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  • Hunter Goodman’s career night, Austin Gomber’s strong start lead Rockies past Cubs

    Hunter Goodman’s career night, Austin Gomber’s strong start lead Rockies past Cubs

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    Hunter Goodman was working on a nice game when he stepped into the batters’ box in the bottom of the eighth inning.

    He made a career night with one more swing.

    Goodman’s go-ahead grand slam was the exclamation point on a 9-5 victory Friday night for the Colorado Rockies against the Chicago Cubs in front of 38,406 at Coors Field. It was Goodman’s second home run of the game and his third hit. He had seven runs batted in, the most by a Colorado hitter since Elias Diaz had seven in a Sept. 9, 2022 game against Arizona.

    The Rockies’ bullpen has been a strength of late, but Michael Busch crushed a three-run homer off reliever Victor Vodnik to pull the Cubs even in the eighth inning. Chicago had put two guys on with no outs twice since the first inning without scoring, but Busch left no doubt with a moonshot into the second deck in right field.

    Adalyn Gomber’s dad didn’t work out his first-inning issues while on leave for her birth, but he pieced together an excellent outing in his first start back.

    Austin Gomber allowed a pair of runs on three hits and a walk in the first inning. He’s now allowed 33 runs on 47 hits and 12 walks in 28 first innings, an ERA of 10.61.

    He now has a 2.84 ERA in the 130 innings he’s pitched after the first this season.

    Gomber entered the game with an MLB-high 27 home runs allowed. A big key to this one: He kept the ball in the field of play, while the Cubs pitchers could not.

    The Cubs had multiple chances against Gomber after the first inning, but he induced an inning-ending double play in the fourth and then got back-to-back-to-back weak fly ball outs after the first two guys reached base in the sixth.

    Goodman had the big hit during a three-run second inning to put the Rockies in front. His 430-foot, two-run homer to left field gave Colorado a 3-2 advantage. Brendan Rodgers got the Rockies on the board with a double down the left-field line that scored Ryan McMahon before Goodman’s two-out heroics.

    Goodman also pushed across the club’s fourth run in the fourth inning with a soft line drive to left that plated Michael Toglia. He didn’t miss another home run by much in the sixth inning, sending Cubs centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong toward the wall with a 401-foot out that would have been gone in five of the 30 MLB parks.

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    Corey Masisak

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  • Here’s every musician with a beef or lawsuit against Donald Trump

    Here’s every musician with a beef or lawsuit against Donald Trump

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    There’s a lengthy list of musicians who have taken issue with Donald Trump over his presidential campaigns using their songs — and it only continues to grow. Dozens of artists and bands, from ABBA and Elton John to Rihanna and Paul McCartney, have publicly condemned Donald Trump since 2015 for playing their songs at his events and rallies…

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    Benjamin Leatherman

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  • Colorado high school football scoreboard: Week 3

    Colorado high school football scoreboard: Week 3

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    Thursday night scores

    Columbine 35, Fossil Ridge 21

    Grand Junction Central 34, Eagle Valley 0

    Kennedy 62, Lincoln 0

    Mountain View 45, Mountain Range 3

    Roosevelt 42, Ponderosa 24

    The Academy 43, Alameda 0

    Vista PEAK Prep 49, Lakewood 0

    Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

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    The Denver Post

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  • CSU Rams announce decision to join Pac-12 Conference

    CSU Rams announce decision to join Pac-12 Conference

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    CSU is joining a revamped and re-stocked Pac-12 Conference.

    According to a report published late Wednesday night by Yahoo Sports, the long-standing collegiate league, which was ravaged by membership defections — including that of the CU Buffs — over the past 18 months, is moving forward with plans to expand.

    The first wave of that expansion includes four of the top athletic brands from the Mountain West: CSU, Boise State, San Diego State and Fresno State, will all four becoming members on July 1, 2026.

    “We are taking control of our future at CSU by forming an alliance of six peer institutions who will serve as the foundation for a new era of the Pac-12,” CSU President Amy Parsons said in a news release announcing the move.

    “This move elevates CSU in a way which benefits all our students, bolsters our core mission, and strengthens our reputation for academic and research excellence. CSU is honored to be among the universities asked to help carry on the history and tradition of the Pac-12 as a highly competitive conference with some of the nation’s leading research institutions.”

    The Rams, whose football program hosts rival CU in the Rocky Mountain Showdown for the first time at Canvas Stadium on Saturday, are a founding member of the Mountain West Conference, a league which began operations in January 1999.

    By accepting an invitation from the Pac-12, CSU will gain association with what the athletic department has sought for decades — membership within a “power” conference.

    “This moment has been a long time coming,” CSU authentic director John Weber said. “I know our students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and fans are hungry for this move and are going to love what comes next as CSU charts a transformational new course as a member of the Pac-12.”

    The Pac-12, which was founded in 1915, has historically been the most prestigious collegiate league west of the Central time zone. However, that prestige, and indeed its membership, were crippled by the defections of CU, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State to the Big 12; USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten; and Stanford and Cal to the ACC.

    Washington State and Oregon State were left with the conference’s holdings, trademarks and media rights. Per Yahoo Sports, the remaining Pac-12 programs believe they can rebuild the brand with the likes of the Rams, Aztecs, Broncos and Bulldogs as peers.

    They’re also not done looking at new members, as the NCAA requires a minimum of eight schools to qualify as an FBS conference.

    CSU football plays at Oregon State on Oct. 5 as part of a scheduling alliance between the MW and the remains of the Pac-12, a partnership that Yahoo Sports reports will not continue for a second fall.

    Mountain West members are contracted to pay a $17 million exit fee to leave the league.

    The primary motivations for CSU are the same reasons CU left the Pac-12 this past summer — money, prestige, potential access to the College Football Playoff, and stability.

    While the mass defections from the Pac-12 would denounce the latter, Yahoo Sports reports that the remaining Pac-12 members feel a new-look league would reach a media rights agreement worth more than the current or expected payouts presented to MW members.

    The Mountain West has a $270 million television contract with CBS and Fox that runs through 2026.

    Published reports have estimated that non-Boise members of the MW, including CSU, receive roughly $3.5 million annually from that deal, with the Broncos receiving an additional $1.8 million per year.

    CSU noted in its financial report to the NCAA for the 2022-23 fiscal year, the most recent public report available, that its media rights revenues from all sources, including conference distributions, was $3.3 million.

    The Yahoo Sports report infers that the Rams could also have access to Pac-12 assets such as “monies from the Rose Bowl contract, College Football Playoff, NCAA basketball tournament units and Pac-12 Enterprises, previously the Pac-12 Network.”

    CSU indicated in its announcement Thursday morning that the four new schools “will have immediate voting privileges” within the conference.

    “We have nothing but the utmost respect and appreciation for the Mountain West and its members,” Parsons said. “There will be conversations going forward about the Mountain West exit fees and Pac-12 support for our transition. We are confident the path forward will not impact our current university budget and will set CSU up for incredible opportunities to come.”

    However, the two-team Pac-12 recently lost its status as a Power 5/”autonomous” conference within the CFP — and it’s not clear whether supplementing the expanded league with Group of 5 programs would restore those privileges.

    CSU athletics reported revenues of $64.3 million to the NCAA for the ’22-23 fiscal year this past January. The Rams’ revenues of $61.2 million, per a USA Today database, ranked fourth among known MW athletics budgets in ’21-22, behind Air Force, San Diego State and UNLV. Wazzu and Oregon State had revenues of $85 million and $83.5 million in ’21-22, respectively.

