By DAVE CAMPBELL, AP Sports Writer

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Calls from the U.S. to Roustan Hockey headquarters in Canada in recent weeks have been anything but routine, as bulk orders of name-brand sticks have suddenly become complicated conversations.

“These customers want to know: When their orders ship, will they have to pay an additional 25% tariff? And we respond by saying, ‘Well, right now we don’t know, so they postpone their order or cancel their order because they want to know before they order what the cost is going to be,” said Graeme Roustan, who owns the company that makes and sells more than 100,000 hockey sticks annually to the U.S. market.

The prospect of 25% tariffs by President Donald Trump on Canadian imports, currently paused for some goods but facing full implementation on Wednesday, has caused headaches if not havoc throughout the commercial ecosystem. The sports equipment industry is certainly no exception, with so many of the products manufactured for sports -loving Americans outside of the U.S.

No two countries in the world are intertwined athletically more than Canada and the U.S. are with hockey, either, making mere talk of a trade war a spreadsheet-shuffler — and potentially a budget-buster — for businesses based around the rink and the consumers of their products.

Roustan Hockey bought the Christian and Northland brands that originated in Minnesota and now manufactures them with other products under its umbrella in Brantford, Ontario, the town where Wayne Gretzky grew up about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southwest of Toronto. About 40% of Roustan’s business is with the U.S. market, and about 90% of sales of Christian and Northland gear go to American customers.

“Our business with the U.S. is steady right now because people are trying to get their orders in before the tariffs take effect, but I’m very concerned that once the tariffs go into effect that there will be people in, say, Minnesota who will think twice about buying a Christian or a Northland stick because of the 25% tariff,” Roustan said in a phone interview. “So the unknown is still unknown.”

Many pieces of retail hockey equipment originate in Asia, including China. Mexico is another player in the market, home to a factory for Warrior brand sticks, for example. Those countries are in the tariff crosshairs, too.

“Whether it’s in effect for a week or gets retracted or whether it’s a future date where we’re going to have some announcement, all that makes it very challenging to run and operate a business,” said Todd Smith, the chief executive officer of the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. “The general viewpoint is uneasiness and confusion.”

Related Articles

Stock markets fall worldwide as Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ approaches

Business People: Hennepin Healthcare CEO Jennifer DeCubellis to step down

Real World Economics: Unkept promises are bad economics

Electric vehicle range anxiety? Researchers develop new battery that could be a cure

Your Money: The 60-year career: How to plan for a longer work life

Roustan bought Bauer’s hockey outfitting business from Nike in 2008 and oversaw that company for four years. By the time Roustan assumed control, he said, Bauer — born in Canada in 1927 and a ubiquitous name in the sport — had shifted all of its manufacturing sites to Asia for cost savings on labor and facilities.

“The industry has done an admirable job of manufacturing across the globe while doing as much as they possibly can domestically,” Smith said. “The components made internationally are made internationally because we don’t have the manufacturing capability in the U.S. and we don’t have the workforce.”

In hockey, of course, a lot of gear is required to take the ice. That gear is also notoriously expensive, which puts this sport as subject to the tariff tumult as any. Just in North America, hockey equipment is a $1.3 billion business and growing, as estimated by Grand View market research. Any added cost from the import tax will almost certainly trickle down to the consumer.

Organizations like SFIA have long had an eye on rising costs of youth sports, concerned about the effect on participation and driven to increase accessibility to all activities in underprivileged communities.

“If folks aren’t aware of it now, they should be well aware that tariffs are bad for sports across the board,” Smith said.

The shows will still go on, tariffs or not

Most families with kids in sports are busy enough shuttling those young athletes to practices and shopping for the next round of gear that topics like international politics, global economics and commercial supply chains usually get the backseat.

Tariffs might drive up the price of hockey sticks? Well, just add that to the pile.

For Jeremiah Lamont and his family in Minneapolis, staying on top of the equipment inventory for two hockey-playing boys is enough of project on its own. Paying for it is another story, as his 12-year-old son Max enters each new stage of competition.

