
Ozarks At Large

A workshop this month in Fort Smith is designed to help candidates, and potential candidates, of all kinds learn more about the electoral process.
A Tom Bresh concert in the River Valley and the Waka Winter Classic in NWA are on Becca's music agenda this week.


Yesterday, Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration officials yesterday outlined Governor Mike Beebe's budget priorities to state legislators. Funding for the state's Private Option expansion of Medicaid could be in danger after a special election for state Senate yesterday. And the University of Arkansas Fort Smith is in the process of developing its its first Master's degree program.



Lineups for music festivals are just part of what to keep your eye on this week.
Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Ozarks at Large, Davy Carter, Speaker of the Arkansas House, talks with Roby Brock about the continuing process to decide funding for the Private Option. And Jim DePriest, a deputy Attorney General for Arkansas, explains how his office combats potential fraud against seniors.
The Ozarks Genealogical Society's annual conference is scheduled for Sept. 13-14 in Springfield, Missouri, and the featured speaker is D. Joshua Taylor (http://www.djoshuataylor.com).
The first event outside of Eureka Springs for the Creative Energy Project will bring yarn, and plenty of it, to Bentonville.
Link: For more about Yarnology or the Creative Energy Project, www.creativeenergyproject.com
Officials with hunger relief organizations in Arkansas express concern over recent efforts to remove SNAP funding from the federal Farm Bill. Central Arkansas leaders request information from ExxonMobil regarding a stretch of pipeline in the Lake Maumelle Watershed. The Arkansas House and Senate Education Committees discuss the new Common Core curriculum, set to take effect when schools start in about a month. And the Fayetteville Public Library board of directors moves forward with an offer to purchase the former City Hospital property.
"Cut Me Loose" by T Model Ford
In the first of our series on the deployment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in Arkansas, Cynthia Crone, the state’s insurance department deputy commissioner, explains the fundamentals, including getting an early look at Arkansas’s insurance exchange, now referred to as marketplace.
Early next month the organization called the Military Order of the Purple Heart of the U.S.A. Inc. will hold its annual convention in Rogers. We talked to John Bircher, National Spokesman for the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
Link: To learn more about the Military Order of the Purple Heart, visit www.purpleheart.org