- The CEO of Delta Air Lines made a classic PR mistake: he told the truth. On a recent earnings call, CEO Ed Bastian shared with analysts that the airline would maintain the higher fares caused by the war with Iran even if oil prices declined in the future. In essence, the prices you see today are the airline’s new floor.
- Economists are trying to make sense of a stagnant high-end art market even as the number of individuals considered “super rich” continues to grow and deliveries of private jets and yachts reach all-time highs. Some theorize that “the art world has become too reliant on baby boomer collectors who are past their peak buying years.” Regardless, if you’ve had your eye on a Warhol, and research into the Denver PR Blog readership indicates most have seven-figure art pieces in their homes, now is the time to make it happen.
- Police in Vancouver rejected a request to give FIFA President Gianni Infantino a “level-four motorcade escort” typically reserved for dignitaries such as the Pope. It would have meant blocking off other drivers so Infantino’s vehicle could run through red lights.
- While we have all been distracted trying to protect our trees from the emerald ash borer and the mountain pine beetle, a sneaky new invasive threat has established a stronghold – the Asian jumping worm. Ground zero of our infestation is Denver‘s Hilltop neighborhood.
- ESPN, supported by its official sports betting partner DraftKings, reports that Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby has checked into a residential treatment program for a gambling addiction.
- If there is one person you don’t want to pick a fight with, it is Kalyn Heffernan. Westword describes her as a “disability activist,” but that just scratches the surface of her influence and tenacity. Why am I mentioning her? Blame RTD. Denver‘s transit agency created a campaign that wrapped buses with visuals celebrating the Americans with Disabilities Act, and one of them was a picture of Heffernan that was used without her knowledge or consent. She had thoughts, which she shared with Westword: “It’s so tokenizing, it’s exploitative, it’s performative. … (RTD was) the first transit company to be forced to be made accessible.”
- Fans of Colorado peaches are mourning a crop that will never be. An early April deep freeze — preceded and followed by an unusually dry and warm period — destroyed peach crops across Colorado’s Western Slope. There is a silver lining: orchards in Palisade were largely unaffected.
- The futures of Denver Nuggets players and coaches are up in the air after the team lost in the first round of the playoffs, another disappointing end to a season following the team’s 2023 NBA title. A team that was expected by many to become a dynasty has since fizzled.
- Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms received the dreaded endorsement of former President Joe Biden in her effort to become governor of Georgia. The endorsement follows Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer‘s recent endorsement of Maine Gov. Janet Mills for U.S. Senate, which ended in her abandoning her campaign after failing to gain traction with voters. Dinosaurs never realize they’re dinosaurs, I guess.
- The Saudis created LIV Golf as a competitor to the PGA golf tour as an effort to elevate the country’s influence on the world’s sports stage, but after four years and $5 billion, they have decided it’s not working and will no longer fund it. That has left the tour in a “free fall” and many of the players who abandoned the PGA tour to join LIV professionally homeless. On the bright side, none of the players were choked to death, dismembered and disposed of by Saudi operatives, so they have that going for them.
- We’ve seen a lot of fights about high school mascots named after Native Americans, but here’s a new one. Residents of Lenox, Mass., a wealthy community in the Berkshires, are passionately divided about their local high school mascot, the Lenox Millionaires. Part of the divide is generational. Younger residents find the name arrogant and embarrassing, and older residents argue that changing it is erasing history. They say to never argue about religion, politics or high school mascots.
- For those of us with healthcare/health care clients, the debate as to whether it is spelled as one or two words has raged for years. For decades, AP Style has dictated two words, making life harder for us one-worders. However, this week, editors at the AP Stylebook announced it shall be spelled as one word from now on. The good news: not having to type a space is 8.33% more efficient. Think of how many other things you can now get done.
- Finally, on a profoundly sad note, the family of beloved former Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post reporter Lynn Bartels has shared that Lynn is recovering from surgery to remove a large brain tumor. The pathology report has confirmed a diagnosis of a glioblastoma, an aggressive, fast-growing form of brain cancer.
Who won the week?
- GroundFloor Media added Jess McCaa as an integrated project manager and Jojo Segura as a creative services coordinator.
- Republican attorneys general in Kansas and Indiana have joined the legal fight to block Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna on antitrust grounds.
- The North Denver bar Yacht Club was named one of the country’s 10 best, according to Food & Wine magazine.
