(Hat tip: Steve Koenigsberg)

Pandemics may come and go, but there is one thing we can all count on year after year: dumb decisions that result in PR disasters.

Usually, we have to count on bureaucratic corporations to lead the way, but this year we had a number of individuals rise up to show us how to truly ruin reputations. Kanye West looked at Uber and said, “Not so fast.” Elon Musk told Facebook to hold his beer. And Will Smith, well, few corporations ever managed to ruin 35 years’ worth of hard work in five, globally televised seconds.

So, who had the biggest PR disasters in 2022?

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UVALDE POLICE DEPARTMENT/TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY/U.S. BORDER PATROL
The response to the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs reminded us of the life-saving impact one or two heroic people can have. That makes the situation at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, that much more heart-wrenching. In Uvalde, 376 Uvalde Police Department, Texas Department of Public Safety and U.S. Border Patrol officers descended on the school, and for 76 minutes not one of them did a damn thing to put an end to a shooting spree that killed 19 elementary school kids and two teachers.

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KANYE ‘YE’ WEST
Kanye spent most of the year proving that you don’t have to be a big corporation like Uber or Facebook to set the standard for PR disasters. Since uttering and then doubling down on his antisemitic rants, Ye has been kicked off Instagram, dropped by Adidas, escorted out of the offices of Skechers, dumped by Footlocker and Gap, and lost representation by CAA, United Talent Agency, and his law firm. The financial hit to Kanye now exceeds $1 billion, according to economists.

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ELON MUSK
Riding a string of successful companies including PayPal, SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk was considered one of the world’s smartest business executives. Then his ego tricked him into buying Twitter for $44 billion, a price he later acknowledged was far too high. Once backed into that corner, you’d expect him to slash headcount and try to improve profitability at Twitter for a few quarters and then flip it. 

Well, he did half of that. Musk cut headcount but then he took about every step he could to alienate advertisers – who provide about 90% of Twitter’s revenue – by eliminating the verified “blue-check” program and offering amnesty to hate-speech purveyors. Musk may have offered the best perspective on his Twitter strategy when he Tweeted, “How do you make a small fortune in social media? Start with a large one.”

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FIFA WORLD CUP 2022
The FIFA Men’s World Cup is the largest, most-watched sporting event in the world, and the month-long tournament will deliver an estimated $7.5 billion in revenue to FIFA. It is a juggernaut, and you might expect that it would be run by savvy executives. Alas, the 2022 World Cup has been known more for self-inflicted wounds than any of the action on the pitch. 

Whether it was picking the repressive regime in Qatar to host in the first place, banning European countries from wearing rainbow armbands to support LGBTQ+ rights, not protecting the thousands of migrant workers who died constructing stadiums in Qatar, or blindsiding mega-sponsor Budweiser days before the start of the tournament by not allowing beer sales in stadiums, FIFA has set a new standard for corruption and complicity.

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ALTITUDE SPORTS
It has now been 40 months since Comcast– and DISH-subscribing fans could watch the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche in our local market. Someone needs to tell Stan Kroenke and Altitude Sports to stop the madness.

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DENVER BRONCOS
The 2022 Denver Broncos were a slow-motion trainwreck, and a reminder of the power of setting expectations. With a new head coach, a new offensive coordinator, a new offensive system and a new quarterback, the Broncos could have easily tried to get people excited about the progress they would make in year two. Instead, they raised fans’ hopes for year one and saw the backlash start at about minute 59 of their first game (an inexplicable 64-yard field goal attempt that missed).

No one carried the weight of the miserable season more than QB Russell Wilson, head coach Nathaniel Hackett and GM George Paton. Wilson has always been an odd duck, but that personality trait gets amplified (and mocked) when you are losing. Whether it was an oddly timed “Let’s Ride” or bragging about working out on the plane ride to London, 2022 was the year that Wilson was exposed as an average quarterback and a below-average teammate.

As bad as Wilson’s year was, it was worse for Nathaniel Hackett. The first-year head coach made so many unforced errors in his NFL debut that he may never be able to recover. Conventional wisdom quickly became that he was in over his head and rumors swirled that he would be the fifth NFL coach in history to be fired midway through his first season. Even former Denver Nuggets coach George Karl wanted him gone. 

And as bad as Hackett’s season was, the Bronco who had the worst year was GM George Paton. He was the man who hired Hackett and not only traded two first round and two second round draft picks to acquire Wilson, but then signed him to a five-year, $245 million extension before he had even thrown a pass for the Broncos. That decision looks worse and worse each week. 

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FRANK AZAR
Slip-and-fall attorney Frank Azar had quite the year. In January, he sued an accountant that he hired to correct tax returns created by a different accountant whom he had also sued. He alleged negligence in both cases. In March, Azar sued an Alabama-based law firm alleging it was stealing clients through a deceptive Google ads campaign. 

And in May, Azar sued his insurance company, claiming that it wasn’t covering legal costs associated with defending him against a lawsuit by a former employee. In that suit, the former employee alleged that the Azar’s firm’s “culture of heavy drinking and drug use” during work hours forced her to leave.

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DANIEL SNYDER/WASHINGTON COMMANDERS
Dumpster fires would take offense at being compared to the NFL’s Washington Commanders. Since owner Daniel Snyder bought the team in 1999, it has endured losing season after losing season, but it has been a recent string of allegations related to workplace harassment, financial improprieties and targeting his fellow owners that have kept the team in the headlines.

Snyder was forced to relinquish operational control of team after a Washington Post investigation included allegations from 40 women who had been harassed or discriminated against by Snyder or other male executives. Other headlines focused on allegations that he had cheated the NFL and the IRS by underreporting ticket sales so he could keep a larger portion of the team’s money. 

It was an ESPN report in October, though, that sent the future of Snyder’s ownership into a tailspin. That report said that Snyder had used private investigators to dig up dirt on his fellow owners to use against them if they tried to force him to sell the team. Confident the scheme would protect him, he reportedly told a colleague, “They can’t f— with me.”

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WILL SMITH
Legendary investor Warren Buffet famously said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it,” and no one proved that adage correct more than actor Will Smith. Smith spent a career building a reputation as a charming, likeable actor who could deliver audiences to anything he starred in. Like Tom Hanks, Smith recalled the era of Jimmy Stewart, a beloved actor who had a way of playing everyman characters in compelling ways. And then the 2022 Oscars happened.

In the slap heard ‘round the world, Smith inexplicably climbed on-stage and struck host Chris Rock. It was a surreal moment that instantly redefined Smith’s image, undoing 35 years’ worth of reputation-building. Smith immediately had two projects tabled, “Fast & Loose” and “Bad Boys 4,” and the summer release of his already-completed film “Emancipation” was delayed. Meanwhile, Smith’s Q Score, – an industry metric of likeability among the general public – dropped from 39 to 24, a nearly 40% decline.

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CNN+
CNN invested $300 million to launch CNN+, a subscriber-based streaming news service? Thirty-five days later, they shut it down.

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BILL MURRAY
Rumors of the actor’s bullying and harassing behavior have circulated for years, but it hit a tipping point in 2022 when production of the film “Being Mortal” was suspended following reports of Murray’s sexual assault against a female production assistant. That news opened a floodgate, and actors including Geena Davis, Seth Green, Lucy Liu, Anjelica Huston, Richard Dreyfuss and Sean Young all shared stories of Murray’s bullying behavior. His troubled personality hasn’t done much to slow his film career to this point, but his legacy ultimately may not be exclusively what he put on film.

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BRETT FAVRE
Given that Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre’s NFL playing career ended with a “d— pic” scandal, it’s hardly surprising that he’d find himself in a tough spot again. And, unfortunately for Favre, he violated Crisis Communications 101, which is to get all the bad news out at once as quickly as possible. 

Instead, a scandal that started with Favre fraudulently receiving funds from Mississippi earmarked for an anti-poverty program in exchange for no-show speeches has slowly blossomed into a deeper investigation into his actions to use $5 million in similar funds to pay for a volleyball arena at his alma mater, where, coincidently I’m sure, his daughter plays … volleyball. Leaked text messages show Favre and the state’s former governor conspiring to make the deal happen.

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FTX/SAM BANKMAN-FRIED
Crypto-bro and FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was a late addition to the list, but he definitely earned his spot by losing more than $8 billion in customer funds, tanking his personal net worth from an estimated $20 billion last year to $100,000, and finally being arrested for fraud. Bankman-Fried claimed the company was the victim of changing economic conditions, but FTX’s interim CEO told lawmakers that the company collapsed because of “old fashioned embezzlement.” Either way, everyone can agree on Bankman-Fried’s general assessment: “I f—— up.“

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Photo Credits

Kanye West Image: 
Image Link:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kanye_West_at_the_Met_Gala_in_2019.png
Image Attribution: Cosmopolitan UK, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>;, via Wikimedia Commons

Brett Favre Image: 
Image Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brett_Favre_Super_Bowl_50.jpg
Image Attribution: Arnie Papp, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>;, via Wikimedia Commons

Bill Murray Image: 
Image Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bill_Murray_2014_Berlinale.jpg
Image Attribution: Siebbi, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>;, via Wikimedia Commons

Will Smith Image:
Image Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bright_Japan_Premiere_Red_Carpet-_Will_Smith_(39493076712).jpg
Image Attribution: Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>;, via Wikimedia Commons

Elon Musk Image:
Image Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elon_Musk_Brazil_2022.png
Image Attribution: Ministério Das Comunicações, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>;, via Wikimedia Commons

This post also appears online at https://groundfloormedia.com/blog/2022/12/12/the-biggest-pr-disasters-of-2022/

• ABC News suspended morning show “GMA3” anchors Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes after the two disclosed a romantic relationship. The pair are married to other people and the relationship is rumored to significantly predate their disclosure.
• VoxComm, a PR trade industry association, is encouraging member agencies to boycott a Keurig Dr Pepper agency search due to the company’s practice of requiring 360-day payment terms for vendors.
• Singer Celine Dion announced she has been diagnosed with the inelegantly named “Stiff-person syndrome” (SPS), a rare neurological and autoimmune disorder. The diagnosis has caused her to cancel or postpone dozens of shows that were part of her “Courage World Tour.”
• Pandemic service cuts and increasing violence has caused a 21% drop in customer satisfaction with RTD. The drop means RTD CEO Debra Johnson will receive no performance raise this year.
• The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service spent $428,000 to relocate 205 prairie chickens from Kansas to Colorado in an attempt to prevent extinction, and it is not working.
• Ryan Montoya, the meth-addled driver who hit and killed cyclist Gwen Inglis, was ordered to pay $353 million to Inglis’ family. The family acknowledges they will see little, if anything, of that verdict, but said they appreciate that the publicity could serve a a deterrent to other drivers.
• ABC has pulled the plug on its “Christmas with the Backstreet Boys” TV special after member Nick Carter was accused of sexual battery.
• An Olive Garden manager in Kansas was fired after he challenged employees who took time off with an email that read in part, “If your dog died, you need to bring him in and prove it to us.“
• A gun shop owner in Maryland, concerned about a recent series of break-ins, fired shots at an unmarked police car because he thought they were thieves.
• A study found that, over a 32-year period, the Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” series featured more white men named “Mike” than it did any women.

So, who won the week?

• Michael Spencer has been named lead anchor at CBS4, replacing the beloved Jim Benemann, who is retiring in a few months.
• Speaking of retirement, today is longtime 9News anchor Gary Shapiro’s last day at the station.
• RTD named Stuart Summers as Chief Communications and Engagement Officer.
• Denver PR agency dovetail solutions named Emily (Holleran) Teiffel as its new president. It also promoted Summer Wright to SVP and Julia Bulotti to senior director of client services.
• Jill Petersen, the National MS Society’s Director of Employee Engagement & Communications, has joined the board of SafeHouse Denver. She joins GroundFloor Media | CenterTable’s Lauren Noser, who also recently joined the board.
• WNBA star Brittney Griner is back in the United States after U.S. officials reached an agreement on a prisoner swap with Russia.
• Residents of Craig, Alaska are grabbing free Yeti coolers that are washing up along the town’s shores. A container ship traveling from South Korea to Canada dropped 1,600 of them recently during bad weather.
• An anonymous donor is covering administrative costs for the Colorado Healing Fund so that 100% of donations made to support Club Q victims can go directly to them.
• Hiring new head coach Deion Sanders has jump-started the University of Colorado’s football team.

RTD has named Stuart Summers, an executive from Idaho State University, as its new Chief Communications Officer. Prior to his role with Idaho State, Summers was a television reporter in Idaho.

INBOX: @RideRTD has hired a new Chief Communications Officer – Stuart Summers, who most recently held a similar role at Idaho State University.

Summers will oversee 119 employees in the communications office (which includes media relations, customer service, etc)

— Steve Staeger (@SteveStaeger) December 5, 2022

• A Buddhist temple in Thailand was left without any monks when the entire order tested positive for meth.
• Prince William’s godmother resigned from her role with Buckingham Palace after she repeatedly asked a Black guest where in Africa she was from. The guest was from the London neighborhood of Hackney.
• A Denver Police SWAT team raided the house of an innocent 77-year-old grandmother because they didn’t understand how Apple’s “Find My iPhone” app worked.
• Pepsi has launched a holiday campaign encouraging fans to try a “dirty soda,” a combination of Pepsi and milk. Clearly, Pepsi must hate its customers.
• U.S. Army leaders had to halt a “team-building” flag football game between members of the 82nd Airborne after it devolved into a massive brawl.
• CNN has begun the process of notifying hundreds of employees that they are being laid off, the result of a confluence of economic issues, including cord-cutting, a weakening global economic forecast and the network’s recent merger with Discovery.
• Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is playing defense after The Washington Post published a photo from 1957 that shows a then-15-year-old Jones standing behind a group of white students threatening and blocking six Black students from entering his public high school.
• What happens when turbines that generate electricity for 4.5 million people in the West shut down? We may find out soon if the water level in Lake Powell drops another 38 feet. Experts say it could happen as soon as next July.
• Five vehicles rented by the Secret Service on a recent presidential trip to Nantucket burst into flames less than 24 hours after they were returned to the rental lot. Cue the conspiracy theorists.
• Water found its own level, as they say, when Kanye West went on Alex Jones’ InfoWar program this week. In the segment, Kanye shared, “I like Hitler. … Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.“
• The City of Palo Alto looked into where it recycling goes, and it turns out 60% of it is shipped to Asia with no clear proof that it is actually recycled.
• Evoca TV, one of the few services in Denver that carries Nuggets and Avalanche games, said it will shut down this month unless it finds additional investors.

So, who won the week?

• U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team star Christian Pulisic lived up to his billing, scoring the only goal in a must-win game against Iran. The U.S. advanced to the knock-out round with the win.
• The school starting times for Jeffco high school students will move back about an hour on average next year, from approximately 7:15 am to 8:15 am. Studies show high school students do better when school starts later.
• What’s the most-popular fast food restaurant in Colorado? Taco Bell. C’mon, people. We can do better.
• Westword answers the age-old question: “If I feed a cow cannabis, will the milk get me stoned?“

• Former Denver Bronco Ed McCaffrey has been fired as head football coach at the University of Northern Colorado after posting a 6-16 record over two years.
• The Brown Palace had to cancel its Thanksgiving reservations due to a fire at the historic hotel.
• The Denver Broncos waived running back Melvin Gordon following the team’s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders. Gordon was the Broncos’ leader in carries and rushing yards, but also fumbles.
• A Business Insider investigation found that Amazon’s Alexa is a “colossal failure” that is on pace to lose $10 billion this year. Perhaps relatedly, Amazon recently announced plans to eliminate 10,000 jobs.
• Luxury fashion house Balenciaga SA has apologized for a “holiday” ad campaign that featured little kids holding teddy bears dressed in bondage gear.
• Elon Musk says he plans to reinstate accounts that previously violated Twitter’s terms of service. The shift in policy has stoked fears that hate speech will increase on the platform.
• The Associated Press’ James LaPorta, the journalist who incorrectly reported that Russian missiles crossed into Poland killing two civilians, has been terminated. An AP spokeswomen said, “When our standards are violated, we must take the steps necessary to protect the integrity of the news report.”
• A professional wrestler who travels Appalachia and southern states as “The Progressive Liberal” is shocked – SHOCKED – to find that conservative audience members try to hurt him.
• Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for her role in defrauding investors. The good news for Holmes? She has a chance of running into reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, both of whom received prison sentences this week for fraud and tax evasion charges.
• The FIFA World Cup started this week and there have been some shocking results on the pitch (Saudi Arabia defeating Argentina, Japan beating Germany). However, much of the news has been about FIFA’s heavy-handed tactics to prevent host country Qatar from be embarrassed by its abysmal human rights record.
• The NFL sent the Arizona Cardinals to Mexico City for its Monday night game against the San Francisco 49ers as part of the league’s efforts to export the game and its culture. The plan may have worked too well: the Cardinals fired one of its coaches, Sean Kugler, before the game for allegedly groping a woman in the Mexican capitol.
• Gutless administrators at the University of Arizona have allowed students and others to attack student journalists at the school.

So, who won the week?

• Richard Fierro and Thomas James are being credited for stopping the mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs. The pair acted quickly to disarm the shooter.
• Could Deion Sanders be the next head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes?
• Former Disney CEO Bob Iger, a legend who guided the company through some of its most successful years, has returned after his hand-picked successor had some high-profile missteps.