    Originally Published:

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Wisconsin recalls eggs after a salmonella outbreak in 9 states including Colorado

    Wisconsin recalls eggs after a salmonella outbreak in 9 states including Colorado

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    Wisconsin health officials initiated a recall of eggs following an outbreak of salmonella infections among 65 people in nine states — including Colorado — that originated on a Wisconsin farm.

    The Wisconsin Department of Health Services said in a statement Friday that among those infected by salmonella are 42 people in Wisconsin, where the eggs are believed to have been sold.

    “The eggs were distributed in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan through retail stores and food service distributors,” the department said. “The recall includes all egg types such as conventional cage-free, organic, and non-GMO, carton sizes, and expiration dates in containers labeled with ‘Milo’s Poultry Farms’ or ‘Tony’s Fresh Market.’”

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed in a statement on its website that 65 people in nine states were infected by a strain of salmonella, with 24 hospitalizations and no deaths as of Friday. The states include Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Virginia, Colorado, Utah and California, the agency said.

    One case has been reported in Colorado to date, according to the CDC.

    The egg recall was undertaken by Milo’s Poultry Farms LLC of Bonduel, Wisconsin, the CDC said.

    “Anyone who purchased the recalled eggs is advised to not eat them or cook with them and to throw them away. Restaurants should not sell or serve recalled eggs,” the Wisconsin health department said.

    The department advised anyone who ate the eggs and is experiencing symptoms to contact a health care provider. Symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever and vomiting lasting for several days, the statement said.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture in July announced new measures to limit salmonella in poultry products. The proposed directive included requiring poultry companies to keep salmonella levels under a certain threshold and test for the presence of six particularly sickening forms of the bacteria, three found in turkey and three in chicken.

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    The Associated Press

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  • “Are You Saying No to Elon Musk?”: Scenes from the Slash-and-Burn Buyout of Twitter

    “Are You Saying No to Elon Musk?”: Scenes from the Slash-and-Burn Buyout of Twitter

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    At around 9:00 a.m. on October 27, 2022, Parag Agrawal, the CEO of Twitter, summoned his leadership team into one of the large glass-doored conference rooms that lined the suite of offices on the seventh floor of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters. After months of tension and worry, there was a grim clarity in the air—Musk was finally completing the acquisition.

    Twitter’s top-ranking employees crammed into the room. Agrawal’s deputies were there, as well as vice presidents from finance, product, human resources, and sales. Even more executives dialed in on video conference from New York and around the globe, their faces tiling the screen at the end of the room.

    It was clear to everyone there that it was Agrawal’s last meeting. He sat at the conference room table, CFO Ned Segal by his side. The mood was somber—everyone in the room understood that many among them might soon be swept away by Elon Musk’s tsunami.

    No one was more likely to be fired than Agrawal. For months, Musk had made clear his disdain for Twitter’s chief executive in barbed tweets, curt text messages, and explosive video calls. Agrawal had taken most of Musk’s outbursts quietly, advised by Twitter’s battalion of lawyers not to argue with the billionaire or speak about the deal to employees—or even executives—because anything he said might leak to the media.

    After months of near-silence to the wider group, Agrawal spoke, remaining calm and analytical. “We might close today,” he announced. The court-imposed deadline for Musk to complete the transaction was the next day, Friday, but it seemed he could get it done a day early. Agrawal told the executives he was proud of what they’d accomplished.

    There was no agenda, he told everyone, and opened the discussion. “What’s going to happen now?” one executive in attendance asked. Segal tried to explain how the closing would work but said candidly that no one could be sure. After all, the man on the other side of the transaction was unpredictable.

    There was plenty of work left to do to finalize the deal, but Agrawal allowed Twitter’s leaders to riff, share, and ask anything they wanted. They had never had a meeting quite like it before. Sales executives wanted to know what they should tell advertisers. Human resources leaders wanted to know what they could tell employees, and when they were allowed to share any information.

    Then one of the employees in the room broached the question that everyone was thinking but no one dared say: “What’s going to happen to you guys?”

    Segal repeated the same line he’d told employees before. “I haven’t talked to him,” he said. “I’ll remain open until I do.” Agrawal nodded along.

    “Each of you needs to make your own decision,” Agrawal said.

    The executives had endless questions, but their leaders had few answers.

    Segal could sense their frustration and, after months of facing unanswerable questions, he cracked. Fighting to keep his composure, he told them he didn’t know what was coming next. “People remember how you handle yourself when it’s hard, not when it’s easy,” he said, his voice choking with emotion. He tried to express the weight of the responsibility all of them had—to the company and to each other—to see the sale through.

    Several of the executives in the room were startled to see Segal, normally polished, perky, and on message, get emotional. As the meeting ended, some of them embraced each other, while others hung back to say their goodbyes to their bosses.

    Antonio Gracias, a private equity investor who was Musk’s close friend and de facto finance shepherd in the deal, had told Twitter’s team on Wednesday that he had all the money in place to close the transaction. It was a pleasant surprise to Segal, who, upon learning that Gracias had the funds, nudged the board. They should move up the close, the chief financial officer suggested. Finishing the transaction early would leave Musk one less day to back out. While Twitter’s leadership had no idea where some of Musk’s money was coming from—new, undisclosed investors had joined Musk’s take-private effort—they were more than willing to take his $44 billion.

    Members of Twitter’s finance teams had adopted a gallows humor approach to the deal and made a joke of trying to track Musk’s money. When he sold new tranches of Tesla stock and filed the required public disclosures of the transactions, they tallied up his funds, trying to figure out if Musk had enough cash on hand to buy their company. At one point, Musk’s lawyers also accidentally sent Twitter’s finance team a full spreadsheet of all the people and investment firms from which they solicited money. That screwup was immediately followed by a legal threat to the Twitter recipients to delete the email and its contents.

    Of course, there was no way of knowing where the billionaire kept all his money or how he planned to use it. Twitter employees debated whether Musk was sitting on a secret stash of cryptocurrency or had obtained fresh margin loans using his private SpaceX shares as collateral. The Wall Street Journal later reported that Musk borrowed $1 billion from SpaceX that October, paying the money back with interest the following month.

    To Twitter, it didn’t really matter where Musk’s money came from—so long as he paid. But given how many agreements Musk had already tried to break, nothing was certain. There was a world where the richest man on earth, they believed, could test the court-appointed deadline by saying he simply did not have the available funds to do the deal.

    In a normal transaction, the buyer would be transparent with the seller about where his funds were flowing from. But Musk, in what Twitter executives believed was an effort to protect his investors from scrutiny, had dumped all the funds into a single account so that Twitter couldn’t trace their origins.

    On a call with Segal and Twitter’s finance executives and lawyers on Thursday, Gracias changed his tune. His boss was actually short, Gracias explained. Musk was missing more than $400 million, and Gracias demanded that Twitter wire money from its own coffers to Musk so that the deal could close. Segal was dumbfounded. Robert Kaiden, Twitter’s strait-laced chief accounting officer, and the half dozen other people who listened in to the conversation couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

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    Kate Conger and Ryan Mac

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  • What Right-Wing Influencers Actually Said in Those Tenet Media Videos

    What Right-Wing Influencers Actually Said in Those Tenet Media Videos

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    In hundreds of videos since taken down by YouTube, right-wing influencers working for Tenet Media—a company the US Department of Justice alleges was financed and guided by a state-backed Russian news network—showed interest in a highly specific set of topics, according to a WIRED analysis.

