• A high-ranking official at FEMA who sparked controversy for claims that he once was teleported to a Waffle House is on leave from the agency. Said one unnamed official, “He was an image issue, with all the negative stories.” Honestly, if he was teleported to a Waffle House, it would only be the third or fourth strangest thing to happen there on any given day.
• Florida is closing its “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center a year after it opened. Gov. Ron DeSantis is claiming the detention center was a wild success, but the reality is that it cost taxpayers $1.2 million per day and the state is clearing it out now because hurricane season has started.
• FIFA revoked the World Cup credentials of a Paraguayan soccer commentator after he went on an expletive-laden rant against the governing body and match officials during Paraguay’s 1-0 win over Turkey. And he got his money’s worth. He called FIFA President Gianni Infantino and the match referee “f—ing thieves” and used the phrase “sons of b—es” more than 20 times.
• “Love Island USA” has kicked a second contestant off the reality dating show this season for using a racial slur in a video that surfaced online.
• KBCO 97.3 terminated the employment of longtime, beloved morning show host Bret Saunders. Unfortunately for Saunders, KBCO is owned by iHeartMedia, which conducts similar bloodlettings about once per year. Denise Plante from 106.7 The Bull was also let go in this round.
• The Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., has become must-see TV: “It’s a drama, a farce, a whodunit (and) a murder mystery.” And for some reason, it is President Donald Trump who is doing more to keep the story alive than anyone else. President Trump also didn’t do himself any favors by having his motorcade of heavy SUVs drive over the emptied Reflecting Pool, which experts say may have caused foundational damage.
• JPMorgan Chase fired one of its employees after she was caught on camera dumping out and stealing a New York Knicks-themed public trash can during the team’s championship parade celebration.
• Tennis legend Chris Evert announced that she is experiencing a recurrence of ovarian cancer.
• Golfer Wyndham Clark had to endure brutal heckling on his way to winning the U.S. Open golf tournament this past weekend. Sportswriter Rick Reilly blamed the horrible behavior on young men trying to influence the outcome because they had made online bets.
• A New York Times/The Athletic poll of Major League Baseball players found the Colorado Rockies have the worst reputation in the majors.

Who won the week?

• GroundFloor Media added Sam Kjome as a Director of Paid Media and Anna Petr as a Content Coordinator.
• Linhart PR has added Kierra Vanevenhoven as an intern.
• Companies should increase their PR efforts to stand out in today’s AI-driven environment, according to McKinsey & Co.’s “State of the Consumer 2026” report.
• Denver has designated former Mayor Wellington Webb’s home as an official city landmark. In honoring the site, the city said, “The house became a local hub for civil rights activism, helping expand Black representation and hosting local, state and national leaders.”
• If you are tired of political ads, good news – Colorado‘s primary election is Tuesday. And given that there likely won’t be many competitive races in the general election, the ads should slow to a trickle.
• The U.S. Men’s Soccer Team won its group and advanced to the knock-out stage of the FIFA World Cup, despite a 3-2 loss in a meaningless game against Turkey Turkiye last night.

