• “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley used the staff meeting to introduce the show’s new executive producer Nick Bilton to accuse Bilton of having “slender qualifications” for the role. Pelley went on to say that Bilton’s boss, CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, was “murdering ’60 Minutes.’ … She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been doing exactly that.” It ended predictably – CBS News fired Pelley.
• Turkey‘s Zeynep Sönmez was injured and forced to retire from her French Open doubles match after she tripped on an advertising sign that was positioned on the back of the court.
• After C-list musical acts Milli Vanilli, Young MC and Bret Michaels withdrew from President Donald Trump‘s “Freedom 250” Concert in Washington, D.C. later this month, the president replaced them with his two favorite people: himself and country singer Lee Greenwood. Trump plans for the revised event to be a hybrid rally-concert, and he has also added a few other “musical acts,” such as Christopher Macchio performing “Wax On, Wax Off,” … oh wait, that’s Ralph Macchio … and a couple of U.S. military bands. It is astonishing even by President Trump standards that he has botched a celebration for what should be such a unifying event as the nation’s 250th anniversary.
• Country singer Morgan Wallen grew frustrated by technical difficulties at his concert in Denver and responded by flipping his piano over on-stage.
• Colorado Gov. Jared Polis commuted election denier and felon Tina Peters‘ prison sentence, claiming that it would be a unifying gesture. So naturally Peters’ first move after being released was to conduct a podcast interview with Steve Bannon where she claimed that she is a victim of political persecution and that Democrats will “cheat” in the midterm elections in November.
• FIFA expects to make more than $15 billion from this summer’s World Cup, so naturally it just filed a cease-and-desist against the Vancouver-based nonprofit Spinal Cord Injury BC forcing it to cancel a World Cup ticket fundraising raffle.
• Meanwhile, some FIFA staff are expressing concern that a last-minute decision to ban fans from bringing reusable water bottles into stadiums is being driven by financial rather than safety considerations.
• For decades, Bill Gates has employed a team of strategists, communicators and stylists to cultivate an image of “someone calm and approachable, like Mister Rogers.” That level of attention to detail helped place Gates “at the top of a 2019 survey of public figures that people look up to – ahead of the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis.” But a series of indiscretions – a high-profile divorce that included allegations of more than 20 extramarital affairs, a lengthy relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and emails released by the U.S. Department of Justice that included allegations that Gates contracted an STD and asked about antibiotics to surreptitiously give to his now-ex-wife – have shattered that image.
• The Colorado Rockies started off to an unusually strong start – they are 24-39 so far, pretty good by their standards – but Rockies things are starting to happen to the team. Rookie Ethan Holliday, the son of Rockies legend Matt Holliday who had been batting .262 with nine home runs in Single-A ball, suffered a stress fracture in his foot that has ended his season.
• Denver City Councilmember Sarah Parady announced she will resign Aug. 5 due to a debilitating medical issue that she described as a “medical mystery.” She described the illness as making “going up the stairs now … harder and more exhausting than it used to be to go up a fourteener.” Waiting until August will allow voters to select her replacement through the regular November election rather than requiring a costly one-off election prior to that.
• As if COVID, flu, hantavirus, norovirus and Ebola weren’t bad enough, a new “vomiting virus” is sweeping across the U.S.
• Victor Marx is leading the Republican primary field in Colorado for governor despite either being a “liar and a fraud” or living the most remarkable life since Audie Murphy. His political strategy of ducking debates and media was working. So why in the world would Marx put himself in the crosshairs of 9News‘ Kyle Clark not once but twice in the month leading up to the primary? Only Marx knows, but a disastrous interview followed by a disastrous performance in a full-field debate moderated by Clark almost certainly has evaporated Marx’s lead.
• Character actor James Handy, who had appeared in everything from “Top Gun: Maverick” to “West Wing,” was stabbed to death, allegedly by his girlfriend’s son. He was 81.
• The U.S. Postal Service says Los Angeles, Dallas and Denver lead the country in number of dogs biting postal carriers. I guess “going postal” works both ways now.
• U.K. Athletics, the national governing body of sports in the U.K., has been fined more than $470,000 for the corporate manslaughter of a Paralympian who was killed when a shot-put cage collapsed on him while practicing.
• Hall of Fame basketball coach Rick Adelman passed away at the age of 79. Adelman is the father of Denver Nuggets head coach David Adelman.

Who won the week?

• Denver-based firm SE2 has joined IPREX, a global communications and marketing network. IPREX gives SE2 added geographic reach, as well as access to additional diversity of insight and experience.
• 9News profiled Kristina Thomas, Community Food Share‘s Director of Communications and Public Relations.
• Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reporter Dennis Webb retired this week. His peers called him a “dang good journalist,” and I would agree based on my work with him over the years on behalf of some clients.
• Longtime Denver Post sportswriter and Colorado Rockies beat reporter Patrick Saunders accepted a buyout to leave the Post. Patrick is the son of legendary Rocky Mountain News reporter and columnist Dusty Saunders.
• Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry signed a 10-year, $400 million endorsement deal with the Chinese sports apparel company Li-Ning. It’s not all good news for Curry, though. Human rights groups allege that Li-Ning uses forced labor to produce its goods, and U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said he will ask the Department of Homeland Security to examine Li-Ning labor practices.

