Becca Martin-Brown, the features editor with the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette , gives us a preview of weekend activities. She describes a new production from TheatreSquared as intriguing and says we can learn to paint in the style of an Ozark folk artist during a virtual event from the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale on Saturday morning.

As hospitalizations for COVID-19 throughout Arkansas remain at all time highs, the state and its healthcare partners are preparing for the continued upward trend in cases by opening two alternative care sites next week. The facilities, which will provide 124 additional beds, will be located in Little Rock and Van Buren and will mostly be used to care for low-acuity COVID-19 patients.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to restrict activites for kids, after school programs are slowly reopening and finding ways to give young students an outlet during uncertain times.

During the first eleven months of 2020 travel through Northwest Arkansas National Airport dropped by 60 percent. In this week's Northwest Arkansas Business Journal Report, Paul Gatling speaks with Andrew Branch, XNA's chief development officer, about what airport administrators expect in 2021.

Ready for Life is a statewide initiative with collaborative partners in education, workforce, business, industry and government. Gov. Asa Hutchinson is committed $14.7 million to the effort, which aims to connect skilled workers with employers more efficiently.

Lighthouse NWA assists seniors to securely downsize to safer accommodations. We meet the founder, as well as a couple who moved from their their family home in Bella Vista into an independent living community with comprehensive help from the Lighthouse team.

As the nation faces another presidential impeachment, a riot at the U.S. Capitol and rising cases of COVID-19, this week's Sound Perimeter focuses on music about better times. The segment includes Maurice Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess, Alfred Schnittke's Collected Songs Where Every Verse is Filled with Grief , and Michel Camilo's From Within .

On today's show, we hear from teachers who say they're ecstatic the governor decided to start offering the COVID-19 vaccine to educators and people 70 and older sooner than anticipated. Plus, we head to UAFS where Health Sciences students and faculty received the vaccine earlier this week. And, we listen to a portion of Gov. Asa Hutchinson's State of the State in which he urged lawmakers to work together.

At Tuesday's weekly coronavirus response briefing, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced the state was on target to vaccinate the 180,000 eligible healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents and staff in phase 1A of the rollout. Given that progress, he said the state would start making the COVID-19 vaccine available to some people in group 1B sooner than originally planned. Arkansans who are 70 and older, as well as teachers and staff who work in K-12 schools, higher education and daycare

More than 300 students attending the University of Arkansas Fort Smith had the option to receive the COVID-19 vaccine Monday. A vaccination clinic was hosted on campus thanks to a partnership between Coleman Pharmacy and the UAFS College of Health Sciences.