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.
Downtown Rogers plays host to a regional conference about downtown development, a new animal shelter will soon open in Washington County and Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport receives federal grant money for ongoing rehabilitation projects.
"Dash and Dot" by The Beau Hunks
Today we begin a six-part, five-day series about poverty in Arkansas. Iti Agnihotri Mudholkar, the producer of the series, explains what we’ll hear and why she was drawn to the subject.
"Tenderly" by Oscar Peterson
According to a U.S. Census Bureau report released last week, in 2010 and 2011, close to 15 percent of Americans were living under the federal poverty line, but in Arkansas, that number was as high as 17 percent. The state has consistently ranked among the states with the highest rates of poverty. On Ozarks at Large this week, we will examine Arkansas' poverty problem.
Today, Ozarks at Large's Iti Agnihotri-Mudholkar examines the various definitions of poverty and the adequacy of the country's poverty measurement system. We also find out what poverty looks like at the human level.
"Dark Was The Night" by Ry Cooder
Becca Martin Brown, features editor at Northwest Arkansas Newspapers says a busy week begins today with many options.
The past week Governor Mike Beebe announced the Medicaid expansion plans for Arkansas. That’s one of the stories Roby Brock from TalkBusiness.net reviews in his weekly checklist of the state’s biggest political and business stories of the past seven days