Luxury fashion house Balenciaga SA has apologized for a “holiday” ad campaign that featured little kids holding teddy bears dressed in bondage gear.

• Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift. Good luck!
• NBC News national correspondent Miguel Almaguer appears to be suspended. He has not appeared on-air since the network retracted his story that shared false information about the attack on U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband.
• Twitter offices had to be shut down late this week amid a mass exodus of workers. Elon Musk may be proving that employees will only put up with asshole, narcissistic CEOs if there are pre-IPO stock options involved. Alas, Twitter isn’t a start-up.
• The answer to the clue “This TV show is under fire for cavalierly using a recent murder as a trivia question” is Jeopardy.
• Comedian and noted car enthusiast Jay Leno suffered third-degree burns on his face and hands when a vintage car he was working on caught fire. As a result, his appearance this weekend at the Bellco Theatre in Denver has been cancelled.
• Being fired as a reporter is tough enough, but having your news director invite you to a Hardees so he can fire you just adds insult to injury.
• Have you ever wanted to be a police chief? Apply now with the City of Aurora and you might get it. They currently have zero applications for the position. Meanwhile, it turns out the city’s new interim police chief, Art Acevedo, “has a history of misconduct and was a frequent guest on InfoWars, founded by conspiracist Alex Jones.” This should end well.
• The University of Virginia football team cancelled its final home game after three of its players were shot and killed. A former UVA teammate was arrested for the shooting.
• Denver-area Uber and Lyft drivers are only netting about $5.50 an hour, according to a new report from Colorado Jobs With Justice. That is about one-third of what they would make if they earned minimum wage in the city.
• Denver Broncos linebacker Aaron Patrick has sued the NFL, ESPN, Kroenke Sports and Entertainment and the L.A. Chargers after he tore his ACL in a sideline collision at the Chargers’ stadium. He landed awkwardly on a mat covering wiring.
• FIFA selected Qatar to host the World Cup 12 years ago, and today – two days before the 2022 FIFA World Cup starts – Qatar announced that it is going back on its agreement and will ban alcohol sales at stadiums. Budweiser has to be thrilled about its $75 million sponsorship of the tournament.
• A truck in which actress Denise Richards was a passenger sustained bullet holes following a road rage incident in L.A. Monday.
• The Great American Family network, a start-up competitor to the Hallmark Channel, announced it will not feature gay and lesbian couples as part of its line-up of Christmas movies. I’m guessing you can expect a lot of Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A commercials, and not many others.

So, who won the week?

• Katie Knoch has founded Hard Knoch PR.
• Backbone Media is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
• GBSM held a ribbon-cutting for its new office space in LoDo.
• The City and County of Broomfield named Julie Story Director of Communications.
• Maura O’Neal and Lyn Schneider joined GroundFloor Media | CenterTable as Senior Directors of Communications & Content.
• Jenn Kostka Beck is joining Mile High United Way as Vice President of Marketing.
• CBS4 Executive Producer Kelly Clark is leaving the station to join the Archdiocese of Denver as Director of Public Relations and Publications.
• Edelman CEO Richard Edelman was placed on a list of Americans under financial sanctions by Russia. Sometimes you are measured by who your enemies are.
• Jeff Bezos and partner Lauren Sanchez have awarded singer and philanthropist Dolly Parton $100 million as part of the Bezos Courage and Civility Award.  
• Billionaire Phil Anschutz won an appeals court ruling giving him an $8 million Colorado tax refund. Remember that every time you hit a pothole.

• Crypto bro Sam Bankman-Fried saw his $16 billion fortune evaporate almost overnight after his company FTX filed for bankruptcy. It may not have technically been a Ponzi scheme, but it was something close.
• Twitter. Where to begin? The company’s plan to allow anyone to pay $8 to become “verified” that has now been placed on hold after widespread fraud? The ADL and NAACP promoting advertiser boycotts? An FTC warning against violating the company’s consent decree? Having to beg some laid off employees to return?
• A new $300 million resort being developed at Keystone is mired in lawsuits and allegations of fraud.
• Mercurial tennis star Nick Kyrgios apologized and reached a financial settlement with a fan he accused of being “drunk out of her mind” during a Wimbledon Men’s Final match. Kyrgios agreed to donate $22,000 to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, a charity chosen by the fan.
• Yale University is under fire for its policy requiring suicidal students to withdraw and later reapply for re-admission. Mental health advocates warn that is a policy that encourages students to hide mental health struggles.
• It was a bad week for tech workers. Twitter, Lyft and Stripe all had layoffs affecting Colorado employees. And Facebook parent company Meta also announced plans to lay off more than 11,000 workers.
• Aurora interim Police Chief Dan Oates has only had the job for six months, but he’s pissing off local community activists like a veteran.
• Henry, Vail’s first avalanche rescue dog, passed away at the age of 15. Vail posted this video honoring Henry.
• Tyson Foods‘ CFO was arrested for trespassing and public intoxication after he fell asleep in the wrong house. How does a guy like that become CFO at a Fortune-100 company? I’ll give you a hint: his name is John Tyson.
• The 2022 FIFA World Cup is the target of an “anti-sponsor” marketing campaign by brewing company BrewDog. The tagline: “Let’s be honest: Qatar won it through bribery. On an industrial scale.”
• Did Kanye West fire an employee for asking to listen to Drake in the office? Rolling Stone says yes.
• Jane Gross, a female sportswriter who broke barriers and opened locker rooms in the 1970s, passed away. She was 75.

So, who won the week?

• GroundFloor Media | CenterTable, Turner PR, TDA_Boulder, Fortnight Collective and Booyah Advertising led the list of Colorado companies on Outside Magazine’s Top 50 Best Places to Work.
• Marina Salais-Robbins and Haley Henning have joined Linhart PR as account executives. 
• KALC-FM (Alice 105.9) was the highest-rated radio station in the Denver market in the latest Nielsen rankings.
• Lisa Cutter, the only public relations executive running for a Colorado State Senate seat, was elected.
• The Denver Broncos haven’t lost a game in two weeks (a bye week helped).
• Pete Webb has come out of retirement to rep former Colorado Parks and Wildlife director Dan Prenzlow.”
• Pie Insurance named Joshua Brost VP of Marketing.

Lisa Cutter, a longtime member of Denver’s PR community, defeated developer Tim Walsh last night in the race for the Colorado Senate District 20. Cutter previously represented Colorado House District 25 until redistricting shuffled the legislative map. During her tenure in the House, one of her signature causes was media literacy, and she was successful in funding a Media Literacy Advisory Committee to help schools better educate students on policies and curriculum.

Outside Magazine is out with its 2022 list of the 50 Best Places to Work, and once again Colorado has dominated the list. Twenty-five businesses based in Colorado made the top 50, while California was next with just six. Interestingly, Boulder-based companies represented 12 of the 50 winners (clearly, cost of living wasn’t one of the criteria)

The Colorado communications, digital marketing and advertising companies that made Outside’s 2022 list were:

#2 GroundFloor Media | CenterTable
#3 Turner PR
#12 TDA_Boulder
#13 Fortnight Collective
#16 Booyah Advertising
#31 Choozle
#46 Backbone Media
#48 Cactus

• Denver’s first snow of the season resulted in a 100-car pile-up on Sixth Avenue.
• NBA superstar Kyrie Irving looked at Kanye West’s last month and said, “Hold my beer.”
• TikTok star Katie Sigmond is facing charges after hitting a golf ball into the Grand Canyon. That stunt follows others she has done, including bowling with a pumpkin and throwing a fake cinder block at cars.
• Wolves have started to make a comeback in Colorado, but it won’t last long if they can’t learn to stay on our side of the Colorado-Wyoming border.
• A 65-year-old man was arrested at a youth flag football game in Highlands Ranch after his “handgun fell out of his pants and fired when he picked it up.“
• After recent cheating scandals in professional chess and fishing, it looked like we had hit rock bottom. But now we learn that the world of professional cornhole is under investigation. The allegation: illegal beanbags.
• The San Antonio Spurs cut guard Joshua Primo, the 21st pick in last year’s NBA draft, after multiple allegations that he exposed himself to women.
• Denver Public Schools is now feuding with the Denver Housing Authority over a plan to close a school in the Sun Valley neighborhood. DPS says not enough kids are enrolled, but DHS is investing $4 million in housing projects that it says will significantly increase the number of kids in the neighborhood starting next year.
• Elon Musk is expected to begin laying off half of Twitter’s employees beginning today.
• Organizers have cancelled Nederland‘s 2023 Frozen Dead Guy Days due to operational hurdles and a “lack of partnership” with the town. The event inexplicably attracts more than 20,000 people annually.
• The city of Idaho Springs agreed to pay a 76-year-old man $7 million after one of its police officers tased him for basically no reason. For context, the city’s annual operating budget for its police department is $1.26 million.
• Qatar is so concerned about being exposed as a terrible host city for the 2022 FIFA World Cup that it is offering soccer influencers free airfare, game tickets, hotel rooms and spending money in exchange for positive social media posts.
• She may have sold tens of millions of albums and won an Emmy, Grammy and Oscar, but it turns out we have been pronouncing singer Adele’s name wrong for more than 15 years.
• Alabama’s three largest newspapers will stop printing next year and move to digital-only subscriptions.
• Did the CBS Sunday Morning show get paid for hosting a celebrity interview at the New York Botanical Gardens and not disclose it?

So, who won the week?

• GroundFloor Media | CenterTable’s Get Grounded Foundation awarded nearly $85,000 to 19 nonprofit organizations. The 2022 round of funding brings the foundation’s lifetime cash donations to more than $325,000.
• Barefoot PR celebrated its 12th anniversary.
• Bradley Chubb not only exited the dumpster fire that is the 2022 Denver Broncos after being traded to the Miami Dolphins, he received a $110 million contract extension from the Dolphins for his trouble.
• All of us. The midterm election happens Tuesday, which means the end of all the political ads.
• Colorado’s Charlotte’s Web will be the official CBD supplier to Major League Baseball.
• Lena Horne is now the first Black woman to have a Broadway theater named in her honor.

• How’s your week going? Better than Kanye West’s, I bet. Since his antisemitic remarks earlier this month, Ye has been kicked off Instagram, dropped by Adidas, escorted out of the offices of Skechers, dumped by Footlocker and Gap, lost representation by CAA and United Talent Agency, and been dropped by his law firm. The cost to Kanye now exceeds $1 billion, according to economists.
• Denver’s Amethyst Coffee made headlines two years ago when it raised prices 50% to pay its baristas a “living wage” of $50,000 annually. This week, the coffee shop announced it was closing.
• Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen are expected to file divorce papers today, and Brady may become the first NFL quarterback to receive alimony payments.
• Former SNL cast member Chris Redd was transported to the hospital after he was punched in the face outside a comedy club in New York City. Insert your own Will Smith joke here.
• A death at Shotgun Willie’s has forced the postponement of a trial about a death at Shotgun Willie’s.
• Actor Matthew Perry has apologized for unprovoked attacks on Keanu Reeves contained in his newly released biography.
• It turns out the 2022 Miss USA pageant may have been rigged. Maybe FBI Special Agent Gracie Hart will investigate.
• Climatologists predict Colorado will have a warm, dry winter, increasing the odds of wildfires and reducing the chances we climb out of our current megadrought.
• Is Fox31 parent company Nexstar about to go bankrupt?
• ESPN sold the X Games franchise to a private equity firm, raising questions about whether Aspen will continue to be the home of the Winter X Games.
• The Vail Daily has stopped endorsing political candidates, in part because of the threat of violence against the paper.
• Nearly a year after the devastating Marshall Fire in Louisville and Superior, estimates on total damage now top $2 billion. That makes it by far the costliest natural disaster in Colorado history.
• Actor Mark Wahlberg has had to take his $88 million mansion off the market due to rising interest rates. Celebrities, they’re just like you and me!
• Elon Musk now owns Twitter. Buckle up.

So, who won the week?

• Windsor native Sophia Smith won the NWSL MVP award. At 22, she is the youngest to win the award.
• 9News sports reporter Arielle Orsuto told an OutSports reporter that she is living her “best life” in Denver.
• Denver Business Journal publisher Kevin Pitts announced he will retire.
• CBS4 meteorologist Chris Spears has left the business to open a retail shop in Olde Town Arvada, and he has some pointed thoughts for his former employer.
• Airlines have gone from “life support to record earnings” in the last two years.

• British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned after only six weeks on the job. Her tenure was the shortest in the country’s history.
• An executive at the vegan food company Beyond Meat has left the company after biting a man’s decidedly non-vegan nose during a fight at a University of Arkansas football game.
• Late night TV host James Corden was banned from the New York City restaurant Balthazar after being repeatedly abusive to the wait staff. Even worse for Corden, the headlines resulted in a flood of similar stories, including this cringe-worthy airline one.
• This year’s snow crab season in Alaska has been cancelled following the unexplained disappearance of an estimated 1 billion crabs. If you have seen the missing 1 billion crabs, you are asked to please contact the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.
• Unusually warm temperatures are pushing back the opening of Colorado’s ski resorts.
• NBA Hall of Famer and former Denver Nugget Dikembe Mutombo is undergoing treatment for a brain tumor.
• So Many Roads, a Grateful Dead-themed brewery in the Baker neighborhood, took its theme a little too literally. It has been ordered to close for the month of November after an employee was allegedly caught selling cocaine from a back room.
• Only 7% of Americans have “a great deal” of trust and confidence in the media, according to a Gallup poll released this week.
• The recent SMU-Navy football game was delayed after the SMU pony mascot soiled the field during a touchdown celebration.
• Dan Wieden, the co-founder of the advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy and a driving force behind Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign, passed away at the age of 77.
• More than two dozen coffins with human remains were left dangling in the air after a multi-story cemetery building partially collapsed in Naples, Italy.
• They say water finds its own level. And, in that spirit, Kanye West plans to buy the fringey social media platform Parler.
• Lara Logan’s career descent continues. A decade ago, she was a high-profile reporter for “60 Minutes.” This week, she was banned from one of the last networks to welcome her – Newsmax – after she told host Eric Bolling that “the open border is Satan’s way of taking control of the world,” and added that the world’s elites “want us eating insects [and] cockroaches” while they “dine on the blood of children.”
• Reports say that Elon Musk plans to cut 75% of Twitter’s employees if/when he completes the acquisition of the social media platform.

So, who won the week?

• COHN Marketing has promoted CJ Powell to Vice President of Brand.
• The Denver Press Club inducted Sandra Dillard, Roslalind “Bee” Harris, Mike Littwin, Kathy Walsh and the late Alan Berg into its Hall of Fame.
• Former 9News anchor Kyle Dyer has been named host of PBS’s show “Colorado Inside Out.” Dyer replaces former longtime host Dominic Dezzutti.
• Q3 earnings reports were released for many publicly traded PR firms, and IPG posted a 7.8% increase in organic growth, Omnicom saw a 12.6% increase and Publicis reported a 23.5% increase.
• The average one-way commute in Denver is now 2.1 minutes shorter than prior to the start of the pandemic. That represents a 7% decrease.
• Elton John added a surprise concert in Denver as part of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour.

• Comedian Amy Schumer created a mock “Colorado” ad to promote her upcoming shows that leans heavily into our state’s abortion rights, and it is making executives at the Colorado Tourism Office uneasy.
• University of Colorado Regent Glen Gallegos is facing an unprecedented censure for violating policies barring the mistreatment of university employees. Gallegos thoughtfully responded to the threat by saying, “A censure, it’s not good,” while also noting that he “can burn a little hot at times.”
• The owners of a Richard Crowther-designed house in Cherry Creek are trying to stop efforts to “Tom’s Diner” them by securing landmark status on the house they want to tear down. Among those leading the effort to secure historic status is Tom Hart, the husband of DeeDee LeGrand Hart, the founder of the eponymous PR firm that has since shut down.
• The feds say Liberty Global owes $284 million in back taxes and penalties because a scheme the company used – code named Project Soy – was not legitimate. Liberty’s accountants at Deloitte first approached the company about exploiting what it said was a loophole in the tax code.
• Rosenberg’s Deli has closed its Boulder location, citing the lingering effects of the pandemic, inflation and an inability to get traction on The Hill.
• The union representing RTD operators blames poor design for the recent derailment on the R Line. Video of the incident indicates that speeding and inattentiveness might have had something to do with it.
• Sandy Hook-denier Alex Jones was ordered to pay $965 million for his lies and conspiracy theories that harmed families of the children who were murdered.
• Fox Business News contributor Scott Martin tried to illustrate the impact of inflation by sharing that his recent Taco Bell lunch order cost $28. That claim sent the Twitterverse scrambling to research how anyone could spend that much at Taco Bell and even caused Fox host Neil Cavuto to ask in disbelief, “Wait a minute, you spent $28 at Taco Bell for just yourself?”
• Mike Chambers, The Denver Post hockey reporter, quietly left the paper shortly after a photo appeared on social media of him hoisting the Stanley Cup while celebrating with Colorado Avalanche players. At the time, the photo raised questions as to whether he could cover the team objectively. Chambers says his departure is unrelated to the photo.
• Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – Kanye West was suspended from Instagram and Twitter for violating the platforms’ policies. This time, it was antisemitism.
• The hits to Gannett publications keep coming. The largest newspaper publisher in the country and the publisher of the Fort Collins Coloradoan and the Pueblo Chieftain, announced widespread cost-cutting efforts that will affect newsrooms, including mandatory unpaid vacations and voluntary buyouts. The move follows 400 layoffs the company made two months ago.

