Several happenings at area libraries and music at local pubs for this National Chocolate Milkshake Day edition of the daily notes.
Ozarks At Large
This week Senator John Boozman talked about prospects for passage of a farm bill and mother matters before Congress.
The Arkansas Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies yesterday approved plans to let 13 school districts across the state arm some of their staffs. Governor Beebe talks with Roby Brock about what's next in attempts to fix a shortfall in the state's Public School Health Insurance Program. John Brown University is again ranked at the top, and the Walton College of Business at the U of A again gets praise as well.

In addition, the University Libraries digital exhibit on the history of Vol Walker Hall can be accessed here
Web Exclusive: More About Vol Walker

Madison County residents won't see a sales tax increase, and the city sales tax in Siloam Springs will be split a little bit differently after special elections yesterday. The future site of the U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith has moved slightly to another riverfront parcel that's twice the size. Residents in Benton County won't receive disaster aid for damage caused by the August storms. And more new jobs are coming to Fort Smith by way of another firearms-related company.


A new art gallery, dedicated to showing controversial and confrontational works, will open this month. We meet the curators at the new Bottle Rocket gallery.

The Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care is working to improve conditions at nursing homes throughout the state. And tax elections are taking place today in Madison County and Siloam Springs, while early voting begins for a millage increase in Bentonville.
Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Friday, February 28, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Ozarks: it has been 60 years since the largest-ever nuclear weapons test by the United States took place on the Marshall Islands' Bikini Atoll. Today, many Marshallese, including several northwest Arkansas residents, are marking the anniversary of the Castle Bravo Blast. Plus, Becca Martin Brown from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers gets us ready for the weekend, Michael Tilley from The City Wire helps us analyze the week's news, and more.
The ground beneath your home, farm or forest is known as a mineral estate and in many cases someone else owns it. And those surface landholders on lucrative ground, such as the Fayetteville Shale, may be at risk. We hear from a mineral estates expert, affected landholder and state political activist seeking to pass a landholders bill of rights.
Students will be charged 25 percent more this year for health insurance compared to last year. Mary Alice Serafini, the director of the Pat Walker Health Center, and Pam Delaney, the student health insurance representative, explained these changes.
For more information: www.health.uark.edu/insurance.
Roby Brock from our content partner www.talkbusiness.net recaps runoff elections in Arkansas and more in our weekly business update.
Becca Martin Brown tells us about Monday Movie Mania at the Rogers Public Library and a few other inexpensive ways to keep ourselves entertained today.
Festival organizer Steven Gates and trumpeter Richard Rulli recently spoke to Kyle Kellams about the fifth concert in the KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival. The performance is scheduled for 7:30 Thursday night inside the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall on the University of Arkansas campus. The concert is free and open to the public.
More information is available at http://www.fulbrightsummermusic.uark.edu