
Ozarks At Large

The Washington Regional Medical Center board of directors accepted an offer by the Fayetteville Public Library to purchase the former City Hospital property for $2 million. Arkansas's U.S. Senators are hopeful about passing a farm bill when Congress reconvenes next month. The state's new voter ID law is being implemented by the Arkansas Secretary of State's office. Siloam Springs joins the list of area cities holding a special sales tax election this year. And the Northwest Arkansas metro area makes another list, this time for being one of the top real estate markets for wellness and wealth in the country.
KUAF's Katy Henriksen recently traveled to Chicago for the annual Pitchfork Music Festival. Here's some of the sound she found there.


We get a peek at the new green roof on the University of Arkansas campus. It is visually pleasing, but also has practical implications.
Roby Brock talks to Kyle Kellams about possible political repercussions following the resignation of State Senator Paul Bookout.
Opposing sides give their views on the safety of oil pipelines. Central Park-Morning Star Elementary in Bentonville is named a 2012 National Blue Ribbon School, while the Sebastian County Quorum Court appoints members to the Hartford School Board. And the city of Fort Smith replaces a record number of sidewalks this year.


Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Friday, January 10, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Ozarks…the 2013 Northwest Arkansas Education Report Card has numbers, plenty of numbers, relating to 17 public school districts in Washington and Benton Counties. We'll talk to Gary Ritter, the director of the Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas about the report. And the three-person band The Room Outside plays inside the Firmin-Garner Performance Studio. We'll also talk to Michael Tilley from The City Wire about the week’s news and Becca Martin Brown from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers about the upcoming weekend’s entertainment opportunities.
Last January the U.S. Department of the Interior designated the White River Watershed as a National Blueway, the second river in the nation to be honored. The title recognizes and supports a new generation of watershed stewardship. But Jeannie Burlsworth, who runs the right-wing property rights group, “Secure Arkansas,” claims the Blueway Program is a covert government operation. Burlsworth has roused so much opposition, that the Arkansas Blueway initiative was forced to shut down.
Roby Brock, from our content partner Talk Business Arkansas, says a big shakeup in the banking world garnered much attention last week.
In his book Enduring Legacy: Rhetoric and Ritual of the Lost Cause, Stuart Towns argues that without the words expressed during and after the Civil War, the Lost Cause movement in the American South would not have been what it was. Christina Thomas speaks with Towns about the oral history of the Lost Cause and how it has influenced the region today.
"July" by Spirit of the West
Even though she’s in New Orleans, Becca Martin Brown gets us up to date on music in northwest Arkansas this holiday weekend.
In our weekly review of the headlines, we take a look at groups and organizations that are on the hook for more money, and one organization getting a sizable amount of money.