Damon Runyon Award and The B.I.G. Day top April Events!

There are a couple of noteworthy events set for April, both of which we recommend you at take a closer look at. Better yet, take part in.

1. The Denver Press Club honors New York Daily News writer/columnist and ESPN's "The Sports Reporters" contributor Mike Lupica with the 19th Annual Damon Runyon Awars. The date is Friday April 12 at the Marriott Denver City Center.

2. The South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce's 3rd annual B.I.G. Day! You can "Be Involved-Give" Saturday morning April 20th with a great post event celebration sponsored by McCormick and Schmick's.

Mike Lupica, 19th Annual Damon Runyon Award Recipient

Each year, The Denver Press Club is proud to honor a member of the journalism profession with our Damon Runyon Award. This award honors a person or persons who have made extraordinary contributions to the field. The honorees are selected with a special eye towards those whose careers have embraced the highest journalistic standards and who embody the colorful, often irreverent and sometimes flamboyant traits so much associated with Runyon and his characters.
Recipients of The Damon Runyon Award are honored at a ceremony in Denver, the proceeds of which provide a major funding source for our scholarship program and the maintenance of our historic facility.

In addition to his work at the Daily News and ESPN, Mike Lupica has had a versatile writing career, with magazines, novels, sports biographies, other nonfiction books on sports and starting “The Sporting Life” column for Esquire magazine. He co-wrote autobiographies with Reggie Jackson and Bill Parcells; collaborated with author and screenwriter William Goldman on “Wait ’Til Next Year”; “Shooting from the Lip,” a collection of columns, and other books.

It's a great event, with silent auction and of course hear from one of the preeminent sports journalists of our time. The Damon Runyon award is anything but stuffy so join us for a great night.

To register, visit Blacktie-Colorado

The following weekend is the B.I.G. Day. Simply put it's goal is to connect the businesses and non-profits of the South Metro Area. This marks the 3rd year for the event and it gets bigger and better every year. Here's why your business, family, church or civic group should take part:

• It's a great team builder. There's nothing like working alongside co-workers, friends, family or even folks you don't know to spend a morning making a difference. Wear t-shirts with your organization logo, share on social media that you care about community.
• It's a chance for you to learn more about the many non-profits who day-in and day-out make a difference in so many ways.
• It's just fun and takes one Saturday morning.
• This year's post event celebration will be held at the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce sponsored by the super folks at McCormick and Schmick's restaurants. You'll work up an appetite and there will be awesome food waiting for you to satisfy it.

Watch the video to learn just what the B.I.G. is all about!

You don't have to be a member of the South Metro Denver Chamber to take part. Just bring your willingness to make a difference on just one day you'll never forget. Register today!

Looking forward to seeing you at either or both great events!

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"

"Rabbit Ears" in the 21st Century.

OK, I'm showing my age here a bit, and maybe you'll admit to remembering TV back in the day. As in back in the late 50's and 60's. We had the first TV on our street. A 13 inch Crosley and we pulled in the couple of  stations available with rabbit ears.

They usually sat on top of the TV and if you turned them just right you could pull in a nice black and white picture on Sundays to watch Bonanza.

More stations came, followed by cable and satellite and rabbit ears pretty much became a thing of the past, especially when television stations started broadcasting in digital format. Digital versions of rabbit ears became available and if you wanted, at least at our house, you could plug them into the back of a satellite receiver and receive all sorts of local programming off-air, in a digital HD format. Or directly into a digital TV.

A new study by the Pew Research Center shows some significant changes in what we're watching and how we're watching it. Especially news. Pew reports "Almost half of those surveyed say they watch local news regularly, but the future is dim for local TV content; "regular" news viewers under 30 dropped from 42% in 2006 to 28% in 2012." Younger consumers are getting their news and information from tablets and smart phones. I doubt that trend will change. It's certainly changing at our house. When we watch TV, it's with iPads in our laps.

