Month: February 2025

Who Had the Worst Week?

~ Jeremy Story ~ Leave a comment
  • Last year was not great for global PR firms. Edelman reported a 5% drop in 2024 revenue while WPP fell 1.7%. “It was a challenging year for PR, but also for the entire communications sector,” said Edelman CEO Richard Edelman.
  • Denver Broncos outside linebackers coach Michael Wilhoite was arrested on felony assault charges after allegedly punching a police officer in the face in a disagreement about his unattended vehicle at DIA.
  • Computer and printer company HP has been caught trying to force customers to use its online support channels by setting a minimum 15-minute wait time for anyone phoning its call center. The wait applies even if representatives are available to talk with customers.
  • Bowers & Wilkins sound systems are options in a number of higher-end cars ranging from Aston Martin to McLaren to BMW. Volvo even offers it as an option, but some buyers in China were surprised to find that their brand new Volvos featured knock-off “Bovvers & VVilkins” sound systems. Volvo has launched an investigation into the dealers.
  • The Westernaires, the Golden-based organization that features youth horseback riders who perform tricks, is rolling like it’s still the 1990s. The organization has refused repeated requests to stop dressing up “non-Native riders in Indigenous-inspired clothing to perform sacred Native American dances and reenact Custer’s Last Stand.”
  • A Buffalo Sabres announcer stationed next to the ice between the team benches dropped an “Ah, f—!” live on air after he was hit in the forehead by an errant puck. Don’t know if there is an FCC exemption for that, but there should be.
  • It was a tough week for property developers with Denver connections. Brad Eide, a developer with Elevate Cos., was allegedly body slammed by Nick Steitz, a former NFL lineman-turned-CBRE-real estate broker, at a golf outing in Lakewood. Meanwhile, The Denver Post reported that former Colorado real estate developer Boris Mannsfeld “was found face down in a pool of blood … at his Belize luxury development project…. Police told local reporters that Mannsfeld died from a gunshot to the back of his neck.”
  • The NBA playoffs are still almost two months away, but a time-tested rule of thumb says only one of three teams is likely to win the championship: the Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers. The Denver Nuggets did not meet the “40-20 rule” by winning 40 games before they lost 20, a litmus test that 90% of NBA winners achieve.
  • If you are looking for real-estate bargains, good news! The asking price for a Palace of Versailles-like castle in Evergreen was reduced by $10 million. You can now have it for a mere $50 million.
  • Hundreds of NOAA and National Weather Service employees were laid off this week, potentially threatening the flow of information that local meteorologists use to create accurate forecasts.
  • At one time, Skype was king of the video chat services, but then the pandemic hit and Zoom, Teams, FaceTime, Webex and Google Meet, among others, took off. Skype announced this week it is shutting down.
  • Two strip clubs – Diamond Cabaret and Rick’s Cabaret – have been ordered by the Denver auditor to pay nearly $14 million in back pay and penalties to dancers and other workers. Expect them to pay all $14 million in one-dollar bills.
  • You may have had a bad week, but it could have been worse – you could be the family of a two-year-old who was mistakenly named “Unakite Thirteen Hotel.”

Who won the week?

  • Kristy Bassuener is the new Vice President of Communications and Outreach at the Rose Community Foundation.
  • Former 9News and MSNBC producer Kerry Leary has joined Be Clear Communications as a senior associate.
  • My GFM|CenterTable colleague Carissa McCabe has joined the board of Project Angel Heart.
  • Vail native Mikaela Shiffrin won her 100th World Cup race, a quest that had been sidelined by injuries she suffered in a crash in November.
  • “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt announced he will step down from that position after a decade. He said he will remain with the network and continue to host “Dateline.”

Who Had the Worst Week?