So, who won the week?

• Children’s Hospital Colorado and GroundFloor Media won PR News‘ Healthcare Campaign of the Year for the hospital system’s “Youth Mental Health State of Emergency” campaign.
• Colorado resorts have enjoyed an unexpected late summer/early fall jump in bookings, which is giving them optimism for a successful 2022-2023 ski season.
• Six Colorado towns are on the list of Country Living’s “40 Prettiest Towns in America to Visit in Winter:” Glenwood Springs (5), Dunton (7), Telluride (18), Crested Butte (25), Steamboat Springs (31) and Ouray (39). All of them are beautiful, but there is no way that is the correct order.

• The Colorado Rockies finished the 2022 season 68-94, a record that leaves them in last place in the division. In the 30 years the Rockies have existed, they have zero division titles and only nine winning seasons.
• The Denver Broncos … WTF? They are starting to make the Rockies look like a competent organization.
• An independent investigation into the women’s professional soccer league NWSL found “abuse and misconduct – verbal and emotional abuse and sexual – had become systemic, spanning multiple teams, coaches, and victims.”
• Thomas Wolfe famously told us we can’t go home again, and Montbello residents are experiencing that first-hand. The community was ecstatic when DPS announced it would re-open the venerable Montbello High School, but it has been non-stop squabbles over the details ever since.
• Kim Kardashian will pay $1.3 million in fines after federal regulators accused her of unlawfully promoting a cryptocurrency company on social media without disclosing that she was paid.
• The City of Aurora has scrapped its formal search for a new chief of police after community activists accused the process of not being inclusive.
• Authorities said 125 people were trampled to death and another 320 were injured after police fired tear gas into the stands in an attempt to stop fans from coming onto the field following an Indonesian soccer match. Nearly three dozen children were among the dead.
• The Try Guys tossed Ned Fulmer when they learned he was not as squeaky clean as they thought.
• A Boulder man was arrested for allegedly stealing a fire truck. Firefighters were on-scene assisting with a medical call when they noticed someone driving their fire truck away. Someone should start a GoFundMe to buy a couple dozen XXL The Club steering wheel locks for the BFD.
• The producers of “Duck Dynasty” are shooting a reality TV show about legal marijuana in Denver. That’s not going to help Denver’s image.
• Weeks after a cheating scandal stunned the world of professional chess (you’ll have to read about that one yourself – this is a family blog), a high-stakes fishing tournament was rocked by allegations of cheating after lead weights were found in winning catches.

So, who won the week?

• New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge hit 62 home runs this season, setting the MLB non-steroid record.
• A Crested Butte couple created a freeze dried coffee so they would have a better caffeine experience when hiking. Now, NASA plans to send the coffee brand to space at the request of one of its astronauts.
• The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team will play England tomorrow in a sold out game at Wembley Stadium in London. The 80,000 fans will be the second largest crowd for the U.S. women, behind only the 90,000 who saw them win the 1999 Women’s World Cup final at the Rose Bowl.
• Denver has launched a marketing campaign declaring itself “Hockey Capital USA.” The city has four 2022 championship teams – the Colorado Avalanche, the University of Denver (DU) Pioneers, Denver East Hockey and the Pee-Wee Jr. Avs. Take that, Detroit.

• Hurricane Ian has caused a once-in-500-years flooding event in Florida, and officials estimate at least 21 Floridians are dead.
• The body of Colorado’s Hilaree Nelson, a legend in the ski climber community, was found by Nepalese searchers on Mount Manaslu. She apparently was caught in an avalanche as she scaled the mountain in an attempt to then ski down it.
• Rent in Denver is among the most expensive in the country, driven by a 45% increase since August 2021. And in what may be a leading indicator that benefits renters in the future, Colorado home prices saw some of the steepest price drops in the nation this summer.
• Former NFL QB Brett Favre‘s troubles continue. After reports surfaced that he helped steer $5 million in welfare funds to build a volleyball stadium at his alma mater, he has now been dropped by SiriusXM and ESPN Milwaukee as they seek to distance themselves from him.
• Speaking of the NFL, the Miami Dolphins are under intense scrutiny for letting QB Tua Tagovailoa play Thursday night after he appeared to suffer a concussion four days earlier in last Sunday’s game. In Thursday’s game, Tagovailoa was again slammed to the ground and this time he had to be carted off the field on a stretcher.
• You will no doubt be shocked to learn that Shotgun Willie’s has been accused of unethical behavior related to a wrongful death lawsuit.
• Air Force is the best college football program in the state, and now we may know why. The NCAA has put the school on probation for recruiting violations.
• Pop star Shakira has been ordered to stand trial in Spain on tax fraud charges that could net her an eight-year prison sentence.
• Satellite images show a 10-mile-long traffic jam to leave Russia following Vladimir Putin’s efforts to conscript and mobilize 300,000 additional troops to fight in Ukraine.
• Fast Company had to shut down its website after it was hacked and used to send obscene and racist messages through its Apple News feed.
• Here’s hoping Coolio has a Fantastic Voyage to a Gangsta’s Paradise.
• The CEO of Clearwater, Fla.-based PostcardMania held a staff meeting to encourage employees to defy Hurricane Ian evacuation orders and instead remain at work because, “It’s not going to be that bad.” Following a social media backlash, the company said the CEO’s remarks – delivered at a staff meeting – were “personal opinions” that did not reflect “an official PostcardMania position in any way.”

So, who won the week?

• John Hall has launched Hallway Communications, a Denver-based agency focusing on wireless and future-of-work clients. Hall previously worked at Dish Network, CenturyLink and Clear Channel Radio.
• Elaine Reddy has joined The Ad Hoc Group as Senior Communications Manager.
• Tracy Weise has joined Cisco as Executive Communications Manager.
• Lu Stasko announced that she has returned full-time to the Stasko Agency following two years battling cancer.
• Lori Lizarraga, the former 9News reporter who alleged the station racially discriminated against employees of color, has been named co-host of NPR’s “Code Switch” show.
• Jon Ekstrom of Deft Communications and the “Jon of All Trades” Podcast has partnered to create the “Happy Friday” podcast, a new weekly show “focusing on cool stuff to do around Colorado, good vibes, and fun banter.”
• Professional wrestler-turned-actor John Cena completed his 650th wish for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. No other person has granted more than 200 wishes in the organization’s 42-year history.
• Edelman, the largest independent PR agency in the world, passed $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time.
• The Top 5 favorite brands among Gen Z: YouTube, Google, Netflix, Amazon and M&Ms.

• The University of Oregon apologized to BYU after students chanted “F— the Mormons” at last week’s football game, And in one of the swiftest examples of karma, Oregon was hosting one of its top QB recruits at the game, a Mormon who left at halftime because of the chants.
• Phil Washington, the CEO of DIA and President Biden’s nominee to lead the FAA, was the subject of a search warrant related to alleged corruption at the L.A. Metropolitan Transportation Authority when he led that organization. I’d expect Washington to quietly withdraw from consideration for the FAA position in the coming weeks (Friday afternoon news dump?).
• Apple completed filming a $120 million Will Smith movie just weeks before the star slapped Oscars host Chris Rock. Now the company doesn’t know what to do with the film.
• Denver Public Schools is in a dispute with four students about who owns the rights to a podcast created by the students using school resources.
• Barney Fife apparently transferred from Mayberry to Platteville. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is investigating a Platteville Police officer who placed a woman under arrest in the back of his cruiser that he parked on top of railroad tracks. As he helped other officers search her car, a freight train hit his cruiser, seriously injuring the woman.
• The Wall Street Journal wrote about growth in Colorado Springs, but many readers couldn’t get past the third paragraph when the Portland-based reporter described the city as a “bedroom community of Denver.”
• A city audit found that the Denver Police Department left nearly $400,000 in grant money for mental health support unused. The department was forced to return the money to be redistributed elsewhere.
• I don’t know what the problem is with ants, but they are underperforming. A report this week estimates there are 20 quadrillion ants in the world – that’s 20,000 trillion, or 2.5 million ants for each human on earth. And yet they haven’t taken over anything but the occasional picnic.
• It was a tough week for Denver radio. Four popular KUVO radio hosts have been fired or pushed out as the station and its listeners engage in a debate about what the jazz station should be. And sports radio station 104.3 The Fan cut a number of hosts this week, including longtime favorite Sandy Clough.
• Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka was suspended for the upcoming season after having “an inappropriate relationship” with a female team employee.
• College graduates who majored in the English Lit, foreign languages, communications, philosophy and religious studies have the highest unemployment rate. Education, health, transportation and agriculture majors have the lowest rate of unemployment.

So, who won the week?

• Tech salaries in Denver grew the third-fastest in the country – 10.6% – in 2022.
• DIA’s Canine Airport Therapy Squad (CATS) program has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the largest in the world. The program includes 83 dogs and one cat.
• Denver is the second-best city in the country for beer lovers.
• Adnan Syed, the subject of the “Serial” podcast that raised questions about his murder conviction, had his conviction overturned this week. Prosecutors have 30 days to decide whether to retry him.
• Tennis star Roger Federer will play his last tennis tournament this weekend. He retires with 20 major championships, including eight at Wimbledon.

• Slip-and-fall attorney Frank Azar is fighting a lawsuit from a former employee who claims that Azar’s law firm has a “culture of heavy drinking and drug use” during work hours.
• A presumably novice hunter was seriously injured after a bull moose attacked him in Larimer County.
• Centennial’s St. Thomas More Catholic School has “disinvited two metro-area Catholic high schools from an upcoming admissions event” because they aren’t Catholic enough.
• Football in Colorado is abysmal. The CU Buffs, CSU Rams and Denver Broncos are a combined 0-5, and collectively have been outscored 181-65.
• Speaking of football, it took 59 minutes into the first game for media and Denver Broncos fans to officially turn on new head coach Nathaniel Hackett. His decision to attempt a 64-yard field goal is being derided as a Top 10 all-time screw-up.
• Wells Fargo will pay $145 million to resolve allegations it screwed “shortchanged” its employees by overpaying for its own stock as part of 401(k) purchases.
• Denver and Boulder residents who think they are composting may not actually be.
• Ride-share giant Uber‘s computer network was hacked, forcing the company to take several of its communications and engineering systems offline as it investigated. 
• Pilots flying into DEN DIA have been experiencing numerous false alarms from their collision-warning systems. Their solution: turn the systems off.
• Robert Sarver, the owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, was suspended for a year and fined $10 million after an NBA investigation found repeated instances of racism and sexual harassment.
• Brett Favre is the PR disaster gift that keeps giving. This time he is alleged to have conspired with the former governor of Mississippi to divert $5 million in welfare funds to build a volleyball stadium at his alma mater.
• According to climate scientists (who may be delusional), climate change could make Colorado less popular with those relocating and make colder regions like Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit the hottest real-estate markets.
• Late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel has apologized to Emmy-winner Quinta Brunson after a comedy bit at the awards ceremony went wrong and took attention away from the “Abbott Elementary” star during her acceptance speech.
• A semi truck spilled sex toys all over an Oklahoma highway when it flipped after colliding with a box truck. That fact was made clear when local TV anchors, live on the air, encouraged their news helicopter to zoom in so they could better see the debris.
• LIV Golf, a Saudi-backed golf tour designed to help repair the country’s image in the face of ongoing human rights abuses and the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, still cannot find a TV partner in the U.S. Those who have declined so far: ESPN, CBS, NBC, FOX, Amazon and Apple.
• Mortgage rates inched above 6% for the first time since 2008.

So, who won the week?

• The National MS Society named Jill Petersen Director of Employee Engagement & Communications.
• Turner Public Relations promoted Deborah Park to Senior Vice President.
• Colorado Succeeds named Rachel Van Brocklin Director of Communications.
• Danone named Danielle Kraycik Manager of Brand Communications.
• Janelle Orozco was appointed the Denver Police Department’s first Latina major.
• CDOT had already committed to a renovation of the Floyd Hill segment of I-70, but paying for it just got easier. The federal government said it would chip in $100 million for the project.
• The total cost to attend a Denver Broncos game (tickets, parking, food, etc.) is among the lowest in the NFL.

Chris Daniels at PRWeek: “The PR function has never been in a better position to flex its influence across multiple facets of an organization. That’s the big headline from the most comprehensive annual review of the industry, back for its fifth year. The 2022 PRWeek/Boston University Communications Bellwether Survey offers a wealth of data-supported insights to inform this hypothesis, from in-house comms functions, PR agencies, educators and tech suppliers.” …

“PR pros report feeling valued, both by their organization and executive leadership (4.03 and 4.04, respectively, on a 5-point scale). Two out of three participants agreed the comms function is involved in important business decisions. An almost equal amount, 65%, said their advice was valued in making these decisions.”

“’The function capitalized on the pivotal moment the pandemic provided in 2020,’ says Arunima Krishna, assistant professor of PR at Boston University’s College of Communication. ‘The latest results show comms has continued to grow in importance, and this gives a strong indication that its influence is here to stay.’”

• Denver Public Schools board member Auon’tai “Tay” Anderson was ticketed for speeding in a DPS school zone when he was running late to greet students on the first day of classes.
• Speaking of DPS, Denver students have enjoyed snow days forever, but now they are getting “heat days.” This week, 31 DPS schools were put on alert to close early due to temperatures approaching 100 degrees. Forty-eight DPS schools still do not have air conditioning.Juul
• E-cigarette manufacturer Juul has agreed to pay nearly $440 million to settle allegations it marketed its products to minors.
• Rocky’s Autos, which perfected, if not pioneered, the art of the campy car commercial, will close its doors after 40 years. Pour one out for the “Shagman.”
• Miles Robinson, a member of the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team that will compete in the FIFA World Cup in a few months, was arrested at an Atlanta bar when he swiped a shot off of a drink tray and refused multiple times to pay $5 for it.
• The Pentagon has halted deliveries of the F-35 fighter jet because Lockheed Martin sourced a part from China, violating federal defense acquisition rules.
• It was a tough week for journalists – former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw and NPR correspondent Anne Garrels both died, and Las Vegas Review-Journal investigative reporter Jeff German was murdered, allegedly by a county administrator who had been the subject of several of German’s articles.
• An analysis of NFL teams finds that 28% are using some variation of former Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio’s innovative defense, yet Fangio remains out of work this season.
• Carnegie Mellon University is dealing with a backlash after one of its professors shared on Twitter that she hoped Queen Elizabeth II’s death was “excruciatingly painful.”

So, who won the week?

• La Diabla Pozole y Mezcal was named one of the country’s 50 best new restaurants by Bon Appétit.
• ESPN reported that Serena Williams’ last match at the U.S. Open was the network’s highest-rated tennis match ever, eclipsing viewership of Roger Federer’s 2012 Wimbledon win by 23%.
• Longtime University of Colorado Boulder Associate Athletic Director and Sports Information Director (SID) David Plati announced he will transition to SID-Emeritus and Program Historian effective January 1.

Denver Public Schools board member Tay Anderson didn’t even make it to the start of the first day of classes in the 2022-2023 school year before creating a new controversy – he was ticketed for speeding outside Montbello High School on his way to welcome students on their first day of school.

Credit to Tay – the guy knows how to stick to his messaging. Instead of accepting blame for speeding and quietly paying the $285 ticket, his statement to media focused on police brutality and criticism of the police for “being visible outside the school building on the first day of school.”

Longtime University of Colorado Boulder Associate Athletic Director and Sports Information Director (SID) David Plati announced he will transition to SID-Emeritus and Program Historian effective January 1. Plati has been with CU Boulder for 40 years.

Caitlin Oprysko at Politico: “Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy has enlisted the help of several American and European PR firms to launch a campaign aimed at attracting businesses and investors to the war-torn country, according to an outline of the effort filed with the Justice Department this week. Although the British conglomerate WPP announced the partnership with Ukraine’s ministry of culture in June, the DOJ filings this week offer more insight into who will be involved in the initiative as well as its general scope. GroupM Poland is coordinating the effort, but the firm’s U.S. arm as well as several other WPP subsidiaries including Ogilvy, Hill + Knowlton Strategies and Hogarth, will work on the multi-pronged and global initiative to signal that ‘Ukraine is still open for business and has the potential to be a key cultural and digital technology European hub,’ according to the documents.”

• Embattled Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen will step down next month in a move that did not feel like his choice. Crime in the city continues to increase and the recent LoDo shooting by officers that hurt six bystanders may have been the final straw.
• In what may be related news, a Denver police detective failed to visit the scene of a fatal bike crash for five weeks, greatly compromising any investigation. The detective lost two days of pay as punishment.
• Denver drivers can expect to pay 20-30 cents more per gallon for gas starting in 2024. That is when the EPA will require gas stations to sell reformulated fuel intended to help improve air quality that is not meeting federal standards.
• So many Fox31 reporters have left the station since last year that Westword has started formally documenting them. If you are keeping track, investigative reporter Lori Jane Gliha is the latest.
• Remote learning and other pandemic-related educational disruptions caused student test scores to plummet to levels not seen in decades.
• It took eight months for staff at an Ottawa hotel to notice that a photo of Winston Churchill valued at $100,000 had been stolen and replaced with a cheap copy.
• Poe, the mascot for the Baltimore Ravens, nearly delayed the start of the second half of a Ravens’ preseason game when he injured his leg and had to be carted off the field.
• Softball-size hail in northern Spain killed a toddler and injured 50 others.
• U.S. Open announcers Mary Carillo and Chanda Rubin confidently misidentified the legendary Dionne Warwick as Gladys Knight when she appeared on-camera at Serena Williams’ second-round match.
• Ravil Maganov, a senior Russian oil executive, became the latest critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin to die after falling out of a window.
• A Southwest Airlines pilot threatened to deplane passengers when someone started airdropping nude photos to dozens of fellow passengers.

