To purchase a print of one of these photos please click HERE.

To purchase a print of one of these photos please click HERE.

Northwest Arkansas’ school bells rang Wednesday morning as area schools began the 2009/10 school year.

530 Fayetteville High School graduates received diplomas Thursday with 225 of the seniors graduating with honors with an overall grade point average of 3.0 or higher. Class members were offered about $6 million in scholarships and awards from colleges, community members, businesses, the military and other awards. The Class of 2009 will be remembered for establishing two new traditions for seniors at Fayetteville High School. First was the Moving Up Ceremony where seniors leave the school on their last day by walking through a column of teachers. The other was the Senior Breakfast, held Wednesday at the Arkansas Union. Both events were hosted by the Dog Crew, a group of students, mostly seniors, under the sponsorship of teacher Michelle Fife.

Justin Wedgeworth:

Today I had an assignment to photograph the Tax Day Tea Party in Bella Vista. This was a group of people coming together to protest high government spending. Some of the people at the event had reasons for being there, like Archie Birkner, of Bella Vista.

“I don’t like the direction the president and Congress are taking the country,” Birkner said.

He added that he didn’t like the probable taxes that would come from impending programs.

J.T. Wampler:
Several hundred protesters showed up at the Fayetteville square to protest taxes.

Josh Dooley:

I was responsible for photographing the economic protest in downtown Rogers today. The event drew several hundred people to Frisco Park. I can not recall having seen a crowd that large in Rogers for a political event during my almost ten years as a photographer here. It was good to see people exercising their rights. Being  citizens of the United States means we have great freedoms, such as those exercised today. I believe that with those rights come great responsibilities not only to exercise those freedoms wisely but to defend them from those who would take them or twist them for their own political or monetary gain.

A gallery of photos from the Mountie Relays track meet Friday in Rogers.

An estimated 650 residents turned out to raise money to fight Alzheimers and support loved ones afflicted by the disease by participating in the seventh-annual Washington County Memory Walk on Saturday at the Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayetteville. Here are a few photos from this morning.