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Higgins given 3 years for variety of charges
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A man who sent authorities on a wild goose chase for a dead body after leading them on a high-speed chase has been sent to prison for three years.
The defendant, Christopher Steven Higgins, 34, has entered guilty pleas before Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley to charges of assault, evading arrest, and filing a false report. He must also serve the balance of a former sentence on his prior conviction for delivery of drugs. His probation violation will be served in addition to his three-year term.
Higgins was charged after a series of events which began when he showed up with his girlfriend at her ex-boyfriend’s house and a fight erupted. Deputies were called and encountered Higgins’ vehicle as they were responding to the assault incident. They tried to pull him over.
However, Higgins refused to stop, accelerating to over 100 mph in his attempt to evade apprehension. Officers cut off their chase after getting a description of the vehicle due to the dangerous speeds. They would later find out that in addition to his girlfriend, there was a young child under the age of 10 in the vehicle while he was fleeing lawmen.
While officers were still in the area looking for Higgins, he made a false report by cellphone claiming a body had been found at a location off Short Mountain Road. The call prompted some of the officers still looking for the fleeing motorist to go to the scene of the alleged body, thereby creating a diversion.
“I had to get them off me,” Higgins confessed in his statement, revealing he was hiding in the woods when he made the call. “I told them I walked in on a body on Short Mountain. I admit, I was highly intoxicated.”
Higgins said he ran because he knew he was in violation of his probation for not reporting to his probation officer.

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