Latest news with #Krejci
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Cleo Krejci wins Center for Integrity in News Reporting award
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Cleo Krejci is the winner of the 2025 Center for Integrity in News Reporting award for her investigation into the staffing crisis straining Wisconsin's rapidly growing assisted living industry. Krejci accepted the award at a ceremony at the Library of Congress on May 6. The award was created in 2024 with the mission of growing public trust in news by celebrating exemplary journalism that demonstrates fairness, integrity and impartiality. Cleo Krejci Krejci, who covers workforce development for the Journal Sentinel through Report for America, was inspired by her own experience working as a direct caregiver. What she witnessed formed the basis of her investigative project, "The Gray Zone." Supported by a grant from the Gerontological Society of America, Krejci delved into hundreds of state reports and interviewed more than 50 workers, families, nurses, researchers and others. She found that over the past 20 years, the number of assisted living beds has doubled, but the number of complaints has tripled. Caregivers told Krejci they were thrown into the job without preparation, putting themselves and residents in danger and fueling a vicious cycle of turnover. "When Cleo joined our team, she wasn't sure what to do with all she had seen and experienced as a caregiver," said Greg Borowski, executive editor of the Journal Sentinel. "We encouraged her to follow the story and dig deeper. She did so with determination, empathy and integrity, always centered on telling the story with care and heart." "That's what we ask all of our reporters to do every day: Be essential. Be connected. Make a difference in our community," Borowski said. Krejci's reporting on assisted living has earned a number of other distinguished honors. Krejci was also named a Goldsmith Award semifinalist, one of the top awards in journalism, and a Livingston Award finalist, which honors journalists under 35. Livingston Award winners will be announced in June. Her project was also a finalist for a prestigious Investigative Reporters and Editors Award. Judges called it an "important and empathetic" investigation that "significantly serves the public interest." Krejci's reporting also took second place in the Wisconsin Newspaper Association's inaugural A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism and third place in the National Headliner Awards in the public service category. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Reporter Cleo Krejci wins Center for Integrity in News Reporting award
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Beloit filmmaker shares independent film with her hometown
BELOIT, Wis. (WTVO) — A local filmmaker comes back home to share her work with her community during the 20th anniversary for the Beloit International Film Festival. Mallie McCown created the film 'Dear Luke, Love Me.' MCown said she used real-life experiences as her inspiration. 'I was like, 'you know what? I want to make this movie and nobody's going to make it except me,'' McCown said. 'I'm going to have to be proactive and be my own advocate and make this happen.' McCown said bringing her film back home to show her community was heartwarming. 'This feels really full circle for me,' McCown said. 'I was born and raised in Beloit. Me and my sister and best friend would take our dad's video camera, and we would just take our summers and film movies.' The festival's Operations and Hospitality Manager Sabrina Krejci said the event has grown in popularity over the years. 'We started off 20 years ago as a four-day festival then progressed to a ten-day festival,' Krejci said. 'We have seen the growth more and more throughout the 20 years, and I don't think it's stopping. I think we continue to grow every year from the filmmakers that submit to the people that come because there's new generations. The same people that were involved 20 years ago have now passed on that love of independent film to the community, to their grandchildren or their kids.' Krejci explained how the submission process works. 'Normally we get anywhere between 500-800 films submitted,' Krejci said. 'Our film selection committee and reviewers have to go through every one of those films and watch them. Some get multiple reviews and then we have to narrow it down to 100.' This year's festival has , and McCown said she's thrilled to be a part of it. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Reuters
12-02-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Knicks, Hawks on upswing ahead of last game before break
February 12 - The NBA schedule-maker decided to play a little "This Is Your Life" with the New York Knicks just before the All-Star break. The Knicks will conclude a three-game stretch against the peers with whom they are most compared on Wednesday, hosting the Atlanta Hawks in the final game for both teams before the week-long hiatus. The Knicks will be completing a back-to-back set after Karl-Anthony Towns (40 points, 12 rebounds) and Josh Hart (30 points, 10 rebounds) each posted a double-double in a 128-115 win over the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday in Indianapolis. The Hawks last played on Monday, when they edged the host Orlando Magic 112-106. New York got a bounce-back win following a wire-to-wire 131-104 home loss to the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics on Saturday. The Knicks have been outscored 263-213 by the Celtics in two games this season, so the Tuesday win was the latest evidence that New York is far closer to being the equal of Indiana than Boston. The Knicks missed a chance to battle the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals last spring