Month: September 2026

Who Had the Worst Week?

~ Jeremy Story ~ Leave a comment
  • A high-profile hacking group announced that it had breached multiple FBI servers and stolen data “on all FBI employees and applicants.” 404 Media, which reported the breach, said, “The highly sensitive data could also be a boon to foreign intelligence agencies who want to better understand how one of the most important law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the U.S. operates.”
  • Converse issued an unequivocal apology for an ad campaign that presented its new Chuck 70 X and Converse X Palmes shoes using imagery that evoked a KKK hood. The company shared, “We’re sorry. We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong. … This should not have happened and we will do better.”
  • A bear scavenging for food in a Castle Rock dumpster was scooped up by a Waste Management garbage truck. The bear was photographed standing on top of the truck and eventually climbed down and ran away.
  • Dartmouth students must disclose to their professors if they use AI in their coursework or face disciplinary action. So you can imagine their reactions when the university’s chief academic officer acknowledged that he has used AI without disclosure in a range of his published work.
  • U.S. News & World Report is out with its annual list of best national colleges and universities, and the news is not good for Colorado schools. The Colorado School of Mines was the highest ranked Colorado instituion at No. 80, followed by the University of Colorado Boulder at No. 109, the University of Denver at No. 121 and Colorado State University at No. 169. Colorado College and the U.S. Air Force Academy almost certainly would rank as the top two in our state, but U.S. News & World Report doesn’t classify them as “national” universities for some reason. MIT landed the No. 1 overall spot, followed by Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Caltech.
  • The Cherry Creek High School football team’s 27-game winning streak came to an ignominious end when the team was forced to forfeit its win against Chatfield High School. The team, coached by Denver Broncos radio announcer Dave Logan, used a player who was later ruled ineligible.
  • Singer Taylor Swift may be 36 and happily married to NFL star Travis Kelce, but she is still using songs to attack her exes. Her newest song, “Patient Zero,” is believed to target her former boyfriend Joe Jonas.
  • The hyper-dysfunctional Denver Public Schools board has retained a law firm that charges as much as $1,000 an hour to investigate whether a board member directed antisemitic remarks at another member.
  • Police are investigating after someone apparently tampered with the main oxygen supply at UCHealth‘s University of Colorado Hospital. Alarms sounded and staff immediately switched to a backup system, which prevented anyone from being harmed.
  • St. Mary’s Glacier has completely melted for the first time in more than a century, a victim of increasing temperatures in the Colorado mountains. Glaciologists (yes, there is such a profession) say it could return during years of heavy snow, though. Adding insult to injury, media coverage of the melting has noted that St. Mary’s has been lying to us: It is actually a “perennial snowfield,” not technically a glacier.
  • A renegade Waymo driverless rideshare vehicle blew through several barricades and found itself driving through a pedestrian farmers’ market in Denver. Waymo issued that golden oldie of a statement: “The trust and safety of the community is our top priority.” That’s true if “the community” is a euphemism for “our venture capital funding.”
  • The Colorado Rockies have now lost 100 games for the fourth consecutive year – reaching what Sports Illustrated calls “historic levels of prolonged futility.” If you were in Denver for the 2007 World Series that featured the Rockies against the Boston Red Sox, or even the 1995 playoffs against the Atlanta Braves, you remember how electric the city was. The Monforts‘ inept ownership has robbed Denver of even more exciting moments like that.

Who won the week?

  • Philosophy Communication‘s Tom Lipetzky was inducted into Colorado State University‘s Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics Hall of Fame.
  • The Gomez Howard Group is celebrating its 22nd anniversary.
  • Today is unofficially “Dolly Parton Day” – 9/25 – which is a nod to her hit movie “9 to 5.”
  • Country superstar Ella Langley will perform at the Grizzly Rose as part of SiriusXM‘s “Small Stage” series.
  • The United Football League (UFL), a pro football league that plays in the spring, has selected Colorado Springs as an expansion market. The team’s stadium, Weidner Field in downtown Colorado Springs, is 750 feet higher than Denver‘s mile high elevation, and the league is already touting the stadium as the “highest-elevation home for a pro football team.” Maybe the Walton-Penner owenrship group can add 800-foot stilts to the proposed new Denver Broncos stadium.
  • The New York Times created its list of the 100 best television shows of the 21st century, and it was topped by “Breaking Bad,” followed by “The Wire,” “Mad Men,” “Succession,” and “Fleabag.” Fun fact: “The Wire” did not win a single Emmy award during its five-season run.

Who Had the Worst Week?

