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You know, every day on Up First, NPR's Golden Globe nominated morning news podcast, we bring you three essential stories.

At the heart of each story are questions.

What really happened?

What really mattered?

What happens next?

At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious and to follow the facts.

Follow up first wherever you get your podcasts and start your day knowing what matters and why.

Hey, good morning. I'm Patricia Murphy. It's Memorial Day. This is Seattle now.

Memorial Day is a time to honor America's fallen soldiers, past and present. It's also the unofficial start of summer.

Today's weather isn't exactly ideal for a beach swim, and the water is still very cold,

but once we get to magical Seattle summer weather, don't forget to check King County Public Health's website before you take a dip.

They send out environmental scientists like Wyatt Kleepak each week to test our swim beaches for toxic algae and bacteria.

Right now, Green Lakes West Beach is closed because of toxic algae and Newcastle Beach is closed due to high bacteria.

Last summer, we got curious about how the county decides to close beaches

and went out with Wyatt to see for ourselves.

Here's that episode again.

We are here at Tibbitts Beach and Lake Sammamish State Park.

All right, and you do this kind of testing how many times a week?

We do testing at the beaches once a week.

So we go out Mondays and Tuesdays.

...