    Using closed captioning of the videos we downloaded before the videos were removed, we’ve compiled lists of terms frequently mentioned in them, along with a searchable database:

    The content of these videos was described by prosecutors as “consistent” with Russia’s aim of sowing political discord in the US. Among the areas covered: free speech, illegal immigrants, diversity in video games, supposed racism toward white people, and Elon Musk.

    While an indictment unsealed earlier this week does not name Tenet, WIRED and other outlets were able to identify it because prosecutors gave its motto as that of a business identified as “U.S. Company-1.” Prosecutors allege that two employees of the state-backed Russian network RT, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, who are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, paid Tenet and its parent company $9.7 million to produce and distribute videos supporting Russian aims. The vast majority of that money allegedly went to Tenet’s network of popular influencers, which included Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern.

    The influencers are not accused by the government of wrongdoing. Johnson, Pool, Rubin, and fellow talents Tayler Hansen and Matt Christiansen issued statements denying awareness of the alleged Russian influence scheme and portraying themselves as its victims. (They have not responded to requests for comment.) Prosecutors say that right-wing personality Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan, Canadian nationals who founded Tenet—the two, who have not been charged with any crime, go unnamed in the indictment but are tied to the business through corporate records—were aware they were working with Russians and failed to register “as an agent of a foreign principal, as required by law.” The indictment alleges that the pair, who were not indicted, did not inform the influencers or other Tenet employees about the source of their funding.

    Nonetheless, Afanasyeva, using fake personae, “edited, posted, and directed the posting by [Tenet] of hundreds of videos,” the indictment says. The indictment does not identify specific videos as allegedly influenced by the RT employees, but prosecutors say they were intimately involved in Tenet’s editorial process: “While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying US domestic divisions in order to weaken US opposition to core Government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine.”

    To determine what specifically the Russian government is alleged to have funded, WIRED downloaded the closed captioning transcripts from 405 long-form videos posted on Tenet’s YouTube channel—you can access the file here—and used natural language processing to identify common themes. These 405 video transcripts represent nearly every long-form video available on the channel. We were not able to analyze approximately 1,600 YouTube shorts before the channel was removed from the site. We analyzed the data looking for the most frequently occurring two-, three-, and four-word phrases in each video, excluding words like “um” that don’t carry much meaning. (“Um” appears in the dataset 2,340 times.)

    This analysis does not show that in these videos the influencers were particularly fixated on the Ukraine war—the word “Ukraine” appears in the transcripts 67 times, about as often as “misinformation,” “Christianity,” and “Clinton.” It does show the influencers stressing highly divisive culture war topics in the videos, which carried titles like “Trans Widows Are a Thing and It’s Getting OUT OF HAND” and “Race Is Biological But Gender Isn’t???” The word “trans” appears 152 times, and “transgender” 98.

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    Tim Marchman, Dhruv Mehrotra

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  • X Is Working With a GOP Consulting Firm

    X Is Working With a GOP Consulting Firm

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    X appears to be working with a well-known Republican consulting group, seemingly to handle the messaging around the social media platform’s suspension in Brazil.

    When WIRED emailed X for comment about the rapidly evolving situation in Brazil, a reply came from Michael Abboud, the managing director of the conservative consulting and public relations firm, Targeted Victory. According to his LinkedIn, Abboud worked for the State Department in the last year of the Trump administration and as press secretary for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s campaign.

    Targeted Victory has had contracts with several Republican campaigns and political action committees (PACs) this election season to the tune of over $75 million, according to OpenSecrets. The group’s largest client is the Republican National Committee, which spent $11,128,739 on the firm between January 2023 and May 2024.

    In his emailed reply, Abboud referred WIRED to a company statement from X about the suspension of the platform in Brazil, and said to reach out with further questions.

    Elon Musk, X’s owner, has become more overt about his personal political views in recent months. In July, shortly following the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump, Musk said he would be backing his candidacy for president. He then said he’d establish a PAC to support Trump to the tune of $45 million per month (he later backpedaled on the exact amount).

    WIRED reached out to Targeted Victory and Abboud directly, and neither immediately responded to a request for comment.

    X would not be the first tech company to work with the group. In 2022, reporting from the Washington Post found that Meta had hired Targeted Victory to run a campaign to sour public opinion on TikTok. The messaging campaign focused on framing TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, as a threat to Americans’ privacy and to the mental health of teens and children.

    An emailed response from Targeted Victory on behalf of X is particularly notable; when journalists contact the press team at X, they rarely receive a reply. When Musk took over Twitter in 2022, one of his first moves as CEO was to lay off a substantial number of the company’s 6,000 employees. That move not only included the vast majority of the platform’s trust and safety team, the people who keep hate speech and disinformation off the platform, but also the company’s communications team.

    For nearly a year, the auto response to the press email returned the poop emoji. More recently, the auto-response says “Busy now, please check back later.”

    But X and Musk have been having an unusually rough time in the public eye over the past few weeks. After X violated an April court order from the Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE) requiring the company to remove certain accounts and content that the court said spread disinformation about the integrity of the country’s elections, Judge Alexandre de Moraes ordered access to the platform blocked in Brazil. The country is X’s third largest market, and for months, Musk has railed against Moraes online, calling him a dictator, accusing the court of censorship, and even comparing him to the Harry Potter villain Lord Voldemort.

    Meanwhile, Nick Pickles, the company’s head of global affairs, announced on Thursday that he was resigning, and investors are saying that their investments in the company are performing substantially worse than any had predicted.

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    Vittoria Elliott

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  • Elon Musk Has Backed Himself Into a Corner in Brazil

    Elon Musk Has Backed Himself Into a Corner in Brazil

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    Less than two years after taking over Twitter, now X, Elon Musk has managed to lose the company access to its third largest market and reportedly over 40 million users. And despite his bravado online, he seems to have backed himself into a corner.

    Brazil’s decision to block X is the culmination of an ongoing conflict between Musk and the country’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE)–a special court run by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes that issued take down orders on content that it considers to be a threat to the integrity of its elections. Musk and X refused to comply, allowing accounts that were accused of spreading hate speech and disinformation to remain on the platform, a move that eventually triggered the ban.

    Starlink was caught in the crosshairs too: The court froze the assets of Musk’s other company, saying that it was part of the same “economic group” as X given its ownership, for possible use to pay off fines owed by X. When the block came into effect Monday, Starlink allowed its customers—over 250,000 people, according to the company— to circumvent the X ban by using its satellite internet connection. After initial resistance, Starlink backed down and said it would comply. Experts who spoke to WIRED say that increasingly, it seems that Musk has overplayed his hand.

    “I think he is realizing Brazilians are not going to take to the streets because X is suspended,” says Nina Santos, a researcher at the Brazilian National Institute of Science & Technology for Digital Democracy. “Brazilian institutions are not going to back off just because Musk is cursing online.”

    In response to a request for comment an X spokesperson directed WIRED to a post from the platform’s Global Affairs team. “To our users in Brazil and around the world, X remains committed to protecting your freedom of speech,” the post reads in part.

    Meanwhile, Musk has continued to antagonize the court. Last week, he posted a seemingly AI-generated image of Moraes behind bars (which was later deleted), with the accompanying text alleging, “One day, Alexandre, this picture of you in prison will be real,” and another comparing him to the Harry Potter villain Voldemort.