• Paraguayan tennis player Adolfo Daniel Vallejo has pinpointed the reason he lost to France‘s Moise Kouame at the French Open this week – the match was umpired by a woman. “This sort of match needs to be umpired by a man,” Vallejo said of the raucous, pro-France crowd. “It has to be refereed by a man, because it’s a very demanding crowd and you need a lot of strength to go against the crowd.”
• Paul Petyo, one of the 173 State of Colorado IT workers who were laid off this week, spoke to Marshall Zelinger at 9News about how he received an email invite to a mass layoff meeting three minutes before it started. The state says that media interview was a violation of its workplace policies (he was required to get departmental approval to speak to media), so the state, which again has already terminated him, then placed Petyo on administrative leave.
• For a little over 30 years, the Achilles heel at DIA is that you must ride a train to access the B and C concourses. That has been a huge issue that has prevented passengers from moving back and forth between the terminal and the concourses when power outages or other technical issues occur. It was such a problem that in 2021 the airport asked the public to provide suggestions for alternatives. Well, it took five years, but DIA just announced a solution: use existing underground tunnels to create walkways to the concourses. I’m no airport designer, but I’m not sure why it took five years to identify that one.
• Japan is giving us a look into what happens when a xenophobic, insular country drastically limits immigration in an era of declining birth rates: an “accelerating demographic crisis.” The country’s population has declined by 3.1 million people in the last five years alone, and that number pales in comparison to what is coming – a projected population decline from 123 million people in 2025 to just 87 million in 2070. Experts note that the current decline in population is already constraining Japan’s economy and putting pressure on the country’s health care system and causing labor shortages.
• The new fully electric Ferrari Luce will cost you at minimum $640,000, but that is a bargain compared to what it has cost Ferrari. The vehicle’s toy-like design sparked a flood of social media memes mocking it, which caused the carmaker’s market cap to fall 8%, or about $5 billion. Ferrari’s former president and chairman Luca di Montezemolo struggled to find something positive about the design, and could only come up with, “This is surely a car that at least the Chinese won’t copy.”
• Hours after being announced as performers at a concert on the National Mall to celebrate America‘s 250th anniversary, Morris Day and the Time, Young MC, Martina McBride, Poison’s Bret Michaels and The Commodores announced they would not be performing at what they were concerned was becoming a partisan event. The show will go on, though, with Vanilla Ice, Flo Rida and C+C Music Factory.
• Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is an NBA MVP, but he has also earned a reputation for flopping and trying to draw cheap fouls. Fans have even held up trophies shaped like an Oscar to mock his “acting” skills on the court. Now, Gilgeous-Alexander’s lawyers have sent a cease and desist letter to the makers of “Unethical Hoops,” a board game similar to classic kids game “Operation” in which a buzzer goes off anytime he is touched.
• The good news for 90s rapper Fat Joe is that he is finally getting some media attention again. The bad news is that it is because the Cleveland Cavaliers, tired of insufferable New York Knicks fans buying up courtside seats in the Cavs’ arena, revoked his tickets. Fat Joe was among at least 10 fans who were notified that they had purchased courtside tickets that were not eligible to be resold. Alas, it did not help. The Knicks swept the Cavaliers.
• We are in year four of a struggling real estate market, and many real-estate professionals are finally reaching their breaking points. The number of registered brokers is down more than 12%, while mortgage-industry employment has declined almost 40% from its peak in 2021.
• Blue Origin, the space exploration company that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos created to compete with Elon Musk‘s SpaceX, gave residents of Cape Canaveral, Fla., a beautiful fireworks show this week. Unfortunately, the eruption of orange, yellow and crimson colors in the night sky was actually the company’s new Glenn rocket exploding on the launch pad during testing.
• Controversial former Colorado Avalanche star and four-time Stanley Cup winner Claude Lemieux passed away. He was 60.
• A highly touted Los Angeles Dodgers prospect playing for the team’s Double-A affiliate in Tulsa was injured when he tripped over the team’s “bat dog” – a dog trained to retrieve bats from players who dropped them on the way to first base. The team announced they were “suspending the program,” which is a shame because “pawsing the program” was sitting right there.

Who won the week?

• Sidecar PR founder and CEO Sarah Cullen has been named a 2026 Denver Business Journal “Outstanding Woman in Business“.
• Karsh Hagan | Madden promoted Melissa Pert to Senior Vice President of Integrated Media.
• Lumen Technologies promoted Jessica Taylor to Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer.
• Tina Peters is scheduled to be released from prison on Monday.