At one time we had 4 satellite receivers with a package of 250 channels. A lot of channels and receivers for just 2 people. Also a lot of expense as we maybe watched 10-15 of those channels at the most. To be fair, satellite and cable providers are at the mercy of the program providers who "bundle" programming. That is, if a satellite or cable provider wants a popular channel they're forced to include 6-7 more less popular ones. Regional sports channels, like the ridiculous Longhorn Network are the big culprit.  All the costs of course, passed on to you and me. But enough is enough. There are other choices.

So we began to cut back. First it was reducing our 250 channel package to just 120. Then recently we added Apple TV.  It's hooked up to a 50 inch screen along with a satellite receiver. But gobs of programming available streamed via the Internet to our TV. Last week we bought our first "Smart" TV. It's a 46 inch flat screen that not only receives digital off-air signals and streaming content available via Internet, it's essentially a computer in itself. Even has Apps! The picture quality is awesome.

So then we cut our satellite receivers from 4 to 2. Our monthly bill is now half of what it used to be and we still have more programming than we can possibly watch. But sitting in front of that Smart TV, which only receives programming with rabbit ears and wireless streaming content, it's ironic that rabbit ears have outlived far more advanced technologies.

Ultimately what all this is doing is providing consumers something we've always wanted and deserve. A la carte programming. Just paying for the channels we want. We're not there yet, but getting closer. For us it may mean saying goodbye to ESPN. But it's becoming the norm where we live, that if it isn't available digitally off-air or by streaming, it doesn't exist.

Technology, including those good old rabbit ears is making it all possible.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"

This White House Tour brought to you by ...

During the Space Shuttle Program, I often wondered why NASA didn't sell ad space on the boosters and shuttle itself. Like NASCAR. It sure could have generated a lot of money.

I have no doubt, that given the chance Apple or Microsoft would have paid plenty to have their logo on the side of the Space Shuttle.

In these days of "Sequestration" the idea is worth revisiting. The White House has cancelled public tours due to cost cutting brought on my sequestration. Or so they claim.

Donald Trump, among others offered to pick up the tab and open the White House, owned by you and me to ...you and me. The White House said no.

So we ask, why?

The government also warns of delays in opening many of our national parks for the season. The key word being OUR national parks. So why not offer sponsorships? I bet any number of businesses would jump at the chance to sponsor Old Faithful at Yellowstone. Park Rangers could wear sponsor patches on their uniforms just like NASCAR drivers do.

The NFL and NASCAR have made sponsorship an art form. So why not the White House or Old Faithful?

"This tour of the White House is sponsored by Home Depot." Or, "This next eruption of Old Faithful is brought to you in part by Coca-Cola." (Because geysers and things go better with Coke!)

In business it's important to maximize revenue and reduce costs. Government doesn't operate that way. We lose. Over and over again.

That's why we can't tour our White House and might not be able to see Old Faithful this summer. All avoidable.

So what should it be? Sequestration or Sponsorships? I'll take the latter. Government needs to re-think the way it operates. So we again ask, why not sponsorships?

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"

The Day Government Officially Went Nuts

Sometime in the future if someone asks you, "When did the Government of the United States officially go nuts?" you can tell them, "Why it was Tuesday, March 5, 2013!"

You might be asked why so here's some crib notes for you.

1. The DOW Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high, up 125.95 points to 14,253.77 at the end of New York trading at 2 p.m. MT, beating the previous record close of 14,164 achieved on Oct. 9, 2007. This even though the week before, even days before all the President's Men and all the President's Women and even the President himself warned of a nation doomed by sequestration.

Oops.

2. This notice was posted by the National Park Service. "Due to staffing reductions resulting from sequestration, we regret to inform you that White House Tours will be canceled effective Saturday, March 9, 2013, until further notice. Unfortunately, we will not be able to reschedule affected tours." 

Really? It's OUR house. Give us a dang map and we'll find ourselves around.

Oops.

3. The same day we were shut out of the White House, again OUR house, we gave our good buddies in Egypt $250 Million Dollars, handed over in person by Secretary of State John Kerry. Our money is being given to Egypt to meet the country's "Extreme Needs." Apparently Egypt's extreme needs are more important than our extreme needs. Which is taking things to extremes.

Oops.

