Ozarks At Large
The head of the Hatcher Agency, the state's largest independent insurer, says that many of his clients are providing insurance to employees rather than paying penalties associated with the Affordable Care Act. Senator Mark Pryor talks about his push for answers from the Air Force regarding the 188th Fighter Wing in Fort Smith while Senator Boozman says he is concerned about a backlog in disability claims for veterans. And Elton John is coming to Fayetteville in just a few weeks.




Two public meetings were held late yesterday in Jasper to address concerns about the large CAFO in Newton County. Picasolar took home several thousand dollars from an MIT competition earlier this week. Fort Smith has finished automating trash collection, but now the city's sanitation department is turning its eye to automating recyclable collection. And speaking of Fort Smith, Senator Mark Pryor demands answers from the U.S. Air Force regarding the future of the 188th Fighter Wing.

Ozarks at Large's Meredith Martin Moats recently sat in on a conversation with Bud Rector, who will turn 99 later this year and has lived almost all his life in Yell County. We conclude her two-part report on his recollections of an Arkansas that has nearly vanished.

Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Remembering Some of the People We Lost in 2013
On this special edition of Ozarks we hear again some of the voices we lost during 2013, including Bill Harrison, Curley Miller, Ivan Denton and Dick Renko.
For the fourth consecutive year the city will be the site for a district convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Organizers are preparing for about 43-hundred attendees the weekends of June 29th and July 6th and another 38-hundred people the weekend of July 20th.
“Summer” by Vivaldi
Becca Martin Brown from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers tells us about a variety of things that can be done today.
This morning, Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor discussed his opposition to the “Farm Bill” with Kyle Kellams.
“Summertime” by Louis Armstrong
The annual University of Arkansas Literacy Symposium is staging a reader’s theatre on the life of American author and humorist, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. The performance is based on newly released double CD “Mark Twain: Words and Music” jammed with noted actors and musicians, conceptualized and created by Cindy Lovell director of the Mark Twain Museum in Hannibal, Missouri.
Jodi Beznoska from Walton Arts Center tells us about the last few performances that will mark the end of the 2012 Artosphere Festival.