Before Graeme McDaniel was born, he was fighting for his life. And even though Graeme passed away in 2015 at the age of 2, his family continues his fight in his honor. His family founded The Graeme McDaniel Foundation, a 501(c)(3) Katy-based charity with the mission of funding research for congenital heart defects. Graeme’s Run 5K, the organization's largest fundraising endeavor, will take place Feb. 26 at No Label Brewing Co. at 9 a.m. Graeme’s mother, Stephanie, shared Graeme’s story and how the organization that carries on his memory is working to help children with heart defects. To register for the Graeme’s Run 5K, visit https://graememcdanielfoundation.org/register More by Claire Goodman: Biblical artifacts exhibit opening soon in Katy Can you start out by telling us Graeme’s story? Graeme was born Dec. 22, 2012. We had a great pregnancy- nothing to be concerned about. And then when I went in for my 34-week appointment, they saw that he had a lower heart rate. We went on to an ultrasound, which confirmed the lower heart rate, so they did an emergency C-section. Within several minutes, we were on the operating table, and they delivered Graeme. They thought he was in distress. But he was not; he actually had gone into heart block, which was one of his congenital heart defects. They didn't know about that- nothing had been detected during my pregnancy prenatally. Once he was born, they did a full workup on him and realized that he had multiple congenital heart defects. He had double outlet right ventricle, malposed great vessels, VSD, coarctation of the aorta, straddling mitral valve, aortic valve hypoplasia, and complete heart block. We had no idea what a heart defect was at the time. So my husband, Robby, and I quickly became experts on how to care for our baby. The doctors took Graeme immediately to the medical center, and then we were able to meet him there shortly after. He spent the first 44 days in the hospital. During that time he underwent two procedures. One was a thoracic procedure with a temporary pacemaker implanted and they widened the aorta. The second procedure was open heart, and they put in a pulmonary artery band and his permanent pacemaker in his abdomen. Then we were able to come home, and my other son Mason got to meet his brother, and we had a wonderful two-and-a-half years with Graeme. We were gearing up for his big procedure; it was called double switch operation. His heart started to weaken, and that's when he passed away. The Graeme’s Run was the first fundraiser you did to honor Graeme. How did that come about? Some of my friends wanted to get together and find a way to remember him and share him with the community and do some good and his name. So they wanted to do a 5k. And I said, “Yeah, that sounds great.” And then as they continued with the planning, I found myself getting more and more involved with it. Then the Graeme’s Run formed, and this will be our seventh Graeme’s Run at No Label. On HoustonChronicle.com: Former Katy football star sentenced in connection to Rice teammate’s 2018 death You’ve now expanded Graeme’s Run into a foundation. Can you tell us about that? We’ve always funded research nationally for child heart defect research foundations.This past September, we started The Graeme McDaniel Foundation, which we're very excited about. We will fund congenital heart defects research locally at Texas Children's and other hospitals, and there are other various projects set for this year. We want to keep that research local. People travel all over to get to the Houston Medical Center to have their child cared for. We also want to support other families like ours. We have been in the hospital; we know how scary and stressful that is. So we wanted to be able to support the families receiving care in a small way and just let them know they’re not alone. How much money have you raised in Graeme’s name? I would say close to a million. How does it feel, as a parent who went through an insurmountable loss, to see how much you've been able to do in his name? It has given me a place to put the sadness. I put my energy into something hopeful. It's not easy for me to talk about him, but this run and this foundation has kind of forced me to do that in a really beautiful way. I feel like I have this great story to tell with his name attached to it. I think it's hard for people to hear about loss in any way, and then when it's a child, it makes it even harder. It’s given me a lot of hope to be able to know that we are making a difference for kids like Graeme and all the future heart warriors, and that's beautiful.
