Detroit, MI
Spirit of Detroit’s pride (of Lions) is back
The Spirit of Detroit is again swelling with pride — the kind found at Ford Field.
The city’s iconic statue outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center building downtown at Woodward and Jefferson is wearing a Detroit Lions jersey again, dressed for a special occasion. The Lions will host their first playoff game in three decades and the first ever at Ford Field.
Ellen Trudell, a spokeswoman for the Detroit Lions, said the team appreciates the outpouring of support it gets from fans.
“It’s exciting for us as an organization to be able to tap into our community on such a large scale and celebrate being in the post-season,” she said. “It’s also an opportunity for the community at large and our fans to engage with the Spirit of Detroit and their Lions fandom in a major way.”
The city landmark last donned the Honolulu blue and gray football jersey in 2015 when the Detroit Lions took on the Dallas Cowboys in a playoff game in Texas for a wild-card spot. The Lions lost 24-20.
But the sculpture isn’t the only Detroit icon displaying its support for the team.
Officials with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan said Monday they will be lighting up the health insurance company’s Lafayette Tower in Detroit Honolulu blue.
Beginning Monday, the tower will display a blue and white football in lights.
“Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan congratulates the Detroit Lions for clinching a spot in the NFL playoffs,” Daniel Loepp, the company’s president and CEO, said in a statement Monday. “The talented and tenacious team has galvanized its dedicated fanbase throughout the state.”
He said the company is “proudly lighting our Detroit office tower in the team colors for the rest of the season” to show its support of the Lions during the team’s quest to reach the Super Bowl.
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Both generations on the ice Friday are intent on growing the game for today’s kids. Hartje and the Polar Bears believe an important step for women’s hockey in Michigan would be starting a Division I college team.
“I think if the PWHL establishes a team in Detroit, it will put a lot of pressure on the colleges to make sure there’s a D-I team in the state,” Hartje said. “Michigan has the second-highest number of players in the league, and it would have been a dream for us to be able to stay in the state to play.”
It’s been a problem for decades. Pierson had to turn down the offer from Boston University, because her family couldn’t afford to send her to New England for college. Hartje ended up at Yale University, and Megan Keller, who scored the gold medal winning goal for the U.S. in the 2026 Winter Olympics and plays for the PWHL’s Boston Fleet, went from suburban Detroit to Boston College.
Meanwhile, 2026 U.S. men’s Olympic team members and Michigan natives Dylan Larkin of the Red Wings and Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets were able to stay in the state to play with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program, then based in Ann Arbor, before moving on to the University of Michigan in the same town.
“Megan’s brother played at Michigan State, and I’m sure she also would have stayed here to play for a Michigan school,” Skarupa said. “It’s imperative that Michigan gets a college program.”
Skarupa is serious about growing the game. She is working with Keller and the NHL Foundation U.S. to identify recipients for its $100,000 Empowerment Grant Program for Girls Hockey.
“Every time I go back to a city, there are new teams, new girls and new faces,” she said. “It’s a testament to growth all over the world, but it is tremendous inside the U.S.”
Detroit, MI
Retired Detroit sergeant faces new sexual assault charge involving 14-year-old victim from 2002
An additional case, this one involving a victim who was then 14 years old, has been added to the sexual assault investigation against a former Detroit Police Department sergeant.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced the latest charges on Friday against Benjamin Martin Wagner, 68, who now lives in Greenville, N.C. He had retired from the Detroit Police Department in 2017.
The victim in the additional charges was 14 years old when the assault happened in October 2002 in Detroit, Worthy said. The prosecutor alleges that Wagner approached the victim, pointed a handgun at her, ordered her away from the location and then sexually assaulted her.
In this case, he faces charges of kidnapping, two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. An arraignment hearing took place Friday in the 36th District Court in Detroit. A probable cause conference is scheduled for April 7.
The woman is now 37 years old.
“She has lived with what happened to her for 23 years and has now bravely decided that she wants to be a part of holding him accountable,” Worthy said.
Wagner participated in a court hearing Thursday and was remanded to jail, one week after he was charged with 15 counts of kidnapping and rape in five separate sexual assault cases. All of those incidents happened between 1999 and 2003 in the northwest side of Detroit, with the victims being young women between the ages of 15 and 23.
The court dates for the earlier list of charges are April 7 for a probable cause hearing and April 14 for a preliminary exam.
Wagner joined the Detroit Police Department in 1989 as a police officer and was eventually promoted to sergeant. He retired in 2017 and moved to North Carolina.
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