Kickstart: Trying to make hockey safer

The death of a hockey player during a game in England on Oct. 25 is leading to a boost in sales for protective equipment made of kevlar and foam and a call from some of the top professional teams to mandate neck guards.

Adam Johnson, a Minnesota native and former Pittsburgh Penguins player who was playing for the Nottingham Panthers in the United Kingdom, died when a skate cut his neck after an accidental collision with another player.

The Penguins responded to the news with a special commemoration event, followed by a mandate that players in its minor league teams wear neck guards. Penguins Head Coach Mike Sullivan said in a press conference he would also "strongly encourage" the guards for his NHL players.

But it may be hard for players to access that equipment right now. Warroad Hockey, a Minnesota maker of protective gear, said on its website that it sold out of its neck protection products in both youth and adult sizes within a day of Johnson's death, but the company is working to ramp up its supplies.

The Penguins have been working on safer hockey through a partnership with materials maker Covestro and Carnegie Mellon University through the "Rethink the Rink" program for the past several years.

"As a league, we can work towards developing more options … in the protective department," Sullivan said. "This could be one of the positive things that might come out."

World leaders representing six continents have signed on to the Bletchley Declaration, calling for a road map for the development of artificial intelligence. (The name comes from the site of a global meeting on AI, Bletchley Park, England, which was once home to code breakers during World War II.)

President Joe Biden also signed an executive order on artificial intelligence on Oct. 30, seeking to "balance the needs of cutting-edge technology companies with national security and consumer rights," the Associated Press reported.

The National Association of Manufacturers says it's important that all those high-level discussions also take manufacturers' needs into account.

"Manufacturers look forward to working with the administration … to ensure that any AI standards adopted at the federal level are developed with strong industry participation, support innovation and R&D, remain scaled based on the guardrails necessary for a particular technology or application, protect companies from unnecessary liability and bolster U.S. competitiveness and leadership in AI," NAM Managing Vice President of Policy Chris Netram said in a news release.

Christine Keller, CEO of injection molder Cascade Engineering, has made the list of the Top 200 Most Influential People for Crain's Grand Rapids Business, a sister paper of Plastics News.

The list includes people from the arts, banking, law, construction, health care and other industries, including manufacturing.

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Cascade molds recycling and trash carts, office furniture and auto parts. Keller told CGRB that the past few years have been tough for manufacturing, but she has some really big goals that will be even harder to solve. Her bucket list item? "Solve climate change."