The “paper or plastic” conundrum that vexed earnest shoppers throughout the 1980s and 90s is largely moot today. Most grocery store baggers don’t bother to ask anymore. They drop the bananas in one plastic bag as they reach for another to hold the six-pack of soda. The pasta sauce and noodles will get one too, as will the dish soap.

Plastic bags are so cheap to produce, sturdy, plentiful, easy to carry and store that they have captured at least 80 percent of the reusable grocery bags and convenience store market since they were introduced a quarter century ago, according to the Arlington, Virginia-based American Plastics Council.

As a result, the reusable bags are everywhere. They sit balled up and stuffed into the one that hangs from the pantry door. They line bathroom trash bins. They carry clothes to the gym. They clutter landfills. They flap from trees. They float in the breeze. They clog roadside drains. They drift on the high seas. They fill sea turtle bellies.

“The numbers are absolutely staggering,” said Vincent Cobb, an entrepreneur in Chicago, Illinois, who recently launched the Web site http://www.onebagatatime.com to educate the public about what he terms the “true costs” associated with the spread of “free” bags. He sells reusable shopping bags as a viable solution.

According to Cobb’s calculations extrapolated from data released by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2001 on U.S. plastic bag, sack, and wrap consumption, somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Of those, millions end up in the litter stream outside of landfills—estimates range from less than one to three percent of the grocery bags.

(more…)

Shopping in Madrid for homecoming dresses can still be done around small, specialized stores, and busy food markets. For those who prefer the boutiques and specialty shops to department stores and supermarkets, then you should definitely make an effort to visit the different zones and take the time to explore the huge array of shops at your disposal. Although we can’t possibly do justice to the huge number of shops in the city, they tend to group together, so usually where we have only one shop listed, you will find many stores selling similar goods nearby.

In the page Madrid shopping by zones, we indicate Madrid’s best shopping districts, which you can find on the partial maps, in addition to the shopping information you need. It is practically impossible to suggest only one route when going out for shopping in the city, since the necessities of each traveler eminently vary. We can, however help you so that you spend time in the areas most representative of a day of shopping in Madrid and therefore see your needs satisfied. Basically, the city in itself is one big shopping center, since it is easy to find a shop on every street and on every corner.

We highlight six areas of shops in Madrid, due to the great variety of merchandise that is concentrated within them. Beyond these shopping streets, we must not leave out the principal malls in Madrid.

Shops in Spain range from side-street stalls and open-air flea markets, to designer boutiques selling the latest in couture fashions: the former require your most persuasive haggling powers, while the latter require a fist-full of traveler’s cheques. In either case, shopping in Spain is always an adventure, and some of the best places to visit in Spain are the open-air markets and upper end shops in Barcelona and Madrid.

Shops in Madrid

Shopping in Spain reaches a bustling pitch on Sunday mornings when the Calle de Ribera de Curtidores closes to traffic and becomes the open-air flee market known as El Rastro. It is often said, with only slight exaggeration, “if it exists in the world, you will find it at El Rastro.” One of the most diverse and crowded places for shopping in Spain, you can purchase everything from homecoming dresses to pirated CDs of the latest Hollywood releases, from gypsy antiques to post cards. El Rastro is one of the best places to visit in Spain if you are looking to practice you Spanish…and your bargaining skills. Remember, though, keep your camera’s close, and your wallets closer.

In addition to El Rastro, Madrid offers some of the best up-scale shopping in Spain. The eastern Salamanca district has the widest selection of designer fashion shops in Spain. Prada, Armani, and Louis Vuitton, as well as the popular Spanish designers like Sybilla, Amaya Arzuaga, and Victorio & Lucchino can all be found here.

Shops in Barcelona

Barcelona has several open-air flea markets offering a variety of jewelry, books, curious and hand made arts and crafts. Three of the most popular flea markets are the Mercat de las Encants in the Plaza de las Glories Catalanes, the Mercat de San Antoni, and the Mercat at Plaza Villa de Madrid. In general, these shops in Barcelona open around 8 am and close a few hours after sunset. Savvy travelers will remember that while shopping in Spain (especially in open air flea markets) it is important to carry only the cash you need, and keep it safely tucked away in a money belt until the exact price of an item has been decided on.

If you are looking to outfit yourself in traditional clothing like some fancy homecoming dress for an upcoming fiesta try the Circuit del Born. One of the best shopping places to visit in Spain, the Circuit del Born, almost hidden away in the Ciutat Vella’s Ribera district, is full of small artisan studio/shops, specialty silk boutiques, as well as some of the best designer shoe and clothing shops in Barcelona.

Shopping in Spain is an adventure for those with money, or those who are traveling on a shoestring; just remember to bargain for the best price, use as much Spanish as you know, and carry a big smile along with your wallet.

When a Cuban drug cartel trafficking suspect skipped out on a $1 million Federal bond, the bail bonds company traced him to Spain by going through his garbage for clues.

Just weeks after posting a $1 million bond, Darli Velazquez-Armas skipped bail. On March 10th, 2007 Federal authorities were alerted that something was wrong when Velazquez’s electronic monitoring bracelet sent a no response signal that the defendant had failed to report home. The huge bond was posted in the U.S. Southern District Federal Court in Miami, Florida. The $1,000,000.00 Federal bond was underwritten by an orange county bail bonds insurance company in California.

Within days of jumping bond investigators for Bail Yes Bonding, a Miami based Nationwide bail bond company discovered that Velazquez had fled on a private plane to the Dominican Republic out of Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport located in Southwest Miami-Dade County, where from there the case went cold. Veteran bounty hunter Rolando Betancourt was hired by the bail bond company to track down and capture the fugitive. Betancourt went to work in Miami on several leads focusing mainly on the defendant’s parents and ex-wife, all of which had signed as indemnitors on Velazquez’s bond. Betancourt directed teams of investigators across several states, coordinating all aspects of the investigation. “We really pulled-out all the stops on this case” said Betancourt, pooling our resources and working closely with government agencies as is typical today for high-risk fugitive recovery operations. Betancourt went as far as renting a garbage truck to make un-scheduled garbage runs at the defendant’s Miami home. One day, fearing they had been spotted, they were forced to pick up the neighbor’s garbage down whole length of the street, “It was a real smelly mess”, recalled Betancourt, “but it had to be done”. The early morning garbage runs paid off, amongst the bags of debris were shredded documents that investigators were able to reconstruct yielding a cache of information including used calling cards, bank records, and pages from a First Class in-flight magazine belonging to a European Airline, leading the investigators to believe the defendant was somewhere in Europe, quite possibly the Country of Spain.

(more…)