• Steven Rosenbaum, the author of “The Future of Truth,” a nonfiction book about the effects of artificial intelligence on truth, acknowledged that he had included numerous made-up or misattributed quotes concocted by A.I. To his credit, that fact alone may illustrate more than the rest of the book what the future of truth will be.
• President Donald Trump was noncommittal about attending his son Don Jr.’s wedding this weekend, saying he would “try and make it,” but that “this is not good timing for me.” At least he didn’t say, “I’ll catch your next one.”
• Corey Hutchins‘ “Inside the News in Colorado” reports that The Denver Post‘s hedge-fund owners reached a new union agreement that gives staff a 3% raise this year and 3% next year. And then the Post abruptly announced a new round of buyouts that will eliminate another 10% of the newsroom. Granted, Alden Global Capital had already decimated the Post’s newsroom to the point that a 10% reduction represents only four employees.
• After an analysis revealed that 60% of the grades given at Harvard were “A”s, the university’s faculty voted to limit the number given to 20%.
• An investigation by 9News reporter Steve Staeger found that the Town of Hudson illegally issued $1.25 million in speeding tickets using an automated camera system that did not comply with state law. The town voted this week to void the tickets and issue refunds to those who had already paid them.
• Colorado‘s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis fancies himself a libertarian outsider capable of bridging the political divide, and nothing seemingly pleases him more than taking a contrarian position. That likely was his motivation in commuting the prison sentence of Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who was prosecuted by a Republican D.A. and convicted of four felonies and three misdemeanors by a jury of her peers in heavily Republican Garfield County. The commutation will be Polis’ legacy, and so far it is not going well. The Colorado Democratic Party voted to formally censure him, and days after commuting her sentence Vice President J.D. Vance announced that Peters is exactly who the Trump administration had in mind when it created a $1.8 billion slush fund to compensate what they say are victims of prosecutorial overreach by the Biden administration.
• Tennessee postponed the execution of a convicted murderer after staff members were unable to find a vein to administer the lethal injection drugs.
• Denver police had to respond to the Cherry Creek Shopping Center after the Swatch store was overwhelmed by fans trying to buy its newly released line of Royal Pop pocket watches. That’s bad news for the mall, but good news for Swatch, which received millions of dollars in free publicity nationwide.
• Jeff Probst, the host of the TV show “Survivor,” accidentally shared the result of upcoming episode that has not yet aired.
• The restaurant chain Atomic Cowboy agreed to pay $800,000 after it stiffed servers on pay.
• “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert hosted his final episode last night, the victim of CBS‘s efforts to placate President Donald Trump. David Letterman, who created “The Late Show,” was a guest during the final week of shows, and offered a CBS-themed farewell to the company’s executives: “In the words of the great (CBS journalist) Ed Murrow, good night and good luck, motherf*ckers!”
• A 56-year-old woman was killed when she fell into an open manhole after she stepped out of her S.U.V. in Manhattan.
• The Aurora City Council is feuding with the Aurora Police Department. Fed up with what it views as excessive social media editorializing about crime and the posting of mug shots of people charged but not convicted of crimes, the council passed an emergency resolution requiring APD to get city approval before posting on social media, sending news releases or commenting on legislation.
• A middle-aged Australian man walking down stairs to a beach became the star of an outdoor fashion show he didn’t know was taking place. As a male model sashayed down the long stairway to kick the fashion show off, the beachgoer popped out onto the stairs ahead of him and was the first “model” to cross the stage.
• Strippers in Montreal are using this weekend’s Formula 1 race as an opportunity to strike to call attention to their demands for better working conditions.
• Friends and family are mourning the death of longtime CBS4 producer Raetta Holdman.

Who won the week?

• Alyson Benn has been named Vice President of Corporate Marketing at View Homes.
• The City of Lafayette appointed Erin Frazier as the city’s new communications director.
• PRSA Colorado is accepting entries for its 2026 Gold Pick awards. The early-bird deadline is May 27, and the regular deadline is June 5.
• A new union contract with New York City hotels will result in housekeepers earning more than $100,000 annually.
• Elon Musk is poised to take his company SpaceX public, a move that likely would make him the world’s first trillionaire.

• Some New York University students have philosophical objections to 2026 graduation keynote speaker Jonathan Haidt and demanded that he be replaced. Why don’t they want him to speak at graduation? His argument that “the American education system has poorly served a generation of young people by cocooning them from ideas they might find distressing.”
• AI has significantly increased the rate of college grade inflation, and the proliferation of “A” grades is making it harder for employers to distinguish between good and great prospective employees.
• The U.S. government addressed the actions it is taking in response to the recent hantavirus outbreak, and the press conference was led by Admiral Brian Christine, MD, the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. If you are already familiar with Dr. Christine, my sympathies. The Trump administration appointee is most known for his clinical work as a penile implant specialist who hosted a YouTube series called “Erection Connection.”
• The Trump Mobile cell phone will begin shipping next week, a year later than originally promised. The $499 cell phone, which CNN reports looks suspiciously like a Chinese cell phone that retails for about $199 at Walmart, will be gold and features the Trump logo prominently.
• Recess Beer Garden in the Lower Highlands neighborhood canceled an anti-vaxxer singles event when, as 9News’ Kyle Clark put it, “word of the mixer started spreading as fast as an easily-prevented but highly-communicable disease.” If you are a fan of disease, however, there is good news. Westword reports that The Grizzly Rose has stepped in to host the event.
• A Chicago White Sox fan was hospitalized when he fell from the bleachers into the visiting Kansas City Royals‘ bullpen.
• Chick-fil-A famously is closed on Sundays so workers can enjoy the sabbath, but an employee who is a member of the United Church of God in Texas has sued the restaurant chain for refusing to give her Saturdays off so she can enjoy her sabbath.
• A White House staffer was reportedly trampled by Chinese journalists during President Donald Trump‘s trip to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
• Friends, family and Denver sports fans are mourning the death of former Denver Broncos QB Craig Morton at age 83. He led Denver to its first Super Bowl in 1977.

