Not long ago, tracking the spread of a virus by sampling wastewater counted as a novelty in the United States. Today, wastewater monitoring offers one of the most comprehensive pictures anyone has of COVID-19’s summer surge. This type of surveillance has been so effective at forecasting the risks of the virus’s rise and fall that local governments are now looking for other ways to use it. That has meant turning from tracking infections to tracking illicit and high-risk drug use.

The Democratic National Convention is over, and the verdict is in: It was a remarkable heist. “They stole traditional Republican themes (faith, patriotism) and claimed them as their own,” the conservative Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan wrote. “Democrats Show That Republicans Aren’t the Only Ones Who Can Wrap Themselves in the Flag,” read a New York Times headline.

When the astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams launched to the International Space Station on June 5, they flew on a Boeing spacecraft and wore the company’s bright-blue spacesuits. On the way home, eight months after their scheduled return, they will likely ride in a SpaceX vehicle, dressed in sleek white suits designed with the aesthetic sensibilities of that company’s CEO and chief engineer in mind. Elon Musk to the rescue.

“Okay, we have to move fast,” one of Pete Buttigieg’s aides told me as the discoursing dynamo was finishing another cable interview on the last day of the Democratic National Convention.
Buttigieg stepped off an MSNBC set and onto the United Center floor. “I’m here to give you some much-needed attention,” I told him. By “much-needed,” I was of course being sarcastic: Buttigieg has been a rather relentless media presence in recent weeks, especially this past one in Chicago.

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Welcome back to The Daily’s Sunday culture edition.
When selecting a new book, it can be comforting to return to what’s familiar: the genres you know you love, the authors whose perspectives you share. But sometimes, the best books are the ones that challenge rather than confirm your expectations.

Frankie met Lucia in that summer of tombstoners and storms, when the tomato plants got blight and the bean plants fruited early. She lived in a small cluster of houses just north of Lulworth, where the news consisted only of tomato plants getting blight and bean plants fruiting early. She was sitting in the dirt tunnel beneath the beans, which by now had shriveled in the sun like exhumed fingers, when she called up Beach Ices and it all began.

Nearly 50 years ago, my parents dropped me off for my freshman year of college, beginning my life in the world of higher education. Over the decades, I’ve been an undergraduate, a graduate student, a professor, an administrator, and a parent of three college students.
I’ve seen students struggle and thrive. I’ve watched young men and women blossom into world-class scholars and take their education in directions I never could have anticipated.