If you like what Denver has become over the past couple of decades – it regularly appears on lists such as Best Places to Live, Fastest Growing Economies, Best Cities for Millennials, Most Educated Workforces, Most Fit Cities, etc. – you owe a debt of gratitude to the MDEDC’s Tom Clark.

Part visionary and part hustler, Clark appeared in Politico’s recent article touting the impact of RTD’s light rail initiative as only he could:

Traction Communications’ Kirsten Hamling has been sentenced to 90 days of jail/work release and 10 years of probation, and she also is required to pay $250,000 in restitution. Hamling was the founder of what turned out to be the fraudulent firefighter calendar charity Fired Up For Kids, and earlier this year she pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft for stealing money raised for the burn unit at The Children’s Hospital.

Frankie Cervantes has launched Frankly Communications, a full-service digital engagement, marketing and PR consultancy firm. The firm works with a variety of B2B & B2C clients, including a well-known music label, an aerial imagery start-up and an IPTV Spanish-only programming company.

Development Counsellors International (DCI) has officially opened a Denver office along the Platte River in downtown Denver. The firm’s seven Denver-based employees previously shared office space at Pure Brand Communications or worked from home offices.

Ed Sealover at the Denver Business Journal has crunched the numbers on Pinnacol Assurance’s “pricey push to privatize,” and the big public relations winners in the effort are:

SE2 – $119,126 in fees
Artemis Communications – $77,725 in fees
Rockford Gray – $58,438 in fees
Galloway Group – $23,600 in fees

Of course, law firms billed nearly $1.5 million, so “big winners” is more of a relative term.

Former CIGNA communications chief turned activist/author Wendell Potter has been called everything from a public relations hero to a traitorous villain for his decision to walk away from the corporate world and testify before the U.S. Senate panel on health care reform.

His testimony on how the health care industry uses propaganda and lobbying efforts to maintain profits at the expense of patients sparked outrage among activists and health care providers alike. And the behind-the-scenes view he provides of the role of public relations in these debates has ignited passionate discussion in the public relations community.

Potter now is a Senior Fellow on Health Care for the Center for Media and Democracy, and he has followed up his initial testimony with a recently released book, Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans. He will be at the Tattered Cover on Colfax on Thursday, Jan. 20, at 7:30 p.m. to sign copies of the book.

If you are interested in an insider’s account of how public relations often is played at the highest and most sophisticated levels – and what impact that has on you, your career and your clients – you should attend.

[Disclosure: I am friends with Wendell Potter, and I worked closely with him when CIGNA was a client of mine at Weber Shandwick. However, my work (and Weber Shandwick’s work) with CIGNA did not include any of the industry policy, regulatory or lobbying efforts that he chronicles in his book.]

The Women’s Saving Club, started by Denver PR pros Tara Tongco Rojas and Kate Wilson Stabrawa, has been named one of 10 finalists across the country in the TIAA-CREF “Raise the Rate” contest. As part of the contest, the site can win up to $65,000 and a portion of the prize will benefit the Denver Women’s Bean Project. If you want to vote for the Women’s Saving Club, visit the “Raise the Rate” website. You can vote once a day every day until Dec. 9.

New York-based social media agency Onit Marketing has opened a branch office in Denver. Onit, which specializes in providing social media services to clients in the outdoor, adventure sports, natural products and eco industries, says it is expanding to Colorado to connect with the state’s community of outdoor and natural product companies and enthusiasts.

Get Ink Public Relations, a Miami-based agency representing hospitality and lifestyle clients, has opened a Denver office. The agency was founded by CU-Boulder grad Ellen Marchman, who previously worked in Mayor Wellington Webb’s administration.

Doyle Albee at Metzger has written a moving tribute to his mentor and our friend Joe Fuentes, who is in a tough, tough battle with cancer. Chances are that you know – and love – Joe. He is a Denver media and public relations institution, having worked at the Rocky Mountain News, Coors, StorageTek and Xcel Energy, among others, over the course of his career. Joe was part of my communications team at StorageTek, and I was lucky to have him. I had never seen someone who so effectively combined charm and tenacity (and occasionally sheer stubbornness) to accomplish almost anything he put his mind to.

I had lunch with Joe shortly before his diagnosis, and he talked proudly about his kids and grandkids, about weddings and births, and vacations he loved taking with his wife Chris. He may be a great public relations practitioner, but he is an even better family man. Life can be cruel, and that someone as good and caring as Joe has cancer is proof of that.

You can send Joe a card at 10605 Osceola Loop, Westminster, CO 80031.

Don Kirchoffner of Denver’s Don Kirchoffner & Associates has been diagnosed with cancer, and he is fighting it exactly like you would expect – head on. If you would like to send Don a message, you can do so through his Caring Bridge page: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/donkirchoffner.

Let’s all shed some crocodile tears for Anti-Gym owner and notorious chubby-taunter (“No Chubbies”) Michael Karolchyk, whose gym in Cherry Creek North has shut down. His barrage of offensive and annoying television commercials weren’t enough to save his troubled enterprise. Now if he had only sunk some of that money into public relations instead of advertising …

What does Dr. Seuss think about his book Horton Hears a Who being used by the anti-abortion group Colorado for Equal Rights to argue that life begins at conception? Well, not much. He’s been dead for 16 years. 

The report is here. Guy Kawasaki offers some highlights here. 

Colorado Rep. Larry Liston (R-Colorado Springs) apologizes for calling unwed teenage parents “sluts.” 

ARCADIS VP of Corporate Communications Andrew Hudson has issued an RFP for public relations services. Details are here: pr-agency-rfp-finali.doc