Poor Will’s Almanack for the first week of Late Summer

In Middle and Late Summer, the fat, green, annual cicadas come up from the earth where they have spent the last eleven months. They leave their ectoskeletons behind on twigs or walls, fly out into the sun and begin to sing.

If science offers facts about all this, a little cultural entomology may help to interpret those facts.

According to Greek mythology, Tithonus, a Trojan, fell in love with Eos, goddess of the dawn, and was rewarded for his love with the gift of immortality. Immune to death, the body of Tithonus withered until it became a cicada that reappeared each year.

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - The federal government is giving out $4.5 million to clean up Lake Erie.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials say the grants handed out Monday are part of nearly $30 million that will be announced for the Great Lakes over the next few weeks.

Just over $1.3 million will go to the University of Toledo so that it can build a wetland.  Money will also go to state and local agencies to combat invasive plants and fish and cut down on pollutants.

ST. MARYS, Ohio (AP) - Toxic algae plaguing Ohio's largest inland lake has created a negative public image that organizations and residents in the area are determined to change.

They're working to draw tourists back to western Ohio's Grand Lake St. Marys and using television, newspapers and social media to spread the word that the lake is improving. Meanwhile, state, federal and local agencies continue efforts to control the algae and improve water quality.

The Lake Improvement Association is one of the organizations leading efforts to revive the 13,000-acre lake and the tourism business tied to it.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - An environmental coalition has awarded $115,000 in grants to nine groups for Great Lakes restoration projects.

The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition grants announced this week will help organizations participate in a federal program designed to improve the region's environment by cleaning up toxic pollution, preventing species invasions and rebuilding habitat and wetlands.

Among the winning projects are efforts to reduce phosphorus levels and invasive reeds in western Lake Erie, remove noxious algae in Lake Ontario's Sodus Bay, and clean up streams in Lake Superior's Duluth Harbor.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Ten people in Ohio have been sickened with salmonella poisoning in a national outbreak authorities say appears linked to eating ground turkey.

An overall 77 cases in 26 states have been reported. One person has died, but not in Ohio. The state is among those with the highest number of cases. A spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Health says people became sick from April 22 to June 26.