Who won the week?

• The Sundance Film Festival has named Bloomerang PR as its Colorado agency of record.
• Denver Business Journal reporter Analisa Romano has left the publication to focus on a freelance career.
• CBS4 anchor/reporter Kelly Werthmann is among the participants of the 2026 “Dancing with the Denver Stars,” a fundraiser for the nonprofit Cleo Parker Robinson Dance.
• Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is renaming its Littleton location after actress and Denver-native Pam Grier. The Pam Grier Cinema is officially being dedicated today to recognize her “badass career.” 
• The Colorado Rapids named Justyne Freud as the club’s first-ever senior vice president of marketing and brand strategy.
• The Colorado Avalanche came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Minnesota Wild and advance to the Western Conference Finals. If they win that series, they are in the Stanley Cup Finals.

• A cyberattack shut down Canvas, an education platform used by more than 30 million students and staff at universities and K-12 schools globally. The outage is happening at a time when many students are taking or prepping for final exams.
• The American Hotel and Lodging Association says demand for hotel rooms for the FIFA World Cup this summer is well below expectations, and the issue is a lack of visitors coming to the U.S. from other nations. As a result, the AHLA says the revenue host cities see “may fall short of expectations.”
• Thermos has recalled 8.2 million bottles because a lack of pressure-relief valves can allow the bottle tops to “explode” when opened if food and liquids are left in them for long periods of time.
• The cruise industry is bracing for a drop in passengers following a hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship that departed Argentina that has killed three passengers so far. While the contagion is isolated to South America, Florida is particularly concerned because it is home to the three busiest cruise ports in the world and generates more than $24 billion in annual cruise-related revenues.
• Five children attending a youth camp in Austria were injured when they unknowingly built a campfire on top of an unexploded bomb from World War II. The five were treated for minor injuries.
• Tabloids were heartbroken this week when actress Blake Lively and producer Justin Baldoni ended their long-running legal fight and settled just weeks before it was set to go to trial.
• A student bus driver taking a training run in Paris accidentally veered off the road and plunged into the River Seine.
• A former Chick-fil-A employee scammed a Grapevine, Texas, location out of $80,000. He was caught when the company noticed they had refunded the $80,000 to a single credit card, all for returned mac-and-cheese.
• GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen participated in the worst CNBC interview since Cadbury‘s Brad Irwin. Cohen had trouble explaining how GameStop with a market cap of $11 billion could fund a stock-and-cash deal to acquire Ebay, valued at $56 billion. The CNBC anchor did the math live on air that showed that even with $20 million in outside financing, the deal was still short $16 billion, and the best Cohen could come up with was, “We’ll see what happens.” (Hat tip to SE2‘s Eric Anderson for sharing the video).
• Finally, political polling that actually matters. A YouGov poll found that just 33% of Republicans think they could beat 79-year-old President Donald Trump in a fistfight, while 54% of Democrats think an average eight-year-old boy could beat him.
• My fellow native Atlantans and I are mourning the death of billionaire and media mogul Ted Turner. Unlike today’s generation of tech bros (I’m looking at you Zuckerberg, Musk, Bezos, et al.), Turner was a throwback to when billionaires had style. Turner founded CNN, TBS and TNT, won the America’s Cup yacht race, owned the Atlanta Braves (and served as manager for a game before MLB put a stop to it), donated $1 billion to the United Nations, founded the Goodwill Games, married Jane Fonda (she refers to him as her favorite ex-husband) and was a conservationist who amassed more than two million acres of land from Montana to New Mexico.

Who won the week?

• Denver Health named Mike DelliVeneri as Marketing Director.
• Adams County Government has named Amber Ferguson as Communications Director. She previously was Deputy Director of Communications.
• PR Week released its 2026 Agency Business Report, and among the findings:
  • Edelman is the largest PR agency in the world. Its $950 million in 2025 revenue was down 4% from 2024, though.
  • Linhart PR was the only Denver firm to report revenue to PR Week, and they came in at $2.67 million, up 7% from a year ago.
  • U.S. agency revenues increased 1% on average, while headcount dropped 2% and revenue per staff member rose 4%.
  • Three-quarters of agencies say they are using AI for idea generation, while more than two-thirds say they are using it for writing and content refinement.
• The New York Times reported that it surpassed 13 million subscribers after adding 310,000 in Q1. The company is currently on pace to meet its goal of 15 million subscribers by the end of next year.
• The 2026 Pulitzer Prizes were announced this week, and the winners included The New York Times (three awards), The Washington Post (two awards), Reuters (two awards), The Minneapolis Star Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, ProPublica/the Chicago Tribune, the Associated Press, Texas Monthly, The Dallas Morning News, Bloomberg News and the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”

