• How have budget and staff reductions at major newspapers impacted journalism? The Dallas Morning News‘ managing editor admitted that it did not cover the recent “Hands Off!” anti-Trump Administration protests because “we didn’t realize the protest was going on.” She added, “I regret this is the answer because that’s a big miss for us to be unaware of such a large event.”
• Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone may have won a championship less than two years ago, but the NBA is quickly joining the NHL as the most “what have you done for me lately” leagues. The Nuggets fired Malone on Tuesday – just a week before the playoffs (for which the Nuggets had already qualified).
• The death toll from the collapse of a nightclub roof deck in the Dominican Republic has now passed 200, and is thought to include several former MLB baseball players.
• Fundraising for the 2025 Denver Pride Parade has dropped by about two-thirds compared to last year — part of a national trend in response to DEI fears associated with the Trump Administration. 
• Despite having spent more than a billion dollars subsidizing stadiums for men’s sports (Ball Arena, Empower Field, Coors Field), Denver City Council members have reservations about taxpayers providing $70 million of the $200 million needed for a stadium for a new women’s professional soccer team.
• Perceptions of a lack of safety, affordability and vacant retail spaces are being blamed for a 15 percentage point drop in the number of visitors who say they had a “great” experience in Downtown Denver.
• Dublin officials are taking steps to protect a life-size statue of “Molly Malone” – the central figure of the eponymous song most associated with St. Patrick’s Day. It seems that visitors have been rubbing the statue’s ample cleavage for good luck, causing it to discolor awkwardly.
• A judge has ruled that Newsmax made defamatory statements about Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems when it falsely claimed that the company rigged votes in the 2020 presidential election. The ruling clears the way for a jury trial to determine whether the statements were intentionally false and, if so, to calculate damages. You may recall that Fox News reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion over similar allegations.
• A European rugby match was delayed 40 minutes after a parachutist delivering the match ball was caught and left dangling from the roof of the stadium.
• An rare play forced SEC Conference officials to stop a college softball game between the Florida Gators and the Arkansas Razorbacks for 25 minutes as they thumbed through a copy of the official rule book to figure out what to do.
• Barstool Sports and ESPN‘s Pat McAfee – arguably the two leaders in “bro sports” culture – are facing a reckoning over their actions propagating a salacious sex rumor about a 19-year University of Mississippi student. The student, who is neither a public figure nor an athlete, has fought back and said she intends to file a lawsuit. Barstool CEO Dave Portnoy responded by saying he is “sad, and I wish we didn’t play any part in it,” while also acknowledging his company will be entering mediation with the student’s attorneys. McAfee and ESPN continue pretend nothing is happening.
• The U.K. reality TV show “Celebrity Big Brother” is shocked – SHOCKED – that actor Mickey Rourke, a known sleazebag, is behaving like a sleazebag.

Who won the week?

• Sarah Packard joined Douglas County as a communications specialist in its Public Affairs Office.
• The City and County of Denver was recognized by the Ragan’s Employee Communications Awards as the winner of the “employee e-letters” category.
• A federal judge ordered the Trump Administration to restore the Associated Press’ access to presidential events, “affirming on First Amendment grounds that the government cannot punish the news organization for the content of its speech.”
• British broadcaster Sky is developing an all-British version of NBC‘s “Saturday Night Live,” and it has secured Lorne Michaels as the executive producer.
• The Washington Capital‘s Alexander Ovechkin passed Wayne Gretzky as the NHL‘s all-time goal scorer, a feat once considered nearly impossible.