Before Graeme McDaniel was born, he was fighting for his life. And even though Graeme passed away in 2015 at the age of 2, his family continues his fight in his honor. His family founded The Graeme McDaniel Foundation, a 501(c)(3) Katy-based charity with the mission of funding research for congenital heart defects. Graeme’s Run 5K, the organization's largest fundraising endeavor, will take place Feb. 26 at No Label Brewing Co. at 9 a.m. Graeme’s mother, Stephanie, shared Graeme’s story and how the organization that carries on his memory is working to help children with heart defects. To register for the Graeme’s Run 5K, visit https://graememcdanielfoundation.org/register More by Claire Goodman: Biblical artifacts exhibit opening soon in Katy Can you start out by telling us Graeme’s story? Graeme was born Dec. 22, 2012. We had a great pregnancy- nothing to be concerned about. And then when I went in for my 34-week appointment, they saw that he had a lower heart rate. We went on to an ultrasound, which confirmed the lower heart rate, so they did an emergency C-section. Within several minutes, we were on the operating table, and they delivered Graeme. They thought he was in distress. But he was not; he actually had gone into heart block, which was one of his congenital heart defects. They didn't know about that- nothing had been detected during my pregnancy prenatally. Once he was born, they did a full workup on him and realized that he had multiple congenital heart defects. He had double outlet right ventricle, malposed great vessels, VSD, coarctation of the aorta, straddling mitral valve, aortic valve hypoplasia, and complete heart block. We had no idea what a heart defect was at the time. So my husband, Robby, and I quickly became experts on how to care for our baby. The doctors took Graeme immediately to the medical center, and then we were able to meet him there shortly after. He spent the first 44 days in the hospital. During that time he underwent two procedures. One was a thoracic procedure with a temporary pacemaker implanted and they widened the aorta. The second procedure was open heart, and they put in a pulmonary artery band and his permanent pacemaker in his abdomen. Then we were able to come home, and my other son Mason got to meet his brother, and we had a wonderful two-and-a-half years with Graeme. We were gearing up for his big procedure; it was called double switch operation. His heart started to weaken, and that's when he passed away. The Graeme’s Run was the first fundraiser you did to honor Graeme. How did that come about? Some of my friends wanted to get together and find a way to remember him and share him with the community and do some good and his name. So they wanted to do a 5k. And I said, “Yeah, that sounds great.” And then as they continued with the planning, I found myself getting more and more involved with it. Then the Graeme’s Run formed, and this will be our seventh Graeme’s Run at No Label. On HoustonChronicle.com: Former Katy football star sentenced in connection to Rice teammate’s 2018 death You’ve now expanded Graeme’s Run into a foundation. Can you tell us about that? We’ve always funded research nationally for child heart defect research foundations.This past September, we started The Graeme McDaniel Foundation, which we're very excited about. We will fund congenital heart defects research locally at Texas Children's and other hospitals, and there are other various projects set for this year. We want to keep that research local. People travel all over to get to the Houston Medical Center to have their child cared for. We also want to support other families like ours. We have been in the hospital; we know how scary and stressful that is. So we wanted to be able to support the families receiving care in a small way and just let them know they’re not alone. How much money have you raised in Graeme’s name? I would say close to a million. How does it feel, as a parent who went through an insurmountable loss, to see how much you've been able to do in his name? It has given me a place to put the sadness. I put my energy into something hopeful. It's not easy for me to talk about him, but this run and this foundation has kind of forced me to do that in a really beautiful way. I feel like I have this great story to tell with his name attached to it. I think it's hard for people to hear about loss in any way, and then when it's a child, it makes it even harder. It’s given me a lot of hope to be able to know that we are making a difference for kids like Graeme and all the future heart warriors, and that's beautiful.