“The youth skates cost about $200. Well, his foot grows a half-inch, he can’t get into the youth ones, and now those same skates are $450,” Lamont said, estimating the current total cost of gear at more than $1,500, some of which must be annually replaced.

Ice time and travel costs sold separately, of course.

“He likes it. It’s good for him. So we just figure, ‘Why not?’” Lamont said.

The sticker shock is real for hockey newbies, as Kelley Baer and her family in Colorado found out when now-13-year-old Brian got going on the ice. Sticks, skates, helmets, shin guards, elbow and shoulder pads, chest protectors, neck guards, they all add up.

Those sticks don’t always last the season, either, that vital-yet-fragile piece of equipment perpetually at risk for fracturing from an awkward hit — or in a moment of frustration. In the NHL, a replacement is always at the ready. A pile of sticks is a luxury many young players don’t have.

“I’m like, “No, no, no, no, no! That is a $400 stick. Do not slam that thing on the ice!” Baer said. “We always laugh about that, but it’s also very serious. We used it as a gateway of a conversation about showing your emotions on the ice and how you’ve got to be able to contain that as a leader. If you start losing your mind and slamming your stick, that’s a disadvantage for you.”

The life lessons in sports run as deep as the passions that fuel this giant slice of economy and culture.

“Yes, it’s expensive and we are fortunate in that we can afford it,” Baer said. “He’s our kid, and we love him. We want to support him in what he wants to do, and we’ll figure out a way.”

By DAVID A. LIEB

In New Mexico, police and prosecutors backed an effort to outlaw devices that convert pistols into machine guns. In Alabama, the governor made it a priority.

Lawmakers in both states — one led by Democrats, the other by Republicans — responded this year with new laws making so-called Glock switches illegal.

At least half of U.S. states now have similar laws prohibiting the possession of such devices, a list that has grown over the past decade as law enforcement officers have found more of the tiny yet powerful devices attached to guns.

States are mimicking federal law, which for decades has generally prohibited machine guns and any parts that can transform semiautomatic weapons into automatic ones.

What does federal law say?

U.S. law defines a machine gun as a weapon that automatically fires more than one shot with a single pull of a trigger. The definition also includes any parts designed to convert a weapon into a machine gun.

Federal law prohibits possessing machine guns made after 1986, with some exceptions for law enforcement, the military and certain licensed dealers. Nearly all conversion devices are illegal because they were made more recently.

People convicted of possessing machine guns and conversion devices can face up to 10 years in prison.

What is a Glock switch?

A Glock switch is one type of a machine gun conversion device. It’s a metal or plastic piece, about the size of a coin, that attaches to the back of Glock pistol, a brand that is popular with both police and criminals. The switch interferes with a gun’s internal trigger components so that it fires continuously when the trigger is pulled back and held.

A gun outfitted with a switch can fire dozens of bullets in mere seconds, similar to a factory-made machine gun.

FILE – Two semi-automatic pistols are displayed for a photograph, one with a conversion device installed making it fully automatic, at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), National Services Center, Thursday, March 2, 2023, in Martinsburg, W.Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Other brands of pistols that mimic Glocks also can be converted to machine guns. So can some semiautomatic rifles. Such conversion devices also are referred to as auto sears, selector switches or chips.

What does the data indicate?

The use of auto sears spiked in the past decade, partly because they can be made inexpensively with 3D printers.

From 2012 to 2016, just 814 machine gun conversion parts were taken into custody by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. That swelled to 5,454 from 2017-2021.

In January, former President Joe Biden’s administration said 12,360 suspected machine gun conversion devices had been recovered in the U.S. and submitted to the ATF during a roughly 34-month period ending in October 2024.

Five states including Florida, Illinois, Texas, Montana and North Dakota accounted for nearly half that total.

What have states been doing?

Alabama is the latest state to outlaw Glock switches. A law signed this month by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey makes possessing parts designed to convert pistols into machine guns a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The bipartisan push in Alabama came after police said they believed conversion devices had been used in fatal shootings, including one in September that killed four and injured 17 people outside a Birmingham lounge.

Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a law in February making possession of a weapon conversion device a felony punishable by up to three years in prison.

Similar legislation passed the New Jersey General Assembly last week and now heads to the Senate. Bills also are pending in other states.

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a law last year making auto sears illegal. But Youngkin vetoed legislation this past week that would have broadened an existing ban on “trigger activators” to cover additional devices that increase firing rates of semiautomatic weapons.

What do gun control advocates want?

Groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety say state laws provide a sometimes easier alternative to federal prosecution for possessing Glock switches. But they want to go further.

Everytown for Gun Safety is backing legislation in California, Maryland and New York that would make it illegal to sell pistols that could be transformed into machine guns.

FILE – A semi-automatic Glock pistol is fired at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), National Services Center, March 2, 2023, in Martinsburg, W.Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

“That really puts the pressure where it belongs — on the manufactures that are making money off of guns that they know can be readily turned into machine guns,” said Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety.

Several cities and states including Baltimore, Chicago, Minnesota and New Jersey have sued Glock for making pistols that can be converted by others to automatic weapons.

What do gun-rights groups say?

The National Rifle Association notes U.S. attorneys already can prosecute people for misusing gun conversion devices without the need for state laws.

Gun Owners of America, another gun-rights group, contends people should have a Second Amendment right to own machine guns. State laws against machine gun conversation devices are “duplicative” and “pure virtue signaling,” said Aidan Johnston, federal affairs director for Gun Owners of America.

He said guns converted to fire automatically can have practical uses like eliminating large groups of feral hogs that are destroying land.

“Just because you put that on your firearm doesn’t mean that you are a violent criminal or that you necessarily are a dangerous person,” Johnston said.

By AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX and LINLEY SANDERS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigration remains a strength for President Donald Trump, but his handling of tariffs is getting more negative feedback, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

About half of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s approach to immigration, the survey shows, but only about 4 in 10 have a positive view of the way he’s handling the economy and trade negotiations.

The poll indicates that many Americans are still on board with Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations and restrict immigration. But it also suggests that the Republican president’s threats to impose tariffs — which have been accompanied by tumbling consumer confidence and wild stock market swings — might be erasing his advantage on another issue that he made central to his winning 2024 campaign.

The economy was a drag on then-President Joe Biden, who saw the share of Americans who approved of his handling of the economy fall to a low of roughly 3 in 10 in 2023. Trump drew considerable strength in November from voters who prioritized the economy, but just before he took office in January, an AP-NORC poll found that few Americans had high confidence that he’d make progress on lowering prices in his first year.

Views of Trump’s job performance overall are more negative than positive, the survey found. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, and more than half disapprove. Negative opinions are also stronger than positive opinions — about 4 in 10 U.S. adults strongly disapprove of Trump’s job performance, while about 2 in 10 strongly approve.

Trump’s job approval is highest on immigration

More U.S. adults say they approve of Trump’s handling of immigration than his approach to the presidency as a whole.

That trend even extends to Democrats. Relatively few, about 2 in 10, say they’re on board with how Trump is approaching immigration, but that’s higher than the roughly 1 in 10 who approve of his handling of the economy and his job as a whole.

The durability of Trump’s appeal on immigration underscores that many U.S. adults support his tough approach, which he has prioritized in the first few months of his second term.

In the past few weeks, Trump’s administration has been locked in a court struggle over the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law, made moves to deport foreign students who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at colleges, and attempted to suspend the nation’s refugee admissions system.

Voters who said immigration was their most important issue last November overwhelmingly favored more restrictive policies, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters. The issue was also a higher priority for Americans heading into 2025 than it had been the previous year.

FILE – Wall Street sign is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, March. 21, 2024. Reddit shares will begin trading Thursday. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

Signs of potential weakness on trade and the economy

There are warning signs for Trump in the poll, too, particularly in Americans’ assessment of his work on tariffs and the economy.

