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.
On Your Mark Academy, a private nonprofit school for children with special needs and autism is hosting a fundraiser November 9th at 7pm at the Fayetteville Town Center with comedian Josh Blue, winner of NBC's "Last Comic Standing." Jacqueline Froelich provides a preview. Tickets are available at the door or online at onyourmarkacademy.org.
Author Brock Thompson talks with Ozarks at Large's Kyle Kellams and Ozarks Unbound's Christopher Spencer about his book "The Un-Natural State: Arkansas and the Queer South," in this latest installment of Unlicensed Opinion.
Kevin Fitzpatrick is co-author, along with Mark LaGory of Birmingham, Alabama, of the new book "Unhealthy Cities: Poverty, Race and Place in America." He'll discuss the book Saturday afternoon at Nightbird Books in Fayetteville.
"Swaorn Statement" by Wide Hive Players
The first weekend of November includes dance, jazz, theatre, and more. Becca Bacon Martin, the editor of What's Up in Northwest Arkansas newspapers, gives us the list.
"Johnny's Love of Majik" by Matt Costa
Free opera on Sunday, free hugs from roller derby league members today.
"Queen of the Roller Derby" by Leon Russell