• The CEO of Delta Air Lines made a classic PR mistake: he told the truth. On a recent earnings call, CEO Ed Bastian shared with analysts that the airline would maintain the higher fares caused by the war with Iran even if oil prices declined in the future. In essence, the prices you see today are the airline’s new floor.
• Economists are trying to make sense of a stagnant high-end art market even as the number of individuals considered “super rich” continues to grow and deliveries of private jets and yachts reach all-time highs. Some theorize that “the art world has become too reliant on baby boomer collectors who are past their peak buying years.” Regardless, if you’ve had your eye on a Warhol, and research into the Denver PR Blog readership indicates most have seven-figure art pieces in their homes, now is the time to make it happen.
• Police in Vancouver rejected a request to give FIFA President Gianni Infantino a “level-four motorcade escort” typically reserved for dignitaries such as the Pope. It would have meant blocking off other drivers so Infantino’s vehicle could run through red lights.
• While we have all been distracted trying to protect our trees from the emerald ash borer and the mountain pine beetle, a sneaky new invasive threat has established a stronghold – the Asian jumping worm. Ground zero of our infestation is Denver‘s Hilltop neighborhood.
• ESPN, supported by its official sports betting partner DraftKings, reports that Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby has checked into a residential treatment program for a gambling addiction.
• If there is one person you don’t want to pick a fight with, it is Kalyn Heffernan. Westword describes her as a “disability activist,” but that just scratches the surface of her influence and tenacity. Why am I mentioning her? Blame RTD. Denver‘s transit agency created a campaign that wrapped buses with visuals celebrating the Americans with Disabilities Act, and one of them was a picture of Heffernan that was used without her knowledge or consent. She had thoughts, which she shared with Westword: “It’s so tokenizing, it’s exploitative, it’s performative. … (RTD was) the first transit company to be forced to be made accessible.”
• Fans of Colorado peaches are mourning a crop that will never be. An early April deep freeze — preceded and followed by an unusually dry and warm period — destroyed peach crops across Colorado’s Western Slope. There is a silver lining: orchards in Palisade were largely unaffected.
• The futures of Denver Nuggets players and coaches are up in the air after the team lost in the first round of the playoffs, another disappointing end to a season following the team’s 2023 NBA title. A team that was expected by many to become a dynasty has since fizzled.
• Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms received the dreaded endorsement of former President Joe Biden in her effort to become governor of Georgia. The endorsement follows Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer‘s recent endorsement of Maine Gov. Janet Mills for U.S. Senate, which ended in her abandoning her campaign after failing to gain traction with voters. Dinosaurs never realize they’re dinosaurs, I guess.
• The Saudis created LIV Golf as a competitor to the PGA golf tour as an effort to elevate the country’s influence on the world’s sports stage, but after four years and $5 billion, they have decided it’s not working and will no longer fund it. That has left the tour in a “free fall” and many of the players who abandoned the PGA tour to join LIV professionally homeless. On the bright side, none of the players were choked to death, dismembered and disposed of by Saudi operatives, so they have that going for them.
• We’ve seen a lot of fights about high school mascots named after Native Americans, but here’s a new one. Residents of Lenox, Mass., a wealthy community in the Berkshires, are passionately divided about their local high school mascot, the Lenox Millionaires. Part of the divide is generational. Younger residents find the name arrogant and embarrassing, and older residents argue that changing it is erasing history. They say to never argue about religion, politics or high school mascots.
• For those of us with healthcare/health care clients, the debate as to whether it is spelled as one or two words has raged for years. For decades, AP Style has dictated two words, making life harder for us one-worders. However, this week, editors at the AP Stylebook announced it shall be spelled as one word from now on. The good news: not having to type a space is 8.33% more efficient. Think of how many other things you can now get done.
• Finally, on a profoundly sad note, the family of beloved former Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post reporter Lynn Bartels has shared that Lynn is recovering from surgery to remove a large brain tumor. The pathology report has confirmed a diagnosis of a glioblastoma, an aggressive, fast-growing form of brain cancer.

Who won the week?

• GroundFloor Media added Jess McCaa as an integrated project manager and Jojo Segura as a creative services coordinator.
• Republican attorneys general in Kansas and Indiana have joined the legal fight to block Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna on antitrust grounds.
• The North Denver bar Yacht Club was named one of the country’s 10 best, according to Food & Wine magazine.