when they were eliminated by the Pacers in a seven-game conference semifinal. New York won the rubber match of the three-game regular season series Tuesday even though Jalen Brunson set season lows with eight points in 23 minutes. Brunson sat for more than 15 minutes after drawing his fifth foul with 8:42 left in the third quarter and the Knicks holding a 74-65 lead. Hart scored 15 points during Brunson's absence to help New York extend the advantage to 116-100 before Brunson returned. "What Josh did is what we needed to win," Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. "He was everywhere, flying around, doing everything. Good team win, good bounce-back." The Knicks have done some bouncing back against the Hawks, who eliminated New York in a five-game first-round series in 2021 to end Thibodeau's first season at the helm. New York is 8-7 against Atlanta since the start of the 2021-22 campaign, though Atlanta won the first two games this season and eliminated the Knicks from the NBA Cup with a 108-100 quarterfinal victory on Dec. 11. While the Knicks are in third place in the Eastern Conference and nine games clear of the seventh-place Miami Heat, the road back to a potential playoff rematch is thornier for the Hawks, who are in eighth place. Atlanta is two games behind the Detroit Pistons, who occupy the sixth and final guaranteed postseason spot. The Hawks won their third straight Monday and improved to 4-1 since an eight-game losing streak from Jan. 20-Feb. 1. However, the latest victory was costly. Larry Nance Jr. (knee) and Vit Krejci (back) sustained injuries within 18 seconds of each other in the fourth quarter, though Atlanta outscored the Magic 18-12 following Krejci's exit with 7:43 left. Both Nance and Krejci will sit out on Wednesday. Trae Young scored 11 of his 19 points in the game-ending run, which included a combined five points from reserves Terance Mann and Georges Niang. "We were finishing with a compilation of guys at various times and obviously that was impacted, in some degree, by what happened to Vit and what happened to Larry," Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. "But that aside, that group pulled together." --Field Level Media
New York Times
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Are we live?' Chirps, laughs, old stories and Bruins legends star in NESN's alt-cast
WATERTOWN, Mass. — The four-page script for the Jan. 23 episode of NESN's 'Unobstructed Views' says nothing about bashing David Krejci, one of that night's guests. That changes when host Andrew Raycroft, approximately an hour before the show starts, poses a question to colleagues and fellow ex-Boston Bruins Patrice Bergeron and Tuukka Rask inside the green room at NESN's Watertown studio. Advertisement 'Have you seen Krech's commercial?' In the spot — for Bluedrop Water, a water purification company in Easton — Krejci places a glass under an ice maker. The retired center, wearing a Bluedrop polo, raises the glass, looks at the camera and says dramatically, 'That's some good ice.' Rask, Bergeron and Raycroft giggle as they watch the commercial. Raycroft proposes a pivot. During the second period of that night's Bruins-Ottawa Senators game, when Krejci joins the show remotely from his South Carolina home, his ex-teammates should ambush him with a clip and light him up. 'He's thinking he's just going to come in and have a nice, easy conversation,' Rask says with a laugh. 'And we're just going to hammer him right off the bat.' About 10 minutes into their chat, Raycroft mentions Krejci's acting career. Raycroft, Bergeron and Rask laugh. So does Krejci. Rask asks Krejci if he can install the system at his house. The chop-busting continues. Krejci good-naturedly repeats his four-word line. Krejci, as his ex-teammates know best, gives as well as he takes. Rask asks Krejci if he knows he had good career production against the Senators. 'I had pretty good numbers against everyone, Tuukks,' Krejci says with a smile, which triggers a round of laughter. Krejci has a question of his own. He seems legitimately puzzled when he issues his query. 'So what do you guys do?' Krejci asks. 'You guys just watch and do play-by-play?' 'Unobstructed Views' runs once a month. It is NESN's version of the 'ManningCast,' ESPN's alternative broadcast of 'Monday Night Football' featuring Eli and Peyton Manning. Play-by-play announcer Judd Sirott and analyst Andy Brickley call the traditional version of a Bruins game on NESN. Simultaneously, in a broadcast airing on NESN Plus and NESN 360, Bergeron, Rask and Raycroft, wearing casual clothes, watch the same game off a monitor in Watertown and chat in a breezy manner. Occasionally, Raycroft turns to host Laura Stickells, whose duties include monitoring social media, to ask questions viewers have submitted. Advertisement For someone watching 'Unobstructed Views,' the game action occupies most of the screen. Instead of Sirott's and Brickley's audio, you hear Bergeron, Rask and Raycroft — they appear in iso-shots or a three-shot on the right side of the screen — speak during the game. The show includes scripted segments. Before the game, Bergeron, Rask and Raycroft approach a whiteboard and predict their three stars. They are to place a magnet of their choice's face on the board. There is no magnet for Joonas Korpisalo, Rask's pick. Rask draws a stick figure and labels it 'Korpi.' Later, Stickells asks Bergeron to rank five Canadian players in order of greatness. Bergeron sticks Sidney Crosby, the first player Stickells mentions, in fourth place. Mario Lemieux gets top status. But for the most part, it's Bergeron, Rask and Raycroft watching the game, offering their thoughts and stretching out their conversation. 'It's like sitting at a bar,' says NESN chief operating officer Matt Volk, 'listening to people have a conversation that you wish you could be a part of.' 