The historic Apollo moon missions are often associated with high-visibility test flights, dazzling launches and spectacular feats of engineering. But intricate, challenging handiwork — comparable to weaving — was just as essential to putting men on the moon. Beyond Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and a handful of other names that we remember were hundreds of thousands of men and women who contributed to Apollo over a decade. Among them: the Navajo women who assembled state-of-the-art integrated circuits for the Apollo Guidance Computer and the women employees of Raytheon who wove the computer’s core memory. In 1962, when President John F. Kennedy declared that putting Americans on the moon should be the top priority for NASA, computers were large mainframes; they occupied entire rooms. And so one of the most daunting yet crucial challenges was developing a highly stable, reliable and portable computer to control and navigate the spacecraft. NASA chose to use cutting-edge integrated circuits in the Apollo Guidance Computer. These commercial circuits had been introduced only recently. Also known as microchips, they were revolutionizing electronics and computing, contributing to the gradual miniaturization of computers from mainframes to today’s smartphones. NASA sourced the circuits from the original Silicon Valley start-up, Fairchild Semiconductor. Fairchild was also leading the way in the practice known as outsourcing; the company opened a factory in Hong Kong in the early 1960s, which by 1966 employed 5,000 people, compared with Fairchild’s 3,000 California employees. At the same time, Fairchild sought low-cost labor within the United States. Lured by tax incentives and the promise of a labor force with almost no other employment options, Fairchild opened a plant in Shiprock, N.M., within the Navajo reservation, in 1965. The Fairchild factory operated until 1975 and employed more than 1,000 individuals at its peak, most of them Navajo women manufacturing integrated circuits. It was challenging work. Electrical components had to be placed on tiny chips made of a semiconductor such as silicon and connected by wires in precise locations, creating complex and varying patterns of lines and geometric shapes. The Navajo women’s work “was performed using a microscope and required painstaking attention to detail, excellent eyesight, high standards of quality and intense focus,” writes digital media scholar Lisa Nakamura. A Fairchild 9040 integrated circuit juxtaposed with a geometrically patterned rugA brochure commemorating the dedication of Fairchild Semiconductor’s plant in Shiprock, N.M., included this Fairchild 9040 integrated circuit.Courtesy of the Computer History Museum In a brochure commemorating the dedication of the Shiprock plant, Fairchild directly compared the assembly of integrated circuits with what the company portrayed as the traditional, feminine, Indigenous craft of rug-weaving. The Shiprock brochure juxtaposed a photo of a microchip with one of a geometric-patterned rug, and another of a woman weaving such a rug. That portrayal, Nakamura argues, reinforced racial and gender stereotypes. The work was dismissed as “women’s work,” depriving the Navajo women of appropriate recognition and commensurate compensation. Journalists and Fairchild employees also “depict[ed] electronics manufacture as a high-tech version of blanket weaving performed by willing and skillful Indigenous women,” Nakamura notes, yet “the women who performed this labor did so for the same reason that women have performed factory labor for centuries — to survive.” Far from the Shiprock desert, outside of Boston, women employees at Raytheon assembled the Apollo Guidance Computer’s core memory with a process that in this case directly mimicked weaving. Again, the moon missions demanded a stable and compact way of storing Apollo’s computing instructions. Core memory used metal wires threaded through tiny doughnut-shaped ferrite rings, or “cores,” to represent 1s and 0s. All of this core memory was woven by hand, with women sitting on opposite sides of a panel passing a wire-threaded needle back and forth to create a particular pattern. (In some cases, a woman worked alone, passing the needle through the panel to herself.) an old, black-and-white photo of a woman threading metal wire through small holes in a machineWomen employees of Raytheon assembled core memory for the Apollo Guidance Computer by threading metal wires through rings. (This unnamed woman was described as a “space age needleworker” in a Raytheon press kit.)Courtesy of the collection of David Meerman Scott, Raytheon public relations Apollo engineers referred to this process of building memory as the “LOL,” or “Little Old Ladies,” method. Yet this work was so mission critical that it was tested and inspected multiple times. Mary Lou Rogers, who worked on Apollo, recalled, “[Each component] had to be looked at by three of four people before it was stamped off. We had a group of inspectors come in for the federal government to check our work all the time.” The core memory was also known as rope memory, and those who supervised its development were “rope mothers.” We know a great deal about one rope mother — Margaret Hamilton. She has been recognized with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among other awards, and is now remembered as the woman who oversaw most of the Apollo software. But her efforts were unrecognized by many at the time. Hamilton recalled, “At the beginning, nobody thought software was that big a deal. But then they began to realize how much they were relying on it…. Astronauts‘ lives were at stake. Our software needed to be ultrareliable and it needed to be able to detect an error and recover from it at any time during the mission. And it all had to fit on the hardware.” Yet, little is known about the thousands of others who performed this mission-critical work of weaving integrated circuits and core memory. A black-and-white photo of Margaret Hamilton standing and smiling next to a very tall stack of booksMargaret Hamilton is known for overseeing the development of the Apollo software. Draper Laboratory, restored by Adam Cuerden/Wikimedia Commons At the time, Fairchild’s representation of the Navajo women’s work as a feminine craft differentiated it from the high-status and masculine work of engineering. As Nakamura has