    “Ever since April, he has been toying with the image of Moraes, the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and escalated in a problematic way,” alleges Bruna Santos, a researcher and activist with the civil society coalition Coalizão Direitos na Rede in Brazil. “He was fully aware and he knew what the consequences would be.”

    WIRED reported how employees scrambled to avoid a legal crisis when Musk took over Twitter in 2022, just days before Brazil’s presidential runoffs. The company was served a consent decree from the judiciary, warning it that if it didn’t keep its promises to keep safeguards around the elections in place, it risked being blocked. At the time, the country’s then-President, Jair Bolsonaro, and his supporters allegedly spread disinformation about the security of the country’s elections to cast doubt on the results. Musk had promised a rollback of the company’s existing content moderation policies, and promised a sort of “free speech absolutism” that, in practice, has let hate speech and mis- and disinformation flow freely on the platform.

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    Vittoria Elliott

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  • Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ chief of staff to leave for job at UCHealth

    Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ chief of staff to leave for job at UCHealth

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    Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ chief of staff will leave the administration next week to take a job as a lobbyist at UCHealth.

    Then-Speaker Alec Garnett of the Colorado House of Representatives during a committee hearing on fentanyl at the Colorado State Capitol on Tuesday, April 12, 2022. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

    Alec Garnett, a former Democratic lawmaker from Denver, joined the governor’s office at the start of 2023 after serving as speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives. He used those close ties to lawmakers as he worked to pass Polis’ agenda and weigh in on legislation, including during a special legislative session last week that was aimed at averting property tax reform ballot initiatives as part of a deal with conservative and business advocacy groups.

    Polis’ office announced Tuesday morning that he will step down as chief of staff on Sept. 13. UCHealth, in an internal announcement, says Garnett will join the health system as vice president of government and regulatory affairs.

    Polis’ new chief of staff will be David Oppenheim, who served as the deputy to Garnett, handling legislative and policy affairs. Before that, he was director of operations and cabinet affairs. He joined the governor’s office as legislative director in 2019.

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    Jon Murray

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  • Rockies’ “kids” shine in 7-5 victory over Orioles

    Rockies’ “kids” shine in 7-5 victory over Orioles

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    The Kid Rox were more than all right Saturday night in a 7-5 victory over the Orioles at Coors Field.

    Rookie right fielder Jordan Beck delivered a clutch RBI single in the eighth to drive in Nolan Jones, who had reached on a one-out double to left-center. Beck then swiped third base and scored on rookie catcher Drew Romo’s infield groundout.

    Beck delivered the first game-winning RBI of his career and Romo drove in a career-high three runs.

    Colorado’s two-run, game-clinching rally came against veteran right-hander Craig Kimbrell, who’s become a weak link for a Baltimore team that is now 20-21 since the All-Star break but remains just 1 1/2 games behind the Yankees in the American League East.

    The Rockies, with a 51-86 record, are on pace to lose 102 games, and they face a tough schedule in September. But manager Bud Black likes the idea of throwing his young players into the fire.

    “This is good for our guys to go against these types of teams in September,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “We talked about it last year. We don’t want to be in this position, but we are. The reality is we are. But is good for our guys to be in these games against teams that are vying for a playoff spot.”

    Colorado’s unheralded heroes Saturday night were rookie relievers Luis Peralta, Seth Halvorsen and Jeff Criswell, who combined to pitch 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Criswell picked up his first career victory.

    Rockies veteran right-hander Tyler Kinley scored his eighth save of the season, but it wasn’t easy. He gave up a leadoff walk to Cedrick Mullins, threw a wild pitch, and plunked Gunner Henderson to paint himself in a corner. But Kinley struck out three, including Adley Rutschmnan, to end the game.

    Romo was pumped that Colorado’s young players delivered with the game on the line.

    “This feels awesome,” said Romo, who extended his hitting streak to five games and his RBI streak to four games  “Beck hit the ball well tonight and did a great job stealing third in the eighth.

    “And it’s crazy how many rookie relievers we have right now. I feel like there is a good connection with them. I’ve worked with them before, and they’re comfortable with me, and I’m comfortable out there with them.”

    Colorado had a chance to take control in the seventh but couldn’t cash in. Ezequiel Tovar and Ryan McMahon drew back-to-back one-out walks, but reliever Yennier Cano struck out Brenton Doyle and got Brendan Rodgers to ground out to third.

    The Rockies keep waiting for starter Ryan Feltner to turn the corner, but the hard-throwing right-hander keeps spinning out.

    Feltner pounded the strike zone for the first three innings and kept the Orioles on the defensive. That changed in the fourth, and then the wheels came off in the fifth.

    An infield hit by Rutschman, followed by a 437-foot, two-run homer by Anthony Santander got the Orioles on the board in the fourth.

    The O’s tied the game, 5-5, in Feltner’s erratic fifth inning. Eloy Jimenez led off with a 441-foot homer to center. The Feltner hit Ramon Urias, gave up a single to Jackson Holliday, and jammed the bases by issuing a two-out walk to Rutschman.

    Feltner needed one big pitch to escape the jam. He didn’t get it.  Ryan O’Hearn ripped a two-run single to center. Feltner’s night was over, meaning he hasn’t notched a victory since April 10 at Toronto.

    The next step for Feltner, Black said, is “finishing off an inning and finishing off an outing.”

    “He knows, and you learn through these battles,” Black continued. “He’s got the aptitude and the smarts to learn when you really have to get and out and when you really have to make a pitch. There’s an art to that.”

    Feltner, however, didn’t think he pitched much differently in his first three innings vs. his last two.

    “It was nothing about how I felt or any of the pitches I was throwing,”  he said. “It was just kind of results. Things went sideways, but I thought I stayed pretty consistent with the game plan.”

    Feltner said he’s improved this season when it comes to keeping games in control.

    “I definitely feel like I’ve done that throughout this year, and I feel like I’ve gotten better at that,” he said. “I don’t feel like it’s the next step for me. I think tonight just wasn’t my night.”

    Colorado took a 3-0 lead in the second off Dean Kremer with a leadoff double by  Doyle and an RBI single by Rodgers. Then rookie catcher Drew Romo blooped a two-run double into left field.

    Baltimore lost Kremer to injury in the fourth inning, when Beck hit a 103.1 mph comebacker off the right-hander’s forearm. Kremer was later diagnosed with a right forearm contusion and X-rays came back negative for a fracture.

    Charlie Blackmon’s two-run triple to the gap in left-center off reliever Keegan Akin gave Colorado a 5-2 lead after four innings.

    Quantrill scratched. Right-hander Cal Quantrill, who was scheduled to start Sunday afternoon’s game against Baltimore, was scratched because of right triceps inflammation, the club announced after Saturday night’s game.

    They will start left-hander Ty Blach, whose contract will have to be selected from Triple-A Albuquerque. So a move will be necessary to create room for Blach on the club’s 40-man roster.

     

     

    Originally Published:

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  • Opinion: Colorado ballot measures, again, pit Front Range voters against rural Colorado

    Opinion: Colorado ballot measures, again, pit Front Range voters against rural Colorado

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    Tell me you don’t like rural Coloradans without telling me. That’s what two initiatives will ask the state’s urban-suburban majority to do this November; tell rural folks they’re not welcome in their own state, that their ways are passé, particularly ranching and hunting.

