
Ozarks At Large

We continue our series previewing this weekend's poetry festival at Nightbird Books. Katie Nichol grew up in St. Cloud, Minnesota and says she started writing poetry when she was about 12 years old:
Arkansas' U.S. Senators speak out in favor of the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would require online retailers to collect state and local sales tax on purchases anywhere in the country. Officials with the WestArk Area Boy Scout Council voice their feelings about changes to the national organization's membership policy regarding sexual orientation. The Rogers Farmers' Market will be in a different location when it opens Saturday, and the Bentonville School District gets state funding approved for construction of a second high school, though the battle for building bucks continues.
Nathan Vandiver from our content partner KUAR in Little Rock provides a wrap-up of this year's Legislative Session.

For the past few months there have been meetings, open to the public, to discuss making Fayetteville a city of compassion. We met with two of the organizers of the meetings to find out what it might take for a more compassionate place.
Click here.

Governor Mike Beebe and the state legislature tie up some loose ends at the conclusion of the legislative session, the Northwest Arkansas Council holds a summit for area leaders to figure out how to connect immigrants--either international or domestic--to resources in the area. A group of concerned area residents held a protest on the U of A campus yesterday in an attempt to draw U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack's attention to the confined animal feeding operation set to operate in the Buffalo River Watershed, and a group of UAFS students plan a run to benefit victims of the Boston Marathon Bombing.
The state's Department of Human Services holds a rally on the steps of the state capitol to raise awareness that April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. One of Northwest Arkansas' two public transit operators get ready to expand certain bus routes in an efficiency reorganization. One economist at the University of Arkansas thinks that construction will help the state, and the nation, recover from the lingering effects of the economic recession. And Walmart sets a record for the amount of donations given by a retailer in a given year.

Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Ahead on Ozarks, the Nobel director and secretary talks about the selection process for the annual Nobel Peace Prize; he's on the University of Arkansas campus today. Plus, the Northwest Arkansas Council on jobs created in the area in the past year, and the differences between education in the U.S. and the European Union.
Here is our salute to Seattle and Washington (Bronco fans, we did Denver last week).
1. Nirvana performs Come As You Are.
2. War Games, set in Seattle, begins.
3. Jimi Hendrix, Seattle native, plays Purple Haze.
4. Agent Cooper gives high praise in (and on) Twin Peaks, Washington.
5. Seattle native Bing Crosby sings You Are My Sunshine.
6. Frasier Crane plans to get even with Bulldog on Frasier.
7. Heart, another Seattle band, plays Crazy on You.
8. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson discuss a possible romantic meeting in Sleepless in Seattle.
9. Detectives Holder and Linden, from the fictional Seattle police department, order lunch in an episode of The Killing.
10. Seattle native Sir Mix-A-Lot and Baby Got back.
Apologies to: Eddie Vedder, Modest Mouse, Macklemore and...oh, about five hundred other bands and musicians. Maybe next time.
Becca says that area residents will have an opportunity to learn about Muhammed Ali and other notable African Americans at an exhibit in Fort Smith.
Here, the quartet from Siloam Springs performs their song "Rosa Lee."
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has a new program designed to help landowners clean up hazardous substances without being fined. Senator John Boozman offers his thoughts on the Farm Bill that passed the House and is now on its way to the Senate. And the state's attorney general is being asked to clarify the state's new voter ID law.
"Extreme Ways" by Moby
Michael Tilley, from The City Wire, discusses financial numbers for Arkansas real estate, Tyson Foods, Walmart and the city of Fort Smith.