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Bell gets aggressive during two run-ins with law enforcement
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A man will serve six months in jail for assaulting two police officers in separate run-ins with the law less than a week apart.
The defendant, Gregory Thomas Bell, 27, was ordered by General Sessions Judge Bill Locke to serve six months of an 11-month, 29-day sentence for two counts of assault, resisting arrest and shoplifting. His jail time will be served in addition to time he owes for violation of probation.
His sentence comes firstly for his assault on McMinnville Police Sgt. Lisa Norris when she found him trespassing in an empty house on Peers Street.
Bell and a friend were in the house for unknown reasons. Sgt. Norris ordered the door to be opened. Once it was, Bell reportedly began arguing with the officer and refused to identify himself.
“At that point I took him by the wrist to put his hands on the wall,” Norris recalled. “He was pulling away and pushing me, trying to move toward the back door.”
Norris said that during the struggle Bell was trying to get his friend, Travis Myers, to help jump the officer and to help him fight her. His friend refused to help.
“He (Bell) fought me all the way to the door and off the back deck, at which point he managed to get out of my grip,” Norris said, noting she then grabbed his backpack. “He slipped out of it and ran from the scene.”
Bell was identified and later arrested on the charges. Police have not revealed what the men were doing in the vacant house.
Less than a week later, police officer Justin Cobble approached Bell inside Hardee’s to question him about a stolen bicycle. Bell lied about his identity since he was wanted on outstanding warrants, including the attack on Norris five days before.
During the talk, Cobble asked to search the suspect and found drug paraphernalia on him. Officers were about to take him into custody when he became violent and started fighting them. Police ended up having to use a taser on the suspect. Officer Cobble suffered a laceration to his left hand during the fight.

Local farm partnership brings fresh beef to Warren County Schools
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Warren County Schools has beefed up lunch menus this school year through a new community partnership. Thanks to a collaboration between the district’s School Nutrition Department and Barton Creek Farms, students at Warren County High School, Warren County Middle School, West Elementary, Eastside Elementary, and Dibrell Elementary are enjoying locally sourced, farm-fresh beef in their lunches as part of a pilot program.

The initiative, spearheaded by Terri Mullican, Director of School Nutrition, has already shown great promise in its first few months. The partnership with Barton Creek Farms, located in Rock Island, Tennessee, ensures that the beef served is not only local to Warren County but of the highest quality. Barton Creek Farms specializes in farm-to-fork beef, with grass-fed and grain-finished cattle. Each calf is born and raised in Rock Island and goes through USDA-inspected processing, ensuring it meets the strictest safety and quality standards.

“When the opportunity arose to provide fresh, local beef, we knew it was a no-brainer,” Mullican said. “The fact that it’s a product from right here in our community makes it even more special. We can’t wait to implement it district-wide.”

Barton Creek Farms delivers fresh ground beef to the district monthly, and the nutrition

department incorporates it into homemade recipes such as lasagna, meatloaf, chili, and tacos.

As of now, the beef is being served at five schools, but the ultimate goal is to expand the program to all ten lunch-serving schools in the district.

The pilot program originated from a conversation between Mary Roller of Barton Creek Farms and Mullican. Roller, recognizing the farm’s potential to support local schools, reached out to gauge the district’s interest in serving local beef to students. Around the same time, a Warren County school board member contacted Mullican to share information about a similar partnership in neighboring Dekalb County, which helped push the initiative forward.

The timing worked in the district’s favor, as the nutrition department was able to fund the purchase of the beef using existing resources, eliminating the need for additional funding. Now that the pilot program is enjoying a successful run, the department has budgeted to extend the partnership district-wide for the 2025-26 school year.

Dr. Grant Swallows, Director of Schools, praised the program’s economic approach to student nutrition.

“This pilot is a perfect example of how we can use local resources to continue providing nutritious, healthy meals for our students,” he said. “We are grateful for partnerships like this one that benefit both our students and our local community. We always strive to support our local businesses when we can because our community is so good to us.”

In addition to working with Warren County Schools, Barton Creek Farms also partners with local restaurants to offer farm-fresh beef on their menus. The farm’s offerings include ground beef, steaks, roasts, and custom cuts by the quarter, half, or whole cow, meeting diverse consumer needs.

As the program continues to grow, the district hopes to expand its focus on farm-to-school meals, benefiting students’ health and connecting them to the agricultural roots of the community