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Traffic stop leads to marijuana bust
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State troopers Kevin Ballew, left, and Jimmy Jones stand next to marijuana they seized Friday.

Troopers busted two drug smugglers with 20 pounds of marijuana in their trunk Friday near the Warren-Van Buren County line.
The men, Aaron Cortina, 24, and Herbert D. Torres, 23, both hail from Palm Bay, Fla., and were reportedly returning home following a cross-country trip to Oregon.
“Me and trooper Kevin Ballew were set up near the county line on Highway 30 when I clocked their car going 76 mph in a 55 mph zone,” said Highway Patrol Sgt. Jimmy Jones, noting he pulled the vehicle over. “I noticed they were acting strangely and something wasn’t right.”
Jones said he called for the Warren County Sheriff’s Department K-9 unit to check out the vehicle. When K-9 officer Jared Jacobs arrived it wasn’t long before his dog alerted on the trunk area.
“There was 20 pounds of marijuana concealed in two bags in the trunk,” said Jones, noting he was thankful for the sheriff’s department canine unit’s ability to sniff out the illegal substance. “There were 18 pounds in buds and two pounds in what they call dabs which is very potent. It was all high-grade stuff.”
Faced with going to jail, Cortina tried to resist arrest and had to be taken by force. His drug charges have been joined by an additional charge of assault on an officer.
Jones said he discovered the men were in a rental car and they had rolled up 6,000 miles on the rental car in just a week.
The men are being held at Van Buren County Jail awaiting arraignment this week.

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