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[Angrboda]

Amazon boosts minimum wage to $15 for all workers following criticism

(Washington Post)

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After 33 years in solitary confinement and afflicted with vascular dementia, Vernon Madison can’t tell you the season, the day of the week or recite the alphabet beyond “G,” his lawyers say. If reminded, he knows he might be executed for killing a police officer in 1985. But the next day, he’ll have to be reminded again.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court debated whether Madison belonged in the small but growing category of adults — the intellectually disabled, the mentally ill, those so impaired that they don’t comprehend their punishment — for whom the court has decided the death penalty is unconstitutional.

The task for Bryan A. Stevenson, executive director of the anti-death penalty Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., was to convince the justices they could spare Madison without triggering a flood of challenges from death row inmates claiming not to remember committing their crimes.

Supreme Court contemplates whether man who cannot remember crime may be executed

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'X' is new gender choice on Minnesota driver's licenses

New driver's licenses are giving Minnesotans a third option for gender designation.

Minnesotans can now put an "F" on their ID for female, an "M" for male, or an "X" for what officials are calling non-binary gender.

The state's Department of Public Safety said it made the change as part of its adoption of the new Real ID standard, although it wasn't officially announced as part of the transition.

The agency said in a statement that the third gender option is in line with other self-reported descriptions, such as weight, height and eye color and allows it to better serve all Minnesotans. Federal regulation allows the change.

(MPR News)