Michigan
Michigan Wolverines Hockey: Stonehill Preview
The No. 15 Michigan Wolverines (8-7-3) officially return to the ice tonight. Following a gold medal at the World Juniors tournament for Rutger McGroarty, Frank Nazar, Gavin Brindley, and Seamus Casey, and a 5-1 exhibition victory over the U.S. NTDP last weekend, the Wolverines will resume play on their collegiate season this weekend against Stonehill.
The last time we saw the Wolverines, the team struggled with health, chemistry and frequent defensive lapses. Over Michigan’s final five games, the Wolverines went 2-2-1 in what was a microcosm of their entire season. However, some help is on the way.
Dynamic defenseman Ethan Edwards will be making his season debut tonight, and forwards Mark Estapa and Rutger McGroarty will be returning to the lineup for the first time since both sustaining injuries against Penn State on Nov. 17. All of them will provide a boost to the Wolverines, but especially McGroarty, who was the nation’s leading scorer at the time of his injury.
Despite his absence, McGroarty’s 18 points (6G, 12A) are still enough to hold a tie for third on the team with two of his Team USA teammates, Gavin Brindley (10G, 8A) and Frank Nazar (8G, 10A). Leading the way for the Wolverines is T.J. Hughes — no relation to Luke, Quinn or Jack — with 22 points (9G, 13A), closely followed by Dylan Duke with 20 points (8G, 12A).
On the blue line, Edwards’ return will provide some much-needed depth and skill to help ease the burden on burgeoning superstar Seamus Casey. Casey, the team’s leading scorer and the nation’s highest-scoring defenseman, has 23 points (4G, 19A) and has wowed with his electric playing style. Bringing some invaluable physicality and leadership to the team and blue line are team captain Jacob Truscott (2G, 8A) and transfer Marshall Warren (1G, 8A), who have been the most consistent defenders this season.
In net, Jake Barczewski has gone 7-6-3 while posting a .913 save percentage and 2.73 goals against average. Barzo has played better than his numbers suggest, but with injuries and untimely defensive lapses, he has been left out to dry on more than one occasion.
This Michigan team is arguably the best two-period team in college hockey. The Wolverines have seen leads slip away time and time again in the final frame, dampening their record, but with just a little more consistency, this team could string together a nice winning streak in the second half of the season just like has in the prior two seasons. Up first to spark this potential run is Michigan’s final non-conference opponent of the regular season, Stonehill.
Not to be crass or disrespectful, but the Skyhawks are terrible. Possibly the worst team in college hockey, Stonehill has yet to win or even tie a game this season en route to a 0-20 record. But as Arizona State found in a pair of tight one-goal victories, the Skyhawks will fight for an upset for 60 minutes.
Stonehill is led in scoring by forward Frank Ireland with 11 points (6G, 5A) and forward Henri Schreifels is not far behind with 10 points (6G, 4A). Defensively, Greg Japchen is the leading blue-liner with 10 points (3G, 7A) and the team’s top assist man.
In net, Dylan Meilun has started 17 games and posted a .881 save percentage and 4.89 goals against average.
The Wolverines have some work to do to secure an NCAA Tournament spot and the momentum should start tonight.
Game 1
When: Friday, Jan. 12, 7 p.m. ET
Where: Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, MI
How to watch: BIG+
How to listen: WXYT 1270 AM
Game 2
When: Saturday, Jan. 13, 7 p.m. ET
Where: Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, MI
How to watch: BIG+
How to listen: WXYT 1270 AM
Michigan
How two Michigan stamping plants power Stellantis turnaround plan
Sterling Stamping Plant is the largest in the world
Ed Daniels, vice president of North America injection and stamping operations, discusses the process of producing metal parts for Stellantis models.
Warren — Hulking metal presses line one wall of Stellantis NV’s cavernous stamping plant here, punching out the raw shapes of Jeep doors, Dodge hoods and Ram tailgates in rapid succession.
Nearby, swinging yellow robots continue the tightly choreographed work, gluing and pressing and welding smaller components to the sheet metal that eventually will start to resemble the shape of a truck or SUV.