• Diners in the Union Station neighborhood are hoping two feuding Indian food trucks will reach a naan-aggression pact before things get really ugly. Mile High Tikka and Tuk Took, which often park on the same block, are engaged in a lawsuit after initial discussions to partner fell apart and allegations of threats and theft of trade secrets were leveled.
• Who knew? Satanists and the Amish are more alike than I realized – both apparently share an aversion to technology. An Elizabeth High School student who is also a member of the Satanic Temple has won an accommodation from her school to not use its digital hall pass system because it violates the third tenet of Satanism – “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.” I’m not sure why a “digital hall pass system” violated that tenet – maybe the school was making the kids swallow it or something – but I can’t wait to see 1) how many other students quickly sign up to be Satanists and 2) what other accommodations that tenet will require.
• If you are interested in government work, might I suggest the Colorado Department of Human Services. The pay and benefits may be average, but there is a pretty decent chance that when it is time to leave, you’ll walk away with a nice financial settlement. The agency has now paid out nearly $3 million over “alleged pay, age, gender and disability discrimination, whistleblower protection violations, and retaliatory firings, among other accusations.”
• Reporter Brendan Keefe shared that he had an expense report rejected by CBS because he didn’t use the company’s preferred rental car provider while on assignment in Kirkuk, Iraq. Instead, he submitted a handwritten receipt in Arabic for the rental of one of the few cars he could find – a 1972 Toyota pickup truck – but CBS said he was supposed to use Hertz.
• If you spent more than five weeks earning your master’s degree, well, you’re a sucker. The Washington Post profiled students who are gaming the online education system to earn bachelor’s degrees in just a few months and master’s degrees in weeks.
• FIFA is outraged – OUTRAGED – that the New Jersey transit system is price-gouging World Cup soccer ticket holders by charging $150 for round-trip train service from New York City to MetLife Stadium on game days, a trip that normally costs just $12.90. For the record, it is FIFA that has perfected the art of price-gouging. Its new “dynamic pricing” ticket system introduced especially for the U.S. market has priced some World Cup tickets at more than $10,000 each.
• How bad have the Colorado Rockies been over the past few years? Last year’s World Series champions, the L.A. Dodgers, lost their first game to the Rockies and immediately implied the Rockies must be cheating to have actually beaten them.
• Has Nexstar, parent company of Fox31, acquired Tegna, parent company of 9News? Well … it’s complicated. Yes, the deal closed weeks ago, but a federal judge has now issued a preliminary injunction barring Nexstar from making changes to Tegna stations while the courts decide if the acquisition was legal. That gives 9News employees a stay of execution.
• Nike‘s official Boston Marathon slogan – “Runners welcome. Walker Tolerated” – hasn’t gone over well in the running (and walking) communities. To Nike’s credit, the slogan has gone over better than its London Marathon slogan last year – “Never Again. Until Next Year.” – that was widely criticized by Jewish groups for brand-hijacking the anti-Holocaust message, “Never again.” Sometimes companies will claim that attention was the goal, that they are playing marketing chess while those criticizing them are playing checkers, but Nike’s market cap is less than one-third of what it was just four years ago, so … no.
• Carnival Cruise Lines is warning passengers not to fish from the balconies of their suites. Carnival’s policy states that “guests caught attempting to fish on one of their ships could face a $500 fine, immediate removal from the ship at the next port and even a permanent, lifetime ban from the cruise line.”
• Power couple Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe announced they have split, ending a decade-long relationship. Bird is a basketball Hall of Famer and Rapinoe is one of the best-known women’s soccer players in the world, and together they have six Olympic gold medals and six World Cup gold medals.
• O’Dwyer’s reports that healthcare PR firms saw a 1.6% decline in revenue in 2025, as economic uncertainty, rising costs and a challenging political environment created challenges for healthcare organizations.
• A skydiver intending to parachute onto the field at the Virginia Tech spring football game was blown off course and crashed into the video scoreboard. He hung helplessly for about 15 minutes until first responders rescued him.
• Turnabout is fair play, right? A millionaire U.S. big-game hunter was trampled to death by five elephants while hunting in central Africa.

Who won the week?

• My colleague and GroundFloor Media founder Laura Love is among the 10 honorees for the Girl Scouts‘ 2026 Denver Women of Distinction awards.
• Former 9News anchor and SE2 communications consultant Bazi Kanani has been named the new host of CPR‘s “Morning Edition.”
• Westword food editor Molly Martin is stepping down after five years, and will be replaced by frequent Westword contributor Antony Bruno. Meanwhile, the publication is seeking freelance food and wine writers.
• Lancôme sent more than 1,000 influencers and content creators free products, but addressed the packages to celebrities such as Demi Moore and Kate Hudson. The result was social media videos of influencers sharing the packages and joking about the “mix-up.” Stunt marketing at its best.

• It was a bad week for narco-hippos. Colombian officials green-lighted a plan to cull dozens of hippos that roam freely in the country. The hippos are descendants of those first brought to Colombia by notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.
• ABC‘s “Good Morning America” broadcast live from the top of Pikes Peak this morning, but many Denver viewers weren’t able to see it. ABC and Xfinity remain in a standoff that has removed ABC channels from the cable service.
• LIV Golf, the upstart, Saudi-backed golf league that sent shock waves through the American PGA tour by luring away many top stars, is suffering its own shock waves this week. Rumors are that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will withdraw funding from LIV Golf starting next year, a move that could cause the league to collapse entirely.
• President Donald Trump picked an unexpected fight with Pope Leo in a move that is dividing American Catholics. I feel like President Trump is just months away from going full “Church of England” and forming his own religion.
  • Not wanting to only alienate Catholics, President Trump also posted an A.I.-generated photo that portrayed him as Jesus, causing a firestorm among evangelicals. He later took the post down, which is as close to an apology as he gets.
• A former Alabama football player is facing charges of wire fraud and identity theft after he allegedly used wigs and fake driver’s licenses to impersonate NFL players. Luther Davis managed to secure nearly $20 million in loans with his Tyler Perry-like scheme.
• A federal jury found that concert promoter Live Nation illegally monopolized the ticketing process for concerts in the U.S. The ruling is a win for a group of states including Colorado that alleged that Live Nation overcharged consumers and pressured music venues to use its proprietary ticketing service.
• Washington, D.C., politicians better get ready – celebrity gossip site TMZ announced it has opened a D.C. bureau.
  • In this week’s edition of Unexpected Celebrity Feuds, we have U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and comedian Dave Chappelle, who criticized the lawmaker for using a selfie they took together to “weaponize” his transgender jokes for political gain.
  • New York Times/The Athletic reporter Dianna Russini resigned amid a probe into her relationship with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel. And the reverberations are continuing. USA Today fired sports columnist Crissy Froyd after she apparently engaged in a little too much schadenfreude related to Russini’s departure.
• Singer Sabrina Carpenter apologized for confusing a fan’s “zaghrouta” — a high-pitched call used in some Arab cultures to express joy — for a “yodel” and calling it “weird” during her performance at Coachella. She posted on social media, “My apologies. … Now I know what a zaghrouta is! I welcome all cheers and yodels from here on out.”
• Ford is recalling 1.4 million F-150 pickup trucks due to a gearshift issue.
• Door Dash tried to get cute by participating in a marketing stunt with President Donald Trump, but it apparently hasn’t been paying attention to politics since 2016. If it had, it would have known that your chances of getting burned when collaborating with President Trump sit at about 90%. A Door Dash delivery driver delivered fast food to the Oval Office in a photo op to promote the president’s “No Tax on Tips” initiative, but the situation took a turn when President Trump starting asking her to weigh in on transgender athletes in sports.
• Is someone kidnapping or killing U.S. scientists who have access to top-secret aerospace, defense and UFO information? U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) thinks so.

