10 things you need to know today: June 3, 2014

(Image credit: (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren))

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1. Seattle approves a $15 minimum wage
2. Former Dolphins star Dan Marino files a concussion lawsuit
3. High court declines Times reporter's appeal to protect a source
4. Investigators determined that Bergdahl walked away from his unit
5. U.S. plans to work with new Palestinian unity government
6. Suspect arrested in explosives case
7. Syria holds a presidential vote in the middle of a civil war
8. Kepler spacecraft spots distant mega-Earth
9. Charlotte's ex-mayor expected to plead guilty to corruption charge
10. Hurricanes named after women are deadlier

last updated 13 January 2015

1. Seattle approves a $15 minimum wage

The Seattle City Council on Monday approved a $15-an-hour local minimum wage — the highest in nation. Supporters of the measure, which matched pay demanded by activist fast-food workers nationwide, filled the council chambers waving signs reading, "Seattle needs a raise." The new wage takes effect on April 1, 2015, but it includes a controversial lower training wage for teenagers that was added to the original proposal.

Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino has filed a lawsuit saying the National Football League "concealed information about football-related brain injuries." The former Miami Dolphins star was one of 15 retired players to file concussion-related lawsuits in a Philadelphia federal court last week. So far 4,800 former players have joined similar suits. The NFL says it never concealed information about brain injuries.

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The Supreme Court on Monday rejected New York Times national security reporter James Risen's appeal of a ruling ordering him to reveal a confidential source for a chapter of his 2006 book, State of War. Prosecutors are convinced that the source of the chapter on a CIA plan to sabotage Iran's nuclear program is former CIA operative Jeffrey Sterling, and they want Risen to confirm it. "I will continue to fight," Risen said.

The Pentagon concluded in 2010 that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had been captured by the Taliban after walking away from his unit in Afghanistan, leading to a decision not to mount a high-risk rescue attempt. The U.S. instead initiated negotiations that took years but ended in his release Saturday. Republicans in Congress are demanding public hearings to determine whether the controversial prisoner swap that freed him was legal.

The Obama administration said Monday that it would work with and fund a new Palestinian unity government. The announcement came despite strong objections from Israel, which refuses to talk to any Palestinian government that includes members of the Islamist group Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip and denies Israel's right to exist. The State Department says the new government has no Hamas ministers.

Federal agents and San Francisco police captured Ryan Kelly Chamberlain II on Monday evening after a three-day manhunt that began when investigators allegedly found explosives in his apartment. Authorities had warned that Chamberlain, a 42-year-old former political and social media consultant, was considered armed and dangerous, but he was arrested with little resistance at Crissy Field near the Golden Gate Bridge.

Syrians began voting Tuesday in an election expected to give President Bashar al-Assad another seven-year term. Government forces provided heavy security at more than 9,000 polling stations in government-controlled areas. State employees said they had been told they had to vote or face interrogation. Opposition groups urged Syrians to boycott the "blood election," and rebels said anyone not staying home was a legitimate military target.

Astronomers have discovered a far-off "mega-Earth," a planet weighing 17 times as much as Earth and far bigger than any rocky celestial body ever found before. The planet is 560 light years away, and must have been formed in the early days of the universe, long before the first rocky planets were once thought to have been formed. "And if you can make rocks," said Harvard's Dimitar Sasselov, "you can make life."

Former Charlotte, N.C., mayor Patrick Cannon is expected to plead guilty to a federal corruption charge on Tuesday. The once rising Democratic star and his lawyers signed a plea deal on May 8, although the terms were unknown until the release of documents released Monday. Cannon was accused of taking $50,000 in bribes between December 2009, when he returned to the City Council, and his March arrest as mayor. He'll be sentenced later.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign examined 90 years of hurricane death tolls and found that storms with female names were far deadlier than those with male names. The reason? Sexism. People expect storms with female names to be gentle, so they don't prepare for danger. The team's model suggests that changing a hypothetical storm's name from "Charlie" to "Eloise" triples the death toll.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.