So, who won the week?

• New Denver Broncos QB Russell Wilson signed a five-year, $245 million contract extension. Not bad for a guy who hasn’t played a single game for the team yet.
• Twitter announced it will finally introduce an “edit” button.
• Netty, a 15-year-old dog that was dumped at an animal shelter by her longtime family to die is now living her best life.

The family of Brad Bawmann has released details about his memorial service:

10 am, Friday, October 7
Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church
1980 Dahlia Street
Denver, CO 80220

• Scientists are warning that the ink used in most tattoos may cause cancer.
• Denver law firm Haddon, Morgan and Foreman, P.C. is suing notorious Jeffrey Epstein-enabler Ghislaine Maxwell for more than $850,000 in unpaid legal fees.
• Denver’s South High School principal Rachel Goss shared a video with students discouraging them from contacting police if they witness racist or transphobic attacks. The rationale as stated in the video was that “police have been trained to see people of color, gender non-conforming folks and Muslims as criminals, they often treat victims as perpetrators of violence.”
• Speaking of DPS, school started this week and 48 of its campuses (campi?) do not have air conditioning.
• Sixty-three bears have been euthanized in Colorado this year due to dangerous interactions with humans.
• Actor Will Smith’s “Q Score” – an industry metric of likeability among the general public – dropped from 39 to 24, a nearly 40% decline, after his on-stage slap of Oscar host Chris Rock.
• A woman drove her SUV 60 yards through the second floor of a Boston-area shopping mall. When she finally came to a stop outside a Track 23 clothing store, she reportedly asked a shocked onlooker, “Do you know how to get out of here?”
• FedEx accidentally delivered six M1 military rifles to a high school in Philadelphia that had a similar address as a gun collector.
• The US Open tennis tournament begins next week, and the biggest story so far is about gender discrimination related to tennis balls. It is the only Grand Slam tournament that uses different balls for the men’s and women’s matches.
• Facebook parent Meta will pay a $37.5 million settlement after being accused of violating users’ privacy by tracking their movements through smartphones without permission.
• Tesla is demanding a group critical of the cars’ advanced driver-assistance capabilities remove a video showing an autonomous Tesla mowing down child-size mannequins.
• Orange County (Calif.) will pay $480,000 to an inmate who suffered a miscarriage while sheriff’s deputies stopped at Starbucks en route to the hospital.
• A former SeaWorld employee alleges that it is breeding “Jurassic World”-type orca whales.

So, who won the week?

• John Dakin, the Vail public relations executive who handled media for three World Alpine Ski Championships, was inducted into the Colorado Snowsports Museum’s Hall of Fame.
• Andrew Hudson is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his influential Jobs List. I have no data to back it up, but I would guess it is the most-used jobs site in Denver.
• Kate Stabrawa, a proud alumna of Ohio State, has launched her own consulting firm, Horseshoe Communications. Football fans will understand how her firm’s name and her alma mater are connected.
• Allison Gerdes was promoted to Director of Internal Communications at UCHealth.
• Kelly Collins was promoted to Employee Communications Manager at Lockheed Martin.
• Ivan Popov has been named Digital Media Associate at the ACLU of Colorado.
• A “triple-dip La Niña” may bring higher-than-normal snowfall to Colorado’s ski resorts this winter.

• An Ethiopian Airlines flight overshot its destination when both pilots fell asleep.
• A Colorado Department of Corrections captain “with an overwhelming foot fetish” just cost Colorado taxpayers $300,000.
• Raise your hand if you had Colorado as the cocaine capital of the country. I mean, sure Aspen helps, but who figured we’d beat Florida, New York and California for highest per-capita use of the drug.
• The Denver District Attorney did something incredibly rare this week – she opened a grand jury investigation into three officers involved in a recent LoDo police shooting that injured a suspect and six bystanders.
• Witnesses are blaming former Denver Bronco Aqib Talib for inciting the brawl at a youth football game in which his brother allegedly shot and killed a man. Amazon, which has hired Talib as an analyst for its new NFL Thursday Night Football package, has been verrrrrrrrry quiet about the incident so far, but I’d imagine it will quietly drop him before the season starts.
• Denver-area Kia and Hyundai owners are having a tough time getting insurance because of how often the car brands are stolen.
• Randy Gradishar, a leader on the Denver Broncos’ 1970s Orange Crush defenses, was again snubbed by the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
• A federal judge ordered Walmart, CVS and Walgreens to pay $651 million in damages to two Ohio counties for their roles in the opioid crisis.
• People named “Issac” and “Chole” lead the list of those who file with the Social Security Administration to change their names. Not surprisingly, the two most common new names: “Isaac” and “Chloe.” Apparently, a shocking number of new moms and dads misspell baby names on birth certificates.
• Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Rodolfo Castro was suspended for one game by MLB after his cellphone fell out of his back pocket while sliding into third base during a game.
• Why actress Anne Heche died twice last week.

So, who won the week?

• Ramonna Robinson of GroundFloor Media | CenterTable was named a winner of the 2022 Denver Business Journal’s Outstanding Women in Business awards. Joining her were Jordan Blakesley of B Public Relations, Cori Streetman of Barefoot PR, and Jenna McMullin, the VP of Communications at Lockheed Martin.
• American Airlines has ordered 20 supersonic jets from Denver’s Boom Supersonic, with an option for 40 more. The jets are still in the concept phase.
• The whimsical “singing sinks” at the Denver Art Museum are back after a five-year hiatus.
• The Denver Broncos have the eighth-best chance to win the Super Bowl, according to betting site FanDuel. That’s quite a jump from the past few seasons.
• Country music station KYGO-FM remains Denver’s top-rated radio station.
• Alma, Colorado, reported the state’s first 2022-2023 season snowfall. As you might imagine, it was just a dusting.

Congratulations to former Denver Broncos VP of Public Relations Jim Saccomano, who is the recipient of an inaugural Pro Football Hall of Fame “Award of Excellence” for his contributions to the NFL. Jim was recently profiled by his alma mater, MSU Denver, where he discussed the honor and his thoughts on the current and former Broncos teams.

Taylor Lorenz and Caroline O’Donovan at The Washington Post: “A coalition of top TikTok stars is pledging to cease all work with Amazon — including shutting down storefronts and halting new partnerships with the e-commerce platform — until the company meets the demands of the Amazon Labor Union.”

“Boasting a combined following of over 51 million, the group of 70 TikTok creators says that the campaign, called the ‘People Over Prime Pledge,’ is designed to pressure Amazon to meet the requests of its workers, which include a $30 minimum wage, increased paid time off and halting activities the group considers ‘union busting.’ “

You know, it’s the CEO who lays off employees who is the real victim. Just ask HyperSocial CEO Braden Wallake.

• The union representing Denver Post reporters received a contract proposal from the paper’s hedge-fund owners that included a 0% raise.
• The new below-ground I-70 corridor failed its first test when first responders had to rescue 11 people during torrential rains this past weekend. Pumps designed to drain the roadway failed to automatically turn on.
• Red Rocks settled a lawsuit with the Department of Justice alleging that the concert venue had overcharged for wheelchair-accessible seats by $48,000 over the past four years.
• Fans of Casa Bonita are sweating new reports that the restaurant still doesn’t know when it will re-open. New owners Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South park fame. The two told The Denver Post they “had no clue what they were getting themselves into when they picked up the landmark.”
• RTD’s BroncosRide remains on hold as executives determine whether the service violated federal regulations, including the Americans with Disability Act.
• The attempt by Domino’s to rule the Italian pizza market came to an entirely predictable end. The chain pulled the plug on the last of its 29 locations in the country this week after learning the hard way that Italians aren’t idiots.
• Legendary baseball player Pete Rose declined to discuss allegations of statutory rape, telling a female reporter, “I’m not here to talk about that. … It was 55 years ago, babe.”
• Actress Anne Heche died from injuries sustained in a car accident.
• Author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck at a lecture event, 33 years after the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a religious decree calling for Rushdie’s death for writing a novel considered blasphemous.

So, who won the week?

• Denver officials removed a plaque at 20th & Blake streets that misrepresented brutal attacks on Chinese residents as the “Hop Alley/Chinese Riot of 1880.” 
• 9News meteorologist Kathy Sabine returned to the airwaves this week following surgery for skin cancer. She shared her experience as a warning to others about the importance of taking precautions.
• Longtime 9News anchor Gary Shapiro announced he is retiring after four decades at the station.
• Little League batter Isaiah Jarvis walked from first base to the mound to hug pitcher Kaiden Shelton when he realized the pitcher was visibly distraught after hitting Jarvis in the head with a pitch.

It was 55 years ago, babe.

Pete Rose to a female reporter declining to address allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a minor in the 1970s. In court filings, Rose has acknowledged the relationship, but said he thought she was 16, the age of consent in Ohio.

• No doubt the venerable Denver strip club Diamond Cabaret has been the source of many a communicable disease outbreak, and this time it might be monkeypox.
• Denver Public Schools paid $2.1 million to settle allegations that it misused AmeriCorps funds.
• Verizon is scrambling to upgrade its 911 call-routing technology in Denver after media reported that its system routed 911 calls to dispatchers in Aurora during a recent high-profile shooting.
• What’s to blame for downtown Denver’s increased violence? Food trucks!
• The U.S. Forest Service halted construction on a Keystone chairlift that would access a new 555-acre, 16-trail expansion. That action was in response to the resort mistakenly building a temporary construction road in protected alpine tundra.
• Glass windows on the exterior of a downtown Denver apartment complex have been shattering due to heat.
• An airline passenger who brought two McDonald’s sausage McMuffins on a flight from Indonesia to Australia was fined the equivalent of more than $1,800 for failing to declare “potential high biosecurity risk items.“
• Jeff Bezos’ $500 million unfinished yacht was towed from its Rotterdam shipyard in the middle of the night because officials refused to allow him to partially disassemble a bridge that it would be too tall to clear once finished. Outraged at the request, locals had threatened to pelt the yacht with eggs and tomatoes when it passed the historic bridge.
• Warner Bros. spent $90 million to make the movie “Batgirl,” but the result was so bad that the studio has completely shelved it – it won’t appear in theaters or on streaming services.
• After more than 14,000 episodes, NBC has relegated “Days of Our Lives” to its Peacock streaming service, ending the soap opera’s 57-year run on broadcast TV.
• Restaurants are tough businesses to start with, and now a review scam is making life even more difficult. Scammers are leaving one-star reviews and then demanding a ransom to remove them.
• WNBA star Brittney Griner was found guilty of drug charges in a Russian show trial. The best odds of her being released are a prisoner swap.

So, who won the week?

• The Denver Broncos new ownership group added Formula One racing legend Lewis Hamilton. It turns out Hamilton’s a bit of a local – he owns a home in Beaver Creek.
• DIA held onto its title as the third-busiest airport in the world. Only Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth ranked ahead of it.
• The New York Times added 180,000 digital subscribers in the second quarter of 2022, giving it 9.17 million total.
• Applebee’s got coverage for its latest marketing stunt: a line of chicken wing-flavored lip glosses.

Applebee’s has introduced Saucy Gloss, a line of chicken wing-flavored lip glosses. The collection includes four different flavors, including Get Me Hot Buffalo, Sweet Chile Kiss, Be My Honey Pepper, and Honey BBQ-T, “each with their own taste and hue.”

• What do you not do when you are smuggling 29 pounds of cocaine through Mesa County? Drive 110 mph on I-70.
• Mike Willis, the director of Colorado’s Office of Emergency Management, looks like a dead man walking after a Denver Post profile of his threatening and bullying behavior. There’s no way Gov. Jared Polis wants this guy on the payroll as he campaigns for re-election.
• Want to take a leisurely stroll through a former Superfund clean-up site? Good news! An appeals court gave its approval to continue constructing trails at the site of the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant.
• Anglers 1, Fish 1: A 100-pound sailfish that was being reeled in lunged onto a fishing boat, impaling a 73-year-old woman.
• A chess-playing robot broke a 7-year-old opponent’s finger during the “Moscow Open.” In understated fashion, the president of the Moscow Chess Federation noted, “The robot broke the child’s finger. This is, of course, bad.”
• Deranged-billionaire-mad-scientist-frenemy Elon Musk made headlines this week for an alleged affair with the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin that ended their friendship and led to Brin’s divorce.
• Residents of Yamaguchi, Japan, have come under attack from monkeys “that are trying to snatch babies, biting and clawing at flesh, and sneaking into nursery schools.”
• A jury ordered cable company Charter Communications to pay $7 billion in damages to the family of a woman who was brutally murdered by one of its installers.
• Your boss won’t give you a $1.6 million annual bonus? Just give it to yourself! That line of reasoning led to a guilty plea by Weber Shandwick’s now-former CFO. He embezzled $16 million over a decade from the PR firm.
• Coyotes ate six of Martha Stewart’s pet peacocks. Celebrities … they’re just like you and me!

So, who won the week?

• U2, Gladys Knight and George Clooney are among the honorees at this year’s Kennedy Center Honors.
• The FCC has stepped up enforcement against car warranty spam calls, which means you may get fewer.
• The Denver Broncos started training camp this week, ensuring that 90% of Denver’s sports media coverage will focus on them. The upside? You don’t have to hear about how our last-place Colorado Rockies are doing anymore.

PRSA Colorado announced the Special Award Winners it will honor at its 2022 Gold Pick event in August:

• Dawn Doty, University of Colorado Boulder, Swede Johnson Lifetime Achievement Award
• Jackie Clark, HolcimUS, Public Relations Person of the Year
• Joelle Martinez, Latino Leadership Institute, Business Person of the Year
• Anusha Roy, 9News, Newsperson of the Year
• Nora Thomas, Nora Thomas Ltd., Joe Fuentes Rookie of the Year
• Cori Pope, Keeton Public Relations, Mentor of the Year
• Shannon Hughes, Linhart Public Relations, Chapter Service Award
• Denver Water Public Affairs, Public Relations Team of the Year

2022 Gold Pick Awards Event Details

Thursday, August 25, 2022
Denver Water
1600 W 12th Ave
Denver, CO 80204
4:30-6:00 pm Networking Reception
6:00-8:00 pm Awards Presentation 
Register to Attend

After exiting the U.K. market in the early 2000s, Wendy’s knew it had to up its game when it returned two decades later. Now, the company is letting fans vote for the new face of Wendy’s in the U.K.

Photo: KCENNews screenshot

Contrary to popular belief, I have never been an escort for Senator Ted Cruz.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) at the Turning Points USA conference this weekend.

Erik Wemple at The Washington Post: “One line in Bloomberg News’ Wednesday story about the ongoing lawsuit Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News was unimpeachable: ‘Fox … didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the filing. ‘Immediately,’ in this case, meant 18 minutes, according to a Fox News spokesperson.”

“That’s how long Bloomberg News reporter Erik Larson gave Fox News to comment for an article alleging that Dominion ‘said some executives and hosts at the network still haven’t handed over any records related to its coverage.’ The headline: ‘Fox Executives in $1.6 Billion Lawsuit Haven’t Handed Over Records, Dominion Says.’ Larson cited a July 18 court filing for the scoop.”

“As it turned out, that July 18 filing was actually the public version of a document filed a month earlier on June 17 relating to a discovery dispute between the two parties. Fox News secured an extension until July 1 to turn over certain documents. After Larson’s initial story was published, Fox News told Bloomberg News that it had met that deadline. Had Bloomberg waited for that comment, it would have avoided some trouble. ‘Eighteen minutes doesn’t sound like fair to me even in this day and age,’ says Leonard Downie Jr., a former executive editor of The Post.”

• Denver Police fired seven shots and hit six bystanders while attempting to shoot a man they say pulled a gun on a LoDo street.
• Two Coloradans were attacked by a crocodile during a vacation at a Puerto Vallarta resort in Mexico.
• Denver’s Westcraft Carpets is ignoring requests from the Denver American Indian Commission to remove its signature caricature sign – “Mohawk Tommy, a shirtless boy sporting a mohawk haircut with a feather in back.”
• A contractor who helped build Tattered Cover’s new location in Westminster has sued the bookstore claiming it was stiffed on $123,000 in work.
• Kenneth Wendt, a Houston-area police officer who coached a 9-and-under baseball team, was placed on suspension after his behavior in a post-game handshake line. Video of the incident showed him aggressively bumping and pushing 8- and 9-year-olds after they defeated his team.
• Pearl Jam cancelled concerts in Europe after lead singer Eddie Vedder’s vocal cords were damaged from smoke caused by wildfires in France.
• American Airlines says it could take three years before it is operating at full capacity again due to ongoing staffing shortages.
• How much faith does Cadillac have in its new Lyriq electric SUV? It’ll give you a $5,500 discount on your purchase if you agree to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits you “from discussing with any parties outside of GM your experience of owning or driving” it.
• Biotech company Biogen paid $900 million to settle a suit that alleged it paid doctors for speaking and consulting services as part of a scam that actually was intended to provide kickbacks to doctors who prescribed the company’s drugs.
• The first polio case in nearly a decade has been detected in New York.
• If you are tired of modern political scandals, here’s one with a retro twist: Loving County (Tex.) Judge Skeet Jones was arrested as part of a cattle-rustling sting operation.
• Candy maker Mars is denying that Skittles are “unfit for human consumption” due to heightened levels of titanium dioxide, a known toxin that is banned in parts of Europe.

