The Arkansas Razorback Baseball team is in a surprising spot. This spectacular season is hanging in the balance much earlier than we expected, with the winner of tonight's game moving on to the Super Regionals.

• How we got here: This weekend, Arkansas hosted 3 schools in the NCAA Regionals double elimination tournament. Winner gets to walk on to the next round of 16 teams. After winning the first 2 games, the Hogs lost last night to Nebraska forcing a game tonight.
• What's at stake: If we win, the No. 1 Razorbacks move on to the Super Regionals to play North Carolina State. If we lose the season is over.

Last night snapped a 10 game winning streak, and Arkansas hasn't lost a series at home since 2019. The game is scheduled for 6p tonight in Fayetteville.

A regional study in 2017 showed cycling had a $127M impact on Northwest Arkansas' economy. So, how does our cycling infrastructure and connectivity stack up against others? A study released by People for Bikes ranked 750 cities and communities around the world - here is how NWA fared:

• Town rankings: Bentonville, Fayetteville, and Bella Vista all scored within the 88th percentile or above. Bentonville had the 3rd highest community score among cities with less than 50,000 residents. Rogers and Springdale were close behind ranking in the top 200 cities.
• Vacation destination: The community score measures community perceptions and satisfaction with bicycling. Northwest Arkansas was also called out by People for Bikes as a "top vacation spot for biking".

You can view the full rankings, methodology, and individual city reports HERE.

Statewide job numbers from April indicate the jobless rate remained stable at 4.4%, much better than the 10% figure we saw in April 2020.

• The Bad News: Two industries in particular, leisure and hospitality, are still down 11,000 jobs from April 2019.
• The Good News: These two industries have recovered 35,000 jobs in the wake of the pandemic and have continued to see growth in recent months.
• Giving a Boost: On Tuesday, Visit Bentonville will be hosting a job fair to help the local hospitality industry on this road to recovery. Businesses and potential employees alike are invited to participate in finding opportunities through this fair.

For more information about the economic recovery of the Arkansas leisure and hospitality industries, click HERE. Find out more about Visit Bentonville's Hospitality Job Fair HERE.

While you might not be able to tell by the rising popularity of farmers markets, total farms and farm acreage have been dwindling in the past decade.

• Farmland Access Fund: The Northwest Arkansas Land Trust is combatting a decade of farmland loss through the Farmland Access Fund - a fund that will protect farmland for future generations.
• Seeds for the future: The easements created by the fund are lowering the prices of land for local farmers. With more farmland to work with, farmers will be able to bring more fresh produce to markets near you.

If you're as excited about preserving farmland as our communities' farmers, find out more about the Farmland Access Fund HERE.

One of the Crown Jewels of our region, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, has some exciting things on the docket that you should definitely check out this summer.

• A decade: Later this year, CBMAA will celebrate its 10 year anniversary. The museum is inviting guests to celebrate this with them through the exhibition, Crystal Bridges at 10, featuring 10 different immersive art pieces.
• Exhibits and acquisitions: Two new sculptures on the trail: Brick House by Chakaia Booker and The Bruising: For Jules, The Bird, Jack and Leni. Two new exhibitions: This is the Day and What I Know: Gifts from Gordon W. Bailey.
• Facelift: If it's been a minute since you've visited the museum, you might notice something different when you enter and look up...a new dome. Prior to this, the entrance was an open courtyard.

We're just scratching the surface here. There's an extra summer hour, a concert series, summer camps and more that you can read about HERE.