(OH) Cleveland Plain Dealer - With the stroke of a pen on Friday, President Barack Obama swam to the rescue of the planet’s largest group of freshwater lakes.

Tucked inside the Interior and Environment Appropriations Act of 2010, the $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is the biggest single-year cash infusion a president has committed to the 10,000-year-old liquid assets on which floats the future of Northeast Ohio. That money aims at the toxic sludge, raw sewage, harmful algae blooms, 185 invasive species and damaged habitat that threaten this precious fresh water. More