Ozarks At Large
Tonya Lewis Lee helped bring Christopher Paul Curtis' novel The Watsons Go to Birmingham to Tv this month. Tonight the film is being shown, for free, at Bentonville High School and today we talked with Ms. lee about the project that premiered earlier this month on the Hallmark Channel.
Late last week, the federal Department of Health and Human Services accepted Arkansas's plan for Medicaid expansion. The city of Bentonville will give away compost and wood mulch this week. A couple of roads close or otherwise reroute in the River Valley starting today. And gas prices dropped slightly in Arkansas over the past week.
With this morning's montage, we say several goodbyes; to Summer, to a famed Yankees pitcher, and to one of our longest-tenured colleagues at KUAF. Here are our 10 pop culture references we used to say goodbye.
- "So Long, Farewell" from the Sound of Music
- Lou Gehrig's farewell speech
- "Goodbye my Lover" by James Blunt
- ET says his goodbye
- The famous words from Gone With The Wind
- "Hello, Goodbye" by The Beatles
- The Friends leave the apartment for the final time
- "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Elton John
- Jim Carey tells his fare goodbye at the beginning of Dumb and Dumber
- Leaving Casablanca for the final time
- Johnny Carson bids his final farewell to the audience during his final time hosting The Tonight Show
The Arkansas Center For The Book this week made its selection for the 2013 If All Arkansas Read The Same Book Program. Kyle Kellams spoke with Vivienne Schiffer, the author of the novel Camp Nine, this year's selection.
State officials continue to seek a solution to the teacher insurance crisis in Arkansas. New numbers are out regarding Arkansas students' achievements on Advanced Placement tests. And, the Connecting Arkansas Internet Conference is being held in Little Rock this week.
You can go to a workshop at NWACC to learn about the state's Freedom of Information Act, or you can participate in one of many lake and other outdoor cleanups in the next few days.



Latest Edition of Ozarks at Large
Friday, May 9, 2014
Ahead on this edition of Ozarks, Michael Tilley talks about a new owner for some long-abandoned real estate in Fort Smith, and the official announcement of a Whole Foods in Fayetteville. Plus, Cletus Got Shot gets ready to perform at a few festivals in the next month.
Work continues on widening Interstate 540 in Fayetteville, Sebastian County has its annual fall cleanup, and the most recent figures show improvement to the drought in Arkansas.
"Clash" by Eiffel
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 are examining Arkansas' poverty problem.
Today, we learn more about a family living under the federal poverty line. Ozarks at Large's Iti Agnihotri-Mudholkar spent some quality time with Casey Burd, a single mother of two from Springdale, to find out more about her daily struggles and the challenges she faces in her efforts to get out of poverty.
Michael Tilley from TheCityWire.com joins us a day earlier than usual with his weekly conversation about business and politics in the region.
Becca Martin Brown says she’s getting a jump start on the weekend that is the weekend before the weekend that is Bikes, Blues and BBQ.
Yesterday, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art received a $5 million commitment from the Tyson family and Tyson Foods, Inc., to establish the Tyson Scholars of American Art program and the Don Tyson Prize.