written, the work “came to be understood as affective labor, or a ‘labor of love.’” Similarly, the work performed at Raytheon was described by Eldon Hall, who led the Apollo Guidance Computer’s hardware design, as “tender loving care.” Journalists and even a Raytheon manager presented this work as requiring no thinking and no skill. Recently, the communications scholar Samantha Shorey, engineer Daniela Rosner, technologist Brock Craft and quilt artist Helen Remick firmly overturned the notion that weaving core memory was a “no-brainer” with their Making Core Memory project. In nine workshops, they invited participants to weave core memory “patches” using metal matrices, beads and conductive threads, showcasing the deep focus and meticulous attention to detail required. The patches were then assembled in an electronic quilt that played aloud accounts from 1960s Apollo engineers and Raytheon managers. The Making Core Memory collaboration challenged the dichotomy of masculine, high-status, well-paid science and engineering cognitive labor versus feminine, low-status, low-paid, manual labor. A 1975 NASA report that summarized the Apollo missions spoke glowingly of the Apollo computing systems — but mentioned none of the Navajo or Raytheon women. “The performance of the computer was flawless,” the report declared. “Perhaps the most significant accomplishment during Apollo pertaining to guidance, navigation, and control was the demonstration of the versatility and adaptability of the computer software.” That computer, and that software, relied on the skilled, technical, embodied expertise and labor of thousands of women, including women of color. They were indubitably women of science, and their untold stories call us to reconsider who does science, and what counts as scientific expertise.
Before Graeme McDaniel was born, he was fighting for his life. And even though Graeme passed away in 2015 at the age of 2, his family continues his fight in his honor. His family founded The Graeme McDaniel Foundation, a 501(c)(3) Katy-based charity with the mission of funding research for congenital heart defects. Graeme’s Run 5K, the organization's largest fundraising endeavor, will take place Feb. 26 at No Label Brewing Co. at 9 a.m. Graeme’s mother, Stephanie, shared Graeme’s story and how the organization that carries on his memory is working to help children with heart defects. To register for the Graeme’s Run 5K, visit https://graememcdanielfoundation.org/register More by Claire Goodman: Biblical artifacts exhibit opening soon in Katy Can you start out by telling us Graeme’s story? Graeme was born Dec. 22, 2012. We had a great pregnancy- nothing to be concerned about. And then when I went in for my 34-week appointment, they saw that he had a lower heart rate. We went on to an ultrasound, which confirmed the lower heart rate, so they did an emergency C-section. Within several minutes, we were on the operating table, and they delivered Graeme. They thought he was in distress. But he was not; he actually had gone into heart block, which was one of his congenital heart defects. They didn't know about that- nothing had been detected during my pregnancy prenatally. Once he was born, they did a full workup on him and realized that he had multiple congenital heart defects. He had double outlet right ventricle, malposed great vessels, VSD, coarctation of the aorta, straddling mitral valve, aortic valve hypoplasia, and complete heart block. We had no idea what a heart defect was at the time. So my husband, Robby, and I quickly became experts on how to care for our baby. The doctors took Graeme immediately to the medical center, and then we were able to meet him there shortly after. He spent the first 44 days in the hospital. During that time he underwent two procedures. One was a thoracic procedure with a temporary pacemaker implanted and they widened the aorta. The second procedure was open heart, and they put in a pulmonary artery band and his permanent pacemaker in his abdomen. Then we were able to come home, and my other son Mason got to meet his brother, and we had a wonderful two-and-a-half years with Graeme. We were gearing up for his big procedure; it was called double switch operation. His heart started to weaken, and that's when he passed away. The Graeme’s Run was the first fundraiser you did to honor Graeme. How did that come about? Some of my friends wanted to get together and find a way to remember him and share him with the community and do some good and his name. So they wanted to do a 5k. And I said, “Yeah, that sounds great.” And then as they continued with the planning, I found myself getting more and more involved with it. Then the Graeme’s Run formed, and this will be our seventh Graeme’s Run at No Label. On HoustonChronicle.com: Former Katy football star sentenced in connection to Rice teammate’s 2018 death You’ve now expanded Graeme’s Run into a foundation. Can you tell us about that? We’ve always funded research nationally for child heart defect research foundations.This past September, we started The Graeme McDaniel Foundation, which we're very excited about. We will fund congenital heart defects research locally at Texas Children's and other hospitals, and there are other various projects set for this year. We want to keep that research local. People travel all over to get to the Houston Medical Center to have their child cared for. We also want to support other families like ours. We have been in the hospital; we know how scary and stressful that is. So we wanted to be able to support the families receiving care in a small way and just let them know they’re not alone. How much money have you raised in Graeme’s name? I would say close to a million. How does it feel, as a parent who went through an insurmountable loss, to see how much you've been able to do in his name? It has given me a place to put the sadness. I put my energy into something hopeful. It's not easy for me to talk about him, but this run and this foundation has kind of forced me to do that in a really beautiful way. I feel like I have this great story to tell with his name attached to it. I think it's hard for people to hear about loss in any way, and then when it's a child, it makes it even harder. It’s given me a lot of hope to be able to know that we are making a difference for kids like Graeme and all the future heart warriors, and that's beautiful.
