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.
There are swallows. Then there are swallows. One flock prefers human habitat, the other wilderness. Here, Joe Neal vividly illustrates the differences. Neal is coauthor of “Arkansas Birds,” published by the University of Arkansas Press. His latest book “In the Province of Birds, a Western Arkansas Memoir,” is published by Half-Acre Press.
This week, the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission awarded the Fayetteville Underground $55,000 for renovations.
Arkansas unemployment fell in April, several public officials are banding together to campaign against a pair of initiatives that could put questions about casino gambling in front of Arkansas voters, the Arkansas softball team prepares for the NCAA Tournament and more.
“Music for Mallet Instruments” by: Steve Reich
This spring, a group of Arkansas political activists associated with “Occupy Wall Street” in Little Rock launched a ballot initiative to amend the state's campaign finance and lobbying law, organized around the state motto “Regnat Populus,” which means “The People Rule.”
Block Avenue business are throwing a block party Sunday to celebrate their street and remind Fayetteville residents to shop locally.