The most new cars and trucks ever sold in the U.S. was 17.4 million vehicles, a record set in 2001. This year, a combination of pent-up demand, looser lending and a stronger American economy has automakers chasing a new record.

State banks hit the bottom in March 2010, according to the quarterly ratings from BauerFinancial Inc. The company tracks the health of banks and credit unions, rating them from zero to five stars. That March, 15 banks, many of them in Southeast Michigan, got zero stars. Twenty-three, many of them in the Upper Peninsula, whose isolation helped avoid some of the mortgage frenzy that led to the Great Recession, had the top rating of five stars. Today, there are no banks headquartered in Michigan with a zero-star rating. There are 52 state banks with five-star ratings.

In 2014, craft brewing in Michigan contributed $1.85 billion in economic impact, up 84 percent from about $1.0 billion two years earlier, according to data released last week by the Denver-based Brewers Association, an industry trade group. In Michigan, the sector was responsible for 14,773 full-time jobs and paid out $572 million in wages.

Much more is highlighted in Michigan News.