The UFC is mixed martial arts’ flagship promotion, home to some of the best fighters in the world. It stages events almost every weekend of the year, with pay-per-view cards taking place once a month on average – marking the company’s biggest shows. Here is a look at the UFC’s next event, including all the fights set to take place, what time they start and how to watch the card. Saturday 26 February – UFC Fight Night – UFC Apex, Las Vegas What time does it start? The prelims are scheduled to begin at 9pm GMT (1pm PT, 3pm CT, 4pm ET), with the main card following at 12am GMT (4pm PT, 6pm CT, 7pm ET) on Sunday morning. How can I watch it? The card will air live on BT Sport in the UK, with the broadcaster’s app and website also streaming the fights. In the US, ESPN+ will stream the action live, as will the UFC’s Fight Pass. Full card Main card Islam Makhachev (pictured) will face Bobby Green, who replaces Beneil Dariush (Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) Islam Makhachev vs Bobby Green (catchweight – 160lbs) Misha Cirkunov vs Wellington Turman (middleweight) Ji Yeon Kim vs Priscila Cachoeira (women’s flyweight) Arman Tsarukyan vs Joel Alvarez (lightweight) Armen Petrosyan vs Gregory Rodrigues (middleweight) Prelims Zhu Rong vs Ignacio Bahamondes (lightweight) Josiane Nunes vs Wu Yanan (women’s bantamweight) Terrance McKinney vs Fares Ziam (lightweight) Jinh Yu Frey vs Hannah Goldy (women’s strawweight) Alejandro Perez vs Jonathan Martinez (bantamweight) Ramiz Brahimaj vs Micheal Gillmore (welterweight) Victor Altamirano vs Carlos Hernandez (flyweight)
Late in the build to Saturday's UFC Fight Night card, the planned main event between Rafael dos Anjos and Rafael Fiziev was postponed to UFC 272. With the main event slot left open, light heavyweights Johnny Walker and Jamahal Hill were given the last-minute opportunity to serve as headliners. Walker (18-6) is in need of a win after suffering losses in three of his four most recent fights, including a unanimous decision loss to Thiago Santos this past October. The loss to Santos was especially concerning given Walker showed little of the explosiveness that made him a rising star through his first three fights in the UFC. In those first three bouts, Walker scored three first-round knockouts, including one in 15 seconds and another in 36 seconds. Instead of explosiveness, Walker looked hesitant to engage, an issue partially spurred on by a new coaching team led by John Kavanagh. Heading into Round 5 of the bout with Santos, the fight was still very much up for grabs. Rather than telling Walker to step on the gas and go for the win, Kavanagh told Walker he was ahead on the cards, and as a result, Walker didn't push for the victory as he needed to.
