The Great Lakes Protection Fund (GLPF), an interstate endowment to fund research to protect the Great Lakes, awarded a follow-up grant to the NEMWI to continue its ground-breaking research on the cause-and-effect relationship between rates of organism discharges and aquatic invasive species (AIS) establishment in the Great Lakes. The research, which NEMWI is carrying out in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin Lake Superior Research Institute and the University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute, will help answer the question "how clean is clean" when it comes to AIS discharges in the Great Lakes. Little is currently known about the relative risk to receiving ecosystems of varying rates of AIS discharges, yet the information is crucial to successfully and efficiently managing vectors of introduction. The NEMWI project will conduct a series of controlled "mesocosm" (scaled mid-way between lab and field work) experiments, and harbor and ship survey exercises to determine best ways to track real-world cause and effect between organism discharges and invasive species establishment.  

For more information, contact Allegra Cangelosi, President of the Northeast-Midwest Institute. 

On Tuesday, July 22, 2014, President Obama signed into law the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), enacted by large bipartisan majorities in both the House and the Senate. WIOA reauthorizes the nation's workforce development and adult education programs and replaces the current Workforce Investment Act, which was first enacted in 1998. NEMW states and localities, and in turn its workers, are poised to benefit from key components of the legislation, including: improved access to training, education, and employment services, especially for youth and people with disabilities; streamlined workforce development; enhanced flexibility for states to address specific needs; and uniform measures to track program performance. The Act is a compromise between the SKILLS Act (H.R. 803), which passed the House of Representatives in March 2013 with bipartisan support, and the Workforce Investment Act of 2013 (S. 1356), which passed through the HELP Committee on a bipartisan vote of 18-3 in July of 2013. NEMWI is working closely with a diverse group of partners to identify regional information and outreach needs as WIOA is implemented.

In another effort to improve federal training programs, the White House released a report, Ready to Work: Job-Driven Training and American Opportunity, which the President called for during this year's State of the Union address. The report highlights successful job-training programs, details executive actions by the federal government, and aims to help more Americans in getting and moving up in high-demand jobs and careers.

For more information, contact Colleen Cain, Senior Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.