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.
Organizers say a film screening Wednesday on the UALR campus could be the start of an initiative to empower women in the state through educational opportunities.
Wildlife recordist Joe Neal shares this audio postcard of sharing a lake with anglers and a flock of seagulls. Neal is coauthor of Arkansas Birds, published by the University of Arkansas Press. His latest book In the Province of Birds, a Western Arkansas Memoir, is published by Half-Acre Press.
Lizzy Lehman, an Austin-based musician who participated in this weekend's Trail Mix Concert Tour, will open for Gregory Alan Isakov Wednesday at George's Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville.
Partnerships, whether new or evolved, were in the news this past week. As such, Timothy Dennis tells us about some of those partnerships in this week's Week in Review.
Bucky Ball, a geometric, LED sculpture by artist Leo Villareal, is the first temporary outdoor installation for the museum. The work gets its name from Buckminster Fuller, an architect who designed geodesic domes. Ozarks at Large’s Christina Thomas spoke with Villareal about this and other works.