~ Jeremy Story ~ 1 Comment
  • If you own real estate in Aspen – and I assume the demographics of Denver PR Blog readers are such that you do – there’s good news: three of the 10 most expensive home sales in the country last year occurred there. If you haven’t already bought your chalet, well, tough break. I hear good things about Meeker if you are looking for the next hot market.
  • Some of the best baseball players in the world have what is known as a meth-chic look – long stringy hair, disheveled beards, etc. In related news, the New York Yankees, a team that hasn’t won a World Series in 15 years, has changed their policy and will now allow players to have beards for the first time in five decades.
  • The right-leaning New York Post reports that President Donald Trump ordered the iconic Resolute Desk removed from the Oval Office for a deep cleaning after Elon Musk‘s son wiped a booger on it during a recent reporter Q&A event. The newspaper described President Trump as a “known germaphobe.”
  • If the villains in James Bond‘s next movie are Walmart executives who look like Jeff Bezos‘ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, don’t be surprised. The Broccoli family that has owned the intellectual property rights to the film franchise for decades sold them to Amazon MGM Studios. It must have been for a lot. Barbara Broccoli has previously said of the Amazon team, “These people are f— idiots.”
  • The U.S. is facing the worst flu season in 15 years. An additional concern: “The two predominant strains that are circulating right now are known to be more severe and have more severe outcomes, especially in high-risk patients.”
  • Meanwhile, a measles outbreak in west Texas continues to grow and has now spread into New Mexico.
  • Meghan Markle‘s lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard never quite found its footing, so she has rebranded to As Ever. Now we will see whether the name was the issue, or if it is the polarizing Duchess of Sussex herself.
  • TFC? Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is relocating its headquarters from Louisville, Kentucky to Plano, Texas.
  • The NHL did something no one thought possible: it made America care about a hockey game in February. Unfortunately, the U.S. lost that game – the final of the 4 Nation’s Face-Off pitting Canada against the U.S. Canadians were quite generous following the win, however, offering to make the U.S. their 11th province.
  • A high-end burglary ring that targeted athletes such as Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Travis Kelce was busted in part due to selfies the criminals shared online posing with the loot they stole.
  • A judge in Mississippi ordered a newspaper to remove an editorial from its website criticizing a local mayor and city council, a decision that has alarmed free speech advocates.
  • Yesterday, the Colorado GOP announced that Steve Bannon, a former senior advisor to President Donald Trump, would headline the group’s annual fundraising dinner in March. Today, Bannon is making headlines for what many say was a Nazi salute at the end of his speech at the conservative CPAC conference this morning.
  • Hyde Park Jewelers in the Cherry Creek Shopping Center was the victim of a slow-motion robbery that saw thieves steal $12.3 million in jewelry and watches over eight hours.

Who won the week?

Who Had the Worst Week?

~ Jeremy Story ~ Leave a comment
  • Kanye West pulled what The Wall Street Journal called a “switcheroo” when he submitted local-market Super Bowl ads that directed people to his website that sold non-controversial apparel, and then swapped the clothing out for wildly sexist and antisemitic versions. The ads aired in markets such as Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta before the local stations realized what was going on.
  • Kid Rock threw an on-stage temper-tantrum that was posted to social media when a Nashville crowd was not clapping enthusiastically enough for his taste. “If you ain’t gonna clap, we ain’t gonna sing. That’s how it’s gonna go,” the singer told the crowd. In (probably) unrelated news, reports emerged this week that Kid Rock was seen getting into a cab at 2:30 a.m. with Colorado‘s own Rep. Lauren Boebert on inauguration night.
  • If you are hug-deprived, good news! Denver apparently has a cadre of “professional cuddlers” who can help. That’s not creepy at all.
  • Mittens the cat may have more frequent fliers miles than you do. The cat ended up making repeated trips between Australia and New Zealand when cargo unloaders overlooked her crate due to a wheelchair that had been stowed in front of it.
  • Are egg prices out of control? Thieves swiped 100,000 of them from the trailer of a semi in Pennsylvania. I doubt George Clooney or Brad Pitt will play any of the characters in the movie version of this whodunnit.
  • If you were hoping President Donald Trump would get tired and settle down a bit, it’s not looking good. This week he banned AP reporters from news conferences for not using his “Gulf of America” designation, gutted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum, stopped DOJ investigations into friends WWE founder Vince McMahon and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, banned eco-friendly paper straws from government buildings, appointed himself chair of the Kennedy Center (expect a lot of Lee Greenwood and Kid Rock performances), fired numerous inspector general watchdogs, furloughed 97% of the employees at USAID, and cut federal NIH medical research funding, among other things.
  • Meanwhile, President Trump‘s announcement that he wants the U.S. to stop minting pennies could hit the Denver Mint hard. The facility makes more than a billion pennies each year.
  • The Colorado legislature saw some rare bipartisan spirit this week. Unfortunately for Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis (D-Longmont), it was the Senate Ethics Committee that is investigating accusations that she was abusive toward five of her legislative aides. She did not impress her colleagues by railing against the appropriateness of an ethics investigation when she herself publicly called for one to investigate the allegations several months ago.
  • Happy Valentine’s Day! (Presumably male) researchers have found that men are actually more romantic than women. The researchers did acknowledge that, “In relationship research, ‘romanticism’ refers to general beliefs about love, rather than (actual) actions taken within romantic relationships.” So, in men’s minds, thinking about getting you flowers is basically the same thing as doing it.
  • A celebration of life was recently held for Ned High, a Denver journalist and public relations firm owner. He passed away at the age of 90.

