Amish in the News

As the Amish population has grown more rapidly than other segments of Lancaster society, more and more Amish have had to find work off the farm. Even so, thousands maintain farms and are eager to purchase new farms. The Amish bought the first farms south of Route 30 about 1940. Since then, they have taken over hundreds of farms in the southern end, with a population beginning to rival the historic heart of the Amish settlement in eastern Lancaster County.

For many Amish teens, Rumspringa means hard partying, dating, cars — and Facebook. So much for “What happens in Rumspringa stays in Rumspringa.” Since kids on Rumspringa are determinedly social (they are looking for spouses, after all), they don’t spend hours alone online. They use tech and social networking with purpose bordering on urgency. When I asked Noah what’s different about how the Amish use Facebook, he suggested that they use it more so than non-Amish do. It’s critical for a Rumspringa social life.

Kentucky — It’s been over 10 days since Auburn Police Chief Ron Mills cited an Amish buggy driver for not picking up his horse’s droppings. It looks as if the issue could end up in court since the fine has yet to be paid. According to the city ordinance no person shall allow an animal under his or her control to be upon public property, including streets within the city limits of Auburn, or upon the property of another, absent the consent of the owner or occupant of the property, without some device for the removal and/or containment of the animal’s excrement; nor shall any person fail to remove any excrement deposited by any animal under his or her control on public or private property. The penalty for such violation is a $50 fine.

CLEVELAND — Amish imprisoned in beard-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio have been granted a religious freedom exemption from a requirement to attend high school equivalency classes behind bars. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Wednesday that Amish bishop Samuel Mullet and his followers would be exempted from the policy requiring classes for inmates who lack high school diplomas.

Sexual abuse is a serious problem that far too often is kept hidden, and when it happens in a community as isolated as the Amish, it’s even more difficult for victims to be helped and offenders to be prosecuted. FOX 43′s Trang Do has the story of a former Amish family and community leaders who are trying to break the culture of silence through outreach and education. “I grew up Amish, not knowing any different. And I loved it, I loved my parents. Yeah, I loved it. I never dreamed that I would not be Amish,” said a former Amish woman whose name we are withholding. But one difficult day, she and her husband made the decision to leave the only way of life they’d ever known, after discovering their children had been sexually abused.

Kentucky — Auburn Police Chief Ron Mills said he has had to write another citation for horse droppings in the city of Auburn. This is the second in five months, according to Mills. The city of Auburn amended its animal ordinance in 2012 to include “all animals.” The council made the move due to the many complaints received that Amish horses were littering the streets with droppings, and that they were stinking the town up.

Every winter, scores of Amish and Mennonites flock to a small Florida community that is built around their way of life, where buggies powered by the sun and three-wheeled bicycles are more common on the streets than cars. Pinecraft Park in Sarasota has been called 'paradise for plain people' as the top vacation spot for people who like to live a simpler life without too many modern amenities. 'You just assume that everybody you see, especially in the wintertime, is Amish and Mennonite,' Katie Troyer, who blogs about the community, told NBC's today's show.

The number of Amish in the U.S. has doubled since the 1990's. Though they're typically known for for their traditional, family-based Christian values and austere lifestyles, there's one thing most people probably wouldn't guess about them –– the Amish are a lot better at managing their money than the rest of us.

WI — Vernon Hershberger’s religious beliefs do not provide any resolution to the legal consequences he must face for operating a food establishment without a license, operating as an unlicensed milk producer, operating a dairy plant without a license and violating a product hold order.

OH - An Amish couple, who adopted the biological daughter of a couple convicted of raping her at the Trumbull County Children Services offices on Reeves Road in 2011, has sued the agency and three workers. The lawsuit, filed in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court by Atty. Michael D. Rossi, doesn’t name the parents, who live in West Farmington. They are listed as Jane Doe and John Doe.