    Initiative 91 would outlaw the hunting of bobcats and mountain lions. The initiative is both unnecessary and a slap in the face to rural populations who live with these predators and take part in their management through hunting. These animals are plentiful and well managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife in partnership with hunters, many of whom hail from the rural Western Slope.

    Contrary to advocates’ assertions, Colorado law already prohibits hunting mountain lions for sport; the meat must be harvested for consumption. Initiative 91 not only rejects science-based wildlife management, it is a deliberate affront to the rural way of life which for many includes hunting and fishing.

    Not surprisingly, Colorado’s most recent experience with ballot box biology hasn’t gone well for rural Coloradans. Veal beat venison in a wolf taste test. Thanks to Proposition 114, wolves were reintroduced to western Colorado in December 2023. Soon after, several of them decided to ditch swift deer for slow livestock. They’ve killed 16 calves, cows, and sheep in Grand County alone.

    Ranchers appealed to the state for relief. CPW is planning to trap the depredating wolves to relocate them. During similar trap and relocation efforts in Montana, mated pairs separated and abandoned their pups. Scientists over at CPW knew the potential consequences of bringing back this apex predator and resisted it until a narrow majority of voters forced their hand. If urban voters had known that the romantic notion of wolf reintroduction meant eviscerated livestock and dead puppies, would they have voted differently?

    Wolves won’t be the only ones going after ranchers’ livelihoods if another initiative passes. Denver voters will be asked in November to shut down the 70-year-old employee-owned Superior Farm slaughterhouse near the National Western Stock Show complex. Not only would the employees lose their jobs, the closure will adversely impact sheep ranchers and the state’s economy.

    According to a study by the Colorado State University Regional Economic Development Institute, the business generates around $861 million in economic activity and supports some 3,000 jobs. The Denver facility carries about a fifth of all U.S. sheep processing capacity. If it is not rebuilt elsewhere in Colorado, Colorado ranchers will have fewer options and could go out of business for want of places to send their livestock.

    According to the study, the loss of U.S. processing capacity will prompt markets to replace domestic supply with imports. Consumers will likely pay more for meat. Also, not every country that raises and slaughters sheep has same humane livestock regulations and standards as the U.S.

    A minority of voters could negatively impact the majority not just in Colorado. The people pushing this initiative represent an even smaller minority. They don’t believe humans should eat meat, according to their website, and this is their way to take a bite out of the age-old practice.

    Most vegetarians and vegans are live and let live but a small percentage would like to foist their lifestyle on the rest of us. It only took 2% of registered voters in Denver to push this ballot question that would single out a business for closure, toss its employees out of work, harm ranchers throughout the state, cost the state millions of dollars in economic activity, force markets to import meat, and reduce choices for those who want locally-sourced products.  It’s hard to imagine a worse idea.

    If urban and suburban voters are tempted to support these no-good, feel-good initiatives, they should first visit their neighbors on either side of the Front Range who will be impacted.  A little empathy for rural Colorado is wanting.

    Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on X: @kristakafer.

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    Krista Kafer

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  • Stretch of northbound I-25 through Denver closed following crash

    Stretch of northbound I-25 through Denver closed following crash

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    The northbound lanes of Interstate 25 are closed between University Boulevard and Santa Fe Drive because of an accident, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.

    The agency first posted about the closure on X at 6:25 p.m.

    Further information about the crash will be added to this story as it becomes available.

    Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.

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    Joe Rubino

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  • Judge suspends X platform in Brazil amid feud with Elon Musk

    Judge suspends X platform in Brazil amid feud with Elon Musk

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    A Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Friday ordered the suspension of Elon Musk’s social media giant X in Brazil after the tech billionaire refused to name a legal representative in the country, according to a copy of the decision seen by The Associated Press

    The move further escalates the monthslong feud between the two men over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

    Justice Alexandre de Moraes had warned Musk on Wednesday night that X, formerly known as Twitter, could be blocked in Brazil if he failed to comply with his order to name a representative, and established a 24-hour deadline. The company hasn’t had a representative in the country since earlier this month.

    Brazil Musk X Shutdown
    Brazilian Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes

    Eraldo Peres / AP


    In his decision, de Moraes gave internet service providers and app stores five days to block access to X, and said the platform will remain blocked until it complies with his orders. He also said people or companies who use virtual private networks, or VPNs, to access X will be subject to daily fines of 50,000 reais, or $8,900.

    “Elon Musk showed his total disrespect for Brazilian sovereignty and, in particular, for the judiciary, setting himself up as a true supranational entity and immune to the laws of each country,” de Moraes wrote.

    Brazil is an important market for X, which has struggled with the loss of advertisers since Musk purchased it in 2022. Market research group Emarketer says some 40 million Brazilians, roughly one-fifth of the population, access X at least once per month.

    X had posted on its official Global Government Affairs page late Thursday that it expected X to be shut down by de Moraes, “simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents.”

    “When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts,” the company wrote. “Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him.”

    X has clashed with de Moraes over its reluctance to comply with orders to block users.

    Accounts that the platform previously has shut down on Brazilian orders include lawmakers affiliated with former President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing party and activists accused of undermining Brazilian democracy.

    Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” has repeatedly claimed the justice’s actions amount to censorship, and his argument has been echoed by Brazil’s political right. He has often insulted de Moraes on his platform, characterizing him as a dictator and tyrant.

    De Moraes’ defenders have said his actions aimed at X have been lawful, supported by most of the court’s full bench, and have served to protect democracy at a time in which it is imperiled. His order Friday is based on Brazilian law requiring foreign companies to have representation in the country so they can be notified when there are legal cases against them.

    Given that operators are aware of the widely publicized standoff and their obligation to comply with an order from de Moraes, plus the fact doing so isn’t complicated, X could be offline as early as 12 hours after receiving their instructions, said Luca Belli, coordinator of the Technology and Society Center at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Rio de Janeiro.

    The shutdown is not unprecedented in Brazil.

    Lone Brazilian judges shut down Meta’s WhatsApp, the nation’s most widely used messaging app, several times in 2015 and 2016 due to the company’s refusal to comply with police requests for user data. In 2022, de Moraes threatened the messaging app Telegram with a nationwide shutdown, arguing it had repeatedly ignored Brazilian authorities’ requests to block profiles and provide information. He ordered Telegram to appoint a local representative; the company ultimately complied and stayed online.

    X and its former incarnation, Twitter, have been banned in several countries — mostly authoritarian regimes such as Russia, China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Venezuela and Turkmenistan. Other countries, such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, have also temporarily suspended X before, usually to quell dissent and unrest. Twitter was banned in Egypt after the Arab Spring uprisings, which some dubbed the “Twitter revolution,” but it has since been restored.

    A search Friday on X showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could potentially enable them to continue using the platform by making it appear they were logging on from outside the country. It was not immediately clear how Brazilian authorities would police this practice and impose fines cited by de Moraes.

    Mariana de Souza Alves Lima, known by her handle MariMoon, showed her 1.4 million followers on X that she would go to rival social network BlueSky, posting a screenshot and saying: “That is where I’m going.”

    X said that it plans to publish what it has called de Moraes’ “illegal demands” and related court filings “in the interest of transparency.”

    Also on Thursday evening, Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet service provider, said on X that de Moraes this week froze its finances, preventing it from doing any transactions in the country where it has more than 250,000 customers.

    “This order is based on an unfounded determination that Starlink should be responsible for the fines levied—unconstitutionally—against X. It was issued in secret and without affording Starlink any of the due process of law guaranteed by the Constitution of Brazil. We intend to address the matter legally,” Starlink said in its statement.

