Three Things February 4
1. Organizations raise awareness for heart health
Today, Feb. 4, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute are celebrating National Wear Red Day to raise awareness for heart disease and promote the importance of heart health.
“Heart-healthy living involves understanding your risk, making choices, and taking steps to reduce your chances of getting heart disease, including coronary heart disease, the most common type,” says the NHLBI.
The American Heart Association provides ways to donate to the cause.
2. Ahmaud Arbery’s shooter withdraws guilty plea on hate crime charge
On Feb. 4, Travis McMichael, the man convicted for the murder Ahmaud Arbery, withdrew his guilty plea to a federal hate crime.
McMichael elected to stand trial for a second time for the killing of Arbery, a death which lead to a large racial justice movement in the summer 2020.
“Asked by U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood for his decision, McMichael said: ‘I withdraw the plea’,” reported AP News.
McMichael and his father, Greg, had planned plead guilty to a hate crime after prosecutors and attorneys proposed a 30-year sentence that included a request to transfer the McMichael’s from Georgia’s state prison system to federal custody.
Wood rejected the deal after the Arbery family felt the conditions in federal prison wouldn’t be harsh enough.
“All we want is 100% justice for the Arbery family,” Marcus Arbery Sr. said. “That’s all we’re looking for.”
3. Amazon raises prices of subscriptions
Amazon will raise its annual prime membership from $119 to $139 and their monthly subscription will raise from $12.99 to $14.99.
According to CNN, the e-commerce company said they are raising their prices due to "expanded Prime membership benefits," such as added Prime Video content and expanded free same-day shipping, as well to compensate for the rising costs of labor and transportation in its distribution network.
'“The change will go into effect on February 18 for new Prime members and after March 25 for existing members,” reports CNN.
The company last raised its prices for the prime members in 2018 when they bumped the annual membership up to $99.
According to CNN, Amazon sales are seeing an increase as “overall sales from the quarter were up more than 9% from the year-ago quarter, to $137.4 billion, just shy of the $137.6 billion analysts had forecast.”