'Unobstructed Views' is meant to drive revenue. Coors Banquet and Jordan's Furniture sponsor the show. It is also a marketing machine designed to promote the primary broadcast as well as other ventures. In the third period, NESN reporter Jahmai Webster and Golf Magazine director of social media Claire Rogers join the show to discuss TGL, the new golf league. Fenway Sports Group, NESN's parent company, owns Boston Common Golf, one of TGL's six teams. The alt-cast allows NESN to serve a different audience, typically a younger one. A complementary channel like NESN Plus allows the provider to showcase ex-players' personalities and expand a traditional broadcast's boundaries. The alt-cast is better suited for storytelling, free of the pressure of describing what's happening in-game. Advertisement For example, Raycroft sees a first-period shot of Trent Frederic, in uniform against Ottawa after missing two previous games because of an illness. Raycroft asks Bergeron and Rask if they ever played sick. It tees up Rask to tell the story of how he was too sick to play in the Bruins' final 2015-16 regular-season game, also against the Senators. With Jonas Gustavsson in net, the Bruins lost 6-1 and missed the playoffs. 'It's a little bit less about what's going on on the ice in that very moment — not in a play-by-play way,' Volk says. 'Which opens up a different type of conversation that can appeal to many different audiences.' Rask describes how he was throwing up that day. But he leaves out the story's other layers. Rask was so drained that when he skated out for warmups, he did not take a single shot. Earlier that week, he had been spotted at Duff's, one of his go-to neighborhood restaurants. Online and on sports radio, this exploded into how Rask had been pounding chicken wings and beer the night before the game. Rask recalls all of this in the green room during first intermission. Sometimes the best stories don't get on the air. Rask is not above accepting abuse. In the green room, as the ex-Bruins joke about Krejci's commercial, Rask acknowledges he was in one too. In a spot for The Long Drink, a Finnish alcoholic beverage, a shirtless Rask is sitting in a fake sauna. A woman lashes Rask's back with a bouquet of leaves. As she does, Rask turns to the camera and says, 'Oh, so refreshing!' Bergeron and Raycroft watch the commercial on a computer in disbelief. 'How bad is that?' Rask asks with a laugh. This prompts Bergeron and Raycroft to recall their commercial in which they drive a Zamboni over the Zakim Bridge. The way Bergeron and Raycroft remember it, Joe Thornton and Nick Boynton were originally requested. Advertisement 'It's because Joe wouldn't wake up to do it,' Raycroft says of why he and Bergeron were selected. 'We were the only ones. We were the young kids.' 'They pitched it to Joe and Boynts,' Bergeron concurs. 'They're like, 'Hahahaha! Bergy and Razor will do it.'' Bergeron was 18 when the commercial first aired. Raycroft was 23. For the ex-goalie, a future television career was not even a consideration. 'Not in a million years. Not at all,' says Raycroft, now a regular NESN analyst, radio and TV guest and podcaster. 'This was the last thing I thought I would ever do.' Raycroft is now 44. Bergeron is 39. Rask is 37. As the NESN pregame show mentions Jake Sanderson, Ottawa's 22-year-old defenseman, Rask wonders where time has gone. 'I'm like two years away from not knowing any of these guys,' Rask says. 'You're also two years away from them not knowing who you are,' Bergeron fires back, prompting laughter all around. 'How old do you think (Alex) Ovechkin feels?' Rask then asks of the 39-year-old chasing Wayne Gretzky's goal-scoring mark. 'If he gets the (record) this year, he's done. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets it next year, he's going to retire after that game.' 'That would be awesome,' Raycroft answers. 'That would be perfect for Ovi. He's got to be going so hard to get it done so he doesn't have to train all summer.' 'I think if he needs one or two, he's not even going to work out,' Rask says. 'Power play, he's just going to stand there and hammer one-timers until he gets it.' This is the kind of chatter 'Unobstructed Views' watchers enjoy, according to NESN feedback. But they also want Bergeron, Rask and Raycroft to discuss the game they're watching. The latter is harder than it seems. Bergeron retired in 2023. Rask said goodbye the year earlier. They still have former teammates in uniform. Rask is also a team ambassador. Neither is comfortable with critique, which the scuffling Bruins deserve. Advertisement 'We still have some really good friends on the team,' Bergeron says. 'You want them to do well. That's the main thing. You hope for a good game. You want them to perform and hopefully get that win.' As Bergeron, Rask and Raycroft watch that night's game, their conversation feels stretched at times. They are not going to rip apart their ex-teammates. They occasionally go quiet as they follow the on-ice action. Krejci's second-period visit brings them to life. Among other things, they discuss their performance in a December alumni game in which Krejci scored six first-period points. Krejci eased off afterward because of pain in his hips. 'We had to stand on the blue lines. Nobody told me. That was like 30 minutes long, all those guys getting introduced,' Krejci recalls of warmups, which he claims initiated his hip discomfort. ''Bergy, 17-time Selke. Blah, blah, blah.' Fifteen minutes was just about Bergy. Then my hips were done.' Like his ex-teammates, Krejci is not comfortable commenting on this year's team. They ask him what he thinks. Krejci pauses, smiles, laughs awkwardly and says, 'Are we live?' (Top photo of Patrice Bergeron, Tuukka Rask and Andrew Raycroft courtesy of NESN)