Who won the week?

• Amy Daly has accepted the Director of Donor Engagement position at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver.
• The Society of Professional Journalists’ national organization has renamed its award for ethics in journalism after former Denver Post reporter Fred Brown. A fitting honor.
• There was a time when NBC‘s Brian Williams was among the most recognizable journalists in the country, and then a scandal where he exaggerated his experiences in a war zone sunk his career. Williams is attempting to return to public prominence with a new video podcast on Netflix.
• The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism, a nonprofit dedicated to keeping newspapers alive, acquired the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette just a month before it was set to shut down. The Post-Gazette traces its history back to The Pittsburgh Gazette, which was founded in 1786. 
• The University of Denver won its 11th national championship in hockey – and its third in the last five years – by defeating the University of Wisconsin 2-1.
• The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2026 inductees, and the honorees will be Phil Collins, Billy Idol, Joy Division/New Order, Iron Maiden, Oasis, Sade, Luther Vandross and Wu-Tang Clan.
• Put the NASA Public Affairs team on the short list for 2026 PR Team of the Year. Coverage of the Artemis II mission was immense and overwhelmingly positive, two things NASA needed as it has fallen off of the front pages over the past few years.

• Organizers of the three-day Wireless Music Festival in the U.K. were forced to cancel the event after sponsors Pepsi and Diageo withdrew when Kanye West was announced as the headliner and British officials then blocked West from entering the country, “saying his presence in the U.K. would not be conducive to the public good.”
• After losing to head coach Dawn Staley and the University of South Carolina Gamecocks in the women’s NCAA basketball Final Four, legendary University of Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma went full pout mode and tried to pick a fight with Staley. It was an astonishing moment from Auriemma, who holds the NCAA record for women’s basketball championships. His first apology didn’t go well, but his second seems to have smoothed things over.
• ESPN is blaming its recent carriage dispute with YouTube TV for its latest round of layoffs. The broadcaster said the 15-day blackout caused an “unexpected revenue dip last fall.” ESPN was quiet about what role its recent $3 billion acquisition of the NFL Network may have had on its need to conduct layoffs. Meanwhile, Disney is preparing to cut 1,000 positions.
• The Atlantic gave a reporter $10,000 to bet so he could examine the world of online gambling. He says it turned him into a “degenerate gambler.”
• Photos of New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel and New York Times/The Athletic NFL reporter Dianna Russini holding hands and hugging at a luxury resort in Arizona have made a number of headlines. In addition to the fact that both are married to other people, Russini is a journalist who covers Vrabel and his team.
• CBS announced who will replace Stephen Colbert‘s late-night show at the end of May: “Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.” It will be interesting to compare Colbert’s ratings to the new show.
• The NHL‘s Dallas Stars have banned a fan who bought tickets for a group of spectators who celebrated a goal with a Nazi salute.
• It’s only April, but our historically dry spring has already caused cities including Denver, Aurora, Castle Rock and Thornton to implement water restrictions.
• FIFA, soccer’s governing body, has long considered the U.S. the most lucrative market in the world to host World Cups and they host events here regularly when it is time to refill the organization’s coffers. This year’s men’s World Cup has set a new standard for putting the screws to U.S. fans. First, it was a controversial dynamic pricing model that escalated the price of nearly every ticket, and now World Cup ticket buyers are accusing FIFA of “misleading” them with stadium maps that misrepresented the potential location of seats they bought. Hey, those FIFA Peace Prize trophies aren’t cheap.
• What do you get if you cross competitive cycling with MMA? Kiaan Watts, apparently. The New Zealand cyclist has been suspended for 25 days by the sport’s governing body for punching a fellow rider in the head during a race in the Netherlands.
• From “fake it until you make it” to “fake it until you are indicted.” This is the Colorado journalism story of the year.

Who won the week?

