- Ivy League school Cornell University has found itself in the midst of a Duke lacrosse-sized rape scandal. Prosecutors have reopened the case of a student who said she was sexually assaulted by seven fraternity members on campus in 2024, a move spurred by a civil lawsuit the woman recently filed. Both prosecutors and Cornell are scrambling to explain their previous handling of the allegations, and contemporaneous texts from the seven alleged assailants are so graphic and inhumane that they ensure massive media coverage for months to come. Cornell has a $12 billion endowment, and I would expect it to try to reach a civil settlement with the woman as quickly as possible, although that won’t stop additional media coverage resulting from the ongoing criminal investigation.
- A pilot on a FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv stabbed his co-pilot in the cockpit mid-flight during an apparent attempt to crash the plane. Authorities say the co-pilot heroically prevented the mass murder-suicide attempt.
- A Washington Post correspondent parachuted into Palisade to cover how drought conditions are threatening the livelihoods of local peach farmers, which in turn is threatening the existence of the town itself.
- DIA hasn’t been performing too well on recent rankings of national airports. Last month, I reported that Denver‘s airport placed 18th out of 20 North American airports in a J.D. Power satisfaction ranking. This month, DIA ranked last in a Travel Bulletin list of the worst airports for connections. Denver was criticized for having low “walkability” scores that measure distances between two points. And, sadly, the Washington Post called DIA’s last-place score “a surprise to no one.”
- Tennessee likes capital punishment, but it isn’t very good at it. The state’s governor has halted executions through the end of the year as the state grapples with its second straight botched execution. The latest attempt this week left the prisoner alive and hospitalized after the drug meant to kill her failed.
- A 100-pound tortoise ran away from its Littleton home in what authorities described as the “world’s slowest escape.” The tortoise was eventually captured and returned home.
- An Illinois woman went to her local emergency room because of a debilitating migraine, waited four hours to be seen and eventually gave up and went to another facility. Imagine her surprise when she received a $410 bill from the ER. Must be a waiting-room-chair-rental fee.
- Have some Denver police officers been routinely failing to investigate traffic incidents because they confused what a police commander called an “urban legend” with actual Colorado law? Yes, they have.
- Most professional sports leagues split revenues with players according to a formula that is roughly 50-50. NFL players receive 49% of league revenues, NBA players receive 50%, MLB players receive 47% and NHL players receive 50%. Professional tennis players receive about 16% of revenues. That’s why tennis legend and ESPN announcer John McEnroe is encouraging tennis players to boycott Grand Slam tournaments until they get more.
- I was convinced that Gov. Jared Polis‘ commutation of election denier Tina Peters‘ jail sentence would be his legacy, but it looks like the wolf-reintroduction fiasco could be a close second. The reintroduction program hasn’t been able to reach self-sustaining numbers, and wolves are dying – naturally and otherwise – at an alarming rate. It is so bad that Colorado Parks and Wildlife this week suspended its policy of killing wolves that repeatedly attack ranchers’ livestock (or, in anodyne Polis-speak, “lethally removing wolves for chronic depredation”).
- Washington, D.C., police officers arrested the wrong identical twin in an assault case. The case was based solely on the victim identifying a photo of the suspect, and police failed to check a registry that would have alerted them to the fact that she had a twin. It took two months for the charges to be dropped, by which time she had been arrested, held in jail and then subjected to random drug tests and in-person reporting requirements.
- Sales of Vail Resorts‘ Epic Pass are down 12% from the same time last year, presumably due to last season’s stunningly low amount of snow.
- MLB has withdrawn its proposal to the Trump administration to build a stadium in Wyoming‘s Grand Teton National Park to host baseball games. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said that following media coverage of the proposal, “it has become clear the local community does not want us” to pursue the project.
- Speaking of baseball, the Colorado Rockies lost 100 games for the fourth straight year, a milestone only a few teams in the history of MLB have reached. So of course the team announced that ticket prices will increase 12% next year.
Who won the week?
- Gil Rudawsky has launched GilCom Media. He formerly was with Rockford Gray.
- The Fletcher Group is soliciting candidates for a Senior Account Associate position.
- B Public Relations added the Park County (Wyoming) Travel Council as a client.
- The Denver Museum of Nature & Science named Kirk Johnson as CEO, replacing the retiring George Sparks. Johnson will join the museum from the Smithsonian‘s National Museum of Natural History.
