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This spring, whistleblowers called out Veolia for alleged mismanagement of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District's wastewater treatment plants. Critics of Veolia and the MMSD demanded a third-party audit. On Monday, the MMSD commission will choose the firm to conduct the audit. Chair Corey Zetts says the commission will also announce who will serve on the independent advisory committee.

Stay up to date with our Up First newsletter, sent every weekday morning. On a sweltering morning in early July, Thomas Andrade, the co-owner of Everett Auto Parts in Massachusetts, supervises as a team of workers carefully straps two Chevy Volt hybrid batteries to a pallet, ready to ship out for recycling. Selling off valuable bits and pieces of a vehicle is, fundamentally, how a salvage yard makes money.

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: Last week, some retired judges took a bus tour through Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan to stress the importance of independent courts. Ohio Public Media's Sarah Donaldson tagged along for a morning. SARAH DONALDSON, BYLINE: The brown and black coach with the Justice in Motion decal on its side, kicked into drive Tuesday in the Greater Pittsburgh region. By Wednesday, it's idling on a main street in Ohio's capital city, Columbus.

Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly. AI-powered platforms are training bots to sound like political candidates in text messages, holding personalized conversations with thousands of potential voters simultaneously. The bots are also gathering data, learning what each voter wants from their representatives and using that information to shape future campaign messaging.

This much is undisputed: On Nov. 2, 2023, a guard and a prisoner at a federal penitentiary in California got into it over a straw sunhat that the officer had confiscated. The man — identified in court records by his initials, J.M. — walked out of the office, as Officer Sandra Munagay followed him. When he stopped and turned around, Munagay "cocked back … and punched me in my face," he said in an interview. That is on camera.

Wisconsinites will vote for state Assembly and Senate candidates in a primary on Aug. 11 and in the general election Nov. 3, 2026. This is the second election under more competitive district maps, but the first election for this particular Senate seat under the new maps. Three Republicans and two Democrats are running for Senate District 11. The candidate from each party to receive the most votes Aug. 11 will advance to the November election. What do the Wisconsin Senate and Assembly do?

NPR's A Martinez speaks with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., about Sen. Lindsey Graham's legacy.

A mix of grief and outrage was on display over the weekend at a vigil for Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was fatally shot in Houston by ICE agents.

If you're hankering for a cool treat on a hot day, nothing screams summer like ice cream. And a physician renowned for shaping U.S. healthcare policy has a message: Go ahead and enjoy it. Zeke Emanuel is an oncologist and bioethicist who served as an advisor to the Obama administration, helping shape the Affordable Care Act. He believes in a system that invests in prevention, one that aims to keep people healthy.

Sen. Lindsey Graham died Saturday at the age of 71. The South Carolina Republican was a committed advocate of U.S. military intervention abroad and a close ally of President Trump.