Michigan
Michigan women vs Kansas in March Madness: Prediction for 2024 NCAA tournament
Michigan women’s basketball vs. Kansas
Breaking down the Portland 3 region first-round game between No. 9-seed Michigan and 8-seed Kansas:
Records: Michigan (20-13, 9-9 Big Ten); Kansas (19-12, 11-7).
Fast facts: 2 p.m. Saturday; Galen Center, Los Angeles.
TV: ESPNEWS.
At stake: Winner faces winner of 1-seed Southern Cal vs. 16-seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for spot in Sweet 16 in Portland, Oregon on March 29-30.
PRINT YOUR BRACKET: March Madness schedule, how to watch the NCAA tournament
About U-M
Location: Ann Arbor.
Coach: Kim Barnes Arico (12 seasons at U-M, 261-132 at U-M, 437-266 career).
School tournament record: 11-11 over 11 appearances.
Past 10 regular-season games: 5-5.
Scoring leaders: Laila Phelia, 16.8 points per game; Lauren Hansen, 11.9; Jordan Hobbs, 9.9.
Rebounding leaders: Cameron Williams, 4.78 rebounds per game; Chyra Evans, 4.3; Elissa Brett, 4.2
Assist leaders: Hobbs, 3 assists per game; Hansen, 2.2; Phelia, 1.9.
3-point leaders: Hobbs, 39.1%; Greta Kampschroeder, 38%; Hansen, 37.5%.
The buzz: The Wolverines struggled all season to get momentum; after winning seven of their first eight, they didn’t win more than two in a row until March. That most recent streak featured a regular-season-ending victory over Purdue, a Big Ten tourney-opening win over Minnesota in Minneapolis and then a shocking rally over then-No. 12 Indiana on March 8. U-M was arguably on the bubble — and falling fast — when it fell behind the Hoosiers by 17 points early in the second half. But suddenly, all the pieces clicked for the Wolverines, as Phelia’s downhill game opened up Hansen to fire away from beyond the arc. Phelia had 20 of her career-high 30 points in the second half as U-M beat Indiana by 13. As Barnes Arico observed: “I think Laila Phelia showed why she’s one of the best players in the country, and I thought she did a tremendous job late when they started to really double her and try to load on her of finding Lauren. Lauren is one of the best shooters in the country, one of the best playmakers in the country. So they found each other.” When the Wolverines are hitting their 3s — and U-M enters the tourney at 35.3%, good for 37th in the nation — they can hang with anyone. Just ask title contender Iowa, which knocked U-M out of the Big Ten tourney last week: Michigan hit its first seven 3s and led the Hawkeyes by three after the first quarter, despite getting torched in the paint. Iowa won by 27, but that was an uncharacteristic defensive performance by the Wolverines, who led the Big Ten defensively.
About Kansas
Location: Lawrence, Kansas.
Coach: Brandon Schneider (126-148 in nine seasons at KU; 222-214 in 14 seasons overall).
School tournament record: 14-14 in 14 appearances.
Past 10 games: 8-2.
Scoring leaders: S’Mya Nichols, 15.2 points per game; Taiyanna Jackson, 12.6; Zakiyah Franklin, 11.7; Holly Kersgieter, 11.7.
Rebounding leaders: Jackson, 9.8 rebounds per game; Kersgieter, 5; Ryan Cobbins, 4.1.
Assist leaders: Nichols, 2.7 assists per game; Wyvette Mayberry, 2.3; Franklin, 2.2.
3-point leaders: Kersgieter, 41.5%; Nichols, 40.8%; McKenzie Smith, 33.3%.
The buzz: Schneider landed a program-changing recruit in Nichols, a five-star guard from Overland Park, Kansas (near Kansas City, Missouri). The No. 5 guard in the class of 2023, and a member of the under-18 U.S. national team, the 6-footer has scored in double digits in 27 of her 31 appearances this season, including 29 points against Oklahoma in Kansas’ season finale and 13 points in the Jayhawks’ win over Big Ten runner-up Nebraska on Dec. 20. Nichols didn’t win the conference’s top freshman award, but did finish on the All-Freshman team as well as first-team All-Big 12. The Jayhawks also have a tower of experience in senior center Taiyanna Jackson, who averaged a double-double — 15.2 points and 12.7 points iin 31.7 minutes per game — before taking a step back this season. At 6-6, the East Chicago, Indiana, native is a game-changer in the middle as a two-time All-Big 12 first-teamer and a three-time All-Defense team member in the conference, averaging 3.1 blocks and 1.3 steals a game for her career. The Jayhawks were one of the nation’s hottest teams, winning eight of nine games from Jan. 31-March 8 before finally sputtering out in the Big 12 semifinals against No. 6 Texas, largely because they shot just 38% from the field and were outrebounded, 37-24.
Prediction
Barnes Arico won’t have to stretch far to scout the Jayhawks, who play an inside-out game much like the Wolverines. They’re not quite as accomplished at it, though, shooting just 32.8% beyond the arc (102nd in the nation) and managing just 34.3 boards a game (273rd). If U-M’s Cameron Williams can hold her own in the middle, the Wolverines’ outside shooters should be enough to send them on to face USC and star freshman JuJu Watkins in the second round. The pick: U-M 70, Kansas 65.
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
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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