CNN Underscored reviews financial products such as credit cards and bank accounts based on their overall value. We may receive a commission through the LendingTree affiliate network if you apply and are approved for a card, but our reporting is always independent and objective. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Whether it’s across the world or around the corner, you might be starting to think about your next vacation. And since the Marriott hotel chain has such a large presence both domestically and globally, it’s worth considering whether a Marriott credit card makes sense for you. Both American Express and Chase issue Marriott cards, and each card has its own features and welcome offer, so there are four options to consider. Let’s look at the Chase offers first. Right now, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card is offering 100,000 bonus points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months after opening the account, while the Marriott Bonvoy Bold® Credit Card is offering 50,000 bonus points after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first three months after opening the account. The Marriott Bold card is the only Marriott credit card with no annual fee. Meanwhile, on the American Express side, right now new card members can earn 75,000 bonus points with the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card after you make $3,000 in purchases within the first three months after opening the account. And for business owners, the Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card is offering the same 75,000 bonus points after you make $3,000 in purchases within your first three months of card membership. You’ll get excellent value with all four of these card offers, so deciding which offer to choose probably depends on which card is right for you. Let’s dive into the details of each card. If you’re looking for a personal credit card with a relatively low annual fee, the sign-up bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card is a great choice, and the 100,000-point sign-up bonus opens up a ton of options. In fact, based on the point valuations of frequent flyer website The Points Guy, those 100,000 points are worth as much as $800 in travel. But in addition to the sign-up bonus, there are many other benefits that get extended to Marriott Boundless card holders, making this a nice card to hold onto year after year if you plan to stay at Marriott hotels on a regular basis. With the Marriott Boundless card, you’ll receive complimentary Marriott Silver elite status for as long as you’re a card holder. Silver status gets you late checkout and a 10% bonus on points earned during your Marriott stays. Although this is Marriott’s lowest elite status tier, having some sort of status is better than no status at all, and it could potentially even get you a better room during check-in (though improved rooms are not guaranteed). Or, if you’re looking to earn a higher level of elite status, the Marriott Boundless card also comes with 15 annual elite night credits, which can stack with the 15 elite nights from the Marriott Business Amex for a total of 30 elite nights. Alternatively, you can also earn Marriott Gold elite status by spending $35,000 on the card each account year. And now, the card also earns 1 elite night credit for every $5,000 you spend, with no cap on the number of credits you can earn. When you use the Marriott Boundless card to pay at Marriott hotels, you’ll earn 6 points for every dollar you spend, plus additional points for being a Marriott loyalty member and a Marriott elite member. You’ll now also earn 3 points per dollar on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each year on grocery stores, gas stations, and dining, and then 2 points per dollar after that, along with 2 points per dollar on all your other purchases. The Marriott Boundless card also has its own annual complimentary award certificate. Starting at your first yearly account renewal — meaning one year after you opened the card — and every year thereafter, you’ll receive a certificate that can be used at any Marriott hotel for one night costing 35,000 points or less. Other great perks include baggage delay insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, trip delay reimbursement and purchase protection. And with the Marriott Boundless card carrying only a $95 annual fee, you can easily come out well ahead with all these card holder perks. In fact, if you can use the card’s complimentary award night each year for a room that would otherwise cost $95 or more, you’ll easily make the card worth it. Learn more and apply for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card. If you’re looking to earn Marriott points but don’t want to pay an annual fee for a credit card, you might want to consider the Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card. Although you’ll only earn 50,000 bonus points after you spend $1,000 on purchases within your first three months, the card has no annual fee, and those 50,000 points are still worth $400 toward your next hotel stay based on The Points Guy’s valuations. Even though you won’t pay anything to carry the Marriott Bold card, it only earns 3 points per dollar at participating Marriott hotels instead of the 6x points of the Marriott Boundless card, and the same 2x points on all other purchases. You also still get some of the same card benefits, such as complimentary Silver elite status, baggage delay insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, trip delay reimbursement and purchase protection. But with the Marriott Bold card, you won’t receive the highly valuable 35,000-point complimentary night certificate after your first year. Ultimately, we prefer the Marriott Boundless card over the Marriott Bold card, as long as you’re able to use all the benefits, especially the annual complimentary night certificate. But, if a quick bump in Marriott points and automatic Silver elite status is all you’re looking for, the Marriott Bold card could check the box. Learn more and apply for the Marriott Bonvoy Bold card. The Marriott Brilliant Amex is a card for people who frequently find themselves