So, who won the week?

• U.S. Navy Lt. Amanda Lee became the Blue Angels’ first female demonstration pilot in the 76-year history of the squadron.
• Primatologist Jane Goodall is the inspiration for the latest Barbie doll.

Kraft Heinz has partnered with the BLT Restaurant Group to create the “Veltini,” a Velveeta-infused martini. 

Don’t kill me, I’m just the messenger.

Saudi government media consultant Nicolla Hewitt explaining to representatives of The Washington Post that the Saudis would not allow the paper to attend a government briefing following President Biden’s visit. The background: Washington Post journalist James Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul at the order of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. Hewitt works for Qorvis Communications.

• Denver is the third most expensive city in the country for Uber passengers, behind only New York City and Nashville. The average cost of a six-mile ride in Denver is about $33.
• How bad have travel delays and cancellations been in Europe this summer? Delta added a flight from Heathrow to Detroit with no passengers just to deliver 1,000 pieces of stranded luggage.
• Colorado has the fourth-most lightning deaths in the nation, and Coors Field and Rocky Mountain National Park have been identified as “hot spots.”
• Average monthly car payments in the U.S. have hit an all-time high, and 13% of them are more than $1,000 per month.
• Meanwhile, car manufacturers are looking at subscription services offered by tech companies like Microsoft and Adobe with quite a bit of jealousy. How do I know? BMW has just put heated seats on a subscription plan that costs $17/month.
• A second round of mediation between Comcast and Altitude Sports failed to end the stalemate that has prevented a vast majority of Coloradans from watching the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche over the past three years. So what have you missed? In those three years, the Nuggets have made the playoffs three times and seen center Nikola Jokić win the NBA MVP award twice. And the Avs, you may have heard, won the Stanley Cup.
• If you are tired of listening to people talk about their Wordle wins, it could get worse. Hasbro is launching Wordle: The Board Game.
• The Timberline Steaks & Grille restaurant at DIA is the highest-grossing restaurant in all of Colorado, but competitors will have a chance to take its crown – if only briefly – while it has its liquor license suspended for 30 days (it served a minor). The restaurant has appealed the decision that could cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars. Records show that 35-40% of the restaurant’s $6.3 million in sales are alcohol.
• ABC News published an obituary for Ivana Trump without removing its “Do Not Pub” warning for editors. It’s common practice for news organizations to pre-draft obituaries of notable people and store them in the system for when they are needed.

So, who won the week?

• Beaver Creek, recognizing the social media power of puppies, has introduced two new “patrol puppies” – Ruby and Telli.
• Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has joined the Walton Family’s successful bid for the Denver Broncos. Rice spent her teen years in Denver, and graduated high school from St. Mary’s Academy.
• Red Rocks and the International Church of Cannabis were featured in the premiere episode of TruTV’s “101 Places to Party Before You Die.”
• The Colorado Avalanche promoted GM Joe Sakic to the role of president of hockey operations.
• Wendy Aiello will be able to see her brother-in-law, E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren, when he joins Bruce Springsteen for a concert next March at Ball Arena.

Thomas Gounley at BusinessDen: “After selling its real estate at the corner of Speer and Lincoln last year, television station Denver7 is eyeing a move about three miles north. The ABC affiliate with the call sign KMGH, which brands itself ‘The Denver Channel,’ hopes to move its operations to the existing building at 2323 Delgany St., although the deal isn’t completely done, station general manager Dean Littleton told BusinessDen this week.” …

“The two-story 2323 Delgany St. building is about 85,000 square feet, according to property records. It was originally built as a warehouse, but repositioned as an office building several years ago. The property is in the Denargo Market area of Five Points and the RiNo Arts District.” …

“The move will represent the first major real estate shake-up in two decades among Denver’s primary TV stations, which are all clustered within a mile of each other south of downtown. The last change occurred in 2000, when KDVR/Fox31 moved into its building at 100 Speer, across the street from Denver7.”

Associated Press: “As Uber aggressively pushed into markets around the world, the ride-sharing service lobbied political leaders to relax labor and taxi laws, used a ‘kill switch’ to thwart regulators and law enforcement, channeled money through Bermuda and other tax havens and considered portraying violence against its drivers as a way to gain public sympathy, according to a report released Sunday.

“The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, a nonprofit network of investigative reporters, scoured internal Uber texts, emails, invoices and other documents to deliver what it called ‘an unprecedented look into the ways Uber defied taxi laws and upended workers’ rights.'”

“In a written statement, Uber spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker acknowledged ‘mistakes’ in the past and said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, hired in 2017, had been ‘tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates … When we say Uber is a different company today, we mean it literally: 90% of current Uber employees joined after Dara became CEO.'”

(Editor’s note: Uber Spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker joined Uber in 2015.)

• One day after the Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park, Ill., the Dallas Cowboys announced a sponsorship with Black Rifle Coffee Company, which offers blends such as “Murdered Out” and “AK Espresso.”
• Residents of the 15-story Columbine Towers, which is low-income housing mostly for residents over age 70 or those with disabilities, have not had a working elevator in more than a week.
• A former Montrose funeral home operator, pleaded guilty to stealing and selling hundreds of human bodies and body parts.
• A driver caught on I-70 transporting a record 114 pounds of pure fentanyl powder cut a deal to continue his journey to Indiana to lead DEA agents to the drug “kingpins.” He immediately ditched the tracking device placed in his car and hasn’t been seen since.
• With mortgage interest rates climbing, many experts expect the housing market to cool. And that includes Denver-based Re/Max, which announced it will lay off 17% of its workforce by the end of the year.
• Two weeks after helping the Avs win the Stanley Cup, starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper appears on his way out. The team traded for New York Rangers goalie Alexandar Georgiev.
• U.S. Forest Service researchers have named Evergreen/Morrison as the state’s most at-risk areas for wildfires. Colorado Springs is second, Larkspur is third and Boulder is fourth.
• Tennis player Nick Kyrgios, who will play in Wimbledon‘s men’s finals Sunday, was ordered to appear in court in his native Australia to answer allegations that he assaulted his former girlfriend.
• Leaking fuel from actor Tim Allen’s yacht forced a marina and a nearby beach in northern Michigan to close over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
• Disneyland’s Instagram account wasn’t the happiest place on earth this week after a hacker seized control and posted content rife with racist and homophobic slurs.

So, who won the week?

• Colorado Mesa University named David Ludlam VP of Communications.
• Grand Junction named Sara Spalding Director of Communications & Engagement.
• New Denver Broncos QB Russell Wilson has the top-selling jersey in the NFL.
• President Joe Biden formally nominated DIA CEO Phil Washington as head of the Federal Aviation Administration.

President Biden’s new anti-corruption czar’s name is “Rich Nephew.”

• A mountain lion continues to roam downtown Denver. On the bright side, maybe he will eat a scooter-rider or two.
• If you are planning to fly out of DIA this holiday weekend, good luck! And if you have a shy bladder, you may not want to use the restrooms at the airport. Passengers on planes may be watching you.
• Tyler Tysdal, husband of former Fox31 anchor Natalie Tysdal, was sentenced to six years in prison for defrauding investors in what prosecutors said was a Ponzi scheme. In June, Tysdal sold the family’s $3.1 million home to help pay back investors. The terms of his sentencing agreement shaved years off his prison sentence based on the amount of restitution he made.
• For the second straight year, life expectancy in Colorado dropped. Experts say COVID-19 and drug overdose deaths are to blame.
• The annual Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) conference was held in Denver last week, and things may not be going well for those who attended. Amid reports of a widespread COVID outbreak, the conference organizers issued a post-event alert suggesting attendees be vigilant about symptoms.
• An employee at an Atlanta-area Subway was shot and killed after putting too much mayo on a customer’s sandwich.
• The SEC fined Ernst & Young $100 million after hundreds of the accounting firm’s employees cheated on a … wait for it … ethics test.
• The Pac-12 Conference is reeling after two of its most-historic schools, USC and UCLA, announced they are leaving to join the Big 10.
• Independence Day marks roughly half way through the MLB baseball season, which is a good time to evaluate how the Colorado Rockies are doing. A quick check of the standings shows they currently are in last place in the NL West. Safe to say, the Monforts are not the Kroenkes.
• A bar-hopping Japanese IT consultant overindulged and lost a flash drive that held the birth dates, addresses, bank account numbers and tax details of all 465,000 residents of the city of Amagasaki.
• Ben Affleck’s 10-year-old son backed a $250,000 Lamborghini Urus into a $110,000 BMW SUV. Celebrities … they’re just like you and me!

So, who won the week?

• The Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 21 years. And Denver fans largely managed not to riot afterward.
  • A Denver couple had the Stanley Cup delivered to their home after a mix-up with Avs captain Gabe Landeskog’s address.
  • The Avs completed the 2022 championship sweep – the Denver East Angels won the high school national hockey championship and the University of Denver Pioneers won the NCAA hockey championship.
• Windsor native Sophia Smith was triumphant in her return to Colorado as part of the U.S. women’s national soccer team. She scored two goals in the team’s 3-0 win over Colombia at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
• Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in as the first Black woman in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Denver Post Avalanche fanboy beat reporter Mike Chambers is being roasted by his colleagues nationally for celebrating the Avs win like he was a member of the team.

Chris Daniels at PRWeek: “Employees have been calling the shots in the PR job market, as demand for talent escalated last year and maintained a furious pace. The all-out war to attract and keep talent led to double-digit pay raises, enhanced benefits packages, signing bonuses and staff dictating where and how they want to work. That was then. Now economic factors are turning the job market into one favoring employers. … According to industry recruiters, the PR job market is showing signs of, if not a downturn, at least the fear of one. 

“’Employment contracts are taking a little longer to get approved,’ notes Larry Brantley, president of executive search firm Chaloner. ‘Procurement and leadership are watching spending on new hires a lot more closely than last year. They are concerned a recession is around the corner, so organizations are being a lot more measured and cautious. They don’t want to hire too fast and have to make adjustments and downsize later.’” 

The Colorado Avalanche could only post the second-highest post-season winning percentage (.800) on their way to winning the NHL championship last night, but they did set one new record: fastest team to damage the Stanley Cup. Phil Pritchard, the so-called “Keeper of the Cup” who works for the Hockey Hall of Fame, said the Avs managed to dent the trophy just five minutes after receiving it, which he said was “a new record.“

• The Colorado PUC ruled that customers are on the hook for $500 million in inflated costs for natural gas that Xcel secured during a record-breaking cold snap in February 2021. Each Xcel customer in Colorado can expect to pay an additional $213 spread out over the next 30 months.
• The Sawaya Law Firm has quietly started removing references to its founder Michael Sawaya after he was accused of sexual assault and battery by a client.
• CityCast Denver podcast host Bree Davies is under fire from Colorado HD-6 candidate Elisabeth Epps and her supporters for what they perceive as unfair and misleading interviews with each of the candidates for the position.
• Denver’s Clerk and Recorder Office sent primary ballots that included the wrong candidates to 60 voters in precinct 832. Five of the voters had already cast their ballots, and the process that assures anonymity means that those ballots cannot be identified and removed.
• Douglas County is no stranger to self-inflicted reputational wounds (see: county commissioners, board of education, public health, sheriff’s office). That streak continued as commissioners surprisingly announced they plan to use eminent domain to seize a 1,000-acre park in the county that is owned by Denver. Experts pointed out that the value of the park was approximately $800 million, far more than Douglas County’s annual operating budget.
• Routt County is bracing itself to play host to the annual Rainbow Family gathering. Local and federal authorities are scrambling to prepare for the 10,000-person, month-long event, which has historically led to traffic, trash and environmental issues.
• The Cherry Cricket in Cherry Creek North is the latest “old Denver” restaurant to be involved in a real-estate transaction. The lot on which the restaurant sits sold for $25.2 million. Unlike the Bonnie Brae Tavern, though, the Cherry Cricket is expected to remain open.
• Netflix laid off another 300 employees, the second time in as many months that is has downsized as it adjusts to an avalanche of subscribers cancelling their service. It’s stock price has fallen 70% this year.
• Abadan, Iran set a 2022 record for highest temperature on earth, recording 126 degrees F.

So, who won the week?

• Tennis star Naomi Osaka has partnered with NBA star LeBron James to launch a media company that will create scripted and unscripted television series, documentaries, anime and branded content.
• The Colorado Avalanche are one win away from clinching its third Stanley Cup championship. Meanwhile, the Colorado Mammoth defeated the Buffalo Bandits to win the National Lacrosse League championship.
• Colorado State’s David Roddy was selected by the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the NBA draft.
• “Trumpet, a magnificently be-wrinkled and be-jowled bloodhound from Illinois,” won Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

• Denver Public Schools board member Tay Anderson has been accused of a lot of things by a lot of people – some legitimate, some not – but the latest is that school board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán is now accusing Anderson of intimidation and plotting a possible coup.
• Denver was not selected by FIFA to host World Cup matches in 2026. An expert speculated that other cities’ willingness to offer city- and state-backed financial incentive packages when Denver’s bid had none likely hurt Denver’s chances.
• Colorado kids are in crisis, according to a recent survey by the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment. The survey of middle- and high-school students found 40% experienced feelings of depression in the prior year, up from 35% since the last poll in 2019, and more than half of respondents said they experienced stress on a daily basis.
• WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon has stepped down while the company’s board investigates whether he used $3 million in company money to cover up an alleged affair with a former employee.
• Montana is reeling from devastating floods, and no one knows where its governor is.
• Golfer Phil Mickelson recently played in his first Saudi-backed LIV golf tournament despite acknowledging that the Saudis are “scary sons of bitches” who killed Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. This week, he played in his first U.S. tournament since the comments, the U.S. Open, and shot an abysmal eight-over 78.
• USA Today has removed 23 articles by journalist Gabriela Miranda that it said included “misattributed quotes and in some cases may have fabricated interviews and sources.“

So, who won the week?

• Coloradans Sophia Smith (Windsor), Mallory Pugh (Highlands Ranch) and Lindsey Horan (Golden) were named to the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team as it attempts to qualify for the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
• Caroline Glover, the chef and co-owner of Annette in Aurora, won a James Beard Foundation award for best chef in the Mountain Region. 
• PR firm financials have rebounded incredibly well from the pandemic, according to Gould+Partners’ latest survey.
• The Colorado Avalanche won the first game of the Stanley Cup finals, and the Colorado Mammoth will play the winner-takes-all third game of the National Lacrosse League championship on Saturday.
• The Golden State Warriors won the NBA Championship.
• Singer Ciara and her husband, new Denver Broncos QB Russell Wilson, will open their first Colorado-based retail clothing store, House of LR&C, in Park Meadows mall.
• Homebrewing legend and Great American Beer Festival founder Charlie Papazian will be the namesake of Metro State University’s new Brewing Education Lab.

O’Dwyer’s: “Profitability was up last year for North American PR agencies, according to an annual industry survey conducted by PR merger and acquisition advisory firm Gould+Partners. Gould+Partners’ latest Benchmarking report, which analyzes key factors affecting PR firm profitability, found that North American PR agencies witnessed operating profits averaging 19.7 percent of net revenues (calculated as fee billings plus markups) in 2021, up from 18.2 percent in 2020 and a 2.3 percent increase from pre-COVID 2019’s 17.4 percent.

“ ‘19.7 percent average operating profit is an incredible comeback for the PR industry,’ Gould+Partners’ Managing Partner Rick Gould told O’Dwyer’s.”

“The survey’s findings discovered that profitability was especially high at the largest firms: PR agencies with revenues in excess of $25 million netted average operating profits of 21.3 percent in 2021—up from 20.2 percent in 2020—indicating both increased organic growth as well as growth via acquisition. Firms with between $10 million and $25 million in revenues netted 20.1 percent profitability last year, up from 17 percent in 2020. Firms accounting for between $3 million and $10 million in revenues netted profitability of 19.5 percent profitability, up from 18.1 percent, while the smallest firms—those with under $3 million in revenues—netted the smallest profitability, 15.8 percent, flat from 2020.”

Brad Bawmann was a force of nature. Not like a tornado or a hurricane, but more like the tides – quiet, measured and calm, yet undeniably important and impactful. He built his firm, The Bawmann Group, into one of Denver’s most-respected, capturing a who’s who of clients, particularly in the healthcare and nonprofit industries.

But work was just a piece of Brad’s life. He was always concerned with issues bigger than himself, and that was demonstrated yet again when he traveled to Krakow, Poland, earlier this year to help refugees from Ukraine. And you couldn’t have drinks or lunch with him without seeing him beam with pride as he shared stories about his wife, Wendy, and his kids, Phoebe and Oliver.

Brad passed away unexpectedly this weekend from complications of pneumonia. He was 59.