So despite dire warnings of economic doom because of sequestration, the DOW soared to new heights. So despite that great economic news, they shut down the White House to us regular folks although I hear if you write a check for $500-thousand you can get a visit to the Oval. And so despite those previous mentioned cries of economic disaster and government running out of money, we somehow found enough cash lying around to give a nation of people who pretty much hate our guts, $250 Million Dollars.

And finally, the USAF has grounded their aerial demonstration team, the Thunderbirds. Reason given? Sequestration. Yet the F-35 "Join Strike Fighter"  program is 7 years behind schedule and 70% over budget. We've spent $400 Billion on a plane that has yet to be deployed. Businessweek calls the project a "Boondoggle."

Yep, our government officially went nuts on Tuesday, March 5, 2013. You heard it here first.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you!"

Washington: You are Go for Sequestration

Sequestration. It's all over the news. Essentially the definition is, "If Congress cannot agree on ways to cut back the total (or does not pass a new, higher Budget Resolution), then an 'automatic' form of spending cutback takes place. This automatic spending cut is what is called sequestration."

In reality it's yet another example of what an economic mess we're in and government's total and absolute inability to do anything about it.

If both the Executive and Legislative Branches can't act like grownups it all kicks in March 1. 

A lot of folks are saying "The Sky is Falling!" Get real. If this whole thing was such a big deal the President wouldn't have gone golfing with Tiger and Congress wouldn't have gone home to shake hands and raise money for their next campaigns. This is all about politics. The folks with the "Bully Pulpit" are bullies themselves. And they're picking on us.

So let the spending cuts fall where they may. While I strongly disagree the sky will fall, if indeed it does maybe it's exactly the "Wake-up" call government needs to get serious about dealing with a $67.7 Trillion deficit.

A couple of guys who came up with a solution to this mess, and were promptly ignored by the very government who asked them to do it in the first place, are Al Simpson and Erskine Bowles.

Here's a basic outline of their original ideas:

• Replace the current tax bracket system of 10/15/25/28/33/35/39.6 with three brackets: 12%, 22%, and a maximum of 28%.
• Permanently repeal the AMT, the PEP phase-out of personal exemptions, and the PEASE limitation on overall itemized deductions.
• Eliminate all tax deductions; require taxpayers to take the standard deduction.
• Keep the earned income and child tax credits.
• Replace the mortgage interest deduction with a 12% non-refundable tax credit. Creditable mortgage balance would be capped at $500,000 (maximum credit $60,000); no credit for second residence.
• Replace the charitable contribution deduction with a 12% non-refundable tax credit, subject to a 2% of adjusted gross income floor.
• Treat state and local bond interest as taxable.
• Tax all capital gains and dividends at ordinary rates

In other words, if we're really serious about all this we'll need to do more than raise Warren Buffet's taxes.

 Never the type to give up Simpson and Bowles now recommend at the very least, trying this:

"Reform the Tax Code in a Progressive and Pro-Growth Manner. The current tax code is complicated, confusing, costly, anti-growth, anti-competitive, unfair, and riddled with well over $1 trillion of tax expenditures – which really are just spending by another name. Tax reform must reduce the size and number of tax expenditures to reduce the budget deficit and lower marginal tax rates for individuals and corporations. At the same time, tax reforms must maintain or improve the progressivity in the tax code and promote economic growth. Tax reform will make the tax code more efficient, effective, and globally competitive.:

The tax code is 70-thousand pages long, just one of the reasons Facebook is getting a $428 Million tax refund this year. How do you "Like" that?

Such foolishness, so avoidable, so very, very sad for all of us.

So maybe it's just as well Sequestration happens. As the Beatles sang, "Let it be."

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"

STUFF POTUS left out of SOTU

"He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary ..."-Article II, Sect. 3 of the United States Constitution.

Essentially what this means, and with help from Kenny Rogers, the President drops in to tell us what condition our condition is in.

In reality it's become an evening of pomp and circumstance with little in the way of substance. Afterwards a representative of the "Loyal Opposition" gives their take on things followed by hours of punditry by Washington Insiders who explain to us folks on Main Street USA what was really said. That crowd long ago forgot we can think for ourselves.

