- 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.