Ewan Larkin at PRWeek: “Edelman’s multicultural practice has grown 68% since its launch in November 2020, executives at the firm said this week. Following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery two years ago, Edelman felt the need to formalize and accelerate its involvement in multicultural communications. The agency began by establishing a racial justice comms taskforce, then expanded by building a U.S. multicultural practice that operates across its sectors.” The practice is on track to amass $8.2 million in revenue by the end of the fiscal year.

• Local marijuana entrepreneurs are pushing the tiny San Luis Valley town of Moffatt, Colorado, to rename itself Kush. And the town’s mayor is on board.
• In 1998, John Elway declined an offer from Pat Bowlen to buy 20% of the Denver Broncos for $36 million. That stake would be worth $930 million today, based on Walmart heir Rob Walton’s bid for the team.
• Federal researchers predict that Colorado will lose half or more of its annual snowfall over the next 60 years.
• After 88 years in business, the Bonnie Brae Tavern has sold to developers and will close.
• Colorado State University president Joyce McConnell had her contract terminated early and will depart the school next month.
• Geico has been ordered to pay a woman’s $5.2 million claim after she contracted a sexually transmitted disease while having sex in her partner’s car that was insured by the company.
• Axon paused its plans to develop a taser drone after three-quarters of its internal ethics board resigned in protest.
• Former press secretary to President Bush Ari Fleischer has been openly and highly critical of the Saudi government, but it didn’t stop him from taking the Saudi-backed LIV golf league as a client.
• Wells Fargo suspended its hiring policy requiring that diverse candidates be interviewed for upper-level positions after managers were found to have conducted sham interviews to meet the policy requirements.
• Burger King’s attempt to celebrate Pride Month by offering burgers that feature just two top buns or two bottom buns – the burger equivalent of same sex couples? – confounded customers and resulted in more bad press than positive buzz.
• A Willy Wonka nightmare come to life: A rescue team was deployed when two people fell into a giant vat of chocolate at an M&M factory in Pennsylvania. They survived.

So, who won the week?

• Rob Walton’s $4.65 billion bid for the Denver Broncos means each of the seven Bowlen kids are in line to receive $518 million. Pat Bowlen bought the team for $78 million in 1984.
• High school graduation rates for Hispanic students in Colorado increased 20 percentage points – from 55.5% to 75.4% – over the past decade.
• President Joe Biden will nominate DIA CEO Phil Washington to lead the Federal Aviation Administration, according to the Seattle Times. Washington joined DIA less than a year ago.
• Colorado Ski Country USA reported its members set a record for ski visits, topping 14 million in the 2021-2022 ski season.
• The Colorado Avalanche swept the Edmonton Oilers and will be in the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 21 years.
• Transgender advocates are cheering the selection of Justine Lindsay to the Carolina Panthers “TopCats” cheerleading squad. She is the first openly transgender member of any cheerleading team in the NFL.

PRWeek: “Ever wanted your nails to smell like you dipped them in a vat of Velveeta cheese? Nails Inc. and Velveeta have made that dream into a reality with the launch of a nail polish collection called Velveeta Pinkies Out Polish, which includes a nail polish duo and nail stickers.”

Walmart heir Rob Walton’s successful $4.65 billion bid for the Denver Broncos means that each of the seven Bowlen kids will net approximately $518 million. Not bad considering Pat Bowlen bought the Broncos for $78 million in 1984 ($217 million adjusted for inflation).

Emily Flitter with The New York Times: “Wells Fargo is temporarily suspending a hiring policy that led some managers to conduct sham interviews of nonwhite and female candidates following a report by The New York Times highlighting the practice, the bank’s chief executive, Charles W. Scharf, told employees in a letter on Monday. Instituted in 2020, the bank’s ‘diverse slate’ policy stipulated that at least half the candidates interviewed for open positions paying $100,000 or more in annual salary needed to be ‘diverse’ — a catchall term for racial minorities, women and members of other disadvantaged groups.” …

“The Times reported (recently) that a former employee in the bank’s wealth management business had complained that he was being forced by his bosses to interview people for jobs that had already been promised to others, just to meet the ‘diverse slate’ requirement.”

Wells Fargo has a history of diversity issues. You may recall that in 2020, Scharf apologized after blaming the bank’s lack of diversity on “a very limited pool of Black talent to recruit from.”

Linhart Public Relations hired Mallory West as a senior account executive and Josh Gaydos as an account executive. West joins Linhart from Golin in Chicago and she will will handle local and national media relations, content development and digital marketing, along with other communications activities, for several clients including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Graebel Companies; Know Labs; Safe Rx; and Spire Storage. Gaydos previously was Director of Principal Operations for the Jaime Harrison for U.S. Senate Campaign in South Carolina. He will support clients such as  Black Hills Energy, Graebel Companies and Transitional Energy.

Linhart also promoted Sari Winston to account executive. She will continue to support a variety of clients, including Chocolove and Safe Rx, with media relations, research, social media, digital marketing and graphic design services.

Congratulations to Laura Ledermann and the team at Denver’s Scream Agency, which is celebrating the agency’s 25th anniversary.

“Scream Agency could never have reached where we are today without our dedicated team and supportive clients who have helped us reach our goals and continue to push us to do better and be better,” says Ledermann, founder of Scream Agency. “It has been a privilege to work with a variety of brands to serve our communities and the planet through our core values.” 

• Denver was named the nation’s 9th most-rat-infested city.
• A lifeguard shortage means that five Denver city pools will not open this summer.
• Colorado home values are inflated by 38.5% above the expected trend line, indicating that our housing market is the most overpriced it has been in three decades. For context, the housing bubble that burst in 2008 was only 20% above the expected trend line. Pop!
• Denver landlords have no legal requirement to disclose lead pipes to their renters. Denver’s Department of Public Health & Environment requires landlords to inform renters about peeling or deteriorating lead paint, but not about lead pipes.
• Southwest Airlines is suing the state of Colorado over the “Colorado Healthy Families and Workplace Act,” a move that could reduce sick leave benefits for all Coloradans. The Act establishes sick leave standards that are in conflict with what Southwest currently offers, and Southwest has already been fined more than $1 million for violations of the Act.
• Two workers died when a coal pile collapsed at Xcel’s Comanche power plant in Pueblo.
• Millions of miller moths will invade Colorado this month. If you find them irritating, you are “selfish” and lack “compassion,” according to CSU entomologist Maia Holmes.
• Wild Animals 2, Humans 0: A woman was trampled by a moose in Breckenridge and a bison gored a woman in Yellowstone National Park.
• Actress Amber Heard has been ordered to pay $10 million in damages for defaming actor Johnny Depp.
• The U.N. says that a sand shortage is about to become a “global crisis.” You read that right: a global sand shortage.
• Deranged-billionaire-genius-mad-scientist
• Elon Musk has ordered Tesla employees to return to the office full-time immediately or face termination.
• Swedish people were roasted this week after a Reddit post claimed that many refuse to feed guests. The post claimed that some Swedish families do not invite their children’s visiting friends to eat with them at mealtime, leaving them instead to play alone while the family eats.
• ESPN basketball announcers Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen missed game one of the NBA Finals last night after testing positive for COVID-19.
• JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon says that there is an economic “hurricane” on the horizon, caused in large part by shifting Federal Reserve policies and the war in Ukraine.

So, who won the week?

• Tom Cruise was adamant that “Top Gun: Maverick,” which was ready to premiere in theaters two years ago, should not be dumped on a streaming platform during the pandemic, and that stubbornness is being rewarded. Cruise saw his film deliver the first $100M+ opening weekend of his career.
• Kate Hill’s 1985 hit song “Running Up That Hill” climbed to #1 on iTunes this week after being featured in the season four premiere of “Stranger Things.”
• New CNN CEO Chris Licht has ordered his staff to quit labeling every story it airs as “breaking news.” In an all-employee memo, Licht said the channel will follow “new guidelines for deciding whether a story is truly breaking.”
• The Ukrainian men’s national soccer team‘s attempt to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup was delayed until this week due to the invasion by Russia. The team defeated Scotland 3-1 on Wednesday and will face Wales on Sunday. The winner of that game qualifies for the World Cup.
• NBA superstar LeBron James has officially become a billionaire, according to Forbes.

Jon Schleuss, the president of the largest union of journalists, is calling for the the Biden Administration to urge the FCC to reject an attempt by hedge funds Apollo Global Management and Standard General to acquire TEGNA, the parent company of 9News:

“I urge you to call on the Federal Communications Commission to block the takeover of TEGNA, one of the largest local broadcasting television station groups, by Wall Street mega-funds Apollo Global Management and Standard General. This proposed transaction would kill journalism jobs, undermine local news and raise prices for American families”

“Wall Street firms behind this transaction secured billions of dollars in financing by apparently planning to cut journalism jobs. In addition to forcing dedicated local reporters to take ‘the longest walk a parent has to make’ to tell their children that mom or dad lost their job, such brutal cuts also would undermine local news. With less local news, communities will suffer from lower voter participation, higher taxes, more corruption and increased partisanship.”

Michael Roberts at Westword: “Denver TV stations have long experienced significant turnover, with reporters and anchors typically leaving one outlet in favor of another. But over the past year-plus, the pace of such departures has increased markedly, and many of those moving on have done so not to climb the broadcast-journalism ladder but to start over in entirely new careers. This phenomenon is epitomized by the action at affiliated stations Fox31 and KWGN/Channel 2.”

Those of us who have been in Denver for more than a couple of decades remember when the Rocky Mountain News’ Dusty Saunders was one of the most-read columnists at the paper. He passed away this weekend at the age of 90.

• Denver Broncos wide receiver Jerry Jeudy hasn’t lived up to his potential on the field, and is now becoming an embarrassment to the team off it.
• Colorado leads the country in bank robberies, driven in part by desperate individuals who are addicted to drugs.
• Denver Public Schools is in a high-profile dispute with a North High School teacher who supporters acknowledge “rocks the boat.”
• Weld County egg farm Sparboe Hudson had to destroy 1.4 million hens and lay off 95 employees after being hit by avian flu.
• The shutdown of a production facility in Michigan has caused a nationwide shortage of baby formula.
• Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A. is facing a lawsuit that alleges systemic racism at the hospital system resulted in the death of Black patient.
• Actor Fred Savage, who played Kevin on the original, iconic television show “The Wonder Years,” was fired as an executive producer on the reboot of the show after allegations of inappropriate behavior.
• The mother of a 10-year-old girl who died after taking part in a “Blackout Challenge” she saw on TikTok is suing the social media platform.
• Elon Musk said his plan to buy twitter is “temporarily on hold” over a report of fake accounts on the platform.

So, who won the week?

• Denver Nuggets’ star Nikola Jokic won his second straight NBA MVP award.
• It turns out happy couples in Colorado can have their dogs preside over their wedding vows.
• A Florida man with no flight experience managed to land a small plane when his pilot lost consciousness.

• For more than 25 years, the ineffective investigation into the tragic murder of JonBenèt Ramsey has been a stain on the reputation of the Boulder Police Department. Now. Gov. Jared Polis says he will petition to have the state take over the case.
• The Colorado mountains have become a year-round destination, but resorts such as Vail and Breckenridge are cutting back on their summer activities due to the labor shortage.
• An Alamosa attorney who shot a man in the head had his law license suspended for three years. He’s serving an 11-year prison sentence, so the suspension is mostly symbolic.
• Denver Public Schools will eliminate 76 district administrative jobs — including 15 executives. The move is in response to declining enrollment and will save the district approximately $9 million annually.
• The Lowry Reading Garden bills itself as a sanctuary to appreciate great literature, but the park “misquotes and misattributes the writers it celebrates” in various etchings and engravings throughout the park.
• The National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Chicano/a/x Community Murals of Colorado to its 2022 list of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.” 
• TurboTax has agreed to pay Coloradans more than $2.5 million to settle allegations by the Colorado attorney general that the company used deceptive digital tactics.
• Geoff Morrell, the chief corporate affairs officer for The Walt Disney Co., is leaving after just three months on the job “to pursue other opportunities.” His departure follows the recent, high-profile fight between Disney and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation.
• Tennis legend Boris Becker, a three-time Wimbledon winner, has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for hiding assets during a bankruptcy filing.
• Comedian Dave Chappelle was attacked and tackled on-stage by a knife-wielding man at a performance at the Hollywood Bowl.
• Pro golfer Phil Mickelson lost more than $40 million gambling over five years, according to federal auditors.
• Water levels at Nevada’s Lake Mead have dropped so far that authorities are finding long-hidden dead bodies.

So, who won the week?

• Esteban Hernandez left Denverite to join the Axios Denver team.
• The possibly misnamed Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2022 class, and it includes Duran Duran, Eminem, Dolly Parton, Carly Simon, Lionel Richie, the Eurythmics and Pat Benatar.
• The famous axe from the movie “The Shining” will soon take up residence at Estes Park’s Stanley Hotel, which was the inspiration for the Stephen King thriller. An anonymous donor purchased the axe at auction and has loaned it to the hotel’s new movie-memorabilia museum and film center.
• Children’s Hospital Colorado is the first pediatric health care system in the country to provide free education and career training for its staff members.

• The director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Dan Prenzlow, is on paid administrative leave after directing a racially charged “Back of the Bus” comment toward a Black employee.
• The Gallery Sportsman’s Club & Range just opened in Lakewood, and it combines a gun range with a … wait for it … full-service bar. Genius!
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared Colorado a “primary natural disaster area” due to our decades-long drought. The move “qualifies farmers and ranchers for emergency loans to recover damages from the ongoing megadrought.”
  • Meanwhile, Denver appears likely to record less than a trace of snow in the month of April for the first time since 1992.
• Allegations of inappropriate behavior against actor Bill Murray have shut down production on the film “Being Mortal” starring Murray, Aziz Ansari and Seth Rogen. Murray has a long history of allegedly abusive behavior on-set.
• Two co-founders of the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation Network and BLM Los Angeles used $6 million in donations to buy a southern California mansion.
• Lawyers for the L.A. Times accused L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva of “abusing his official position” when he publicly alleged that one of its reporters was under criminal investigation for her coverage of a police brutality incident. Villanueva quickly backtracked and claimed he didn’t make the allegation despite video of the press conference during which he said it.
• After a press conference this week by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), media briefly reported that radiation levels at the Chernobyl nuclear site were “abnormal.” That was concerning given the recent occupation of the facility by Russian military forces. However, media almost immediately corrected those reports to say that the official who provided the information actually said – with a heavy Argentinean accent – that conditions were “at normal.”
• Is the U.S. economy headed toward a major recession? Deutsche Bank says yes, while Goldman Sachs says maybe.
• A family of American tourists sparked bedlam at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport when they went through security with an unexploded military shell they had found while touring the Golan Heights.
• Actor Jason Sudeikis is distancing himself from a process server who handed his ex-wife, actress Olivia Wilde, lawsuit papers while she was onstage at a CinemaCon event. A Sudeikis spokesperson said the “Ted Lasso” star actor “had no prior knowledge” that his ex-wife would be served there, and that “he would never condone her being served in such an inappropriate manner.”

So, who won the week?

• Vail Resorts announced that total skier visits were up 12.5% compared to last season.
• Peyton and Ashley Manning have established a scholarship endowment in Demaryius Thomas‘ name at the late Broncos wide receiver’s alma mater, Georgia Tech. Thomas passed away last December at age 33.
• Denver’s Willow Pill won season 14 of the VH1 reality series “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” 
• Music superstar Lizzo announced a concert in Denver this summer, and 9News noted that before making it big the Grammy award winner once lived in Aurora and worked at a local King Soopers.
• Interim president Todd Saliman was confirmed as the permanent president of the University of Colorado’s four-campus system.
• Even though Colorado law limits its liability, Denver Water said it will cover the cost of damage caused when its broken pipe flooded the Berkeley neighborhood.

Novitas Communications has acquired the CCO-CMO Roundtable from Westmeath Global Communications and 6×6 Careers. The roundtable is a quarterly, off-the-record gathering for senior marketing and communications professionals in Colorado, and membership is by invitation only.

Steve Barrett at PRWeek: “BCW calls it earned plus, Edelman dubs it earned creative, Weber Shandwick goes beyond public relations into marketing solutions, Ketchum talks about full-service marketing and communications, FleishmanHillard pitches full-service creative, Lippe Taylor proselytizes earned marketing. As PRWeek prepares to publish its seminal annual deep dive into the agency sector it seems everybody’s talking about this modern take on PR without actually calling it PR.”

“Peruse the websites of these august firms and you’ll struggle to find the phrase PR amid all the talk of ‘solutions,’ ‘synergizing,’ ‘holistic perspectives,’ ‘transformative outcomes,’ ‘pursuit of excellence’ and ‘human-centered thinking.’ But, however it is described, the Agency Business Report 2022 will show that whatever PR has morphed into is extraordinarily compelling and crucial for brands, corporations and organizations of all types. And … it has moved way beyond straight media relations.”