• A 14-year-old has been charged with armed robbery after allegedly pulling a gun on two siblings, ages 11 and 12, who were running a lemonade stand in Boston.
• It is common for business to donate to two competing candidates to ensure they have some influence with whoever wins. But, interestingly, Colorado gubernatorial candidates Michael Bennet and Phil Weiser claim endorsements from some of the same people, including Aurora Public Schools board member Anne Keke, Thornton Mayor pro Tem Karen Bigelow, Eagle County Commissioner Tom Boyd, Chaffee County Commissioner PT Wood, Boulder City Council member Tara Winer and community leader Dr. Syl Morgan-Smith.
• The FIFA World Cup has started, which always offers a number of questionable decisions. Among them:
  • Australian referee Shaun Evans appeared to flash a “White Power” symbol on air while in studio used by video review referees.
  • Tunisia was reportedly set to fire its head coach after the team lost 5-1 to Sweden in their first World Cup game. Somewhere, Al Davis is smiling and giving a thumbs up.
  • FIFA forced the owners of Cosmic Charlie’s, a cannabis shop in Toronto, to destroy its World Cup trophy-shaped bong it was marketing in the lead up to the tournament.
  • Spain is consistently one of the best soccer teams in the world, so betting $1 million on it to beat tiny Cape Verde (population: 530,000) to collect $86,000 might have been tempting. Unfortunately for the one person who made that bet, Cape Verde tied Spain 0-0.
• After an almost-three year standoff, the City and County of Denver reached a settlement with the owners of The Denver Post on back rent due at the newspaper’s namesake building. DP Media Network will pay the city $13.5 million and pay to remove the Denver Post signage from the building’s exterior.
• I noted last week that Denver Broncos linebacker Jonathan Cooper was arrested for domestic violence. Well, he upped the ante this week by getting arrested for a second time after allegedly violating a restraining order. Police say he sent 20 individual text messages, called his now-ex-girlfriend twice, and then went to her apartment and was seen on video knocking on the door. One more arrest and he’ll become an honorary Kansas City Chief.
• Twelve people died in Missouri when the skydiving plane they were riding in crashed shortly after takeoff. While the passengers all had parachutes, the plane crashed so abruptly that the passengers were unable to exit the aircraft.
• As they say in my native Georgia, “Freedom ain’t free,” but it is getting much cheaper. Heidi Ganahl has slashed ticket prices to her Freedom Fest event in Castle Rock later this month.
• The ultra-classy UFC event that took place at the White House ended with one of the fighters insulting former First Lady Michelle Obama by calling her “a man.” While President Donald Trump remained silent about the insult, UFC boss Dana White, a President Trump supporter, condemned the comment, calling it “nonsense.”
  • Meanwhile, President Trump’s renovations to Washington, D.C.‘s Reflecting Pool are becoming a metaphor for his presidency. He initially said the renovation was “done right” and would “last for 100 years,” but the $14 million, no-bid-contract job has been less than successful. Almost immediately, green algae overtook the reflecting pool, and now pieces of the blue paint that were intended to give it a clean appearance have peeled off and are floating in the water.
• Professional golfer Phil Mickelson, the winner of six major championships, had his membership revoked from his longtime home club after an independent investigation into alleged misconduct involving women.
• Hockey coach John Tortorella took over a listless Vegas Golden Knights team with eight games remaining in the regular season and steered them to the Stanley Cup finals, but he won’t return to the team next season, the team announced.
• A Brazilian woman fell to her death while rope jumping – which is similar to bungee jumping – when the instructors forgot to attach the rope to her.

Who won the week?

• Bruce Alexander has been appointed Chair of the Board of Advisors at Dovetail Solutions. He formerly was the President and CEO of Vectra Bank.
• Westminster-based Swisslog Healthcare named Christina Liebman as Vice President of Global Marketing and Communications.
• El Paso County named Josh Poland executive director of the county’s Communications department.
• Asian American News profiled BON Communications publicist Lauren Howard.
• Chef Penelope Wong, the Denver native who owns Yuan Wonton, was named a best chef winner by the James Beard Awards.
• The most respected research scientists studying hurricanes in the U.S. are located at … Colorado State University, located more than 1,000 miles from the nearest coastline. Take that, University of Miami.
• Serena Williams announced she will partner with her sister Venus to compete in the Women’s Doubles event at Wimbledon.
• SpaceX went public this week, and the company’s stock made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire and more than 4,400 employees millionaires.

