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.
In just one minute Becca Martin Brown of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers give us advice on how to spend our entertainment time.
Gretchen Parlato last month was named female vocalist of the year by the Jazz Journalists Association. Friday night she’ll open the 2012-13 Starlight Jazz Series at Walton Arts Center with two performances. Last week she talked with Robert Ginsburg, host of KUAF’s Shades of Jazz program.
There will soon be many more trees near Mount Comfort Road in Fayetteville, and officials in Springdale further plans for a zoning overlay district near Arvest Ballpark.
"In Between Days" by The Cure
According to a U.S. Census Bureau report released last week, in 2010 and 2011, close to 15 percent of Americans were living under the federal poverty line, but in Arkansas, that number was as high as 17 percent. The state has consistently ranked among the states with the highest rates of poverty. On Ozarks at Large this week, we are examining Arkansas' poverty problem.
Today, Ozarks at Large's Iti Agnihotri-Mudholkar finds out about who is most likely to be poor in Arkansas. We also learn more about the myths that surround poverty and the poor.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Neil Compton. From his Bentonville home, he led the effort to keep the Buffalo River natural. The campaign eventually led to the river's designation as the nation's first national river. A new exhibit at the Peel Mansion and Compton Gardens is devoted to his life.
"Casting Presbyterian Style" by Mark Isham