US Domestic News Roundup: Amazon raises minimum wage, Charlottesville rally

Amazon raises the minimum wage to $15, urges rivals to follow

Amazon.com Inc said on Tuesday it would raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour for U.S. employees from next month, giving in to critics of poor pay and working conditions at the world's second most valuable company. The increase pushes Amazon's lowest wage above that at Walmart Inc and Target Corp. It is almost $3 shy of the average for a non-management worker in warehousing in the United States.

Powder found in Senator Cruz's campaign building non-hazardous: officials

At least two people were taken to a hospital after a white powdery substance was found in a Houston building where U.S. Senator Ted Cruz's campaign office is located, but tests showed the substance to be non-hazardous, fire officials said on Tuesday. The substance was found in the Phoenix Tower building in Houston, the city's fire department said on Twitter.

U.S. arrests four men in connection to 2017 Charlottesville rally

Four men linked to a white supremacist group were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the white nationalist rally that turned deadly in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year, authorities said. Benjamin Drake Daley, 25, Michael Paul Miselis, 29, Thomas Walter Gillen, 34, and Cole Evan White, 24, were arrested in California and were to be transported to Charlottesville after making initial appearances in federal courts in California on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Thomas Cullen said at a news conference.

North Carolina town may never fully recover from the double whammy of storms

The childhood home Katrina Bullock returned to in the rural North Carolina community of Fair Bluff about 16 years ago to care for her sick mother was devastated by flooding from Hurricane Matthew in 2016. A new roof went up after that. Walls saturated with muddy floodwaters were being replaced and things were looking up until a new storm, Hurricane Florence struck about 23 months later in September.

America to buzz as phones get 'presidential alert' test Wednesday

The Trump administration will send messages to more than 200 million U.S. cellphones on Wednesday testing a previously unused presidential alert system that aims to warn the public in the event of a national emergency. The test message was originally scheduled for September but was pushed back to Wednesday at 2:18 p.m. EDT. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which will send the alert, said the messages would bear the headline "Presidential Alert," and that phones will make a loud tone and have a special vibration.

Trump calls Kavanaugh allegations 'scary time' for men falsely accused

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday allegations of sexual misconduct against his U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh showed that "it's a very scary time for young men in America" who now may be presumed guilty even when innocent. Five days after an extraordinary Senate hearing watched by millions of people in which a university professor, Christine Blasey Ford, detailed her sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh, Trump seemed to raise the issue of false accusations against men.

Suspected ricin-laced mail sent to U.S. defence secretary

The Pentagon said on Tuesday that it had received mail suspected of containing the deadly poison ricin, including an envelope that a U.S. official said was addressed to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. The Pentagon said in a statement that it had put its mail facility under quarantine and that the FBI was analyzing the envelopes.

Chicago policeman defends shooting of a black teen at trial

The white Chicago police officer who shot to death a black teenager in 2014 told jurors at his murder trial on Tuesday that he felt threatened when he opened fire, as he took the witness stand in his own defence. Jason Van Dyke, 40, is accused of shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times and faces charges of first-degree murder, aggravated battery and official misconduct in a case that has focused attention on race relations and policing in the third-largest U.S. city.

Hurricane Florence death toll rises to 51

The death toll from Hurricane Florence has risen to 51, officials said on Tuesday, more than two weeks after it made landfall in North Carolina as a Category 1 storm and brought devastating floods to the region. Two people died in North Carolina while repairing damage from the hurricane in late September, bringing the number of storm-related deaths in that state to 39, Governor Roy Cooper said on Tuesday.

U.S. high court mulls death penalty for a killer who forgot the crime

U.S. Supreme Court justices, delving into the issue of ageing prisoners with dementia, struggled on Tuesday over whether a convicted Alabama murderer should be spared the death penalty because strokes have erased his memory of committing the crime. Vernon Madison, 68, was convicted and sentenced to death for fatally shooting a Mobile police officer in 1985.

(With inputs from Reuters)