• A police officer in South Carolina was arrested after pointing his service weapon at a coworker in the station’s break room in a dispute over heating fish in a microwave. If I were the police officer, I’d go to trial. No jury in the country would find you guilty for that.
• Kansas City sought to host FIFA World Cup games in part to raise the city’s profile on the international stage. Well, mission accomplished. After nine people were injured in a shooting just five miles from England‘s World Cup home base in Kansas City, the headlines across the pond were considerable.
• Denver Public Schools superintendent Alex Marrero apparently has had enough of the DPS board. After coming up just short for the Chicago Public Schools CEO job, Marrero has confirmed he has now applied for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools superintendent position.
• President Donald Trump finally launched his Trump Mobile cell phone service. President Trump originally claimed the Trump Mobile phone would be made in the U.S., but tech media have now confirmed that it is just a two-year-old, Chinese-manufactured HTC U24 Pro.
• Speaking of President Trump, if you golf at his Bedminster Golf Club, you may want to stick to just bottled water. The club was recently flagged by health inspectors for 18 health code violations and earned a score of 32 out of 100, the lowest grade in the county.
• The GEO Group has sued Colorado to stop implementation of a law requiring health and safety inspections of immigrant detention facilities. GEO Group is making a technical argument – that the state is improperly intruding on what are federal responsibilities when it comes to oversight – but it is a bad look nonetheless.
• U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert‘s rise to prominence has been aided by Fox News over the years, so it was a surprise to see Boebert shout “f— you” at a Fox News reporter this week. In her defense, the reporter was asking Boebert about whether she was having a sexual relationship with fellow Rep. Thomas Massie.
• Scientists conducted a groundbreaking study to confirm what every cat owner already knew: cats will absolutely let you suffer. Dogs and toddlers rushed to help a distressed human find a missing object, while cats watched with indifference. However, the moment researchers swapped the object for food or a toy, cats suddenly became incredibly helpful — proving that your cat is not stupid, just unbothered by your problems unless there’s something in it for them. Thanks to noted felinophile Eric Anderson for passing that one along.
• Two new scientific papers place the blame for the world’s significant decline in fertility over the past two decades on smartphones. While noting that “proving phones caused the decline is a tricky endeavor,” researchers have several theories ranging from “young people began to socialize more on their phones and less in person, and consequently were less likely to have sex and become pregnant” to smartphones “made pornography more accessible, which led young people to substitute it for sex,” to “young people may have used (smartphones) to obtain better information on avoiding pregnancy, including contraception and abortion.”
• Denver Broncos linebacker Jonathan Cooper and his girlfriend were arrested on domestic violence charges.
• A Denver Fire Department employee activated the city’s emergency tornado sirens for a full three minutes in response to a 911 call that falsely reported a tornado. This is the third incident in the last six months in which Denver either mistakenly sent emergency alerts citywide or deployed alerts when they were not warranted. As one industry expert put it, “Every time you have a mistake … it chips away at that public trust.”
• Texas Tech University has become the unquestioned villain in college football after its star quarterback obtained an injunction against the NCAA to allow him to play despite being accused of betting more than $90,000 on sports, including on his own team. A backlash from athletic directors at universities across the country, fans and media has grown over the past week, and members of the SEC even said with a straight face that Texas Tech was putting winning above integrity.
• Larimer County sheriff’s deputies arrested a driver traveling 130 mph on I-25 south of Fort Collins. When they pulled him over, they found multiple “radar detectors and jammers, a device used to cover the car’s license plate, and a ‘passenger binocular system for spotting cops.'” And amphetamines. Of course there were amphetamines. Police speculate that the driver was involved in or preparing for a “Cannonball Run”-type race.
• While the University of Denver eliminated departments, froze faculty wages and handed out buyouts to slash a $30 million budget deficit, it simultaneously spent $20 million to buy the 75,000-square-foot “Cable Center” event center in Glendale. Faculty members called that a stunning display of misplaced priorities, and declared they have “no confidence” in the university’s leadership and vision.
• Kroenke Sports and Entertainment terminated the contracts of longtime Denver Nuggets broadcasters Scott Hastings, Chris Marlowe and Chris Dempsey. Pre- and post-game hosts Katy Winge and Vic Lombardi were not impacted. Fun fact: Marlowe is an Olympic gold medalist as part of the 1984 U.S. men’s volleyball team and he has served as the lead play-by-play announcer for beach volleyball at seven Olympics, including with NBC in 2024.
• What do you get when you combine the expertise of Puma, Mercedes and F1? A $300 track shoe that keeps injuring Olympic track-and-field athletes.

Who won the week?

• Caroline Robinson joined Linhart PR as a Senior Account Executive.
• Fox31 reporter/anchor Nicole Fierro has left the station to accept the Senior Communications Manager position with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.
• 5280 Senior Editor Rose Cahalan was among many who were surprised by a recent Wall Street Journal article that described downtown Denver as “catastrophe … fighting to escape a death spiral” in an article about office vacancy rates. If you have spent time in downtown Denver, that description hardly tracks. Cahalan penned a response challenging the Journal’s lazy reporting.
• Meanwhile, Patty Calhoun, the editor of Westword, invited conservative critics of downtown Denver Jeff Hunt and Bill Thorpe to tour the city with her. Following the tour, Hunt acknowledged it was “a pleasant experience.”
• The Denver Broncos rewarded head coach Sean Payton with a new five-year contract. Terms were not disclosed.
• Professional tennis players protested the relatively low prize money at the French Open so vociferously that Wimbledon proactively increased its payouts by 20% to avoid the same complaints.