• It’s going to be hot, dry and windy today, so much so that meteorologists say that the wildfire danger in Colorado today is higher than it has been in a decade.
• The pandemic has caused a lot of collateral damage. In Colorado, that includes a 30% increase in both alcohol-related deaths and syphilis.
• Denver Public Schools board member Tay Anderson had his defamation suit against BLM 5280 and Mary Katherine Brooks-Fleming dismissed by a judge, and he could be liable for their attorneys fees.
• D’Evelyn Jr./Sr. High School named a man convicted of domestic violence as the sole finalist for its principal position. He quickly withdrew from consideration when media coverage caused a public backlash.
• The Vail town council said it was “ready to go to war with Vail Resorts” over a proposed affordable housing project in the town and then voted to condemn the land to prevent construction.
• With several key players injured, no one expected the Denver Nuggets to make a deep playoff run, but what has emerged has been a worst-case scenario: down 3-0 to the Golden State Warriors and at risk of being swept out of the playoffs in embarrassing fashion.
•  The conservation group American Rivers has ranked the Colorado River as one of the country’s most endangered waterways. The group says the river and its reservoirs are at record lows.
• Hyundai and its subsidiary Kia account for five of the six most-stolen brands of cars in the Denver metro area.
• The world’s No. 2 men’s tennis player, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, and the world’s No. 4 women’s player, Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka, will not be allowed to compete in Wimbledon this year due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the tournament’s organizers announced this week.
• Former Denver Bronco Von Miller is facing a “revenge porn” lawsuit alleging he distributed a sexually explicit photo of a former girlfriend to “two well-known celebrities.”
• A Kentucky business that was asked by an employee with extreme anxiety not to throw him a birthday party did just that and now has been ordered to pay him $450,000.
• It was a tough week for streaming services and shows:
  • Jon Stewart’s Apple TV+ show, “The Problem with Jon Stewart,” saw its audience drop 78% from its first to its fifth episode. The show now averages about 40,000 viewers, which is less than 5% of John Oliver’s similar HBO show.
  • Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022 and expects to lose another 2 million in the second quarter. Its stock has dropped nearly 70% over the past four months.
  • CNN is pulling the plug on its CNN+ streaming service just weeks after its launch.
  • The director of “The Chosen,” an online series about Jesus, has apologized for a marketing ploy that intentionally defaced billboards for the show. Supporters of the series blamed “everyone from Starbucks to ‘Democratic Satanists'” for the apparent vandalism.
• Lucky Charms … they’re magically litigious? The cereal manufacturer likely will soon be the target of a class-action lawsuit after dozens of consumers reported becoming ill after eating the breakfast cereal.

So, who won the week?

• Colorado Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland signed a five-year, $64.5 million extension this week. Freeland is a Colorado native who played high school baseball at Thomas Jefferson in Denver.
• Meanwhile, it’s almost May and the Colorado Rockies find themselves second in the division and third in the entire National League.
• A beloved therapy dog, Spencer, has been named the official dog of the Boston Marathon.

“Warner Bros. Discovery has suspended all external marketing spend for CNN+ and has laid off CNN’s longtime chief financial officer as it weighs what to do with the subscription streaming service moving forward,” Axios reports.

Arianna MacNeill at the Boston Globe: “A new study from Harvard Business School suggests that when it comes to hybrid work, just one to two days in the office, on a flexible schedule, creates the best outcomes for employees and businesses alike. … The study found that not only were the workers creating more work products, they also showed ‘greater satisfaction,’ and ‘less isolation,'” according to Prithwiraj Choudhury, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School.

Journalists responded to 3.37% of pitches sent by PR professionals in Q1 2022, according to a study from Propel. That is a single-digit decline from the 3.53% of pitches journalists responded to in 2021.

Propel recommends sending emails with subject lines no longer than five words and keeping the pitch between 50 and 79 words. And, while I’m not a journalist, I’m pretty sure they would recommend making sure the beat they cover is relevant to your pitch and to stop following up with variations of, “Just wanted to make sure you got my previous email.”

Syracuse University has finally extricated itself from one of the worst stadium naming rights agreements ever made. As bad as it was, the question is whether it was worse than the current Colorado Rockies’ deal.

The sports business publication Sportico reported, “Syracuse University’s iconic Carrier Dome is no more. The school has reached a settlement with Carrier Global Corp. to end the company’s perpetual naming rights deal for the football and basketball venue. … Thus ends one of the longest running and most sponsor-friendly naming rights agreements in sports history. Carrier gave the school a $2.75 million gift back in 1979 during construction of the building, securing naming rights for the lifetime of the venue. Forty-three years later, the Carrier Dome is among the most recognizable buildings in college basketball and college football. … The dome would likely command upwards of $3.25 million per year on the open market.”

Meanwhile, Denverites may recall that Coors got a sweetheart deal when it received the permanent naming rights to the Rockies’ stadium when it invested $30 million in the ownership group back in 1991. Coors later sold that ownership stake in 2013 for an estimated $75 million, but that transaction did not affect the naming rights agreement. So, Coors actually made $45 million “buying” the permanent naming rights to Coors Field.

My back-of-the-envelope calculations say that Syracuse left about $45-50 million on the table with its deal, while the Rockies have missed out on about $35 million. However, Syracuse’s deal has now expired while the Rockies’ continues. With naming rights valued at about $4 million per year (the Pepsi Center’s deal is for $3.4 million annually while Empower Field is $6 million per year), the Rockies will officially become the worse deal in 2025.

• The Colorado Association of Realtors predicts that the average single-family home price in Denver may reach $1 million by June.
  • That probably seems like a bargain to new Broncos QB Russell Wilson, who along with his wife Ciara just dropped $25 million on a new house in Cherry Hills.
• Meanwhile, Denver was ranked as one of the five least affordable cities in the country, behind only San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles and Miami. That clicking sound you hear is millions of local millennial and Gen-Z renters Googling “trendy, affordable cities.”
• The organizers of the Cherry Creek Sneak, one of the metro area’s oldest and largest running events, announced this will be its final year. Event director Pat Downing said registration numbers “fell off a cliff” following the pandemic.
• The EPA is attempting to reclassify nine Front Range counties between Fort Collins and Castle Rock as “severe” violators of federal ozone standards.
• The Colorado Rockies’ commitment to owning fourth place in its five-team division is impressive. An analysis of the values of MLB teams was released this week, and the Rockies placed fourth in the NL West at $1.4 billion, ahead of only the Arizona Diamondbacks.
  • And, this week, Thrillist ranked the food at all 30 MLB ballparks, and the Rockies once again placed fourth, this time behind the L.A. Dodgers. The publication noted the stadium’s Rocky Mountain Oysters, plentiful microbrews and the Helton burger as the best options available.
• CNN launched its CNN+ streaming service to great fanfare several weeks ago, and it is already flopping. The network planned to invest approximately $1 billion in the service over the next four years, but low adoption rates – reportedly fewer than 10,000 viewers per day – have caused CNN to significantly lower both its investment and subscriber projections.
• NFL quarterback Cam Newton has a history of making ill-advised comments, and he stayed on-brand this week when he complained in an interview about women “who can’t cook” and who “don’t know when to be quiet.”
• Amazon announced it is adding a 5% “fuel and inflation surcharge” for third-party sellers who use the site. For those keeping track, the online retailer reported profits of $33.4 billion in 2021.
• It was not a good week for male actors. Cuba Gooding, Jr. pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of forcibly touching a woman at a New York City nightclub in 2018 and “Game of Thrones” actor Joseph Gatt was arrested for allegedly engaging in sexually explicit communications with a minor.
  • Meanwhile, Frank Langella was dropped from the Netflix show “The Fall of the House of Usher” after allegations of on-set sexual harassment and “Saturday Night Live” cast member Molly Shannon revealed that she was sexually harassed by the late “Diff’rent Strokes” actor Gary Coleman.

So, who won the week?

• The University of Denver Pioneers won the NCAA ice hockey championship, tying the record for most all-time ice hockey championships with the University of Michigan at nine.
• DIA ranked as the third-busiest U.S. airport in 2021, and was one of only four in the world to serve more than 50 million passengers.
• Jerry Schemmel returned to the 850 KOA Rockies broadcast after a two-year absence. Schemmel was laid off in 2020 as part of 900 jobs cut by iHeartMedia.
• University of Colorado interim President Todd Saliman was named the sole finalist for the permanent position.
• Shortly after NFL legend Tom Brady announced his retirement in February, an anonymous bidder won an auction for the football that Brady threw for his final touchdown pass. Twenty-four hours later, Brady unretired. This week, the auction house announced that it has voided the auction and the “winner” doesn’t have to pay the $518,000 bid afterall.

• An RTD bus became slightly stuck in a small sinkhole in Boulder this week, but you would have thought the consequences were catastrophic based on 9News’ click-baity tweets about the issue: “A bus was swallowed up by a sinkhole” and “Bus engulfed by sinkhole.”
• The City of Aurora fired police chief Vanessa Wilson, raising concerns in the community that the dysfunction that she inherited in the department will continue or even get worse.
• Deranged-billionaire-mad-scientist-frenemy Elon Musk has acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter and joined its board, assuring future headaches for the leaders of the social media platform.
• Attorneys General in six states have sent a letter to the NFL expressing “grave concerns” about the way female employees are being treated.
• A bill in Tennessee would eliminate a minimum age requirement for marriage, which is presumably an unintended consequence but it is Tennessee, so who knows?
• Four members of the Secret Service have been put on leave following the FBI’s arrest of two men now charged with impersonating federal law enforcement in a scheme to get closer to the Secret Service detail protecting First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.
• A study has found that Instagram “systemically fails” to protect high-profile women from abuse.
• In a move that is being described by some as a “blame-the-victim” approach, The New York Times is encouraging reporters to “step away” from Twitter to avoid online abuse.

So, who won the week?

• Lydia Prado of the nonprofit Lifespan Local was named the 9News Leader of the Year.
• The Colorado Rockies may be an inept dumpster fire that owns fourth place in our five-team division, but one day a year optimism reigns: Opening Day. Everyone is a Rockies fan today.
• If you are a fan of road rage, good news! A new state law that allows bicyclists to roll through stop signs will no doubt further anger a subset of drivers convinced that bikes are the root of all road evils.

• Facebook may have rebranded as Meta, but some things never change. The Washington Post outed the company this week as being responsible for a behind-the-scenes smear campaign against competitor TikTok. The details are wide-ranging, but the bottom line is that Facebook/Meta remains evil.
• The City of Denver seems to have some ambivalence about “the Mayor of Pickleball.” Denver Parks & Rec filed a complaint with the Denver Police Department, and DPD arrested the 71-year-old man on charges of vandalism causing damage in excess of $10,000. The Denver District Attorney’s Office, however, is refusing to file charges and is encouraging mediation to resolve the issue.
  • Speaking of the Denver Police Department, Chief Paul Pazen has been mentioned as a potential candidate for Denver mayor, but you have to think last week’s $14 million federal jury judgement against the DPD for its handling of the George Floyd protests, combined with a recent brutal report alleging he was “paralyzed” about how to respond to the protests, has ended those ambitions.
  • Perhaps more embarrassing than the $14 million judgement itself was the Denver Police union’s response. President Nick Rogers, literally wearing camouflage cargo shorts and a beard bundled up in rubber bands, held a “press conference” alleging that downtown Denver would have been destroyed like Kyiv, Ukraine, if not for the heroic actions of officers.
• The Will Smith-Chris Rock “Slap Heard ‘Round the World” was an embarrassing situation on all fronts, and there were three clear losers: Smith never should have gone on stage to confront Rock; Rock never should have made a joke about someone’s medical condition; and the Academy never should have allowed a comedian to mock one of its members live from the stage.
  • How bad was Slapgate for Smith? O.J. Simpson released a video saying that he thought Smith was wrong to have hit Rock.
  • Smith issued an apology on Monday, and if you were under the impression that Rock also issued an apology, you were duped.
• Verizon customers are getting spam text messages from an unlikely source – themselves.
• Hate groups remain prevalent in Colorado, according to a study by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
• If you had any doubts that wildfire season in Colorado has expanded to year-round, the December and now March fires in Boulder County and Estes Park should put that to rest. Can’t say I’m excited about what July will bring.
• The actor Bruce Willis has retired after being diagnosed with aphasia, a disease that impacts cognitive abilities.
• The St. Peter’s Peacocks were the Cinderella of the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, but one week after losing to the University of North Carolina in the Elite Eight, Seton Hall hired the team’s head coach away.
• Denver’s street sweeping program resumes today, and it is expected to generate about $7.7 million in tickets for Denver drivers who fail to move their parked cars from city streets on designated days.

So, who won the week?

• Colorado Springs was named ninth on a list of “best-performing” cities nationally, ahead of Denver which ranked 14th. The report noted that Colorado Springs is now a top destination for tech workers and recent college graduates.
• The public may be able to ride RTD for free in August under legislation working its way through the statehouse. The proposed pilot program attempts to address air emissions during Denver’s hot, often-smoggy summer.
• Young women are starting to out-earn their male counterparts in certain markets, reversing a trend that has existed since, I don’t know, caveman days. Women in San Diego now earn 105% of their male peers and those in New York City and Washington, D.C., earn 102%.
  • Locally, women in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood geography earn 95% of their male counterparts, and women in Fort Collins earn 96%.
• The US Men’s National Soccer Team qualified for the 2022 World Cup, rebounding from their failure to qualify for the 2018 tournament.

Five Points real estate has become a soap opera over the past year, no more so than the situation that forced the historic Welton Street Cafe to close last week. A real estate development company, the FlyFisher Group, has been the source of most of the controversy, and the fact that it is a Black-owned company that is behaving in a manner some Black businesses and advocates describe as predatory makes it an even more sensational story.

Conor McCormick-Cavanagh at Westword reported on the situation today, and his story included a phrase that is every PR person’s nightmare: “Westword was accidentally included on all of the emails.” From the article:

“Westword reached out to both Burkett and his lawyer, Kim Ritter, for comment. Ritter forwarded that email to Burkett, who then forwarded the email to Sarah Cullen, a local public relations professional (at SideCar PR) who is serving as a spokesperson for Burkett, with this question: “Sarah any thoughts on this?”

Cullen’s response to Burkett and FlyFisher Group chief of staff Karina Tineo: “Happy to provide the ‘we don’t respond to active lawsuits’ comment like last time. Or we can let him know you’re traveling and ask for questions to see what he has and is focusing on.”

Westword was accidentally included on all of the emails. “First, [the FlyFisher Group] has not filed any lawsuits. Second, I am out of town and third we do not comment on ongoing litigation,” Burkett wrote in an email back to Cullen.

I would describe it as unbelievable, but we’re talking about Facebook Meta, which makes it completely believable. From Taylor Lorenz and Drew Harwell at The Washington Post:

“Facebook parent company Meta is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok. The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook, and pushing to draw political reporters and local politicians into helping take down its biggest competitor.” …

“Employees with the firm, Targeted Victory, worked to undermine TikTok through a nationwide media and lobbying campaign portraying the fast-growing app, owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance, as a danger to American children and society, according to internal emails shared with The Washington Post. … Campaign operatives were also encouraged to use TikTok’s prominence as a way to deflect from Meta’s own privacy and antitrust concerns.”

• Minutes after setting up at Denver’s Union Station for a report on escalating crime at the transit hub, CBS4 reporter Kelly Werthmann and an undisclosed photojournalist were accosted and the cameraman was assaulted. Construction company Kiewit became collateral damage in this story because the man who committed the assault – likely someone experiencing homelessness who was wearing donated clothing – had a jacket with a Kiewit logo on it.
• The Central Park Recreational Center and “the Mayor of Pickleball” are locked in a dispute over permanent pickleball lines on multi-use courts. The latest twist involves the Denver Police Department and felony charges of vandalism totaling more than $10,000.
• Despite threats from REI, Patagonia, North Face and others that they would boycott any Outdoor Retailer trade show in Utah, the show’s organizers announced that it will leave Denver after this year and relocate to Salt Lake City. Visit Denver officials estimate the economic impact of the trade show at $40-60 million annually.
• Disney CEO Bob Chapek ‘s strategy of trying to stay out of politics has backfired spectacularly as a revolt led by employees against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation has put the company in the spotlight. Employees engaged in walkouts and March Madness announcers at ESPN (which is owned by Disney) started several games with two minutes of silence in protest. Chapek’s contract is up for renewal in a year, and how he handles this crisis may be what determines whether he stays at Disney.
• Speaking of Disney, the theme park apologized for a performance by a Texas high school cheerleading squad that included “the team dancing and chanting ‘scalp ’em Indians, scalp ’em’ ‘ while performing moves that appear to appropriate Native American culture in a parade at Disney’s Magic Kingdom theme park.” If only there had been some clue that the Port Neches-Grove High School Indianettes might perform something controversial.
• NFL QB Deshaun Watson has pending civil lawsuits from 22 women alleging sexual abuse, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Cleveland Browns from signing him to a five-year, $230 million, fully guaranteed contract.
• Kanye West may have five Grammy nominations this year, but Recording Academy executives are concerned enough about his increasingly erratic and abusive behavior that they won’t allow him to perform at the televised awards ceremony.

So, who won the week?

