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.
Ozarks at Large’s Christina Thomas visits the office of Ability Tree, an organization that not only helps children with special needs, but also their immediate families.
More information about Ability Tree is available at www.abilitytree.org.
An Arkansas Judge in Pulaski County has fined pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson and a subsidiary nearly $1.2 billion dollars for concealing risks associated with the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal. Winnings from the suit, likely be appealed, will be deposited into the state’s Medicaid Trust Fund.
Monday afternoon, the statue of former United States Senator and Fayetteville native J. William Fulbright was returned to its rightful place at the west entrance to Old Main on the University of Arkansas campus. The event also celebrated the 107th birth anniversary of Fulbright.
"Tip of the Iceberg" by The Farewell Drifters
Chase Stoudenmire, a graduate student at the University of Arkansas and a former Fulbright Scholar to the Republic of Georgia, visited KUAF’s Firmin-Garner Performance Studio with Professor Kate Mamiseishvili, who encouraged him to go to Georgia, to talk about his experiences.
Professional Actor Keith Scales is staging a midnight theater production at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs based on the life of Norman Baker, who operated a popular and unorthodox cancer hospital at the Crescent in the 1930s. Shrouded in mystery, Baker has finally been brought to light, based on Scale’s historical research.