TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will spend $6 million to hire unemployed people who can work on Great Lakes cleanup projects.

Congress has appropriated $775 million over the past two years for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a wide-ranging plan to improve the region's environmental health.

Among the priorities are cleaning up toxic pollution, fighting invasive species, improving wildlife habitat and protecting watersheds from contaminated runoff.

Susan Hedman is the EPA's regional administrator in Chicago and says $6 million will go to the employment initiative. Each project it funds must provide jobs for at least 20 people.

Yesterday was Late Summer's Cross Quarter Day, the halfway mark to autumn equinox. Having dropped below the celestial equator in the first week of Late Summer, the sun leaves the stability of Leo and enters the more volatile sign of Virgo, the first of the more violent periods of change in the second half of the year.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Organizers say an Ohio charity bike ride for cancer research has had its most successful year yet, raising nearly $8.7 million over the weekend.

The three-year-old Pelotonia tour had collected a total of about $12.3 million in its first two years to support cancer work at Ohio State University.

Cyclists raised or committed money to ride one of several routes during the two-day event. The longest was a 180-mile round trip from Columbus to Athens.

The event's website says nearly 5,000 riders participated, beginning Saturday. That's up from nearly 2,300 in 2009, the inaugural race that included cycling star and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong.

ST. MARYS, Ohio - A Cleveland company has received a 1 million dollar federal grant to help create a facility that would turn animal waste into energy near Grand Lake St Marys.

 U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown announced today (Monday) that Quasar Energy Group will use the U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for a methane digester. The 2.2 million dollar facility would turn manure into methane that can be used for heating and converted into alternative vehicle fuel.

Manure and chemical runoffs from farms have led to high levels of phosphorus, which feeds blue-green algae. Brown says the digester project will also create clean-energy jobs near the lake between Dayton and Toledo.

A speedboat race is returning to Ohio's biggest inland lake following a year off because of toxic algae.

The Celina Governor's Cup Regatta is planned for next weekend at Grand Lake St. Marys. The lake between Toledo and Dayton is still plagued by blue-green algae, but warnings have been toned down.

Last summer, the lake was closed to swimming, boating and fishing, and people were warned not to touch the water. This year, visitors are advised that swimming, wading, swallowing the water and touching surface scum are not recommended.

Mary Clinton with the Ohio Department of Health tells The Columbus Dispatch  racers will want to avoid spray from the water. Race officials say they'll be protected by helmets and enclosed cockpits.

WESTMINSTER, Ohio (AP) - Officials in six northwest Ohio counties are planning a $1 million project to clear logjams and leaning trees from a 76-mile stretch of the Auglaize River.

They tell The Lima News that goals are to reduce flooding, encourage recreation and create a maintenance fund for the waterway.

The stretch involved collects water from an area of about 216,000 acres and about 12,000 property owners. Funding will come from assessments of $1 to $10 per acre on those property owners in Allen, Auglaize, Mercer, Putnam, Shelby and Van Wert counties.

The project requires approval from commissions in the six counties, and public meetings are scheduled for next month.

(Information in the following story is from: The Lima News)