~ Jeremy Story ~ 1 Comment
  • Somehow, typically innocuous singer Ed Sheeran ended up in the middle of the culture wars this week when one of his opening acts, the rapper Macklemore, uttered the phrase “Free Palestine” while on stage. When the dust settled, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft had barred the rapper from performing at Gillette Stadium and worked with other venue owners to do the same, Macklemore was dropped from the tour, the other opening acts quit in solidarity with Macklemore, Sheeran challenged Kraft to match a $2 million donation to aid humanitarian efforts in Gaza, and Kraft agreed.
  • The 2026 edition of Forbes‘ list of the 400 richest Americans has been released, and Colorado‘s Patricia Stryker fell off the list. Before you feel too badly for her, she sits at a net worth of $4.1 billion and her net worth actually increased in the past year, just not as much as other billionaires.
  • Could the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., be torn down? President Donald Trump is threatening to do just that unless Congress agrees to add his name to it.
  • Meanwhile, critics of President Donald Trump are mocking a White House social media post that credited the president for an unusually slow hurricane season in the Atlantic.
  • DIA placed 18th out of 20 North American airports in a new JD Power satisfaction ranking. Its overall score did increase about 1%, from 596 to 602, and at this rate, it will only be 14 years before DIA takes first.
  • NBC Los Angeles‘ news helicopter crashed while covering a story, killing the pilot, a reporter and a person on the ground.
  • The consensus among local sports media seemed to be that the Denver Broncos would go 11-6 this season and make the playoffs for the second consecutive year, but a brutal 31-10 loss in their opening game to the rival Kansas City Chiefs has raised a lot of questions. A 6-11 record looks more likely. While many, many things went wrong this week, new Broncos offensive coordinator Davis Webb‘s playcalling was called an “epic failure,” and he may secretly wish he had remained the team’s QB coach. If the Broncos lose to the Jacksonville Jaguars this weekend, expect the panic to grow exponentially.
  • Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Denver Public Schools board has launched an investigation into one of its members. This time, the investigation centers on alleged antisemitic comments made by Director Monica Hunter.
  • University of Texas QB and Manning legacy heir Arch Manning may draw as much media attention as his uncles Peyton and Eli, but he still has a lot to learn about handling himself like a Manning. This week, Arch apologized to ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe for laughing at an AI-generated video that showed Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian slapping her. In a press conference, Arch said, “Have you all seen that one? That’s a good one. Of him slapping (her)?”
  • A public backlash is a feature of a Sydney Sweeney marketing campaign, not a bug. Sweeney previously caused controversy with her American Eagle jeans ad that played on the homophone “jeans” and “genes” in a campaign that critics called a dog whistle for eugenics. Now, Sweeney has alienated female athletes with a new campaign for a sports trading app that features her unclothed and strategically covered by sports equipment.
  • Optiv became the latest high-profile company to leave Denver when it walked away from its downtown headquarters and relocated to Kansas.

Who won the week?

In Memoriam

~ Jeremy Story ~ Leave a comment

Jeffrey Julin, the co-founder and former president of MGA Communications in Denver, has passed away. He was 74.

Jeff was recognized nationally for his public relations work, and he served as chair of the national Public Relations Society of America in 2008. A Colorado native, he nevertheless brought an East Coast sensibility to Denver, and seemingly was never caught in anything other than a suit and tie. He had a wicked sense of humor and his wry smile often said more than his words.

Jeff retreated from Denver’s PR community somewhat after he and colleague Cricket Smith shut down MGA in 2016, following the death of their business partner and Jeff’s life partner Mike Gaughan in 2015. Jeff then launched Julin Strategic Communications, but that seemed more of a vehicle to serve a few existing clients than an attempt to launch anything truly new. Jeff was a throwback to an earlier era of Denver’s public relations community. He will be missed by those of us who knew him.

Obituary Jeffrey Jeff Julin

Who Had the Worst Week?