• “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley used the staff meeting to introduce the show’s new executive producer Nick Bilton to accuse Bilton of having “slender qualifications” for the role. Pelley went on to say that Bilton’s boss, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, was “murdering ’60 Minutes.’ … She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.” It ended predictably – CBS News fired Pelley.
• Turkey‘s Zeynep Sönmez was injured and forced to retire from her French Open doubles match after she tripped on an advertising sign that was positioned on the back of the court.
• After C-list musical acts Milli Vanilli, Young MC and Bret Michaels withdrew from President Donald Trump‘s “Freedom 250” Concert in Washington, D.C. later this month, the president replaced them with his two favorite people: himself and country singer Lee Greenwood. Trump plans for the revised event to be a hybrid rally-concert, and he has also added a few other “musical acts,” such as Christopher Macchio performing “Wax On, Wax Off,” … oh wait, that’s Ralph Macchio … and a couple of U.S. military bands. It is astonishing even by President Trump standards that he has botched a celebration for what should be such a unifying event as the nation’s 250th anniversary.
• Country singer Morgan Wallen grew frustrated by technical difficulties at his concert in Denver and responded by flipping his piano over on-stage.
• Colorado Gov. Jared Polis commuted election denier and felon Tina Peters‘ prison sentence, claiming that it would be a unifying gesture. So naturally Peters’ first move after being released was to conduct a podcast interview with Steve Bannon where she claimed that she is a victim of political persecution and that Democrats will “cheat” in the midterm elections in November.
• FIFA expects to make more than $15 billion from this summer’s World Cup, so naturally it just filed a cease-and-desist against the Vancouver-based nonprofit Spinal Cord Injury BC forcing it to cancel a World Cup ticket fundraising raffle.
• Meanwhile, some FIFA staff are expressing concern that a last-minute decision to ban fans from bringing reusable water bottles into stadiums is being driven by financial rather than safety considerations.
• For decades, Bill Gates has employed a team of strategists, communicators and stylists to cultivate an image of “someone calm and approachable, like Mister Rogers.” That level of attention to detail helped place Gates “at the top of a 2019 survey of public figures that people look up to – ahead of the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis.” But a series of indiscretions – a high-profile divorce that included allegations of more than 20 extramarital affairs, a lengthy relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and emails released by the U.S. Department of Justice that included allegations that Gates contracted an STD and asked about antibiotics to surreptitiously give to his now-ex-wife – have shattered that image.
• The Colorado Rockies started off to an unusually strong start – they are 24-39 so far, pretty good by their standards – but Rockies things are starting to happen to the team. Rookie Ethan Holliday, the son of Rockies legend Matt Holliday who had been batting .262 with nine home runs in Single-A ball, suffered a stress fracture in his foot that has ended his season.
• Denver City Councilmember Sarah Parady announced she will resign Aug. 5 due to a debilitating medical issue that she described as a “medical mystery.” She described the illness as making “going up the stairs now … harder and more exhausting than it used to be to go up a fourteener.” Waiting until August will allow voters to select her replacement through the regular November election rather than requiring a costly one-off election prior to that.
• As if COVID, flu, hantavirus, norovirus and Ebola weren’t bad enough, a new “vomiting virus” is sweeping across the U.S.
• Victor Marx is leading the Republican primary field in Colorado for governor despite either being a “liar and a fraud” or living the most remarkable life since Audie Murphy. His political strategy of ducking debates and media was working. So why in the world would Marx put himself in the crosshairs of 9News‘ Kyle Clark not once but twice in the month leading up to the primary? Only Marx knows, but a disastrous interview followed by a disastrous performance in a full-field debate moderated by Clark almost certainly has evaporated Marx’s lead.
• Character actor James Handy, who had appeared in everything from “Top Gun: Maverick” to “West Wing,” was stabbed to death, allegedly by his girlfriend’s son. He was 81.
• The U.S. Postal Service says Los Angeles, Dallas and Denver lead the country in number of dogs biting postal carriers. I guess “going postal” works both ways now.
• U.K. Athletics, the national governing body of sports in the U.K., has been fined more than $470,000 for the corporate manslaughter of a Paralympian who was killed when a shot-put cage collapsed on him while practicing.
• Hall of Fame basketball coach Rick Adelman passed away at the age of 79. Adelman is the father of Denver Nuggets head coach David Adelman.

Who won the week?

• Denver-based firm SE2 has joined IPREX, a global communications and marketing network. IPREX gives SE2 added geographic reach, as well as access to additional diversity of insight and experience.
• 9News profiled Kristina Thomas, Community Food Share‘s Director of Communications and Public Relations.
• Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reporter Dennis Webb retired this week. His peers called him a “dang good journalist,” and I would agree based on my work with him over the years on behalf of some clients.
• Longtime Denver Post sportswriter and Colorado Rockies beat reporter Patrick Saunders accepted a buyout to leave the Post. Patrick is the son of legendary Rocky Mountain News reporter and columnist Dusty Saunders.
• Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry signed a 10-year, $400 million endorsement deal with the Chinese sports apparel company Li-Ning. It’s not all good news for Curry, though. Human rights groups allege that Li-Ning uses forced labor to produce its goods, and U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said he will ask the Department of Homeland Security to examine Li-Ning labor practices.