Late last week, the Northwest Arkansas Council released the results of a study on the area's Business Retention and Expansion Efforts. The study was compiled from interviews by area chambers of commerce with 459 area companies. We speak with Mike Harvey, chief operating officer of the council about the survey and what the results mean for the area moving forward.
Ozarks At Large
Another area city plans to speak out against a bill in the Arkansas Legislature that could mean a rollback of city development regulations. Governor Mike Beebe touts the state's efforts to make sure fewer children in Arkansas go hungry, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art again gets national recognition, not for its paintings but for the construction of the museum itsself.


Here is our list of ten cookie references from our montage this morning. If you got all ten, take the rest of the week off . . . this was our most obscure list yet.
- A commercial for the Fig Newton cookie from the 1970s.
- Michael Scott and Angel fight for Kevin’s loyalty on an episode of The Office.
- Kate Smith and Andy Williams deny the Cookie Bear a cookie on The Andy Williams Show. (this was once a popular, zany skit . . . we promise)
- Walter Matthau in a scene for the movie The Fortune Cookie.
- Jerry and Elaine discuss the black and white cookie. It didn’t end well.
- Shirley Temple sings "Animal Crackers" . . . they’re cookies, right?
- The Keebler Elves push fudge cookies.
- Gingy, the talking Gingerbread Man tosses an insult in Shrek 3.
- Shelly Long sells Girl Scout Cookies in Troop Beverly Hills.
- Two of the three best Muppets ever, Kermit and Cookie Monster, play a game.
In celebration of Fort Smith's community read, Temple Grandin will be speaking Monday at the Stubblefield Center at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith.
The Fort Smith Northside High School Jazz Band will hold a fundraising performance at UAFS’s Second-Street Live Tuesday evening at 7 p.m.. This professional-caliber show will raise funds to send these student musicians to summer band camp.

This afternoon, financial aid counselors all over Akransas will be helping prospective college students find money to help pay for education. Kyle Kellams has more.
The Girl Scouts of America will celebrate its 101st birthday on March 12th this week. OAL's CT spoke with a regional representative of the organization as well as a local girl scout.
Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Monday, July 22, 2013
Ahead on this edition of Ozarks, a local artist aims to have more of his artwork in public places; from cockroaches to giant ants, the roles bugs play in films; the latest installment of Arkansongs and our daily conversation with Becca Martin Brown.
Last Friday, former president Bill Clinton was at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where doctors are working to find genetic causes of childhood cancer. It’s work that would not be possible without the first map of the human genome, which was completed while Clinton was President. Eleanor Boudreau from our partner station WKNO in Memphis filed this report.
Ozarks at Large’s Christina Thomas talks to Matt Melson, a wildlife biologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, to find out how wild animals survive in extremely hot and dry conditions.
“New Slang” by The Shins
The Migration Policy Institute based in Washington D.C., with financial support from the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation in Little Rock, commissioned Dr. Rafael Jimeno to conduct a scientific survey of Marshallese migrants who’ve settled in Springdale, the first study of it’s kind.
"When I Survey" by Various Artists
First United Methodist Church in Springdale will host a community block party next month.
"Community" by Cluster
Author Megan Bergman talks to Ozarks at Large’s Katy Henriksen about her book “Birds of a Lesser Paradise,” a collection of short stories that was just cited by the Huffington Post as a must-read.