Mercy Health used an innovative walking program to become one of the healthiest workplaces in the country.
Ozarks At Large
A roundup of events and news for the next few weeks include an alternative way to deliver a Valentine.


An administrative law judge with the Arkansas Public Service Commission on Friday ordered SWEPCO to proceed on its proposed plan to build a massive new power transmission line through portions of northwest Arkansas. Also, Governor Mike Beebe says that recent cost analyses of operating the state's Private Option expansion of Medicaid justifies the program's passage during last year's session of the state legislature. And the state Attorney General's office warns residents about rapid-refund tax providers.

Ahead on Ozarks, a conversation with young adult author An Na. Also, we learn what it takes to become a police officer.

We speak with An Na, author of A Step From Heaven, a book that was awarded the Michael L. Prince Award when it was published a decade ago. Critics and reviewers commended the book's characters for speaking like a child without being too precocious or condescending. The author will speak in Fayetteville later this month.
Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Weekend Ozarks, we visit the kitchen of Jen Lewis, take a spin in a state-run clinic that aids veterans in rural communities, and we meet a recovering opiate addict who has found hope with methadone.
Today is the 45th anniversary of the plane crash that claimed the lives of Otis Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays outside of Madison, Wisconsin. The sole survivor of that crash was Bar-Kays trumpet player, Ben Cauley. Cauley turned 65 this year, and Sara Hoover from our content partner WKNO in Memphis brings us his story.
Becca Martin Brown from NWA Newspapers reminds us about an exhibit on Arkansas' first great entrepreneur, which is on display at the Bentonville Public Library today.
Adam Vines’ collection of poetry "The Coal Life" was published by the University of Arkansas Press and has earned critical praise. He was recently in Fayetteville and talked with Ozarks at Large’s Kyle Kellams.
We survey four state advocacy groups about their legislative action items leading up to the Regular Session of the 89th General Assembly scheduled to convene on Monday, January 14th.
On its surface, today's week in review may look like a retread of last week's, but these education stories offer a twist of innovation.