Seven miles north, in Sterling Heights, Stellantis operates an even larger stamping plant — the biggest in the world, at 2.7 million square feet — that does much of the same work, churning out various shapes of steel and aluminum 24 hours a day.
Together, these lesser-known links in the manufacturing supply chain support all of Stellantis’ big North American assembly plants — from next-door Warren Truck Assembly Plant, where the Jeep Grand Wagoneer SUV is built, to facilities in Windsor and Mexico that make minivans and pickups.
Inside Stellantis’ Huge Detroit Stamping Plants
The Detroit News recently got a rare look inside the automaker’s Sterling and Warren stamping plants, which are key to the company’s turnaround plan.
The Metro Detroit stamping plants, the automaker’s only two such facilities in the United States, have at times struggled in recent years, facing major job cuts and worker morale issues amid slowing sales and shifting production plans. But under Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, the facilities are expected to cram in more workload — and add staff — as Stellantis begins a new five-year strategic turnaround plan, which includes a heavy focus on its most profitable North American market.
The carmaker’s goal: grow sales by more than a third to 1.9 million annually by 2030 as it launches 23 vehicles, including 11 all-new models. The company also is directing billions of dollars of investment into its U.S. manufacturing footprint due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“Stamping has never really been viewed as the sexy side of automotive manufacturing, we’re relatively invisible,” said Ed Daniels Jr., vice president of North America injection and stamping operations. “Because when you look at the commercials and advertisements, it’s always a beautiful Ram rolling off the assembly line or climbing the side of a mountain.
“But we’re the inception of that vehicle,” he said. “This is where raw materials are turned into commodities and parts.”
The Detroit News recently got a rare look inside the two plants that combined employ about 3,000 people. The automaker wanted to show off a newly-installed blanking press at Warren Stamping and other machinery like a high-speed transfer press and a robot that spots flaws in the metal.
Hiring expected
The blanking press unspools long coils of metal and chops them up into pieces that can then be shaped into roofs, fenders and floor pans. Stellantis shipped the massive machine to Warren from its idled Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois last year.
After upgrades to the machine, executives said it’s able to produce as many as 120,000 metal blanks per week. It will save Stellantis money since the plant will no longer need to pay a supplier to break down the coils before the metal arrives there.
The blanker addition is a big deal for the plant and signals that the company wants to bring more work in-house and invest in the facility over the coming years, said Romaine McKinney III, president of United Auto Workers Local 869, which represents workers at the factory.
The plant has already brought back all of its laid-off UAW workers, and McKinney said he anticipates more hiring to get underway if sales grow and new Stellantis vehicles come to market.
In another corner of the Warren facility, one of the fastest press lines in the world — known internally as the Hellcat — pushes as many as 15 pieces of metal through per minute. Dies that weigh up to 50 tons apiece squish the material into the shapes of doors and hoods before robotic arms snatch them out and place them on conveyor belts. Midway through a shift, workers can reconfigure the machine to make a different component, a process that takes just five minutes.
Robots check for quality
Curtis Booth, who manages Warren Stamping, said manual processes inside the plant have become increasingly automated, and safer, over the last couple decades, even as the automaker’s two stamping factories still utilize some presses that were installed in the 1960s.
The latest high-tech addition is the Automated Body Inspection System, or ABIS. It’s a camera system mounted on a robot that automatically checks the quality of components and flags anything in need of repair.
Auto plants of all kinds are increasingly turning to these types of camera systems, infused with artificial intelligence, to catch flaws in sheet metal and other components before they are shipped. Booth said worker visual inspections are still used. But in some cases the human eye has too much subjectivity, and the ABIS removes the guesswork.
Greg Bauer, who manages Sterling Stamping, said his plant has added staff over the past year, and expects to continue hiring as more work is assigned to the facility. There is no space at the plant to add more presses, but officials have figured out how to increase efficiency — quickly toggling back and forth between making doors for a Chrysler Pacifica and Dodge Charger on on a single machine, for example.
“We want to bring high-volume parts into the plant, and we want to maximize the capacity of the equipment,” Daniels said.
lramseth@detroitnews.com
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
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