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.
Roby Brock from TalkBusiness.net discusses the latest Talk Business-Hendrix College Poll. Governor Beebe’s favorable numbers are high, but his influence on state legislative races might be small.
"Black Birds" by Ghost Orchard
Alma High School’s tech team is a four time national champion in the International Thespian Festival’s Tech Challenge. Ozarks at Large’s Christina Thomas visited the Alma Performing Arts Center to meet with the team.
Last month, the Old 78s (Curly Miller, Carole Ann Rose, Melanie Palmer and Ray Palmer) performed inside Eleven, the restaurant at Crystal Bridges Musem of American Art. This is one of the songs from that September night, "Cold Morning Shout."
"Train on the Island" by Joy Kills Sorrow
Gustav Carlson is a Newton County native, and his graphic novels Backwood Folk and Eve of the Ozarks are set in the north Arkansas county.
Becca Martin Brown, from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers, lists some of the Halloween events this week. Haunted houses, ballet, cemeteries, mayhem on a trolley and your chance to fire paintballs at the walking dead are all on the list.