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.
Becca Martin Brown gives us a list she’s checked twice for weekend holiday-related events.
John Jeter from the Fort Smith Symphony gives us a preview of the sold-out Christmas concert next month. He also has some advice on how to at least get on a waiting list for any additional tickets that might become available.
Michael Collins, a research professor of anthropology at Texas State University is one of the leading minds when it comes to information about the first people in North America. He recently came to the University of Arkansas as a speaker in the Robert L. Stigler, Jr. Lecture Series.
"Thanksgiving" by George Winston
Y City is a small town not far from the intersection of highways 71 and 270, it is also the title of a book by Wade Rivers, who came up with the story idea while driving, appropriately, down an Arkansas highway. Ozarks at Large's Christina Thomas spoke with the author about Y City , as well as his most recent book Text’d, also set in Arkansas.
Becca Martin Brown from Northwest Arkansas Newspapers says entertainment no longer takes a holiday around here.
"Turkey In The Straw" by Bill Monroe and Doc Watson