turquoise beads

Augusta Evans, a school for special needs students, wants your Mardi Gras beads, WKRG-TV5 reported.

The school partners with Krispy Kreme doughnuts every year, for a bead collection drive immediately after Mardi Gras, the station reported. When a person brings in 12 pounds of beads, he gets a free dozen doughnuts, the station reported.

However, donations were down 80 percent this year, likely due to the closure of the Krispy Kreme on Government Street, the station reported. That's why Krispy Kreme is having another donation drive next Monday through Wednesday, the station reported.

Gallery Los Olivos will feature two artists, jewelry designer Patricia Watkins and watercolorist Peggy Fletcher, in April.

The public is invited to an artists’ reception from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 1, at the gallery.

  Watkins has been designing beaded jewelry for 15 years. She started with Zarah Company who used artists for designing, but later found working for herself more flexible. She is known for her classical feminine touch in her pieces and will have many of these on display.

 Watkins uses sterling silver and gold filled findings for the bulk of her work, but occasionally uses brass and copper as well as vintage beads.

For this show Watkins will also include one case of whimsically themed jewelry as a tribute to a wonderful friend from the past. This jewelry is sure to use costume pieces from the past such as clowns, dogs, cats, and faces.

Fletcher brings inspired work to this show from her past travels as well as current passions. Some of these passions surround us everyday: dogs, cats, butterflies, fauna and flowers.

Fletcher’s work remains gentle and fluid while bringing important details into focus. Her work looks and feels serene due to a soft fresh color palette balanced  by soft value changes.  

Fletcher enjoys doing animal portrait commissions in her spare time.  

“I have seen many of these in progress and they are always impressive,” said Watkins. “As animal lovers know, a cat is not just a cat. Sometimes they have nine lives. Peggy seems to capture that quality.”

In a dramatic moment on the House floor this morning, Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL) was asked to leave the chamber after taking off his suit jacket and revealing that he was wearing a hoodie during a speech in tribute to Trayvon Martin.

Rush, who donned the hood and put on sunglasses in support of Martin, the Florida teenager who was gunned down last month in a racially-tinged incident, was escorted out of the House chamber after repeated requests by the presiding officer to leave. Wearing a hood or hat while the House is in session is against House rules.

"Racial profiling has to stop Mr. Speaker," Rush said while taking off his suit jacket, "Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum."

George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch official, admitted to shooting Martin last month. Zimmerman's representatives have asserted he acted in self-defense, but the incident has become a racial touchstone due to allegations of racial profiling associated with the shooting, and the local police's handling of the investigation.

The Congressional Black Caucus led the charge in calling for a federal investigation into the case; they were eventually joined in that demand by President Obama and a number of top Republicans.

Rush continued his speech while the presiding officer, Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS), repeatedly banged the gavel and told Rush to leave the chamber. When Rush failed to stop his speech, a representative from the Sergeant at Arms office approached Rush and walked out with the Congressman.

Martin's parents were on Capitol Hill Tuesday to attend a briefing with Congressional Democrats to discuss hate crimes in America. The two testified briefly, thanking members of Congress for their support and calling for the arrest of Zimmerman.

An excellent new episode of The Good Wife caught the audience's attention this week through a lot of events which started with Kalinda's IRS mess, moving on to Diane asking Alicia to partake in a blue ribbon panel on her behalf, as it would be good for both her career and the firm. With the annoying panel chair Mike Kresteva, superbly portrayed by guest star Matthew Perry (Friends), Alicia has a lot on her plate. As she still tries to buy the old Florrick family house, the episode reveals, through a number of flashbacks, some of the most wonderful as well as awkward moments the Florricks shared in that house. And hats off to the Alicia-Jackie cliffhanger! That would sure turn into one hell of an exchange in the next episode.

Back to the male-oriented panel that was investigating a police shooting of a civilian, Alicia—the token female—manages to irritate the other members including Kresteva, while she kindly questions the victim's son about the undercover officers who shot his father. The boy denies they identified themselves before shooting. Judge Dunaway, one of the panel members, tells Alicia there's no need to impress and reinvent a wheel that works just fine.

She also learns that a gun at the crime scene was used in a jewelry robbery and confiscated later by Officer Zimmerman. When Alicia asks whether the gun had been planted, Kresteva cuts short her interrogation of an expert witness, but Pastor Damon (played by Charles S. Dutton, whom L Word fans might remember as Dr. Benjamin Bradshaw), grants Alicia his allotted five minutes to finish what she started.

Later at Kalinda's IRS meeting, she has to deal with a more arrogant male bureaucrat who wants more evidence on private investigator's case. Kalinda notices a laptop with the webcam on, placed behind the IRS people and shares this with Alicia as they walk out of the room. This only fuels Alicia's frustration who gets back in and walks straight to the said laptop telling off whoever was behind the cam. That was Julianna Margulies' best scene of the episode.

At Lockhart/Gardner Eli, David and Julius continue their quest to oust Will. Diane tells Will they are like three children who didn't get the toy they wanted and she's sure once they have it, they'll destroy it. And out of loyalty for Will, she wants to keep his seat until his suspension ends.

Eli and Julius even toss a coin to decide who will be nominated for Will's seat. Julius wins and Eli will support him. Diane and Will decide to nominate instead Howard Lyman, a pushed aside partner with the highest seniority, who's still wondering around the firm asking Will if he knows any good porn sites.

The lovely and mysterious Kalinda gets to meet again an old acquaintance, the FBI agent Lana Delaney who already paid an unannounced visit to Alicia as the person behind the webcam during the IRS meeting. For an unknown reason yet, she has IRS on Kalinda's back. Whether it has to do with Lockhart/Gardner's drug dealer client, Lemond Bishop, or with Kalinda refusing to accept Lana's offer to join FBI, the agent's motives are still unclear.

MUNCIE -- Nights like Saturday night were made for Muncie Gras.

With ideal weather for the 11th annual downtown Muncie event, it didn't take long for the streets to be packed with those in pursuit of a good time.

"I've definitely been surprised by the crowds," said Dustin Rhoades, who was attending his first Muncie Gras with his fiancée, Jessica Murray.

"It's great to be out with Muncie's finest," Murray said with a laugh.

Cheryl Crowder, event director for Muncie's Downtown Development Partners, said she thought Saturday night's weather -- at about 56 degrees with clear skies at 9 p.m -- could be responsible for the largest crowd in Muncie Gras history.

"It's absolutely perfect out," said Crowder, who was wearing a zerba-inspired outfit. "At this point, it's as busy as I've ever seen it at 9 o'clock. We've really expanded our space quite a bit, and we're already seeing it being filled in."

Vendor Arttacgo Luckett said the city needs more events like Muncie Gras to get partygoers together in one spot.

"It's fun," Luckett said. "We need to have more events like this for the Muncie folk. We don't get to hang out like this too often."

Luckett was running an eyelash extension booth for those looking to enhance their looks as they roamed the streets of downtown Muncie.

"People like to be beautiful all the time," he said. "People like to enhance their beauty, and I'm the man for the job."

Muncie Gras is about the party, but it's also about the food.

Vendor Ruby Woods of Ruby's Kitchen said business was good Saturday night as she handed out her famous tenderloins and Ruby's chips.

Woods said there's a simple plan of attack when running a food operation at an event like Muncie Gras.

" You have to have it all ready," Woods said. "I do all my grilling and everything at home. Because people want it now -- they don't want to have to stand in line and wait for you to grill up something."

Yes, partying and good eats and drinks are the backbone of Muncie Gras, but it wouldn't be the annual celebration without its famous beads.