Cherry Republic has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2020 honor by the Detroit Free Press.

The votes are in, and Leelanau County citizens supported Democrat Joe Biden for President over Donald Trump, by a count of 8,793-7,915. (Michigan’s statewide results are incomplete, as mail-in ballots continue to be counted. Results may not be unveiled until Thursday or Friday, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has stated.)

Leelanau County police expect a calm Election Day. But fears of voter intimidation and voter suppression are more prevalent downstate in Michigan’s cities, which lean Democratic and also represent a more racially diverse population. Some open-carry advocates and Trump supporters plan to travel from Northern Michigan to Detroit as poll watchers on Election Day.

You’ve seen the full-page advertisements this fall in local newspapers including the Glen Arbor Sun and the Leelanau Enterprise (the County’s weekly paper of record)—advertisements declaring: “it’s time to deal with our racism problem”; quoting County Commissioners whose diversions complicated the body’s effort to pass an anti-racism resolution; explaining that the “Black Lives Matter” movement doesn’t mean “Only Black Lives Matter”, and quoting the late Congressman and Civil Rights icon John Lewis.

Today the Benzie-Leelanau District Health Department reported 13 new cases of COVID-19 cases—matching the previous one-day record for the two counties on September 19.

Despite rumors to the contrary in recent years, the medium of radio is alive and well. In Leelanau County, independent radioheads share their love of music, practice citizen journalism, and produce feature segments over the airwaves and online, on venues such as Interlochen Public Radio and college radio station WNMC. Here are some of their stories.

Before their weekend movie was to start, Riley Griffis from Milan, Michigan, proposed to Ashlee Engstrom of Bryan, Ohio, at The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay.

This fall we celebrate farmer chef and cookbook author Abra Berens’ return to Leelanau County, eager to share her culinary vision at the recently opened Farm Club.

Today we chat with Leelanau County Clerk Michelle Crocker, whose staff around the county will play a crucial role in counting votes—including a record-number of absentee, mail-in ballots—and making sure Election Day goes as smooth as possible next Tuesday, November 3. Crocker has been Leelanau’s county clerk since 1996. We asked her about those absentee ballots and how early they can be counted, and whether she expects “open-carry” advocates to disrupt the election, among other questions.

Today we’re featuring the candidates vying to represent Leelanau County Commission District 7 (including Kasson and Solon Townships), which is represented by long-serving incumbent, Republican Melinda Lautner. Her opponent, for the second time in two years, is Democrat Julie Morris. We asked the candidates the following six questions, via email. Morris responded; Lautner didn’t.