
Ozarks At Large



Republican gubernatorial hopeful Asa Hutchinson yesterday announced his plans to cut taxes for middle-income Arkansans, though some disagree about the potential budget impact the plan would have for the state. Fayetteville voters yesterday approved extending the current HMR tax to help fund development of a regional park and to help fund expansion of the Walton Arts Center, which still has quite a bit of fundraising left to do. Bentonville breaks ground on its community center, and two Springdale parks will soon have new bleachers for baseball and softball fields.



The Community Creative Center wants you to try your hand at creativity.

The city of Bentonville recently got a grant from the Endeavor Foundation for sidewalk construction in an area with sparse pedestrian infrastructure. Heifer International assesses damage to ongoing projects in the Philippines following the wake of Typhoon Haiyan. This year has seen record corn yields for Arkansas farmers, but that's not necessarily all good news. Today is voting day in Fayetteville to extend a current hotel-motel-restaurant tax. And the UA Soccer team advances to the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history.

Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Ozarks, those amphibious harbingers of spring--frogs and toads--are being counted all over Arkansas. We'll find out how the frog watch works, and if the number of frogs in the state is diminishing. And, the AMP is being prepared for its first show. The seats aren't in yet, but work is going on almost around-the-clock to meet a June 1 completion date.
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