David Shepardson

The run-up to the presidential election will likely be the nastiest race in history, both in the battle for the White House and for Michigan's Congressional seats.

Michigan’s wineries and breweries are enjoying double-digit annual growth as demand rises for locally produced goods. Not far behind: a new local industry distilling brandy, gin, rum, and whiskey.

From a modest start in 1982 in an old red brick grocery store in Ann Arbor’s historic Kerrytown neighborhood, the company founded by Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw now has more than 500 employees in seven separate businesses, dubbed the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses.