Yesterday, Sparkle Daniel was sentenced to 25 to life for the murder of a 91-year-old woman in 2003. Prosecutors say Daniel and another woman forced wine down Nellie Hocutt's throat before stuffing cloth in her mouth and suffocating her with a plastic bag. Horcutt was also tied to a chair with tape and a telephone cord, and Daniel and her accomplice stole a gold chain and some towels. Horcutt's granddaughter said, "Sparkle, I hope you spend the rest of your life thinking about our grandma." more ›

Do you still use plastic bags? If not, chances are you're carrying around a reusable bag for groceries... and like any other good deed, this one's not going unpunished either. So a little heads up: you may want to make sure you're regularly washing your reusables, because it's now been found that they're most likely carrying around large amounts of bacteria! more ›

Investigators believe a 24-year-old fatally stabbed his girlfriend and her two young daughters in a Flatbush residence, then told a relative he had committed the crime. After getting a tip from the relative, police arrived at the home on Rogers Avenue at around 1 pm today and the suspect — identified as Jermaine Ruiz — reportedly opened the door in clothing "splattered in blood." The Times reports that when officers from the 67th Precinct entered the home they found the bodies of Rogers' 22-year-old partner, as well as her daughters, ages 2 and 5. According to 1010WINS, the bodies were found in the kitchen. Law enforcement sources said the suspect might have been putting the children into plastic garbage bags, and noted: "We think they have been dead for a couple of days." more ›

Mayor Bloomberg's proposed 5-cent fee on every plastic bag used by shoppers would help reduce waste and raise an estimated $100 million to help the city's budget crisis, but it will probably never see the light of day now that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn opposes it. Quinn is also blocking a move to reimpose the city sales tax on clothing and shoes under $110, which would raise an estimated $394 million a year, and instead she wants to increase the city's sales tax from 4% to 4.5%. more ›

Not everyone got an over-hyped "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" when it hit Whole Foods last year, so the powers that be had to step in and put an end to the bag's nemesis: The Plastic Bag! more ›

This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities. more ›

Yesterday we mentioned London designer Anya Hindmarch's I'm Not A Plastic Bag was finally arriving at Whole Foods today. The canvas tote was made popular by a combination of things including celebrity and unavailability. Hindmarch told the NY Times “To create awareness you have to create scarcity by producing a limited edition. I hate the idea of making the environment trendy, but you need to make it cool and then it becomes a habit.” more ›

Photo courtesy of Daily Candy. more ›