department is playing defense after body-cam footage showed that its officers cowboyed up and unnecessarily escalated a traffic ticket incident with Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill outside the stadium just hours before a game. Hill ended up face down on the pavement in handcuffs before being released.
• Denver and other metro cities should be prepared to receive less in commercial real-estate taxes next year. Assessors in Colorado value real estate every two years, and this year’s assessments are likely to see many metro commercial office buildings valued at a fraction of what they were worth due to historic vacancies.
• District Attorney Linda Stanley, the woman whose unethical conduct caused a judge to dismiss murder charges against Barry Morphew in the killing of his wife Suzanne, was formally disbarred.
• Former Denver Broncos star Shannon Sharpe first claimed that he did not accidentally livestream a video on Instagram of him having sex. He said it was the work of hackers and that he and his team were “working vigorously” to find those responsible. Then, a day later after he apparently confirmed ESPN wasn’t going to fire him for the incident, he acknowledged it was his mistake after all.
• Corey Hutchins reports that Michael De Yoanna is out as editor of Colorado Community Media, and he will not be replaced. Instead, publisher Linda Shapley will move into a new position of director of editorial and audience engagement.

Who won the week?

• Barefoot PR added Emily Keeley as a PR associate.
• Ent Credit Union named Amy Nigrelli as its Chief Marketing Officer.  
• Jenny Bloom, who has handled PR for Meow Wolf and the Denver Film Festival, among others, has launched Bloomerang PR. Her first client is Superplastic.
• Larry Ryckman has been named publisher of the Colorado Sun, while Dana Coffield has been promoted to back fill him as editor.
• Alma Fonda Fina, a LoHi Mexican restaurant, was awarded its first Michelin star.
• Josh Kroenke, the president of the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche, dropped $16 million on a house in Cherry Hills Village.
• Rock star. Actor. Therapist. Is there anything Jon Bon Jovi can’t do? The singer was filming a video near a bridge in Nashville when he noticed a distraught and apparently suicidal woman standing on its ledge. He and several others engaged the woman and convinced her to climb back over to safety.

• The PR firm Red Banyan, which is based in Florida but has a Denver office, is representing CBZ Management, the “out-of-state slumlords” (Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman‘s words) that own the apartment complex in Aurora that has become ground zero for allegations that Venezuelan gangs have taken over the city.
• Is the venerable Brown Palace hotel on the edge of collapse? Aging infrastructure, mismanagement by out-of-state owners and competition from the Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton have put the 132-year-old hotel in a “free fall,” according to former employees.
• It has been a bad week for the family that owns the Colorado Rockies. The Monfort’s latest plan to redevelop the El Chapultepec building adjacent to Coors Field was rejected by the Lower Downtown Design Review Committee. This marks two straight redevelopment proposals that have been rejected.
• Meanwhile, the Colorado Rockies will miss the playoffs for the 27th time in their 32-year history after they were eliminated from contention this week. If you are looking for a silver lining, they technically made it until September before being eliminated, I guess.
• Compared to last year, wine sales in Colorado have declined 16%, liquor sales have declined 4% and beer sales have declined 1%. That trend, combined with wine and beer sales at grocery stores, is killing independent liquor stores.
• The author Landon Jones, who coined the term “Baby Boomers,” passed away at the age of 80. And Jim Riswold, the creative force behind Nike‘s “Bo Knows” and “Air Jordan” advertising campaigns, passed away at the age of 66.
• The U.S. Navy sacked one of its commanders after a photo of him firing a rifle with a scope mounted backward went viral. Among those mocking him online – the U.S. Marine Corps. Ouch.
• A “self-styled serial entrepreneur” was ordered to pay a $75,000 fine after he created 15,000 new business filings in Colorado when the Secretary of State lowered the filing fee to $1. He then sold the unused corporations to buyers who wanted to assume the corporate identities to bypass some requirements of starting a new one, making it easier to get access to credit.
• U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Denver native Neil Gorsuch told an audience in Colorado Springs that attorneys who are concerned about the court’s declining case load should file more appeals. But the court receives an average of about 6,000 appeal requests each year and rules on fewer than 200 of them, so demand isn’t exactly the court’s issue.
• The Washington Commanders football team has fired one of its VPs who was secretly recorded saying that a majority of the team’s players are “homophobic,” that many players are “dumb as hell,” that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones “hates gay people (and) black people,” and that the league’s social justice initiatives are merely “performative.”
• Scientists think a decline in the bat population may be responsible for the deaths of as many as 1,000 infants.
• The Kansas City Chiefs look like they will be very good again this season, something no Denver Broncos fan wants to see.
• Two Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) workers were killed by a driver in Mesa County. Sadly, it looks like CDOT may eventually need to get a bigger memorial where it displays the names of those who have died.

Who won the week?

• Denver-based PR and marketing firm Campstories, led by former Turner PR VP Campbell Levy, added Hotel Christopher St. Barth as a client.
• Dovetail Solutions added Lauren Simpson as vice president. She will maintain her part-time position as mayor of Arvada.
• Former 9News anchor and reporter Bazi Kanani has joined Colorado Public Radio.
• The biggest star at the U.S. Open may be a $22 cocktail called the Honey Deuce. The tournament is on track to sell $10 million worth of the drink this year, a figure that is nearly three times the $3.6 million in prize money it awards.
• Denver Broncos CB Pat Surtain II signed a four-year, $96 million contract extension.
• The national soccer team of the tiny European country of San Marino ended its 20-year winless streak by defeating Liechtenstein 1-0.