An evening of Hoo-Hah. Ho-Hum.

So with help from some pretty smart folks including a recent presentation by Greg Anton, a nationally recognized CPA, here are the parts the President left out, at least about the deficit. Mr. Anton has even been invited to the White House for his input on our growing financial mess. He said they were polite but didn't pay much attention.

A bit of a preamble is in order. I'll be using the word "Trillion" a lot here as in dollars. So just how much is a Trillion?

• One Trillion Dollars is $1,000,000,000,000.
• A trillion dollar bills stacked on top of each other would reach 68,000 miles. That's a third of a way to the moon. Ask Gene Cernan, he's been there.
• A trillion seconds is 32,000 (thirty-two thousand) years. That's a long time.

OK, hopefully this helps you understand just how big a number a trillion really is.

When President Obama took office, the National Deficit, at least according to the way the government tracks such things was 11.5 trillion dollars. Now it's about 16.5 trillion dollars. The Republicans make a big deal about this. But a fellow by the name of George Bush helped get us to the 11.5 trillion figure and despite all the blather about Bill Clinton and his "Budget Surplus" he chipped in too. This scam has been going on for decades.

So here we sit with a National Deficit of $16,700,000,000,000. Or so the government tell us. Actually they're fibbing a bit. OK, they're fibbing a lot.

Folks like Greg Anton who understand things like balance and loss sheets put the actual deficit at over SIXTY-SEVEN TRILLION DOLLARS! (All caps for emphasis and assuming you've grasped the earlier bullet points by this time)

You see, the government doesn't do its books like we have to here on Main Street. They get to leave out all sorts of short and long term liabilities and stuff. Like, Social Security and Medicare. Well, they are listed, but as footnotes and in no way reflected as liabilities. So a lot of money is "off the books." If we filed our taxes that way, we'd end up in jail.

Here's where we're really at: (Bullet point alert!!)

• The net worth of all the households here in the United States, houses, cars, lawnmowers and assorted knick knacks etc is around $65 Trillion. 
•  Our real debt, including real obligations as a nation is the aforementioned $67.7 Trillion.

If the United States was a mortgage, we'd be underwater. We owe more than the country is worth. So we are underwater. The amount we owe continues to grow, despite what you heard last night and what you've been hearing for years and years and years. It's growing so fast in fact, that countries like China are having a harder and harder time buying up our debt. There's simply too much of it.

I'll be blunt. Our government, both the Executive and Legislative Branches have been misleading us. An irony because they were elected to ...lead us instead. Democrats and Republicans alike.

If you'd really like to dig into all this, check out a non-partisan group of caring Americans at www.FixTheDebt.org. 

I urge you to spend some time and do your own research. You might also want to read the findings and solutions of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Reform. It's about 65 pages long and as they say, a "Real page-turner." Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyoming) and Erskine Bowles (Former Clinton Chief-of-Staff) chaired the bi-partisan group at the request of President Obama. They did their job, presented the report to the President who then stuck it in a drawer after the photo-op.

The report does offer solutions. But there is little if any sugar to help the medicine go down. It's going to take more than Warren Buffett paying more taxes. With around 50% of the population not paying any Federal Income Tax, most will have to start paying something.

Social Security is secure, although retirement ages will have to be raised in the coming years. There will also have to be means testing. Sorry Warren, no Social Security for you or your secretary. As for Medicare and Medicaid, we have simply over-promised far too long. There just is no way to meet coming demands. Defense will have to be cut. Before you get all lathered up over that, we spend more on defense than any country in the world. According to folks like Al Simpson and Erskine Bowles we spend more on defense than the next 15 nations below us combined. And most of them are allies! Also look for stuff like the tax deduction on mortgage interest to be phased out. As a bit of a sidebar, Canada has never had that deduction or anything like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Snoop Snoop Poopy Dog. Yet they have a higher percentage of home ownership than we do.

To be absolutely clear, we have no choice in the matter. Well, unless we want to end up like Greece with 25% unemployment and rioting in the streets. Sadly, it might take something that drastic to really get our attention.

