It's been a bordello, a restaurant and now a visitors center...and it's one of our favorite spaces in the region. We spent an afternoon at Miss Laura's in downtown Fort Smith,
Ozarks At Large

The Arkansas Department of Human Services has released numbers that show thousands of low-income Arkansans have shown intent to sign up for the state's Private Option insurance plans. Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families releases a report detailing inequality of enrichment opportunities between schools across the state. And furloughed work-study employees at Northwest Arkansas Community College returned to work this morning after a two-day suspension and before negotiations in Washington showed promise.


An effort to improve understanding in the classroom led to astonishing art.
Becca Martin Brown from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers has still more Halloween events to tell us about today.
Disney's Beauty and the Beast comes back to Walton Arts Center this weekend and we talk with the set designer about what we see behind the characters.

Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Friday, January 3, 2014
On this special edition of Ozarks at Large we listen again to some of our favorite stories from 2013, including: how to make it to age 100 in Huntsville, an odds-defying collaboration between a renown musician and Trike Theater and the creation of the Ozarks at Large quiche cup.
Becca Martin Brown, from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers, says Toto (and Dorothy) will be here soon.
Louis Jordan is one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Still, many Arkansans might not know about their native son. Stephen Koch, the host of Arkansongs, has written a new book about him.
Here is the list of the ten clips we used as our salute to The Wizard of Oz (and the explanation for each):
1. Pinball WIZARD by the Who
2. Jed Clampett as played by Buddy Ebsen, the actor originally cast as the...
3. ...TIN MAN, also the inspiration for a song by America.
4. A 1961 documentary about Ham, sent into space by NASA...a real-life FLYING MONKEY.
5. John Cougar Mellencamp sings Rain on the SCARECROW.
6. Famous television doctor, Dr. OZ.
7. The song Africa by TOTO.
8. A 1966 commercial for the game TWISTER. (as in the phenomenon that sent Dorothy to Oz)
9. The Tokens sing the (cowardly?) LION sleeps tonight.
10. Elton John with the title song from his album Goodbye YELLOW BRICK ROAD.
Apologies to the band Kansas and the song Witchy Woman by the Eagles. Maybe next time.
Next year an LLM degree at the University of Arkansas will be obtainable in a face-to-face setting or from a distance.`
at end of show: "Amanda Jewell" by Ricky Skaggs
Michael Tilley, from The City Wire, helps us dissect an odd news week.