The latest results released from the Talk Business Arkansas-Hendrix College poll show that the chief concern among Arkansas voters is the economy as this mid-term election year gets underway. Crews with the Arkansas and Missouri Railroad continue to make repairs and determine the cause of failure to certain equipment on the railroad bridge crossing the Arkansas River at Van Buren. Cargill is ordered to pay more than $2 million in a settlement of hiring discrimination allegations, and the state of Arkansas is clawing back nearly a half million dollars from Hewlett-Packard after the company failed to meet employment projections at its facility in Conway.
Ozarks At Large

The Joint Budget Committee of the Arkansas LEgislature hears from Arkansas Department of Human Services regarding funding for the state's Private Option expansion of Medicaid, while a new Talk Business Arkansas-Hendrix College poll suggests that Arkansans are supportive of the program. And, Crawford County officials are hopeful that voters will be supportive of a sales tax increase that would fund construction and operation of a new county jail.


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.
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.
We visit the Rogers Police Department to find out about how one can protect and serve the public, as the department prepares to offer the Entry Level Police Officer Examination early next month.


Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Monday, April 28, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Ozarks, how lasers have gone from a phenomenon on The Jetsons to a part of daily life. We speak with a Stanford University professor who has been teaching about the light-emitting device since 1969. Plus, annual hospitality awards in the Arkansas River Valley honor those who serve and take care of the public.
Last week the future of a proposed steel mill project in Arkansas was just one item legislators paid attention to in Little Rock. Roby Brock, from our content partner Talk Business Arkansas covers the past seven days of Arkansas business and politics in his regular Monday rundown.
Legislators return to the state capitol this week following developments last week on the legislature's biggest decisions this session: the state's Medicaid program and whether to approve a $125 million state investment in a steel mill in northeast Arkansas.
"Fools Rush In" by Glenn Miller and "Ship of Fools" by Robert Plant
Becca Martin Brown of Northwest Arkansas Media gives us the scoop on what's ahead for TheatreSquared and the Walton Arts Center.
If you've been waiting for a novel set in Miami with four good friends, a python, a Haitian family seeking a better life and the line "hyperactive poo-flinging banshee," then you're in luck. More simply, if you've been waiting for the next crime-tinged novel from Dave Barry, then your're still in luck. Even better still, Barry is headed for the Fayetteville Public Library April 12.
In winter we hear a few chirps, but with spring upon us our feathered co-inhabitants are vocally staking their nesting claims. Wildlife recordist, Joe Neal waxes on about the call of the cardinal. 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.
"My Foolish Heart" by Bill Evans Trio