
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.
Heads of some of the state's community health clinics say that one aspect of the private option for Medicaid expansion won't reimburse the clinics enough for them to stay open. Arkansas lawmakers continue to explore ways to administer the death penalty, though the drug commonly used to administer lethal injections remains unavailable. The board of Ozark Regional Transit looks at taking management in-house next year. And the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department announces several road construction projects to be started in the next few years.
"King of New York" by Fun Lovin' Criminals
Michael Tilley from The City Wire says sales tax and home sales numbers are up for northwest Arkansas, down for the Fort Smith region.
Rogers Little Theater's musical may be a period piece, but Becca Martin Brown from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers says it’s still very much relevant.
"Welcome to New York City" by Camron
One of the state’s most-read blogs is implanting a metered paywall to helppay for the daily journalism it produces.
From opera to rock and roll, many music-related events are happening in the coming soon to the area.