• Linhart PR founder Sharon Linhart is among five journalism and PR leaders who will be honored by the Denver Press Club at its annual Hall of Fame awards. The others are Denver Post Editor Lee Ann Colacioppo, Denver Press Club historian and author Alan Kania, longtime Denver journalist Linda Carpio Shapley and Colorado Springs Gazette Managing Editor Jim Trotter.
• Dovetail Solutions has promoted Alex Busuttil to Senior Director of Client Services and Whitney Conaghan to Director of Client Services.
• Two of the three primary owners of the Denver Broncos – Greg and Carrie Walton Penner – have acquired a 40% stake in the Colorado Rockies. Let’s hope their business and sports savvy are put to good use with the baseball team.
• Former Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone has been hired as the head coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, one of college basketball’s most iconic teams.
• The University of Denver Pioneers won a double-overtime game against the University of Michigan to advance to the NCAA hockey championship game. They will face the University of Wisconsin Badgers in the finals.
• March Madness has ended, and the University of Michigan men and the UCLA women emerged victorious.

• If you are friends with an editor of The Wall Street Journal, kindly explain what “Crisis PR” is. The newspaper published an article headlined, “How a Massive KitKat Heist Turned Into Crisis PR Gold” that alleged that the theft of approximately $700,000 worth of KitKats was a “crisis.” In fact, thieves hijacking your product is an odd compliment and ultimately nothing more than a stunt marketing opportunity.
• Sacré Bleu! When an Air Canada jet had a fatal collision with a fire truck a couple of weeks ago at LaGuardia Airport in New York, we all knew someone would pay the price. What we didn’t expect – or at least I didn’t – was that it would be Michael Rousseau, the CEO of Air Canada who was forced to resign for the crime of not releasing a video expressing condolences in French.
• Comedian Kevin Hart was the latest celebrity to be honored at the deceptively named Hollywood Wax Museum located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Unfortunately, his likeness was not to his liking, and he shared his thoughts on social media: “This s— has to stop…. I demand a redo damn it!!!!”
• Xfinity subscribers in Denver are without Denver7 and other E.W. Scripps-owned channels as the two companies are locked in a contract dispute.
• It looked for a moment like rogue U.S. Army helicopter pilots who freelanced a fly-by at the Tennessee home of Kid Rock were going to be held accountable. The Army issued a statement saying, it “takes any allegations of unauthorized or unsafe flight operations very seriously and is committed to enforcing standards and holding personnel accountable.” But Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had the final word, posting to social media, “No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots.”
• Tiger Woods was arrested last Friday for DUI after he flipped his SUV, and this accident marked at least the fourth time he has been responsible for an accident that was suspected to involve impairment. A 2017 DUI charge was reduced to reckless driving, and the L.A. Sheriff’s Department is under renewed scrutiny for letting Woods walk without even being tested after a 2021 rollover accident. His arrest on Friday made additional headlines when body camera footage caught Woods telling the responding officers that he “was just talking to the president” on his cell phone as they arrived. 
• President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, the second cabinet member to be removed by the president. As The Wall Street Journal editorial board shared, “Is there a worse job in Washington, D.C., than Attorney General under President Trump? … The President wants someone who will do his bidding, which is proper on policy issues. The problem is that he also wants an AG who will indict his political enemies and stretch the limits of the law to serve his political goals.”
• If you have been in Denver long enough, you know that Denver Post reporter Fred Brown was the absolute authority on all things local politics. Sadly, he passed away this week at age 85.
• CNN‘s daily-average-gas-price tracker shows the average cost of a gallon of gas in the U.S. has increased $1.10 to $4.08 – 37% – since the start of the Iran war.
• Kim Bimestefer, the head of the Colorado agency that oversees Medicaid, hastily resigned this week just ahead of a no-confidence vote in the state Senate. Her focus on ruthlessly cutting payments to providers while simultaneously dealing with multiple misspending scandals on her watch ultimately undermined confidence in her leadership.
• Our state’s (usually) cold spring weather means that the Colorado Rockies‘ home opener is always a week or two after the season starts. This year, the Rockies limp into their home opener at 2-4, tied for last place in the division. They haven’t had a winning record when playing their home opener since 2019.

Who won the week?

• Andrea Burns has been promoted to chief impact officer at Urban Land Conservancy. What prepares someone to be successful in such an important position? Previous communications roles at the City and County of Denver, Jefferson County, National Western Center and GroundFloor Media, of course. That’s like having a dozen MBAs.
• Linhart PR Managing Partner Paul Raab is celebrating his 20th anniversary with the agency. He joined in 2006 as a senior vice president and was named managing partner in 2016.
• Philosophy Communications is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
• SideCar PR’s Sarah Cullen has joined the Downtown Denver Partnership‘s 2026 Board of Governors.
• Baltimore-based Collins + Co. has opened an office in Denver, which is led by chief of creative Carli Cohen and VP of marketing Melissa Novitski.
• Westword named Corey Hutchins‘ “Inside the News in Colorado” newsletter as the “Best Journalism About Colorado Journalism.”
• The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters‘ nine-year prison sentence was calculated improperly and that she should receive a new sentencing hearing. The judges said that Peters’ lengthy sentence was based in part on an attempt to silence her voter-fraud conspiracy theories, which violated her First Amendment rights. It’s not all good news for Peters, though. Her convictions stand and the same judge who sentenced her the first time is responsible for re-sentencing her.
• April Fools’ Day was Wednesday, and Eric Anderson of SE2 share one of his favorite jokes from the University of Denver: formally announcing that the school and the City of Denver had reached an agreement to allow a Buc-ees at I-25 and University Boulevard.