at Marriott hotels, as it comes with a slew of elite perks but also a high $450 annual fee (see rates and fees). However, one of the best features of the card is up to $300 in statement credits annually for Marriott purchases. If you can use those credits in full each year, you’re effectively only paying a net annual fee of $150. The card earns 6 points for every dollar you spend on eligible purchases at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels, 3 points per dollar at U.S. restaurants and on flights booked directly with airlines, and 2 points per dollar on all other purchases. You also earn 15 elite night credits with the Marriott Brilliant Amex, which means you’ll receive automatic Silver elite status every year you have the card, and you can upgrade to Gold elite status by spending $35,000 on the card each year. When it comes to the welcome bonus offer, you might be wondering how much 75,000 Marriott points are worth. Based on the point valuations of The Points Guy, which values Marriott points at 0.8 cents apiece, those 75,000 points are worth $600. And at the start of your second year with the Marriott Brilliant Amex (and every year thereafter), you’ll receive another Free Night Award that can be used at any Marriott hotel for one night costing 50,000 points or less. This means you can use it at any category 1 through 5 property on the Marriott award chart, plus off-peak and standard redemptions at category 6 hotels, and off-peak redemptions for category 7 properties. Just keep in mind that Marriott is switching to a dynamic pricing system starting in March 2022, so the redemption cost for a room at any Marriott hotel can vary from day to day after that point. Learn more about the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card. If you’re a small-business traveler who expects to be on the road in 2022, the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express card could be a great fit. Like the Marriott Brilliant card, the 75,000 bonus points on the Marriott Business Amex are worth $600 based on The Points Guy’s valuations, but the card comes with a much lower $125 annual fee (see rates and fees). The Marriott Business Amex also has the same 15 annual elite credits as the Marriott Brilliant, which you can “stack” together for a total of 30 elite nights if you also hold one of the other personal Marriott cards that offer elite credits. And similarly, you can earn Gold elite status after making $35,000 in eligible purchases on the card in a calendar year. With the Marriott Business Amex, you’ll earn 6 points for every dollar spent on eligible purchases at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels, 4 points per dollar at U.S. restaurants, at U.S. gas stations, on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers and on U.S. purchases for shipping, and 2 points per dollar on all other purchases. Just like with the Marriott Brilliant card, you’ll receive a complimentary award night each year with the Marriott Business Amex starting with your second card member year, but with the business card, the free nights can be used at Marriott properties with a redemption level up to 35,000 points. That means you can currently use it at any category 1 through 5 property on the Marriott award chart except for category 5 hotels during peak periods. But again, keep in mind that Marriott is changing its redemption system in March 2022. You can also earn a second award night after you spend $60,000 in purchases on the card in a calendar year. Learn more about the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card. Marriott has about 30 different brands under its umbrella, which means there are plenty of opportunities across the globe to redeem your Marriott points or use free nights. Whether you want to stay at an ultra-luxury beach destination in the Caribbean or a few miles down from your favorite amusement park, there’s generally a Marriott property for everyone. Obviously, if you don’t stay at Marriott hotels very often, then a Marriott credit card probably isn’t a good fit. But if you do expect to be at a Marriott even a few times in 2022, then any of these four Marriott credit cards are worth considering for their welcome offers alone, and then to keep on an ongoing basis, especially for the annual complimentary award certificates. So if you’re just a casual Marriott traveler, consider the Marriott Boundless credit card from Chase, while small businesses with an owner or employees that make a lot of Marriott stays can choose the Marriott Business card from American Express. Or, Marriott fanatics who can use all the perks — and the up to $300 in annual statement credits — should grab the Marriott Brilliant card from American Express and get the best that Marriott offers, while those who don’t like paying an annual fee can pick the Marriott Bold card from Chase and get bonus points without having to pay for the card each year. Find out which credit cards CNN Underscored chose as the best credit cards to use at Marriott hotels. Get all the latest personal finance deals, news and advice at CNN Underscored Money.
I am a professional photographer (5 years) with over 20 years of experience working with the public, including corporate travel photography. As someone who's been doing massage for 10 years, it doesn't surprise or bother her when she gets pulled into what some would call a 'caregiving' career; whether you’re homebound recovering from surgery, dealingwith loss after your death, or just trying on as many new clothes in the closet at work - this type therapist will put their healing hands right there beside yours.
My name is Mike Dolan and I'm a massage therapist in central Ohio. In December of 2017 my wife and I moved to Cleveland Heights to start our new life together!
I help people who want to relax and are looking for a great spa experience. We can provide a relaxing, spa-like experience, or you can relax and see the results of a massage in person. I am a Certified Massage Therapist, I can provide a great massage, but also give you a massage that is deeper and more therapeutic. I am also an experienced body worker, having worked in a chiropractic setting in the past.