Who won the week?

Who Had the Worst Week?

~ Jeremy Story ~ 1 Comment
  • The Girl Scouts of Colorado say they could lose millions of dollars in cookie sales due to the King Soopers strike. “We’re respecting the strike and the picket lines, but also being creative and really banding together and making calls and doing whatever we can to support the girls,” said Leanna Clark, CEO.
  • Six years – SIX YEARS – after a Comcast–Altitude Sports carriage dispute blacked out Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets games for most of Denver, the two companies agreed to a new television deal that reflects the terms essentially offered back in 2019. What did fans miss in those six years? Two championships and four MVPs.
  • 9News parent company TEGNA has laid off its 20-member VERIFY fact-checking team whose mission was “to stop the spread of false information.” I’d love to hear the “Next with Kyle Clark” editorial commentary on that decision.
  • Media outlets have been dismissive of President Donald Trump‘s strategy of using “deceptive advertising” claims as a legal strategy to sue media he doesn’t like (CBS, Des Moines Register, etc.), but now some First Amendment lawyers are growing concerned it could actually lead somewhere with the current U.S. Supreme Court.
  • Few Colorado school districts are taking the Denver Broncos up on their generous offer of free “smart” football helmets. Districts are concerned about potential liability and student privacy. The Broncos intended to donate more than 15,00 helmets statewide at a cost of about $12 million.
  • Karla Sofia Gascón, the first openly transgender woman to be nominated for an Oscar for best performance by an actress in a leading role, has apologized for since-deleted social media posts in which she appears to attack Muslims, George Floyd and the lack of diversity at the Oscars. She probably only needed to apologize for two of those.
  • Waffle House is charging a $0.50 surcharge per egg due to the shortage caused by an aggressive strain of the avian flu. Speaking of bird flu, you may want to stock up on milk and butter now. A new strain has started infecting dairy cows.
  • The cost to insure a car in Colorado increased 26% last year, one of the largest jumps in the nation. The biggest jump was Minnesota at 58%. Extreme weather, including hail, is driving the increase in our state.
  • Side hustles are all the rage, but the NFL cannot be happy that the president and head of communications of the New Orleans Saints have gotten caught up moonlighting in a local Catholic diocese sex abuse scandal. Emails show that team representatives may have persuaded city prosecutors to remove some names from a list of clergy members accused of abuse that was released, and the PR head gave media interview critiques to church officials.
  • Colorado could see fewer federal transportation dollars thanks to a new directive from President Donald Trump that prioritizes projects in places with high birth and marriage rates. Colorado has one of the lowest fertility rates in the country.
  • It’s been a tough few weeks for “old” Denver. First, we lost preservationist Dana Crawford and now we have lost Dan Ritchie. The impact of both on the development of Denver was immeasurable.

Who won the week?