    Musk replied to people sharing the reports of the freeze, adding insults directed at de Moraes. “This guy @Alexandre is an outright criminal of the worst kind, masquerading as a judge,” he wrote.

    Musk later posted on X that SpaceX, which runs Starlink, will provide free internet service in Brazil “until the matter is resolved” since “we cannot receive payment, but don’t want to cut anyone off.”

    In his decision, de Moraes said he ordered the freezing of Starlink’s assets, as X didn’t have enough money in its accounts to cover mounting fines and reasoning that the two companies are part of the same economic group.

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  • Ads for Republican and Democratic groups appear under pro-Nazi, racist posts on X

    Ads for Republican and Democratic groups appear under pro-Nazi, racist posts on X

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    Paid advertisements for major organizations affiliated with both the Republican and Democratic parties and some of their biggest names have appeared under pro-Nazi and racist posts shared on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly Twitter, a CBS News investigation has found.

    Advertisements for the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank have appeared recently under racist or pro-Nazi posts from verified accounts on X. 

    Last week, the World Bank ceased all paid advertising on X after a CBS News investigation found a promoted advertisement from the organization showed up under a racist post from an account that prolifically posts pro-Nazi and white nationalist content. The World Bank made the decision to remove all paid advertising on X, calling the incident “entirely unacceptable,” after a promoted advertisement under a racist post was flagged to the organization by CBS News.

    Republican and Democratic-affiliated ads under racist posts

    One of the U.S. political ads found by CBS News was under a post by a verified account that prolifically posts pro-Nazi and racist content. The account, which has nearly 100,000 followers, shared a picture of Hitler rejecting a Star of David being held by an arm draped in a striped sleeve.

    One of the U.S. political ads found by CBS News was under a post by a verified account that prolifically posts pro-Nazi and racist content.

    X screenshot


    Under the post, an ad appeared for the National Republican Senatorial Committee directing users to donate through WinRed, the prominent conservative online fundraising platform used by many GOP candidates and groups, including GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee. 

    The advertisement showed an image of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with the caption saying it was “paid for by the NRSC.”

    The NRSC is the chief fundraising committee dedicated to getting Republican Party candidates elected to the U.S. Senate. Multiple other promoted advertisements directing users to WinRed were posted under similar content. CBS News is not publicly identifying the accounts spreading racist content on X. 

    CBS News asked the NRSC and WinRed for comment about the placement of the fundraising ads on X. In response to questions about the ads on X, NRSC spokesman Mike Berg wrote in a post on the platform that CBS News was, “trying to pressure advertisers to stop spending money on X by associating advertisers and [Musk] with white nationalists,” which he called “patently absurd.”

    Promoted advertisements for the congressional campaign of Jerrad Christan, the Democratic candidate for Ohio’s 12th district, also appeared under antisemitic posts. The seat is currently held by Republican Troy Balderson. 

    A post by a verified account with 150,000 followers showed a man with a boot on his neck underneath the Statue of Liberty. The text on the image read, “Land of Freedom. Where one is ruled by the Jews, Freedom is only an empty dream.” 

    Christian’s campaign ad appeared under the image with a link that redirected readers to ActBlue, a fundraising platform used widely by Democratic campaigns. 

    Under another post by the same account, CBS News found an ad for the National Republican Senatorial Committee – a paid advertisement from Mary Trump’s political action committee, the Democracy Defense Fund, with a link to the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue. Mary Trump, the former U.S. president’s niece, has spoken out against her uncle for years.

    The post in question depicted an Orthodox Jewish man dancing on a gravesite with the caption: “Your reminder to NOT die for shlomo. He’ll dance on your graves.”

    The PAC advertisement under the post had an image of Mary Trump with a request to donate money to help “defeat Donald, defend the Senate, and flip the House.” 

    CBS News has sought comment from the Jerrad Christian for Congress campaign and Mary Trump’s PAC on the placement of the organizations’ ads. 

    Money for content on Elon Musk’s X

    Since Musk’s October 2022 takeover of what was then Twitter, he has dismantled safeguards on the platform. That includes dramatic changes to the verification system and the removal of its Trust and Safety advisory group, as well as changes to broader content moderation and hate speech enforcement on X.

    In its place, Musk has created a system in which X’s algorithms favor accounts that pay for the platform’s blue check subscription service. According to X’s own marketing for its verification service, X premium offers “reply prioritization” for all subscribers. 

    The changes also enable influencers who buy into the verification subscription program to monetize their content. Subscribers are eligible to receive a share of advertising revenue for their content if they “have at least 5M organic impressions on cumulative posts within the last 3 months” and “have at least 500 followers.”

    Under X’s terms of use, accounts can do this without publicly disclosing their identity, provided the account holder privately discloses their ID to the platform. 

    “X allows the use of pseudonymous accounts, meaning an account’s profile is not required to use the name or image of the account owner. Accounts that appear similar to others on X are not in violation of this policy, so long as their purpose is not to deceive or manipulate others,” according to the platform’s guidelines. 

    A majority of the verified X accounts reviewed by CBS News that have political advertising under their content would, according to the company’s own guidelines, qualify for a share of its ad revenue under the policy.

    Does X have the capacity to control hate speech?

    Last week, the World Bank ceased all paid advertising on X after a CBS News investigation found a promoted advertisement from the organization showed up under a racist post from an account that prolifically posts pro-Nazi and white nationalist content. 

    Sander van der Linden, a professor of social psychology at the University of Cambridge who studies online misinformation, told CBS News on Friday that X’s algorithms may be determining where to place advertisements based on which accounts are getting the most engagement. 

    “When they’ve [X] had problems with companies like IBM or Disney where they had complained that their ads were appearing next to Nazi content, these Nazi accounts were getting millions of impressions,” van der Linden said. “I’m assuming what’s happening there is that the algorithm is recommending to place the ads next to content that’s getting a lot of engagement to try to maximize reach.”

    Van der Linden has said that since Musk’s takeover of the social media platform in 2022, the removal of content moderation measures has led to an explosion in hate speech content. 

    “He [Musk] doesn’t have the tools to moderate, down rank and demonetize that content,” van der Linden told CBS News. “Musk has claimed that hate speech doesn’t get any ad revenue… but I think the fact of the matter is that there’s so much of it now that actually I haven’t seen any evidence that would suggest that people can’t profit off it.” 

    CBS News has repeatedly asked X whether the accounts flagged as part of its investigation are profiting from sharing pro-Nazi and racist content, and about the placement of advertising on its platform. There had been no reply from the company as of the time of publication.

    While CBS News found advertisements from groups affiliated with both main U.S. political parties, far fewer Democratic political ads than Republican ads appeared under such racist content. 

    One post from a verified account with more than 160,000 followers showed an image of an animated superhero with the caption: “antisemites will save the world.”

    A promoted advertisement for the NRSC came up under that post with a link guiding readers to donate and an image of Mr. Trump, with the caption: “Is the Media fair to Trump?” 

    In total, CBS News found political fundraising advertisements promoting GOP groups and candidates under at least 10 different posts from accounts known to promote pro-Nazi and racist content. 

    Advertisements for the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank have also appeared under an antisemitic post from an account known to share pro-Nazi content. The account in question has more than 150,000 followers. CBS News has asked The Heritage Foundation to comment on the placement of its advertisements on X. 