~ Jeremy Story ~ 2 Comments
  • United Airlines thought, “Let’s commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11 in Denver with a low-altitude flyover featuring a Boeing 777.” Everyone else thought … no. It has now been canceled.
  • What do Flock cameras and data centers have in common? Both thrived largely with support from conservatives, and now both have quickly lost that support as politicians re-read the electoral tea leaves. Flock surveillance cameras went from having absolute support from law-and-order conservatives to having the Republican governors of Texas and Florida both issue orders essentially banning the cameras on state property. Meanwhile, conservative politicians who have previously supported data centers are rushing to denounce them after seeing polling data that voters on both the left and right oppose them.
  • Engineers at Anthropic think that there is a greater than 10% chance that AI will kill all humans within the next decade. But, hey, think of all the fun you can have from the stock-option proceeds in those 10 years.
  • Meanwhile, the unintended consequences of AI are everywhere. The New York Times reports that thousands of Kenyans who made a living writing essays for U.S. college students have been displaced as students find even more affordable ways to cheat.
  • College football has become the latest victim of unusually hot temperatures. The Colorado School of Mines and Washburn canceled overtime of their game and ended it in a 16-16 tie because of the 107-degree heat index, and the University of South Carolina and Kent State agreed to shave 10 minutes off their game because the heat index hit 106. Most distressing, a University of Iowa student and Hawkeye Marching Band member died after suffering cardiac arrest while performing in 94-degree heat.
  • Barry Morphew, the man who has now been charged twice with killing his wife Suzanne, was on a $3 million surety bond that only allowed him to travel away from home for very specific circumstances. Unfortunately for Morphew, he apparently was violating the terms of that bond when he was involved in a minor traffic accident. The other party started recording Morphew when he refused to give his name and tried to offer $300 in cash to settle the issue. He drove away when that failed, and he has since been charged with a slew of things ranging from careless driving to leaving the scene of an accident to failure to report an accident. And the judge in his murder case ordered him jailed until he can come up with a $10 million bond.
  • The Colorado Rockies were the first team to be eliminated from the MLB playoffs. Now the fight to avoid 100 losses for the fourth season in a row begins.
  • It’s official – LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed golf league that sought to compete with the PGA, filed bankruptcy, and some of the golfers who abandoned the PGA for LIV are owed millions of dollars that they may never see.
  • Colorado has reintroduced 25 wolves since 2023, and 19 wolves have now died. Colorado Parks and Wildlife killed three in the past month alone when they kept attacking livestock. There are probably a couple dozen left that have resulted from breeding, but experts are concerned that it is so few that inbreeding will now become a problem.
  • Will you get your “Trump dividend?” Sure, right after you get your “tariff refund” and your “DOGE dividend” that President Donald Trump previously promised.

Who won the week?

  • Linhart PR has promoted intern Kierra Vanevenhoven to Account Associate.
  • Malen Yantis Public Relations added Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort & Spa as a client.
  • Fortune profiled Bret Clement, co-founder of Denver‘s Clement | Peterson PR, as he transitions from public relations to teaching at DSST: College View High School.
  • Western Michigan University got utterly screwed this weekend by officials who added one final play to the game after time clearly had expired. Sure enough, that allowed the University of Michigan to complete a Hail Mary pass to defeat WMU. WMU head coach Lance Taylor had every reason to scream and shout, but he embraced the idea that you are never sorry later for having taken the high road, and now everyone outside of Ann Arbor is rooting for WMU.
  • Max Scheinblum at BusinessDen researched the top CEO compensation in Colorado, and you can set any concerns aside – they are doing well. In fact, you have to go 16 deep before you hit the first sub-$10 million CEO. Derek Chang at Liberty Media tops the list at $39.3 million, followed by Robert Painter of Trimble and Bracken Darrell of VF Corp, who both netted approximately $19 million.
  • Inspired by President Donald Trump‘s actions to rename Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico, “South Park” producers Trey Parker and Matt Stone announced they will follow suit and rename their show to “South America.“
  • As Route 66 turns 100 years old, the scenic, slow path across the U.S. is enjoying a resurgence in travelers, led in part by European motorcyclists looking for the Americana they first learned about from movies.

Who Had the Worst Week?