• Denver media experienced a euphoric moment when two of its very favorite things intersected: a disaster and the Denver Broncos. Coverage of a relatively small fire at Empower Field received a surprisingly large amount of coverage.
• Approximately $13.5 million of the $436 million philanthropist MacKenzie Scott is giving to Habitat for Humanity is designated for its Denver chapter. It is Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver’s largest single donation in its history. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains also received a record $20 million donation from Scott.
• The Denver Nuggets extended head coach Michael Malone’s contract, giving him a chance to set the franchise’s all-time wins record. He currently is third (309 wins), behind Doug Moe (432 wins) and George Karl (423 wins).
• Former soccer star David Beckham handed over control of his Instagram account that has more than 71 million followers to a doctor in Ukraine to highlight the conditions in the country and the “amazing work” medical teams are doing. Beckham is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

• “Denver police suffered a ‘total leadership failure’ amid the George Floyd protests in 2020, and chief Paul Pazen appeared ‘paralyzed’ about how to respond,” according to new documents obtained by Axios Denver.
• Frank “The Strong Arm” Azar again finds himself in need of a talented lawyer. Months after suing his accountant, and then suing a second accountant he hired to fix his first accountant’s mess, Azar is suing an out-of-state lawyer whom he says is using Google ads to illegally poach clients.
• College basketball fans in our state had a humbling week, going 0-3. The Colorado State men’s team’s March Madness experience lasted only two hours as the Rams were beaten by the University of Michigan Wolverines in the first game of the first round of that tournament. Meanwhile, the University of Colorado men’s team could only make the NIT tournament and then lost its first-round game to St. Bonaventure. And, finally, the University of Colorado women’s team lost its first-round game in the NCAA tournament today.
• The Denver Broncos’ off-season moves have created a media frenzy, and The Denver Gazette got a little too caught up in it when it erroneously reported the Broncos had signed free agent linebacker Chandler Jones. He actually has signed with the Las Vegas Raiders.
• Gig economy workers at Uber and Lyft say that high gas prices may be the breaking point for drivers who were already operating on razor-thin margins.
• U.S. News & World Report ranked Columbia University as the second-best university in the country, but a professor in the school’s math department says its a fraud and that the university is gaming the system.
• As it heads into this year’s tax season, the IRS is hiring 10,000 employees to help it get through 23 million returns it still hasn’t processed from last year.
• CNN is an HR dumpster fire. Former anchor Chris Cuomo filed a $125 million lawsuit against the news network alleging that he was wrongfully terminated by Jeff Zucker, who has since resigned following the disclosure of his inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.

So, who won the week?

• Coors has restarted its brewery tours that famously come with free samples.
• Denver Film’s Sie FilmCenter has re-opened and increased the programming available to movie fans.
• ESPN is determined to make Monday Night Football the biggest game of the week, and it has lured announcers Troy Aikman and Joe Buck away from FOX to make it happen.

The Australian Prime Minister and Cabinet has withdrawn the new logo it introduced for its Women’s Network initiative to promote gender equality. The logo was mocked mercilessly on social media, with one critic asking, “Why have the juvenile idiots in your department made male genitalia out of the Women’s Network logo?”

Anemona Hartocollis at The New York Times: “Everyone knows that students buff their résumés when applying to college. But a math professor is accusing Columbia University of buffing its own résumé — or worse — to climb the all-important U.S. News & World Report rankings of best universities.”

“Michael Thaddeus, who specializes in algebraic geometry at Columbia, has challenged the university’s No. 2 ranking this year with a statistical analysis that found that key supporting data was ‘inaccurate, dubious or highly misleading.'”

“In a 21-page blistering critique on his website, Dr. Thaddeus is not only challenging the rating but redoubling the debate over whether college rankings — used by millions of prospective college students and their parents — are valuable or even accurate.”

• The HOA for Green Valley Ranch has filed an astonishing 68 foreclosure notices for unpaid fines associated with basic covenant violations such as paint color, basketball hoops and trash cans left in the street. The foreclosure notices represent 57% of those filed in all of Denver over the past year. City officials are so concerned about the issue that they have scheduled a community meeting to offering resources to homeowners.
• Two prosecutors in the Denver City Attorneys Office resigned and a third was suspended after emails and chat messages showed them “disparaging their bosses, boasting about how little they were working during their stay-at-home phase of the pandemic, confessing to misusing a criminal records database and reveling in causing a co-worker to suffer a ‘nervous breakdown.’”
• Denver drivers spend an extra 41 hours in traffic annually due to congestion. The bright side? That’s a little more than half of what drivers in New York City and Los Angeles spend.
• The Colorado Classic bike race has showcased Colorado to an international audience, but unless it finds a $3 million title sponsor it will have to shut down.
• Speaking of bicycles, Denver’s oldest bike shop – Turin Bicycles – is closing after 51 years due to increased rents and continued disruptions to the global supply chain.
• Atlanta Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley has been suspended for the 2022 season after gambling on NFL games last season. The $1,500 in bets he placed will cost him $11.1 million in lost salary.
• Ryan Coogler, the Hollywood director of movies such as “Black Panther,” “Creed” and “Fruitvale Station,” was handcuffed by police when employees at a Bank of America branch mistook his request to withdraw cash from his checking account as an attempted robbery.
• Women’s basketball star Brittney Griner may be a political prisoner in Russia. She was arrested in Moscow on alleged drug violations and her fate is now dependent on a Russian justice system that is unlikely to do an American any favors.
• Texas has successfully positioned itself as a business-friendly state, and companies such as Toyota, Oracle, Tesla and Apple have relocated or expanded their operations there in recent years. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s move to classify care for trans teens as “child abuse” is getting push-back from businesses such as Johnson & Johnson, Macy’s, Apple, Meta, Google, Ikea and REI.

So, who won the week?

• The Broncos traded for star QB Russell Wilson, and the winners of that trade are numerous. Broncos GM George Paton made a career-defining move and Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett now has a quarterback capable of competing in the division. Meanwhile, the Bowlen kids likely saw the value of the franchise increase in the months before its sale now that it has a true “franchise quarterback,” and Broncos fans can start dreaming of playoff wins rather than just hoping it finds its way to a 8-9 record.
• 9News is one of the big winners from Denver DA Beth McCann’s decision to drop second-degree murder charges against security guard Matthew Dolloff. He was the unlicensed security guard working for the news station during the 2020 protests when he shot and killed a man who confronted and threatened a 9News reporter and then attacked Dolloff. A trial would have dragged 9News back into the story and created another wave of anti-media and anti-9News threats.

When International Women’s Day rolls around, social media is flooded with posts from companies touting their commitment to women.

In the U.K., though, large companies are required to disclose their gender pay gaps using actual payroll data. So, of course, there is now the Gender Pay Gap Bot that shares that pay gap in response to any company that posts about their support for IWD (h/t to my colleague Kathleen Deal).

Brian Maass at CBS4: “Three veteran prosecutors with Denver’s City Attorneys Office used an internal city email and messaging system to repeatedly disparage their bosses, boast about how little they were working during their stay-at-home phase of the pandemic, confessed to misusing a criminal records database and reveled in causing a co-worker to suffer a ‘nervous breakdown’ according to disciplinary documents obtained by CBS4. Two of the three lawyers resigned during a disciplinary investigation and the third was suspended but returned to her job.” …

“Attorneys Eric Reece and Kristina Bush resigned during the investigation into their conduct. Emily Reisdorph was suspended without pay for 15 days and has resumed working for the City Attorneys Office.  All three worked in the Prosecution and Code Enforcement Section of the office. Reece was a Senior Assistant City Attorney as was Reisdorph. Bush was an Assistant City Attorney.” …

“When a Black female attorney named Kimberly resigned from her job with the City Attorney’s Office, the group named their online chat group “Kimberly Killers” and reveled in the woman’s apparent ‘nervous breakdown.’ Learning of what happened, Bush wrote to the others, “That’s the best news I’ve heard since quarantine. I feel so satisfied by this. I’ve been humming all morning. She then sent a message with a gif patting herself on the back. Reisdorph responded, ‘You can’t take credit for that all on your own. We pushed her too far… we sent her into a nervous breakdown.’ Bush boasted, ‘Because really, this is our doing.’ Administrators in the City Attorneys Office termed the conversations ‘racially insensitive.'”

So what happened to attorneys Eric Reece and Kristina Bush following their resignations? Reece is now an associate attorney at the Denver law firm Sutton Booker, and Bush is an associate attorney at Robinson & Henry in Highlands Ranch.

Randy Blauvelt, who held a number of senior communications positions in Denver with organizations such as Rocky Mountain PBS, the American Humane Association and First Nations Development Institute, has passed away. He was 67 years old.

• Former Loveland police officer Austin Hopp faces up to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree assault during the arrest of a 73-year-old woman with dementia.
• Two months after the devastating Marshall Fire, debris clean-up for Boulder County homeowners has not yet started due to a lawsuit over the selection of a controversial company.
• Westword continues to publish mug shots of individuals arrested for – but not convicted of – crimes, despite widespread acknowledgement of the damage it can do to people’s lives and the disproportionate impact on people of color. Even worse, Westword is using the mugshots as clickbait on social media.
• A disagreement over subpoena power between Denver Auditor Tim O’Brien and the Denver City Council has gone nuclear.
• United Airlines must pay $2.3 million to two flight attendants whom the airline fired for watching an iPad during a break. The pair’s attorney successfully argued that United’s disciplinary system was nonsensical and applied inconsistently.
• She may be the greatest women’s tennis player of all time, but Serena Williams is still fighting the same indignities that affect other people of color.
• Major League Baseball cancelled the first two series of the season – or “MLB has canceled the Rockies first 5 losses of the season,” as CPR’s Vic Vela put it – when owners and players were unable to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.
• A JetBlue pilot was removed from the cockpit and registered 0.17% on a breathalyzer, more than four times the limit allowed by the FAA. I’m not sure what’s scarier – a drunk pilot or the fact that the FAA allows pilots fly when they register 0.04% on a breathalyzer.

So, who won the week?

• Ten Coloradans will participate in the 2022 Winter Paralympics that start today.
• A Colorado judge has affirmed that DIA owes Adams County more than $30 million for noise violations.
• Jackson Hole lift supervisor Peter Landsman just completed his quest to ride all 2,381 chairlifts in the country. It took him 22 years, and a ski resort in remote Alaska was the toughest one to check off.
• PR agency senior account executives saw their salaries rise 25% on average, according to PRWeek’s latest salary survey.
• Prolific sci-fi and fantasy author Brandon Sanderson set a goal to raise $1 million over 30 days on Kickstarter to self-publish novels he wrote during the pandemic. He blew past his goal in 35 minutes on his way to $15.4 million in just 24 hours.

Casey Anne Nikoloric, the managing principal of the marketing and communications company TEN10 Group, has passed away. She was 68.

 

PRWeek released the results of its annual salary survey and the results show that it was a good year financially for the PR industry.

The median annual salary for public relations professionals increased from $100,000 to $110,000, a 10% increase that is the largest percentage increase since 2017:

Agency public relations professionals saw salaries grow double digits on average regardless of title, with senior account executives seeing the largest percentage increase (25%):

The Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche have not been seen on TV locally in any meaningful way for two-and-a-half years due to an ongoing dispute between rights-owner Altitude Sports and cable/satellite companies Comcast and Dish. The result is that fans are not able to see what has been two historically great years for the sports teams.

• 9News’ parent company TEGNA reached a deal to be acquired by a hedge fund, in a move that cannot portend good things for the station or its staff members.
• Following two settlements totaling $825,000 this week, the City and County of Denver has now paid more than $3 million to individuals who were injured by police during the George Floyd protests in 2020.
• The metro Denver area has not seen temperatures rise above freezing since Monday, and the forecast calls for those sub-freezing temperatures to remain until tomorrow.
• Investors in an Idaho Springs resort project that would connect the historic Argo Mill (EPA Superfund sites can be historic, right?) to a city park via a 1.2-mile gondola sued when they realized their money had disappeared from an escrow account. Put more succinctly: their money is gon-dola.
• Five weeks after relocating from California to accept the position as president of the Northern Colorado Owlz minor league baseball team and the Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC soccer team, Rosalind Aguilera is out. Aguilera and owner Jeff Katofsky apparently butted heads over a lack of resources, which Aguilera said was “a mess.” If you are an employment lawyer in Fort Collins, you’ll want to jump on this one right away.
• Golfer Phil Mickelson lost sponsors KPMG and Amstel Light after he said he was willing to work with Saudis on a golf super league even though “they killed [Washington Post columnist Jamal] Khashoggi and … they execute people over there for being gay.”
• For a moment, it appeared Applebee’s was the official sponsor of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
• Crain’s NY reported that 5WPR’s Ronn Torossian is using a news site he covertly owns to praise his clients and attack his enemies. If true, it would be an enormous ethical violation, not to mention run afoul of FTC rules.
• Bald eagles have made an amazing comeback in the U.S., but a new study found that 46% of them suffer from chronic lead poisoning. Researchers blame lead bullets used by hunters that fragment and remain in animal carcasses that are scavenged by the eagles.

So, who won the week?

• DIA unveiled a list of new restaurants that would rival any food hall in Denver. Maria Empanada, El Chingon, Rosenberg’s Bagels, Mercantile Dining & Provision and Cholon are among the restaurants that will open over the next year.
• The union representing RTD workers says it is close to finalizing an agreement that would give 25% raises over three years to its members.
• A week after learning that the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade would return to downtown for the first time in two years, the organizers of Denver’s annual Cinco de Mayo Festival announced that it too would return this year.
• The Little Nell (Aspen), Hotel Jerome (Aspen) and the Broadmoor (Colorado Springs) topped U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 list of top hotels in Colorado. And the Four Seasons, the Ritz-Carlton, the Art Hotel Denver and the Oxford Hotel topped the list of Denver-area hotels.

Boulder’s MAPRagency has unveiled an extensive rebrand that includes a new name — Comprise. The firm made the change to better communicate the firm’s full range of service offerings that include public relations, digital marketing and creative services.

“When people thought about our old brand, PR was often the only service that came to mind and our other areas of expertise got lost entirely. Plus, the ideals tied to our old name no longer matched our company’s personality,” said Jennifer Stevens, Comprise’s vice president of digital and creative services. “From a new name to alignment with our brand’s identity and evolved product and service offerings, there are many reasons to undergo the challenging but rewarding process of rebranding an organization. In our case, the new name and look describe our evolution within the shifting media landscape for the last three-plus decades.”

What would 9News be without Kyle Clark, Kathy Sabine, Marshall Zelinger, Nicole Vap, Chris Vanderveen, Kim Christiansen and Jeremy Jojola? Sadly, we may find out now that news has broken that the hedge fund Standard General LP, pending regulatory approvals, will acquire 9News parent company TEGNA for $8.6 billion. Twelve years ago, The Denver Post was acquired by another investment firm, Alden Global Capital, and it cut the Post’s newsroom by approximately two-thirds – from 250 journalists in 2010 to fewer than 70 by 2018. Is 9News facing a similar future?

Some of the most visible and respected (and compensated) television journalists in Denver may become free agents in the coming months and years, which has the potential to completely reshape television news in our city. If I am the GM at CBS4, Fox31 or Denver7, I am preparing to open my wallet to poach as many of the 9News journalists as I can in an effort to end 9News’ ratings dominance.

• The International Olympic Committee, the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Russian Olympic Committee put 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva in a no-win situation, and the result was a meltdown on an international stage. The gold medal favorite tested positive for a banned drug, but was allowed to compete in the women’s singles competition while a full review is conducted. Valieva placed fourth after a shocking performance that saw her fall twice, and the tears and agony that followed were almost unwatchable. This tragedy is now what will define the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
• The woes at DIA continue. Denver auditor Tim O’Brien released a report that found that the airport’s “process for selecting operators for its restaurant, bar, retail and passenger service locations isn’t fair and the incentive program the airport offers concessionaires should be ended.”
• Denver is officially the worst city in the country for car theft.
• NBA legend and broadcaster Charles Barkley accused Denver Nuggets fans of being “whiney” when they complain that Nikola Jokic doesn’t get the respect he deserves as the reigning league MVP.
• If you are waiting for your new luxury vehicle, it may be longer than expected. A massive cargo ship carrying 1,100 Porsches and 189 Bentleys is on fire off the coast of the Azores. The ship was due into a Rhode Island port on Wednesday.
• Kanye West is a walking train wreck in the best of circumstances, but even he recognized his stalky behavior toward his ex, Kim Kardashian, this week signaled he was spiraling. He offered a rare apology.
• Russian Olympic speed skater Daniil Aldoshkin flipped the bird to the sparse crowd following his team’s gold-medal win in Beijing. He later apologized.
• The Dallas Cowboys reached a $2.4 million settlement with four members of its cheerleading team to settle allegations that the team’s former head of PR, Richard Dalrymple, spied on them.

So, who won the week?

• There is one more Coloradan at the Winter Olympics than we realized. Northglenn Police Detective Jackie Spresser is a hockey referee in Beijing.
• Bellco and parade organizers announced that the Denver St. Patrick’s Day Parade will take place for the first time since 2019. The parade will begin at 9:30 am at 19th and Wynkoop on Saturday, March 12.
• It may be hard to imagine given the snow we’ve had in February, but Red Rocks concert season is just a few months away. This week, we learned Gary Clark Jr. and Bonnie Raitt are among those on the schedule.
• The Super Bowl on NBC averaged 112.3 million viewers, a 16% increase over last year. Also good news for NBC was that its Olympics coverage immediately following the Super Bowl averaged 24 million viewers, the single biggest ratings night for the Beijing games so far.

“(Saudis are) scary motherf—ers to get involved with. They killed (Washington Post reporter Jamal) Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates.”

U.S. golfer Phil Mickelson, acknowledging he has no principles beyond making money and rationalizing why he would join a Saudi-backed breakaway golf league to rival the PGA Tour.