Ozarks At Large

Senator John McCain was in Little Rock late last week, and he called President Obama's reaction to tension in Syria a failure of American leadership. Speaker of the Arkansas House Davy Carter wanted more time to explain the federally backed Medicaid expansion to constituents, so the vote was postponed until today. And Governor Mike Beebe speaks in favor of changes that are coming for some child welfare programs in the state.

Here are our ten clips from our montage dedicated to April Showers. Well, dedicated to rain at least…

1. B.J. Thomas sings "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
2. Hugh Grant and Andie Macdowell admit their mutual love at the end of Four Weddings and a Funeral.
3. Prince sings "Purple Rain."
4. Bill Cosby with an early TV rendition of his famous Noah routine.
5. Mahalia Jackson with the gospel great "Didn’t It Rain".
6. Gene Kelly about to launch into the best three minutes ever recorded in a movie musical.
7. Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst exchange a rainy kiss as Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson.
8. Tom Hanks (as Forrest Gump) describes the many kinds of rain.
9. Sam Neil tries to save kids from a hungry T. Rex in Jurassic Park.
10. Audrey Hepburn finds the cat…and George Peppard…at the end of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The Mancini notes should have given this away.

Apologies to: The Weather Girls, Andy’s escape in Shawshank Redemption, the bubbling skeletons in Poltergeist, the Eurythmics, John Wayne in the Quiet Man and all those movies with Notebook in the title. Maybe next time.

Forty-five states, including Arkansas have adopted Common Core career and college readiness K-12 education standards. But under the technology-enriched curriculum, cursive handwriting is optional. A St. Joseph third grade class in Fayetteville helps us to parse the implications.

Ahead on this edition of Ozarks: new legislation regarding land-owner rights in the Fayetteville Shale play, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel discusses the aftermath of the Mayflower oil spill and the value of inter-genenerational gardening. We’ll hear from a grandfather and grandson growing food together in the Arkansas River Valley.