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.
Advocates claim the permitting of a large hog breeding factory farm in Newton County heralds an economic revival for their impoverished region. Conservationists fear the farm, sited along a major tributary to the Buffalo National River, will devastate a scenic and historic treasure. Jacqueline Froelich provides an update, including public comment from the farm’s operator as well as efforts towards a legislate fix.
The City of Fayetteville Parks and Recreation Departmenthas invited the public to a Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting to gather public input on the proposed master plan of the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks.
"Thunder Walk" by George Benson
Becca Martin Brown of Northwest Arkansas Media says she can complete her Sondheim checklist by seeing the new production of Company at the University of Arkansas
Roby Brock from Talk Business Arkansas talks to Valerie Erkman, Vice President for marketing at Arkansas Capital Corporation, about recent entrepreneurial competitions in the state.
"Cardiff" by Stone Sour
We continue our series previewing this weekend’s large poetry reading in Fayetteville by inviting C. Violet Eaton to the Carver Center for Public Radio to read an excerpt from an epic poem he recently finished.