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  • A Judge Has Banned Elon Musk’s X in Brazil

    A Judge Has Banned Elon Musk’s X in Brazil

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    Brazil’s top court has ordered that access to X be suspended in the country of more than 200 million people, as a prominent judge continued to lock horns with site owner Elon Musk.

    Musk has been engaged in a months-long feud with Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes over X’s moderation policies. Earlier this year, Moraes opened an inquiry against X after Musk rebuffed a court order to block accounts supporting former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro that allegedly spread fake news and hate speech. The news of X being blocked in Brazil was first reported by the Associated Press and others.

    The AP further reported that internet service providers and app stores in Brazil have five days to comply with the ruling. “Given the number of internet providers in Brazil, it might take a while to get the filtering measure fully implemented, depending on how they go about it,” says Isik Mater, director of research at Netblocks, a civil society group that tracks internet censorship.

    “Free speech is the bedrock of democracy,” claimed Musk in a post on X after the announcement of the ban. He also alleged that Moraes was a “pseudo-judge” that was “destroying it for political purposes.”

    Internet firms must have a legal representative in Brazil who can act as a go-between for the government and the corporation. X currently doesn’t have one, because the site shut down its offices in Brazil earlier this year after it said Moraes threatened the legal representative with arrest as part of the inquiry. A Supreme Court-imposed deadline for X to install a new representative passed on Thursday night.

    “Soon, we expect Judge Alexandre de Moraes will order X to be shut down in Brazil—simply because we would not comply with his illegal orders to censor his political opponents,” X’s global affairs account claimed in a post on Thursday night. “These enemies include a duly elected Senator and a 16-year-old girl, among others.”

    Musk quoted that post and alleged that Moraes is “an evil dictator cosplaying as a judge.”

    In its statement, X framed the court’s decisions as breaking Brazil’s own laws, alleging they are “illegal” and saying it would publish all related court documents.

    Moraes’ office did not immediately return a request for comment.

    On Friday morning, X appeared to still be available in Brazil, with users posting from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. But now, anyone caught using a VPN to access X will be subject to a fine of 50,000 reals, the equivalent of about $8,900, according to the AP.

    Now, though, the suspension is imminent. Moraes already froze bank accounts belonging to Starlink, the satellite internet firm that Musk owns a portion of, this week. A statement from Starlink posted to X said that the company has a quarter-million customers in Brazil and that the action was an “unfounded” attempt to hold Starlink responsible for fines levied against X for failing to turn over documents. The company said it would seek a legal remedy.

    A nation as large as Brazil blocking X would be a significant event regardless of the circumstances, but it’s worth noting that it comes amid a global push to reign in large platforms and their billionaire owners.

    This week, billionaire Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France and charged with “complicity” in a raft of serious crimes occurring on the app, which has gained a reputation for being lightly moderated over the years. The arrest sent shockwaves through the global tech industry, with Musk commenting, “dangerous times.”

    Updated 8/30/24 5:05pm ET: This story has been updated to reflect that the Brazilian court has ordered X be suspended.

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    Jordan Pearson

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  • X, formerly Twitter, to shutter its San Francisco headquarters on Sept. 13

    X, formerly Twitter, to shutter its San Francisco headquarters on Sept. 13

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    Mid-Market businesses brace for Musk moving X out of S.F.


    Mid-Market businesses brace for Musk moving X out of S.F.

    03:27

    X, formerly known as Twitter, has revealed when it will permanently close its San Francisco headquarters after the Elon Musk-owned company earlier this year announced plans to move its operations to Texas. 

    The official closing date will be Friday, Sept. 13, Fortune first reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. X informed employees of the impending office closure in a memo Thursday, according to the publication. New York Times reporter Kate Conger, who covers X, also reported that the headquarters will close Sept. 13. 

    Twitter was launched in San Francisco in 2006, and its first headquarters was at 164 South Park Ave.

    X did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

    Elon Musk To Close San Francisco X Office
    A view of X, formerly Twitter, headquarters on August 06, 2024, in San Francisco, California. 

    Justin Sullivan/Getty Images


    X workers had not previously been notified regarding when they’d be relocating, according to a separate Fortune report. Musk in July said he planned to relocate X and rocket maker Space X, which he also owns, from California to Texas, citing his opposition to a recently enacted California law banning school districts from requiring that schools notify parents if their children ask to be referred to by a different pronoun. 

    “This is the final straw,” Musk said in announcing that X would move its headquarters to Austin, Texas, and that Space X would move to Starbase, Texas. 

    “I did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children,” he added. 

    In a separate post on X, Musk had also complained about what he referred to as “gangs of violent drug addicts” that the billionaire entrepreneur said workers were forced to dodge “just to get in and out of the building,” referring to San Francisco’s mid-Market Street area, where X’s headquarters is located.

    Megan Cerullo

    Megan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.

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  • CU Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders enters senior season with potential to leave historic legacy

    CU Buffs QB Shedeur Sanders enters senior season with potential to leave historic legacy

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    For Shedeur Sanders, last year stood as a convincing opening statement.

    The quarterback started with a record-setting performance in an upset road win against TCU. A couple of weeks after that, he led a last-second, 98-yard TD drive to eventually beat rival CSU in double OT. And even when CU’s wheels fell off, he still showed mettle, flashed several well-timed watch-flexes and played hurt, until he couldn’t anymore.

    Now, it’s time for Sanders’ closing arguments in black and gold starting with Thursday’s opener against North Dakota State at Folsom Field. And if the team plays better around the senior this fall, it could be historic.

    “If (the offensive line) can protect him, this young man may put up one of the great seasons in college football history,” predicted CU play-by-play man Mark Johnson. “(Darian) Hagan is at the top as national champ, and Kordell (Stewart) is up there too, but Shedeur is going to put himself in the conversation as the greatest Colorado quarterback if he has another season like he did last year.”

    Sanders, who missed the final six quarters of 2023 with a back fracture, is healthy again. The Buffs retooled their offensive line with transfers and the top high school left tackle in the nation, Jordan Seaton.

    If the big men can block a year after the line allowed 56 sacks, the weapons are there on the outside. Two-way star Travis Hunter, Jimmy Horn Jr., and transfers Will Sheppard and LaJohntay Wester give Sanders the chance to top last year.

    And that’s saying something. Even as the Buffs stumbled to 4-8 and last in the Pac-12, Sanders set CU records for passing yards in a season (3,230), completion percentage (69.3), touchdown-to-interception ratio (9-to-1) and interception percentage (0.7).

    Unsurprisingly, Sanders remains confident. Even before taking a snap this season, No. 2 is projected to be one of the top quarterbacks selected in the 2025 NFL Draft.

    “That’s the difference, I’d say, between me and a lot of other players,” Sanders said at Big 12 media day. “I’m not close to my ceiling at all. I’ve got a long way to go.”

    Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders talks with media during the Big 12 Conference NCAA college football media days in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucas Peltier)

    Sanders’ performance could also be helped by consistency from the play-caller.

    Last year, Sean Lewis called the Buffs offense for the first eight games before Pat Shurmur took over for the final four games. Now with Shurmur as the team’s offensive coordinator, the former Giants head coach and Broncos OC believes the Buffs will be able to establish a consistent run game his QB never had in 2023.

    “It’s hard to cook in somebody else’s kitchen because you can’t really change anything at that point,” Shurmur said. “I don’t know if (the end of 2023) was a springboard, but what I do know, we were able to reset (the offense) the way we wanted to. We went out and got some new players, some more quality big men, then we installed an offense that works for us. I feel like it’s a new start moving forward.”

