Water

VIDEO: Great Lakes Beer Tour

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Remember how we told you that the Great Lakes brews great beers? Echo writers knew we weren’t alone in our fascination with the region’s ales, lagers, malts and stouts. But we weren’t so savvy to propose and film a TV show about them, which is what producer Matt Renner and host Amy Sherman have done. The “Great American Brew Trail” will showcase Great Lakes breweries – about 80 percent of them in Michigan – when it premiers on PBS stations this fall. Beers in other regions will follow.

Echo

Grants spotlight lighthouse projects

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Supporters of 10 Michigan lighthouses requested renovation grants from the Michigan Historic Preservation Office this year.

Funding for the Michigan Lighthouse Assistance program comes from the sale of specialty license plates. Michigan has 128 lighthouses, the most of any state.

Cox kicks carp to Obama

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Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox was rebuffed again by the U.S. Supreme court in his effort to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes. On Monday, the court declined to consider Cox’s request to close the Chicago locks to prevent the invasive fish from traveling from the Mississippi River into Lake Michigan. This is the third time they refused the request by Michigan and six other states. Cox is now focusing on Congress and President Obama as potential saviors. “While President Obama has turned a blind eye to the millions of Great Lakes residents who do not happen to live in his home state of Illinois, it is now up to him to save thousands of Michigan jobs and our environment,” Cox told the Associated Press.

Water

Five Great Lakes Policy Players You Don’t Know

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Great Lakes environmental junkies know the big names credited with major policy decisions that affect the basin. But who are the people behind the names that keep the Great Lakes gears grinding?

We enlisted the help of some of our sources to highlight “Five Great Lakes Policy Players You Don’t Know.”

Echo

MONDAY MASHUP: Track Great Lakes ships

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A mashup from the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System lets users track vessels navigating Great Lakes waterways in real time. Users can see a list of ships in transit and get information about locks and ports.

Carp bomb: Rocket-propelled plantation

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In July 2008, Iran launched a provocative test of a few missiles and released an photograph of the occasion. It didn’t take long for folks to figure out that the image had been digitally altered to include more missiles than had actually launched. What’s even more nefarious is that some sleuthing by Echo’s Flickr friend outside perspectives shows that Iran wasn’t really launching missiles at all. You can shut down all the locks you want, but that won’t stop a rogue state’s rocket-propelled plantation of Asian carp (click for all the carp news we could find). Echo is still looking for more carp bomb (literal or otherwise) submissions from readers.