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NPR's Michele Norris talks with retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales about the changing security situation in Iraq. Scales is the author of The Iraq War: A Military History.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says he supports a prominent Shiite cleric's calls for direct elections for an interim authority in Iraq. The cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, wants elections before the transfer of power the U.S. wants to occur on July 1. U.N. officials say elections by that date are unlikely, though they could occur late this year or early next year. Hear NPR's Deborah Amos.

Amid continuing violence in Iraq, the struggle continues to establish democratic government. In Baquba, a city about an hour north of Baghdad, elections for district council attract only about two percent of potential voters. NPR'S Emily Harris reports.

Mad cow disease and related illness are thought to be spread by an infectious protein, not a germ. But some prominent scientists don't agree. NPR's Richard Harris travels to a National Institutes of Health lab in Montana, where a group of scientists have been trying for several decades to get to the bottom of brain-wasting diseases.

Sen. John Edwards and his fellow Democratic presidential candidates fight for the 72 delegates at stake in Wisconsin's primary Tuesday. Edwards gains support comparable to frontrunner Sen. John Kerry. Hear Chuck Quirmbach of Wisconsin Public Radio.

Weekend Edition Sunday music director Ned Wharton reviews Electrelane's The Power Out (Too Pure Records) and Mylab's self-titled release (Terminus Records).

The five Democrats vying for their party's presidential nomination prepare for Wisconsin's Tuesday primary and Sunday night debate. Opinion polls show Sen. John Kerry holding the lead in voter support, as he often has in the string of primaries and caucuses held so far. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and NPR's Scott Horsley.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo is the most famous practitioner of the a cappella singing style derived from traditional South African isicathamiya music. A quarter-century after its formation, the group gained worldwide acclaim when it collaborated with Paul Simon on his best-selling 1986 album Graceland. South Africa's most famous singing group has a new CD celebrating a decade worth of democracy in its homeland. Hear highlights from the group's performance in NPR's Studio 4A.

Commentator Heather Havrilesky lives in Los Angeles. But that does not mean that she always fits in there.

Defending pre-war intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, CIA director George Tenet says his analysts "never said there was an imminent threat." Tenet says intelligence analysts came to different conclusions on the state of Iraq's weapons programs -- and made those differences clear to the Bush administration. Hear NPR's Vicky O'Hara.