So, all stuff left out last night.

We can get out of this mess if we act now. As in immediately if not sooner. We have a role in all this. If like me, you belong to an organization like the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce, you get to meet our elected representatives to Washington. Ask them, politely, to stop lying and start fixing and if they don't you'll work hard to make sure they lose their jobs.

You can also write, phone, e-mail these folks or best of all, show up to their Town Hall Meetings. Be polite, but firm. Tell them to stop lying and to start doing. Don't, I repeat don't count on many of the media to ask the questions. They're too, uh, obtuse to ask. One journalist I do recommend you read is Al Lewis of Dow Jones Newswires. He's done the math.

We're under water. Let's not let this nation drown. Like the Titanic, we're running out of lifeboats.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"

How do you watch TV? Is it even ...on TV?

I'm hooked on a news series on NETFLIX. Called House of Cards it's the story of a "Ruthless and cunning, Congressman Francis Underwood." Think of it as The West Wing, minus the idealism.

Kevin Spacey, arguably one of the best in the business stars. He's also Executive Producer. Robin Wright and the rest of a terrific cast make for great entertainment. NETFLIX obviously believes in it because they've invested $100 Million in the series.

What makes the viewing experience different:

• It's on a streaming video channel which you can watch on your iPad or TV through various devices. You do have to subscribe to NETFLIX to view the series.
• All 13 episodes of the first season are available for viewing at your convenience. Watch when, where and on what you want. I used to watch Entourage the same way. Why subscribe to en entire premum channel when you just want to watch one series?

As someone who is old enough to remember being the first house on our street with a TV, and just one channel that signed on at 4pm, this sort of thing always amazes me. Technology empowers us, including how we watch TV. I watch House of Cards on an iPad mini with Bose headphones. So am I even watching TV? Long answer: No, I'm consuming video content on a mobile device. Short answer: I'm being entertained on my own terms.

There is no difference between watching a program on a 60 inch big screen or an iPad mini because it's not the size of the screen, it's how close you are to the screen.  So kicking back with my iPad a foot or so away from my eyes and the awesome sound from those Bose headphones is as good as any home theater experience.

Of course while I'm watching the show, I'm not watching traditional TV, nor the ads that still run on the bulk of TV whether it be off-air or via satellite or cable. The way we watch programming is changing with the rapid evolution of the technology we use to consume it.

It's empowering and an important step forward for us.

We as consumers are achieving a long-time goal, "A la Carte" programming. Just watching and paying for what we want to watch. Like at our house, if you subscribe to a satellite or cable television service, you buy program "bundles." You buy a package of channels, maybe watch 10 of them but are stuck paying for another hundred channels you never watch. It makes sense as consumers to pay for just what we consume, right? Up to now, those who control content distribution have prevented us from doing that.

To be fair to satellite and cable companies, they're victims to some extent of major programmers who say "If you want to carry this channel from us, you have to also carry these other channels. Take it or leave it." We as subscribers ultimately end up picking up the tab. A growing added cost for us are the so-called regional sports channels. Many cable systems have no choice but to provide them  at extra cost to us, even though we could care less about the teams or sports covered. It's about to change and here's why:

• We can get an amazing amount of digital channels, many in HD using a simple off-air antenna.
• Companies like NETFLIX are providing a huge and growing number of programs like House of Cards via the Internet.
• Technology like Apple TV is yet another video content pipeline. Ditto for YouTube, already producing several series, they've just announced a new country music channel.
• Many networks themselves are providing their shows on-demand. Watch how, when and where you like.
• We're willing to give up a little, to gain a lot AND save a lot. Heck, I'm willing to give up ESPN if they don't stop creating financial and fan-killing monstrosities like the Longhorn Network.

Consumers have a funny way of getting what they want, and these days are more than willing to shop around for what meets most their needs and save the most money. Outlets like NETFLIX get that.

When I told my wife about YouTube's plans, she said it's time to cancel our DISH Network service, or at least cut way back on it. I don't think she was kidding.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"