By Great Lakes Echo
Nov. 18, 2009
Echo’s Great Lakes music map map is growing with new reader contributions of songs inspired by the lakes. Check out the additions by clicking on the map found here.
Among our favorites of the new additions: 

By Great Lakes Echo
Nov. 18, 2009
With help from readers, the Great Lakes Echo staff has developed another environmental Facebook quiz. Take this one to find out which Great Lakes invasive species is most like your former significant other.
As a bonus you may learn a bit about those plants and animals upsetting the ecology of the largest body of fresh surface water in the world.
On the other hand, you may just gain a new nickname for your ex.

(OH) Toledo Blade - Alison Falls dreams of the day when a boardwalk snakes along a sandy strand of shoreline on the North Coast in Port Clinton.

(MI) The Michigan Messenger - But here in the state’s third most populous county, downsizing the budget means supersizing the risk of contaminated water, among other public health calamities.

(MI) City Pulse - To paraphrase Winston Churchill, “Never in the field of legislative conflict has so little been haggled over by so many.” Yet in the seemingly innocuous issue of how to use our grass clippings and leaves is tucked a profound debate on the environment — and who has the real clout in the Capitol today when it comes to green issues.

By Mehak Bansil
Nov. 17, 2009
EAST LANSING, Mich. — If it looks like a fish and swims like a fish, then it must be a fish.

Unless it’s a pseudo-fish named NEMO, designed to monitor water temperature, oxygen levels, invasive algae populations and pollutants.

(IL) UPI - An Illinois Department of Natural Resources official said poison will be added to a Chicago canal to stop Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan.

(IL) Chicago Tribune – Mayor Richard Daley says any part of city government is up for grabs if the price is right. But if he is tempted to dangle Chicago’s vast water system as his next lease deal, he might want to first consult Atlanta, which is still smarting from a botched experiment with privatizing a big-city water supply.

(MI) MLive – Michigan could add as many as 13,000 new jobs if the state boosted its recycling rate average to equal rates in neighboring Great Lakes states, a new report concludes.

By Vince Bond Jr.
Nov. 14, 2009
LANSING, Mich. – Time could be running out for abandoned and dilapidated homes plaguing the property values of some Michigan neighborhoods.