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.
Just in time for cooler weather our local food ambassador, Teresa Maurer, has a stew made almost entirely from local produce.
For more information about slow food in the region, visit ozarkslowfood.org
Web Exclusive: Teresa Mauer's Fall Market Stew Recipe
City officials in Rogers update the city's sign ordinance, unemployment numbers fall in the state and the city of Fort Smith plans improvements for the coming year.
"The Only One" by The Black Keys
A Eureka Springs organization offers medical assistance to anybody regardless of the patients' ability to pay. Ozarks at Large's Christina Thomas talks to one of the organization's co-founders about Echo's plans for the future.
A farm has sprouted in the middle of Fayetteville and the people behind the effort want to help change the way we think about food.
For more information, visit Tri Cycle Farms' Facebook page.
"Back in the Game" by The Greyboy Allstars
Nature recordist and Ozarks at Large essayist Joe Neal brings us the otherworldly sound the thrush. Joe Neal is coauthor of “Arkansas Birds,” published by the University of Arkansas Press. His latest book is “In the Province of Birds, a Western Arkansas Memoir.”