Trade negotiations with other countries is the issue on which he’s rated especially negatively, with about 6 in 10 U.S. adults saying they disapprove of his job performance. It’s a relative low point, even among Republicans. About 7 in 10 Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of trade — still relatively high, but lower than the roughly 9 in 10 who approve of his approach on immigration.

Trump’s approach on other issues — including managing the federal government, his handling of foreign conflicts, Social Security and the economy — roughly track with his overall job approval.

But even though the economy doesn’t stand out quite as starkly as trade negotiations, Trump’s relatively low rating on that issue could be a problem for him going forward.

Related Articles

Under the new Trump administration, this year’s Transgender Day of Visibility has a different tenor

Justice Department instructed to dismiss legal challenge to Georgia election law

Democratic base’s anger puts some party leaders on shaky ground

Musk-funded political group spends big and goes door to door in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race

Trump finds fault with both Putin and Zelenskyy as he tries to push for deal to end war in Ukraine

During his first term, the economy was an issue on which Americans frequently gave Trump good marks. In October 2020, just before he lost reelection, an AP-NORC poll found that about half of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, putting the rating far above his performance on race relations and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prices and economic growth were also a major motivator for the voters who sent Trump back to the White House for a second term. Trump won overwhelmingly among voters who said the economy was the most important issue facing the country, AP VoteCast found, and he was also the choice of most voters who said that inflation was the most important issue for their vote.

Now, Trump’s stewardship of the economy is being put to the test again — and the AP-NORC poll isn’t the only sign that his threats of tariffs are making everyday Americans nervous. Consumer confidence has been falling over the past few months. Trump has argued that tariffs would bring more jobs in the auto industry to the U.S. and narrow the budget deficit, but prices on imported cars could also rise steeply if some of the costs of the taxes are passed along to consumers.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,229 adults was conducted March 20-24, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

By LIUDAS DAPKUS and LOLITA C. BALDOR

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Three of the U.S. Army soldiers who went missing in Lithuania have been found dead in their armored vehicle that was pulled from a swampy area early Monday, according to U.S. Army Europe and Africa Command. Another soldier is still missing.

The bodies of the three soldiers were recovered after a massive six-day effort by U.S., Polish and Lithuanian armed forces and authorities to dig the M88 Hercules vehicle out of a peat bog at the expansive General Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in the town of Pabradė.

The soldiers were on a tactical training exercise when they and their vehicle were reported missing early Tuesday, the Army said.

The command in a statement said the identities of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division soldiers are being withheld pending family notifications.

“We stand in grief with the families and loved ones of these extraordinary ‘Dogface Soldiers’ during this unimaginable time,” said Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, 3rd Infantry Division commander. “But the search isn’t finished until everyone is home. Words cannot express our gratitude to those still working around the clock during these extensive search and recovery efforts and your unwavering commitment not to rest until all are found.”

Hundreds of Lithuanian and U.S. soldiers and rescuers took part in the search through the thick forests and swampy terrain around Pabradė, just 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of the border with Belarus. The armored vehicle was discovered on Wednesday submerged in 4.5 meters (15 feet) of water.

Lithuanian armed forces provided military helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, unmanned aerial systems and search and rescue personnel. They brought in additional excavators, sluice and slurry pumps, other heavy construction equipment, technical experts and several hundred tons of gravel and earth to help the recovery.

U.S. Navy divers were able to maneuver through thick layers of mud, clay and sediment “with zero visibility” to reach the 63-ton vehicle Sunday evening and find two points to attach steel cables, according to the command.

The command said that during the effort to pull out the vehicle, it began to lose traction, so additional heavy dozers were brought in and attached to provide additional grip. The vehicle was pulled free after about two hours, the command said.

“The armored vehicle was pulled ashore at 4:40 a.m., the towing operation is complete, Lithuanian Military Police and US investigators continue their work,” Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said Monday morning in a post on Facebook.

The Navy dive team is now searching the area using radar for the fourth soldier who is still missing.

Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, commander of Task Force Iron and the 1st Armored Division, thanked the “heroic efforts” of those involved in the search and recovery. The U.S. Army and Lithuanian authorities are investigating what caused the incident.

Baldor reported from Washington.