• Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton attempted suicide on a TikTok livestream this week, and viewers were the ones who alerted authorities. Hilton was hospitalized and survived. Meanwhile, TikTok officials acknowledged that a “moderator error” prevented the livestream from being removed promptly after users reported it for violating the platform’s rules.
• After a couple of weeks of fading headlines, Taco Bell is facing a new round of accusations relating to the Cyclospora outbreak. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Michigan health officials alerted the Mexican food chain about their concerns weeks before Taco Bell first warned its customers.
• Meanwhile, FDA officials say that more than 345 cases of salmonella across 27 states have resulted from tainted jalapeños served at Chipotle and Qdoba. Hopefully Chipotle still has Chris Arnold on speed dial.
• Former 9News and Altitude TV sportscaster Todd Romero has been arrested and charged with indecent exposure to a child.
• BMW touted a “special surprise” partnership with Sony-Marvel‘s latest movie, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” and many of its car owners were excited. Would it be free tickets? Invitations to advance screenings? As it turned out, it was neither. Instead, BMW started pushing unsolicited and spammy ads for the movie to their dashboard screens. And BMW owners had thoughts that were captured by The Hollywood Reporter: “That’s some absolute bullsh**”; “Insanely dystopian”; “$130K to get a Spider-Man commercial” and simply: “F*** everything about this.”
• It is no secret that Colorado marijuana sales have been trending downward for years following the state’s legalization of the recreational stuff in 2012. So it is not particularly surprising that Native Roots is closing its plant in Denver and plans to lay off more than 140 employees.
• Broadway actor Geno Segers‘ offer to join the cast of “Hadestown” was rescinded after videos the producers deemed anti-trans surfaced. In one of the clips, Segers stated, “I’m not against anyone living out their lives the way they want, but I am against their rights superseding the rights of other people. … I don’t see transgender people becoming oppressed or being oppressed.”
• It’s never good when you become the face of a controversial issue. Crocs is no doubt realizing that thanks to a Wall Street Journal article focusing on companies that use Malta as a haven to avoid taxes. As the WSJ reported, Crocs has just two of its more than 8,000 employees located in a small office in Malta, but it claims for tax purposes that all of its global revenue is generated in that country.
• A postal worker was arrested for allegedly stealing a winning lottery ticket worth $2,600 while it was being mailed to the Florida Lottery for redemption.
• Most scooter rides only cost a few bucks, but San Francisco Giants outfielder Harrison Bader’s recent one could cost him millions. Bader was involved in a collision that put him in the hospital, and now the Giants are refusing to continue paying his two-year, $20.5 million salary.
• Remember the Ink Coffee “gentrification” ad that outraged Denver‘s Five Points community? It merely resulted in a boycott and a few rocks thrown at one of its locations. In South Korea, a Starbucks ad that offended much of the public resulted in police raiding the company’s headquarters.
• In the U.S., we like to vandalize Flock cameras. In Scotland, it’s parking meters. Authorities in North Berwick are searching for a vandal who is defacing meters with superglue and expanding foam, but they aren’t getting much help from locals who are widely fed up with parking enforcers.
• A new class-action lawsuit filed by two Coloradans against a host of ski-resort and ski-industry companies, including Colorado-based Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Co., alleges that the companies engaged in anti-competitive behavior alleges that the companies engaged in anti-competitive behavior by “conspiring to raise and stabilize ski pass and ski product prices across the industry by exchanging confidential information.”
• If you are still using a first-generation iPhone from 2007, I have some bad news: you no longer have a cell network to connect to. T-Mobile officially ended its 2G cellular service, eliminating the last type of U.S. cellular network the original iPhone could use. RIP 2G.

Who won the week?

• PRSA Colorado announced two of its 2026 special award winners:
  • Wendy Manitta Holmes from Elbert County Government is the Swede Johnson Lifetime Achievement Award winner.
  • Danielle Moore from Noodles & Co. is the Jane Dvorak Mentor of the Year.
• Novitas‘ Michelle Balch Lyng is a 2026 PR News “People of the Year” honoree.
• Dovetail Solutions promoted Jen Hayes to Senior Director of Client & Editorial Services.
• Saint Tattoos in Fort Collins is one of 10 women-owned Etsy shops selected by singer Olivia Rodrigo “for an exclusive handmade collection tied to Daisy Chain Fields, the singer’s inaugural all-women music festival next month in California.”
• To celebrate Colorado‘s 150th birthday, the Denver Business Journal compiled a list of businesses that are older than our state. Among them are Denver Health, The Brown Palace, Mile High United Way, Duffy Crane & Heating and My Brother’s Bar.
• Colorado Christian University has added former Vice President Mike Pence as a visiting faculty member.
• “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” defied a string of disappointing superhero box-office numbers when it brought in $957 million globally in its first weekend. Domestically, its $355 million exceeded analysts’ projections of $195 million. I guess those BMW ads worked.