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.
In just more than a decade, Mark Landon Smith, director of Arts Live Theatre, has taken the program to new heights. Becca Martin Brown has more on their upcoming season.
Here are our ten clips inspired by monster trucks...well, all monster---no trucks.
1. Bobby Pickett sings Monster Mash.
2. Boris Karloff and O.P. Heggie in an iconic (if often misquoted) scene from The Bride of Frankenstein.
3. Warren Zevon's song Werewolves of London.
4. Maria Ouspenskaya and Lon Chaney, Jr. in The Wolf Man.
5. Godzilla, the song by Blue Oyster Cult.
6. Godzilla, the fire-breathing monster.
7. Edgar Winter and the classic rock instrumental, Frankenstein.
8. King Kong's roar. You get credit if you guessed a lion's roar played backwards...because that's what it is.
9. Imagine Dragons' song Monster.
10. Bela Lugosi's Dracula doesn't lie...he just doesn't tell the whole truth.
Apologies to: Lon Chaney, Sr. (silent films are not good Sunday Montage fodder), the Creature From the Black Lagoon and Of Monsters and Men. Maybe next time.
The Arkansas gross domestic product grew in 2013, particularly in some unexpected sectors. With one of the architects of the Arkansas Private Option defeated in a primary runoff this week, the future of the Medicaid expansion is in doubt, but Governor Mike Beebe is undeterred. Plus, this weekend marks the 149th anniversary of the end of slavery in the U.S., and the 17th annual NWA Juneteenth Celebration will mark the occasion in Springdale.
"Ten Million Slaves" Otis Taylor
Michael Tilley, from The City Wire, talks about the latest details regarding an acquisition of Hillshire.