Who Had the Worst Week?

• Ogilvy is laying off 700 employees, or about 5% of its workforce, and shuttering its DEI division. Meanwhile, We. Communications is laying off 2% of its staff globally.
• CBS parent company Paramount has agreed to pay $16 million to President Donald Trump to settle his lawsuit against “60 Minutes.” Experts were certain Paramount would prevail in the suit, but noted that Paramount needs governmental approval for its plan to sell itself to Hollywood studio Skydance.
• It was a tough week for Colorado board members:
  • The University of Colorado Board of Regents voted 7-1 to censure fellow member Wanda James for publicly and repeatedly attacking the credibility of the University of Colorado School of Medicine that she represents.
  • The RTD board chair has stripped Director JoyAnn Ruscha of a committee chair position and travel expenses this year after determining Ruscha was “unprofessional and demanding ” to RTD staff members,
• Prada is dealing with a problem in India. The fashion house either was “inspired by” or “culturally misappropriated” the Kolhapuri chappal-like sandal that it featured in a Milan fashion show. Indian social media exploded with protests, and Prada quickly apologized. It added that it is “opening a dialogue for a meaningful exchange with local Indian artisan communities.”
• The attorney representing an Aurora dentist accused of murdering his wife has withdrawn from the case a week before trial because the attorney was arrested for arson related to a fire at his own home.
• Carnival Cruise Lines can’t be happy about a new Netflix documentary that revisits its infamous 2013 “poop cruise” when a catastrophic power outage created “postapocalyptic scenes of passengers sleeping on pool decks, hoarding food and collecting biohazard bags to relieve themselves.” Happy cruising!
• The Denver City Auditor‘s office apparently has a new tagline for 2026 – “We’re tired. You do it.” Having attended about as many community meetings as they want, this year they have instituted a social media hashtag – #AuditDenver2026 – so that members of the community can suggest what gets audited.
• Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain in jail pending sentencing after he was convicted of transporting prostitutes. Combs was found not guilty on more serious charges, but he also faces more than 50 civil lawsuits.
• The Denver Animal Shelter has been forced to increase its weekend adoption hours because it has been inundated with animals turned over to it.
• The Trump administration is withholding about $7 billion in K-12 funding nationally that includes about $70 million to Colorado schools. The administration says it wants to review whether the funding, which has been approved by Congress, will be spent according to the president’s priorities.
• Amazon will soon have more robots than people working in its warehouses. If you are an Amazon investor, you can mentally move this one to the “Who Won the Week” section.
• The Glastonbury Music Festival in England went sideways quickly when two performers – Bob Vylan and Kneecap – shared anti-Israel comments from the stage. Government officials threatened criminal investigations and the department that regulates broadcasters demanded to know why the BBC aired the comments while live streaming the event.
• The Wimbledon tennis tournament has experienced both its hottest opening ever and the largest number of seeded players eliminated in the first couple of rounds.

Who won the week?

• America celebrates our 249th birthday today. We have survived a civil war, a depression, two world wars, a Cold War, two pandemics, slavery, internment and the Cuban Missile Crisis over the course of those years. Here’s hoping we make it another 249 years.
• Former New York Mets star Bobby Bonilla received his annual $1.2 million payment from the team this week despite having retired in 2001. How did he manage that? In 2000, the Mets wanted to buy out the remaining $6 million on his contract, but instead of paying him that amount, they agreed to make annual payments of $1.2 million for 25 years starting in 2011. At the time, that seemed like the smart financial decision for the Mets because – and I’m not making this up – their investments in a Bernie Madoff fund were returning such strong results.
• George Constanza bobbleheads that will be given away to attendees of a New York Yankees game in August are pre-selling on eBay for five times the cost of tickets to the actual game.