~ Jeremy Story ~ Leave a comment
  • Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer probably wishes there was a Ctrl+Z for real life. Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers from Donald Sterling, who had been banned by the NBA after he made wildly racist comments. Everything was great for a decade, but now Ballmer is the one in the NBA’s crosshairs. The league fined the franchise $30 million, banned Ballmer for a year and took away the team’s first-round picks for the next five years after it determined Ballmer and the team intentionally circumvented the NBA salary cap.
  • Copper Mountain shut down its alpine roller coaster after a rider suffered what her attorney described as “a punctured and collapsed lung, a traumatic brain injury and cuts and scrapes all over her body after being ejected from the ride.”
  • An Aurora man is suing DIA after he says he tripped while leaving baggage claim, causing him to hit his head on the sparkly new terrazzo floor, which resulted in a traumatic brain injury. If he wins, he said he plans to celebrate by riding the Copper Mountain alpine roller coaster.
  • It turns out that Fox News does have an ethical line you can’t cross. The network fired longtime anchor Maria Bartiromo because she reportedly shared with Trump administration officials an internal memo telling anchors not to amplify President Donald Trump‘s most-recent baseless claims of election fraud. That was important to Fox News because it paid nearly $800 million to settle a lawsuit in 2023 with Dominion Voting Systems after previous on-air claims of election fraud. The Trump administration officials quickly contacted Fox News executives to express anger about the memo, leading the network to investigate how officials received a copy.
  • Do you have both a desire to work in law enforcement and an addiction to sex workers? Good news! The FBI is loosening its standards due to a shortage of qualified applicants.
  • If you were to rank the cushiest jobs in America, the announcer role on “Wheel of Fortune” would have to be near the top. You work four days a month and make about $400,000 per year. One of the few rules, though, is don’t do anything on an airplane that causes the pilots to radio ahead to have police meet you at the gate. Unfortunately for announcer Jim Thornton, he broke that rule. No one is saying exactly what he did, but the show’s producers have suspended him and are recasting the position.
  • Bad news for those over the age of 100 – the Saturday Evening Post announced it will stop publishing print editions. The publication debuted in 1821.
  • New York‘s Metropolitan Museum of Art canceled a 2027 Met Gala exhibition featuring designer John Galliano, who has a history of making antisemitic remarks. Vogue‘s Anna Wintour had been the driving force behind the exhibit. Among those expressing concerns about the exhibit was Elisha Wiesel, chair of the Elie Wiesel Foundation, who said, “If praise for Hitler and references to the gas chamber do not disqualify someone, where is the line?”
  • What’s more appropriate for a fake music generator than a fake celebrity spokesperson? Controversial AI music generator Suno released an ad featuring Mary J. Blige, only to learn the person with whom they struck the celebrity endorsement didn’t actually represent the singer.
  • A mystery man who has been spray painting the words “Ben” and “Affleck” on Aflac insurance signs in L.A. is, in fact, the actor Ben Affleck, according to TMZ. The “why” remains a mystery.
  • Penn State has apparently decided to follow the advice given by a character on the TV show “Modern Family”– “Run toward embarrassment, not away from it.” There is no other way to explain the school’s decision to open the new “Paterno Family Football Experience Room.” What probably won’t be included in the exhibit: Paterno was fired after an investigation by a former FBI director found that he “failed to protect against a child sexual predator.”
  • The Wall Street Journal made Syracuse University the face of the enrollment cliff hitting colleges and universities nationwide. The article noted that Syracuse, like many other expensive private schools, is having to choose between drastically cutting tuition to fill seats with highly qualified students or lowering its academic standards to increase the pool of potential students. Closer to home, the University of Denver is facing a similar challenge, as evidenced by its nearly 18% enrollment decline over the past four years.
  • As large glass-roofed cars grow in popularity, auto manufacturers are grappling with a new challenge: “spontaneously” exploding sunroofs.
  • Former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith has been accused of cheating a Native American investor out of $2.5 million. Feel free to make your own Cowboys vs. Indians joke.
  • It’s been a while since actor Mel Gibson has been in the news. With his multiple drunk driving arrests; his repeated homophobic, antisemitic and racist comments; and his domestic violence allegations, Gibson has been a Denver PR Blog regular in the past. Well, he’s back, and somehow he managed to break new ground: this time, he mocked an ASL interpreter while walking on stage to participate in a Q&A event. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?
  • Waymo is using its venture backing to roll out its driverless robotaxi service in Denver, so tread carefully. To paraphrase The Notorious B.I.G., Waymo money, Waymo problems.
  • The Colorado Rockies benched rookie outfielder Cole Carrigg after he was caught giving a middle finger to Atlanta Braves fans during a game in Atlanta. He should have claimed it was just a mini-Tomahawk Chop.

Who won the week?

  • Vanessa Failor has joined SchroderHaus as an intern.
  • Elisabeth Monaghan has stepped down after leading the Denver VOICE for the past seven years, including some incredibly difficult ones during COVID.
  • Stan Kroenke, who owns the Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Rams and Arsenal F.C., just agreed to add the Los Angeles Angels to his sports-team portfolio. Those teams are collectively worth more than $16 billion.
  • The sun looked like it was setting quickly on University of Colorado football coach Deion Sanders. His $11 million annual salary, combined with a 3-9 record last year, looked unsustainable. But a 14-13 win last night over Georgia Tech to kick off the 2026 season may give him new life.
  • The rumors were true – Garth Brooks played a “secret” show at the Grizzly Rose last night for about 2,000 fans. Brooks is in Denver to play four sold-out concerts at Ball Arena.
  • Finally! A company that knows that the theft of your product can be a marketing opportunity. Pabst Blue Ribbon had a delivery truck stolen with more than 2,000 cases of its beer. How did the brewer respond? It used it as the basis of a social media campaign.