Michigan
Emerging ace leads Michigan into Big Ten Tournament
Michigan’s baseball team entered 2024 needing to fill holes in its starting rotation after losing its top two pitchers from last season.
Second-year head coach Tracy Smith was forced to juggle his rotation the first half of the year because of inconsistent results, but a surprise ace has emerged for the Wolverines (30-26, 14-10), who finished fourth in the Big Ten and open conference tournament play against No. 5 seed Iowa at 3 p.m. Wednesday in Omaha, Nebraska.
Sophomore Kurt Barr tossed just 23 2/3 innings as a freshman in 2023 and began this year in the bullpen, but back-to-back superb long-relief appearances in mid-march thrust him into the starting rotation.
The former Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggitt graduate has seized the opportunity and will be on the mound to start against the Hawkeyes in the double-elimination Big Ten Tournament.
He leads the team in ERA (3.52) and innings pitched (76 2/3) and is an all-Big Ten third-team selection.
“You earn it,” Smith said of Barr’s larger role. “It isn’t anything bestowed on anybody. I tell that to the guys all the time: you have to go out there and stack good performance on top of good performance, and when you do that, it earns you more opportunity.
“I think Kurt has done a really good job this season of stacking good performances on top of each other. He has put himself in position to lead the staff.”
During last season’s exit meetings, Barr told Smith he wanted to be a weekend starter in 2024 and pitch in high-leverage situations. He posted a respectable 4.18 ERA as a freshman in limited action but also walked 19 in 23 2/3 innings – a glaring stat that needed to be shored up.
The 6-foot-2, 175-pounder spent a month last summer working with private pitching coach Dom Johnson in San Diego refining his mechanics. He ditched the overhead windup and focused on simplifying his delivery so he could find a more consistent and reliable arm slot.
During the fall – essentially the preseason for NCAA baseball – Barr said he wasn’t getting the results he envisioned, but his new-and-improved motion started paying off this spring. His walk rate has dropped significantly and he also leads the team with a 1.26 WHIP.
“It was just simplifying things,” Barr said of his adjustments. “It wasn’t adding much. It was reworking the way my arm moved a little bit. That took a little bit of time to adjust, I’m thankful for it now because it has made my delivery a lot more consistent and repeatable.
“I’ve been able to land my curveball a lot better in any count. That keeps the hitters a little more off-balance. This new motion has helped me get my curveball down and my fastball down more consistently.”
Barr’s first eight appearances this season came out of the bullpen, but he pitched at least five innings in consecutive appearances before making his first start March 23. On March 12, he tossed six scoreless innings and yielded just three hits in a 7-6 Michigan 12-inning victory.
Five days later, he entered in a 1-1 game against San Diego and pitched five innings of one-run ball in a 3-2 Wolverines win.
“I think I just needed to see it click again,” said Barr, who was a two-time first-team all-state honoree in high school. “Not that I really lost much confidence, but early in the season, I was getting reliever type innings, one or two, and then I had a game where I was able to stretch it out. Since then, I feel like I’ve taken a major stride. Seeing that (success) again and telling myself, ‘This is who I am.’ I’ve been able to roll with that.”
Barr will make the most important start of his career Wednesday in a crucial opening game for Michigan. The path to a tournament title becomes more difficult with a first-round loss, especially for a Wolverines team that finished eighth in the conference in ERA and doesn’t have the pitching depth like others in the league.
Michigan won the season series against the Hawkeyes (31-21, 14-10), taking two of three in early-April. Barr took the only loss in the series but allowed just one run on four hits in 4 1/3 innings.
“Our mindset has kind of been the same since we started Big Ten play,” Barr said. “The mentality was “win the weekend, be weekend warriors.’ It helps we’ve seen them a little bit. I’ve thrown four or five innings against those guys and we did win the series against them last time so that gives us a little bit of confidence heading into this game.”
Likely to oppose Barr is Iowa ace Brody Brecht, a projected early-round pick in the MLB draft. Michigan touched him for five runs in 5 2/3 innings in April, but he’s a tough matchup when he’s on his game. He features a high-90s fastball and has struck out 118 in 71 innings.
The Wolverines need to win the tournament to reach the NCAAs after missing last year for the first time since 2018.
“Our thing is, ‘Who are we playing today?’” Smith said. “It is always Michigan. We are going to worry about what we are doing in our dugout because we think if we do that well, it doesn’t matter who we are playing. If you go back and look at some of our box scores, they are generally not very pretty, but we find a way to win. Just keep scrapping and keep battling, and that served us well all year.”
Michigan
Menominee, Michigan man arrested on sexual assault charges involving a minor
MENOMINEE, Mich. (WLUK) — 24-year-old Ethan Raymond Masters of Menominee was arrested on sexual assault charges June 30th, according to the Menominee County Sheriff’s Office.
According to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office, deputies learned of an incident involving a 24-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl which happened in Menominee June 22nd. Following a sexual assault investigation, police charged Masters.
Masters was arraigned July 2nd on 2 counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct First Degree. He remains in the Menominee County Jail on a $250,000 cash bond.
Menominee City Police and the Michigan State Police Crime Laboratory of Marquette assisted with the investigation.
