Ozarks At Large
Tonya Lewis Lee helped bring Christopher Paul Curtis' novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham to Tv this month. Tonight the film is being shown, for free, at Bentonville High School and today we talked with Ms. lee about the project that premiered earlier this month on the Hallmark Channel.
Late last week, the federal Department of Health and Human Services accepted Arkansas's plan for Medicaid expansion. The city of Bentonville will give away compost and wood mulch this week. A couple of roads close or otherwise reroute in the River Valley starting today. And gas prices dropped slightly in Arkansas over the past week.
With this morning's montage, we say several goodbyes; to Summer, to a famed Yankees pitcher, and to one of our longest-tenured colleagues at KUAF. Here are our 10 pop culture references we used to say goodbye.
- "So Long, Farewell" from the Sound of Music
- Lou Gehrig's farewell speech
- "Goodbye my Lover" by James Blunt
- ET says his goodbye
- The famous words from Gone With The Wind
- "Hello, Goodbye" by The Beatles
- The Friends leave the apartment for the final time
- "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John
- Jim Carey tells his fare goodbye at the beginning of Dumb and Dumber
- Leaving Casablanca for the final time
- Johnny Carson bids his final farewell to the audience during his final time hosting The Tonight Show
The Arkansas Center For The Book this week made its selection for the 2013 If All Arkansas Read The Same Book Program. Kyle Kellams spoke with Vivienne Schiffer, the author of the novel Camp Nine, this year's selection.
State officials continue to seek a solution to the teacher insurance crisis in Arkansas. New numbers are out regarding Arkansas students' achievements on Advanced Placement tests. And, the Connecting Arkansas Internet Conference is being held in Little Rock this week.
You can go to a workshop at NWACC to learn about the state's Freedom of Information Act, or you can participate in one of many lake and other outdoor cleanups in the next few days.
Ahead on Ozarks: the approaching enrollment period for new Arkansas health care plans means many people in the state have questions about how they'll be affected. Roby Brock, from our content partner Talk Business Arkansas, seeks answers to some of the questions from three people close to the health-care issue. Plus theater returns in full force. No fewer than thirteen productions will be on area stages in the next month. We'll have a rundown and meet the young, earnest cast of the University of Arkansas’ Clean House…the first play of the U of A season. And how mammals in the University of Arkansas’ museum collection are being preserved.
Well, maybe not lions and tigers, but the UA collection does have more than 250 river otters. They recently received a grant to rehouse their mammal collection. Ozarks at Large's Christina Thomas has more. Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Friday, May 9, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Ozarks, Michael Tilley talks about a new owner for some long-abandoned real estate in Fort Smith, and the official announcement of a Whole Foods in Fayetteville. Plus, Cletus Got Shot gets ready to perform at a few festivals in the next month.
Becca Martin Brown gives us the scoop on a new exhibit in Fort Smith about Hattie Caraway, the first woman ever to serve as a U.S. Senator, featuring the writer formerly of Fayetteville.
Monday is Pi Approximation Day (a.k.a. Casual Pi Day) because when written in the day/month format (22/7) the date equals 3.14 or the mathematical constant known as pi (hooray math jokes!). In honor of the day, today's montage focuses on pi(e).
1. "American Pie" by Don McLean
2. Clip from The Three Stooges
3. Clip from the television show What Would You Do?
4. "Amore" by Dean Martin
5. Clip from the movie American Pie
6. "Cherry Pie" by Warrant
7. "The Worst Pies in London" from the movie adaptation of Sweeny Todd
8. Clip from The Life of Pi movie trailer.
9. Clip from the movie Blazing Saddles
10. "3.14 Apple Pi" by Bo Burnham
During a recent visit to the studio, Don't Stop Please performed an original song called Henry and the Great Salt Lake.
Changes have already been made to the Arkansas Department of Community Corrections, with more changes still to come. Although the state's unemployment rate didn't change from May to June, that doesn't take into account several layoffs that have happened in the past month. Gas prices have been on the rise across Arkansas, with still higher prices on the horizon. And 39 permits have been issued for retail liquor sales in Benton County, leaving 16 potential permits still up for grabs.
“200,00” by The Rocket Summer
Michael Tilley from The City Wire discusses unemployment figures released this morning.
