- 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.
