Three stories making news around the Midwest today:

1. Obama revising economic plan. Seeking a boost for a flagging economy, President Obama will “give a major speech in early September to unveil new ideas for speeding up job growth,” according to a report Wednesday from the Associated Press. The plan will likely contain tax cuts, infrastructure ideas and steps to help the unemployed, according to the report, and will go beyond the “infrastructure bank” idea the President has pitched in recent weeks that would finance construction jobs.

2. Ohio loses public employees. The number of Ohio state employees dropped by more than 1,000 in the first half of Gov. John Kasich’s first year in office, according to our partner station Ideastream. The current count is just more than 57,000, although more trimming is expected because of spending cutbacks that took effect in July under the current fiscal budget.

3. EPA awards Great Lakes funds. Federal officials announced Wednesday a list of upcoming projects that will be funded under the ongoing Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. More than $700 million has been spent or committed under the initiative under President Obama, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “For the regional economy to thrive, we need to accelerate our efforts to comprehensively attack problems such as habitat loss, invasive species and pollution,” said Cameron Davis, the EPA’s spokesperson for the program.