Michigan
Michigan immigration advocates react after Supreme Court ruling on Temporary Protected Status
Twenty-four thousand immigrants in Michigan have Temporary Protected Status (TPS), but a recent Supreme Court decision could put their protection in jeopardy.
TPS is a humanitarian protection granted to U.S. immigrants fleeing dangerous situations in their home countries, often from natural disasters or political instability. The status allows immigrants from the designated countries to live and work in the U.S.
The Supreme Court overturned those for 356,000 Haitians and Syrians in a recent decision. While the court’s decision directly impacted Haitian and Syrian immigrants, it also established that the Secretary of Homeland Security has the authority to determine TPS status without judicial review or input from the courts.
That means that the Secretary of Homeland Security can eliminate TPS for any immigrant group that is currently in the U.S. under protection. That puts 1.3 million immigrants in the U.S. at risk of deportation. In Florida, 113,000 healthcare workers with TPS are at risk of deportation. The Haitian population in Philadelphia is also expressing concerns about what comes next for them.
“The Supreme Court turned its back on our moral and legal commitments to people seeking safety,” said Christine Sauvé, manager of Policy and Communication at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center. “The decision eliminates legal protections for people fleeing danger and allows the Trump Administration to really advance its mass deportation agenda.”
Left without the ability to live or work in the U.S., these Haitian and Syrian immigrants with TPS now face deportation. But going back home could still be incredibly dangerous.
“It’s not really an option to go back to their home country,” said Melanie Goldberg, immigration attorney with the Institute of Metro Detroit. “In the case of Haiti, they don’t even have an airport in Port-au-Prince that’s operational. Yet they say it’s safe for these citizens to go back.”
In Michigan, immigrants with TPS have contributed $349 million to the state’s economy, a sign that they are deeply embedded in the community, according to Sauvé.
“Many TPS holders have been in our communities for a very long time,” Sauvé said. “They’ve really spent decades building their lives here in Michigan. We welcomed them here, only to see that completely ripped away with the stroke of a pen.”
The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center encourages Haitian and Syrian immigrants with TPS, as well as any immigrants in the U.S. with a TPS designation, to seek out a qualified legal service provider and review the “Know Your Rights” Materials on the MIRC’s website
Michigan
Sherrone Moore’s former assistant sues University of Michigan over alleged FOIA violations
A former University of Michigan assistant whose relationship with ex-coach Sherrone Moore was under investigation is accusing university officials of refusing to provide records related to the probe.
Paige Shiver filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in Washtenaw Circuit Court, claiming that U of M “arbitrarily and capriciously” violated the Michigan Freedom of Information Act by repeatedly denying her requests. Shiver and her legal team are seeking a court order requiring the university to disclose the records.
The lawsuit also alleges that throughout Shiver’s four-year employment with U of M, she was “discriminated against and subjected to a hostile work environment on the basis of her sex, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Michigan law including Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act.”
“The lawsuit filed today demands transparency and accountability from the University of Michigan, President Grasso and the Board of Regents,” said Shiver’s attorney, Andrew M. Stroth.
On Wednesday, CBS News Detroit reached out to U of M, which says it has no comment.
The investigation led to Moore’s firing in December 2025. At the time, it was determined that he was in an inappropriate relationship with a staffer, who was later identified as Shiver.
Moore was arrested hours later after authorities said he went to Shiver’s home and threatened to harm himself. He was charged with third-degree felony home invasion, as well as misdemeanor counts of stalking and of breaking and entering. Moore was sentenced to 18 months’ probation after pleading no contest to the two misdemeanor charges.
According to the lawsuit, Shiver filed a FOIA request in February 2026 for audio, video and transcripts of interviews of herself, her father, Jeff Shiver, and Moore. The lawsuit alleges that the university denied her request, citing the ongoing investigation.
The lawsuit alleges that Shiver submitted a similar request months later, in June, but was told by the university that it was “overly broad and vague” and “does not describe a ‘public record sufficiently to enable the public body to find the public record.’”
The lawsuit claims that requests were submitted in March and May, respectively, for all emails sent to the law firm Jenner & Block (UMconcerns@jenner.com) and for recordings of Shiver’s meetings by the university through Jenner & Block. However, those requests were denied because the university cited that it had no responsive records, according to the lawsuit.
The law firm was hired by U of M to investigate Moore and Shiver’s relationship. The university later expanded the investigation to include the athletic department.
The lawsuit also claims that Shiver requested copies of emails between Moore and athletic director Warde Manuel that contained the words “affair,” “discipline,” “pregnancy,” “baby” and “abortion.” The university denied the request, citing the communication between U of M employees as “exempt information,” according to the lawsuit.
However, Shiver’s legal team argued that the university has not shown evidence that the emails are exempt.
“This public university paid Jenner & Block $12 million to investigate the Sherrone Moore scandal and the abuse, Title IX and Title VII violations within the athletic department and Schembechler Hall, yet now refuses to release the investigation’s findings. It was important for our client to file this initial FOIA lawsuit to ensure the truth and facts come out,” Stroth said.
Shiver appeared on ABC News’ “Good Morning America” in April to discuss her relationship with Moore. In the interview, she said she became pregnant by Moore and sought an abortion after medical complications were discovered about the pregnancy.
Note: The video above previously aired on April 14, 2026.
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