    But will a revamped offensive line along with Shurmur’s now-permanent role be enough for Sanders to take his game to the next level? Head coach Deion Sanders believes so, especially after the work his son put in with his trainer over the summer.

    “He’s worked on some of the little mechanical things with his quarterback coach (Darrell Colbert Jr) out of Houston,” Deion Sanders said on ESPN last month. “And it’s not just the mechanics of footwork and ball placement and releases, but also just getting to know his players and his receivers and where they want the ball. You can see after 7-on-7s and practice, him grabbing a guy, pulling him to the side and telling him what he wants and what he saw.”

    Whether all of this will result in more wins, and even better stats for the quarterback, remains to be seen.

    What is certain is that even with Sanders’ enormous popularity — he was recently ranked No. 1 on FOX Sports’ list of college football superstars — the QB needs to win to put himself in the discussion for end-of-season national honors such as the Davey O’Brien Award and Heisman Trophy.

    “If he puts up the numbers and CU is winning a good amount of their football games, because of who Prime is and the attention he brings to CU, I think he’ll be in that conversation,” former CU quarterback Bobby Pesavento said. “Now, is he in New York (as a Heisman finalist) and does he truly have a chance to win? That would take the Buffs doing something really special, like playing for a Big 12 championship again.”

    CBS Sports national college football writer Dennis Dodd agrees, noting that after Sanders “was almost a one-man team last year,” the Buffs must capture some magic in their first season back in the Big 12 for Sanders to be in the Heisman race.

    “The Heisman winner almost exclusively plays for a 10-win team that competes for a national championship and does something dramatic in November — if not a Heisman moment, a series of Heisman moments,” Dodd said. “It’s going to be hard for a QB of a 6-6 team to win it.”

    BOULDER, CO - SEPTEMBER 16: Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders (2) shows off his watch to fans before the the Rocky Mountain Showdown against the Colorado State Rams at Folsom Field September 16, 2023. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
    Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Shedeur Sanders (2) shows off his watch to fans before the Rocky Mountain Showdown against the Colorado State Rams at Folsom Field on Sept. 16, 2023. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

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    Kyle Newman

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  • Opinion: Here’s why pursuing net-zero buildings — even in Aspen — isn’t practical or necessary

    Opinion: Here’s why pursuing net-zero buildings — even in Aspen — isn’t practical or necessary

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    The company I work for recently built a new ticket office at the base of Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colorado. Environmentally, we killed it: argon-gas-filled windows, super-thick insulation and comprehensive air sealing, 100% electrification using heat pumps instead of gas boilers. All within budget.

    Yet one of the first comments we received was from a famous energy guru: “Nice building. But why do you have a heating system at all?” Or more simply put: “Why didn’t you build a perfect building, instead of just a really good one?”

    Solving climate change could depend on how we answer that question. My answer: Society needs the Prius of buildings, not the Tesla X.

    The green building movement didn’t originate only from a desire to protect the environment. It often had elements of the bizarre ego gratification that trumped practicality.

    Recall “Earthships” that used old tires and aluminum cans in the walls. Geodesic domes were interesting looking but produced inordinate waste to build. They also leaked. Rudolf Steiner’s weirdly wonderful Goetheanum was an all-concrete structure designed to unite “what is spiritual in the human being to what is spiritual in the universe.”

    Early practitioners such as Steiner, Buckminster Fuller, and Bill McDonough, among others, were often building monuments, whose ultimate goal became the concept of “net zero.” Net zero was a building that released no carbon dioxide emissions at all.

    Designers achieved that goal by constructing well-sealed, heavily insulated, properly oriented, and controlled buildings–but then they did something wasteful. They added solar panels to make up for carbon dioxide emissions from heating with natural gas. The approach zeroed out emissions, but at extraordinary cost that came in the form of added labor, expense and lost opportunity.

    While net zero wasn’t a good idea even when most buildings were heated with natural gas, the rapid decarbonization of utility grids — happening almost everywhere — and advances in electrification make the idea downright pointless.

    Instead, all you need to build an eventual net zero building is to go all-electric. It won’t be net zero today, but it will be net zero when the grid reaches 100% carbon-free power. So, all that really matters is that building codes require 100% electrification.

    Yet many communities remain focused on that sexy goal of net zero, and therefore include requirements for solar panels, or “solar ready” wiring. Even apart from the issue of cost, many utilities don’t need rooftop solar because they increasingly have access to huge solar arrays, giving them more electricity than they need in peak times.

    What utilities really need is energy storage and smart management.

    That means home batteries and grid integration that allows utilities to “talk” to buildings and turn off appliances during peak times. The problem is that environmentalists haven’t evolved: Just like we can’t retire our tie-dyes, we think “green” means rooftop solar panels.

    My company’s Buttermilk building passes the only test that matters: “If everyone built this kind of structure, would it solve the built environment’s portion of the climate problem?” The answer for our building is “yes.”

    Still, aspirational monuments matter. We need the Lincoln Memorial, the Empire State Building. But if we’re going to solve climate change in buildings, which is about a third of the total problem, new structures will have to reconceive what we consider efficient and beautiful. And it doesn’t have to break the bank.

    Electrification, for example, is getting cheaper every year. Years ago, I served on an environmental board for the town of Carbondale in western Colorado. The overwhelming interest there was ending dandelion spraying in the town park. But at one point, we worked on a building.

    After a long conversation about the technical tricks and feats we could pull off, a Rudolf Steiner disciple named Farmer Jack Reed said: “We should also plant bulbs in the fall so colorful flowers blossom in the spring.” “Why?” I asked, stuck in my own technocratic hole. He said: “Because flowers are beautiful and they make people happy.”

    So, too, are realistic solutions as we adapt to climate change.

    Auden Schendler is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He is senior vice president of sustainability at Aspen One. His book, Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering our Soul, comes out in November.

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    Auden Schendler

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  • Sid Eudy dies: Pro wrestler known as Sid Vicious and Sycho Sid was 63

    Sid Eudy dies: Pro wrestler known as Sid Vicious and Sycho Sid was 63

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    By KAITLYN HUAMANI

    Sidney Raymond Eudy, a professional wrestler known as Sid Vicious who was known for his intense persona and imposing stature, has died, his son announced Monday. He was 63.

    Gunnar Eudy, one of the wrestler’s two sons, wrote on Facebook that his father died after “battling cancer for several years.”

    “He was a man of strength, kindness, and love, and his presence will be greatly missed,” his son wrote. “We appreciate your thoughts and prayers as we grieve this loss.”

    The 6-foot-9-inch Eudy went by many names in the ring, including Sid Justice and Sycho Sid, and rose to prominence at the height of the WrestleMania craze in the 1990s. He was a two-time champion in the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) and also performed for its ’90s rival World Championship Wrestling and the United States Wrestling Association. He faced off against Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker among other stars.

    In a statement, WWE called Eudy “one of the most imposing and terrifying competitors of his generation” who had a “natural charisma that immediately connected with the WWE Universe.”

    “Sid’s reputation as one of the toughest and most thrilling superstars cemented his legacy in WWE, and his influence can still be seen in wrestling rings around the world,” the statement said.

    Eudy was born in West Memphis, Arkansas, and lived in Tennessee for many years. Survivors include his wife, Sabrina Estes Eudy, his sons Frank and Gunnar, and his grandchildren.

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    The Associated Press

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