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.
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.