A potential national designation for the White River has created concern among some Arkansas residents.
Ozarks At Large

A group protesting construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Oklahoma, including members from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and California, chain themselves to equipment at a construction site on the pipeline to prevent construction from moving forward. Officials in Central Arkansas lament a lack of access to documents related to the Mayflower Oil spill, leading to what they view as a lack of oversight. Rogers aldermen look to spend just more than $1 million on a trails project. And state officials draft a waiver that would allow the state to use federal Medicaid dollars for the state's so-called "private option" Medicaid expansion plan.

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The state's Department of Corrections has announced it will make changes to the state's parole system following calls by Governor Beebe and others to strengthen the supervision and control of parolees in the state. While new unemployment numbers show a decline in the state's business sector, other areas have experienced growth. Opposition is mounting against the White River's designation as a National Blueway. And non-profit organizations looking to Rogers to host baseball tournaments will soon have to pay more to play.


Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Friday, December 6, 2013
Ahead on this snow day edition of Ozarks at Large, our weekly conversation with Michael Tilley of The City Wire; plus the violent explusion of an African American settlement in southeastern Crawford County comes to light, ninety years after the fact.
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.