Mercy Health used an innovative walking program to become one of the healthiest workplaces in the country.
Ozarks At Large
A roundup of events and news for the next few weeks include an alternative way to deliver a Valentine.


An administrative law judge with the Arkansas Public Service Commission on Friday ordered SWEPCO to proceed on its proposed plan to build a massive new power transmission line through portions of northwest Arkansas. Also, Governor Mike Beebe says that recent cost analyses of operating the state's Private Option expansion of Medicaid justifies the program's passage during last year's session of the state legislature. And the state Attorney General's office warns residents about rapid-refund tax providers.

Ahead on Ozarks, a conversation with young adult author An Na. Also, we learn what it takes to become a police officer.

We speak with An Na, author of A Step From Heaven, a book that was awarded the Michael L. Prince Award when it was published a decade ago. Critics and reviewers commended the book's characters for speaking like a child without being too precocious or condescending. The author will speak in Fayetteville later this month.
Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Weekend Ozarks, we visit the kitchen of Jen Lewis, take a spin in a state-run clinic that aids veterans in rural communities, and we meet a recovering opiate addict who has found hope with methadone.
Here is our salute to Seattle and Washington (Bronco fans, we did Denver last week).
1. Nirvana performs Come As You Are.
2. War Games, set in Seattle, begins.
3. Jimi Hendrix, Seattle native, plays Purple Haze.
4. Agent Cooper gives high praise in (and on) Twin Peaks, Washington.
5. Seattle native Bing Crosby sings You Are My Sunshine.
6. Frasier Crane plans to get even with Bulldog on Frasier.
7. Heart, another Seattle band, plays Crazy on You.
8. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson discuss a possible romantic meeting in Sleepless in Seattle.
9. Detectives Holder and Linden, from the fictional Seattle police department, order lunch in an episode of The Killing.
10. Seattle native Sir Mix-A-Lot and Baby Got back.
Apologies to: Eddie Vedder, Modest Mouse, Macklemore and...oh, about five hundred other bands and musicians. Maybe next time.
Becca says that area residents will have an opportunity to learn about Muhammed Ali and other notable African Americans at an exhibit in Fort Smith.
Here, the quartet from Siloam Springs performs their song "Rosa Lee."
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has a new program designed to help landowners clean up hazardous substances without being fined. Senator John Boozman offers his thoughts on the Farm Bill that passed the House and is now on its way to the Senate. And the state's attorney general is being asked to clarify the state's new voter ID law.
"Extreme Ways" by Moby
Michael Tilley, from The City Wire, discusses financial numbers for Arkansas real estate, Tyson Foods, Walmart and the city of Fort Smith.