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Riddler jailed
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Seth Short entered guilty pleas to charges of escape, criminal impersonation, possession of marijuana and joyriding.

A riddler was given 58 days in jail for jumping out of a patrol car as he was being hauled to jail for grand theft auto.
The man, Seth Randall Short, 20, entered guilty pleas to charges of escape, criminal impersonation, possession of marijuana and joyriding. The charge of joyriding was reduced from its original felony theft so he could plea in General Sessions Court. He was directed by Judge Bill Locke to serve 58 days and pay a $250 drug fine. In return for the plea deal, he will waive extradition proceedings and willingly go back to Georgia where other charges await him.
His arrest came after deputies were dispatched to the Rock Island area to check out a report of a suspicious person. They found Short walking on the road, claiming his vehicle had run out of gas. He first gave officers a fake name, claiming he was Alexander Collins Easterly. He also gave officers various claims on the make of the vehicle he had been driving, prompting suspicions he wasn’t being truthful.
While Short was talking to deputy Tyler Glenn, another officer found a broken down Mazda nearby. It was found parked beside the road, further down Great Falls Road. Short admitted it was the car he was driving. The vehicle had been reported stolen. Short was then placed under arrest and searched. A small amount of marijuana was found in his backpack.
While admitting to driving the stolen vehicle, which he claimed belong to a friend, he was reluctant to tell officers where he hid the keys. Instead, he gave them a riddle to solve.
“Bow your head at 12 and don’t forget to check the mail,” Short riddled the officers, refusing to tell them where the keys were located.
Using the riddle, deputies found the keys to the stolen car lying in front of a mail box at Rock Island Church of Christ on Great Falls Road.
The excitement wasn’t over even as Short was being transported to jail.
“When I reached the red light on Sparta Street in front of Three Star Mall, he opened the back door of the patrol car and took off running,” deputy Glenn recalled, noting he chased him on foot, finally catching him near the mall. His short run left him facing escape charges along with the other counts he amassed earlier in the evening.

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