QUINCY, MI — It would seem a cell phone saved the life of an Amish farmer in Branch County’s Butler Township. Quincy Fire Chief Kurt Barve says Amos Schwartz was injured when he became trapped under an overturned disc in a field at his farm on Bidwell Road late Monday morning.

As Dakota O'Leary reported last month, a number of members of an Ohio Amish community, convicted of hate crimes in hair and beard cutting attacks are entering federal prison. The Associated Press reported this weekend that the prisoner's departure will leave nearly three dozen children without one or both parents.

IN — An 18-year-old Fort Wayne man was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for his role in a plot to rob members of the Amish community in Adams County.

Amish schoolchildren held their end-of-school celebration early yesterday so their parents could attend before they are jailed for beard-cutting. Nine members of the Ohio Amish sect led by Samuel Mullet Sr are already in prison after being convicted of the hate crime against rival followers, and five more will join them this Friday. Four women and one man will start jail terms of between one and seven years, leaving nearly three dozen children without one or both parents for the duration of their sentences.

PA — At least 200 calves were killed in a devastating barn fire that ravaged an Amish farm in Metal township, PA on Wednesday afternoon. According to the Chambersburg, Pa., Public Opinion, fire crews arrived on the scene too late to save the barn or animals. The building was mostly collapsed and there wasn’t much left.

Adam Lanza apparently was a student of Charlie Roberts. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter had read about the Nickel Mines Amish school shooter. He identified with him. And he followed in his violent footsteps.

KENTON, Ohio - The Kenton-Hardin Health Department said Tuesday night the way two Amish families are living jeopardizes the health of their neighbors. "There's a potential there for a lot of people to get sick and our job is to prevent things from happening." said Shane Lotts, the Environmental Director for the Kenton Hardin Health Department. The health department voted to uphold a decision by the board that said two families need to vacate their homes because their sewage systems were not up to code.

KENTON, Ohio — Amish from northwest Ohio are promising to turn out in force this week for a meeting of a county health board seeking to evict two families from new homes that lack the required modern wells and septic systems. Last summer, the Kenton-Hardin County Health Board said it would start enforcing rules that any new home must have a proper well and septic system - something the simple-living, outhouse-using Amish have never had to do. Health inspectors have not forced existing Amish homes to change

New York — As the number of Amish families continues to rise in St. Lawrence County, law enforcement agencies are looking for ways to reduce accidents between buggies and motor vehicles on North Country roads. It’s a task officials are finding difficult, even though people on both sides understand the severity of the problem.

LANCASTER, PA — The former wife of the man who opened fire inside an Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County is breaking her silence for the first time since that tragic day.

Sixth-graders from the Ohio Amish community at Wise Elementary School in Holmes County are better equipped to save family and friends from choking deaths. Twenty-eight Amish children learned the correct way to perform the Heimlich maneuver recently as part of a Heimlich Heroes curriculum demonstration taught at their school.

BELLEVUE, MI — Ten people were hurt, two possibly critically, when a northbound van slid off I-69 two miles north of N Drive North. Calhoun County Sheriff Department deputies reported the accident at 9:08 a.m. They said the van went out of control on icy pavement.

WARREN, Ohio - The attorney for the Trumbull County Amish man accused of raping young girls has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on his client's behalf. Daniel Miller is charged with 17 counts of rape, gross sexual imposition and sexual battery.

The Amish in the US have a genetic mutation that causes mental retardation, researchers have found. Scientists at the Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research (Idibell) and the University of Barcelona have said that inbreeding has led the strict religious community to develop a gene that holds back mental development.

Lydia Zook, bundled in a plain, black coat over a lavender linen dress, steps out of her family’s renovated barn. A few strands of dark brown hair streaked with gray peek out from beneath a teal kerchief headdress. “I stay inside a lot during the winter,” the native Pennsylvanian says with a laugh.

CLEVELAND, OH — The eight men convicted of an Amish hate crime in Ohio have been assigned to prisons scattered across the United States, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said. Bishop Samuel Mullet, 67, leader of the Bergholz, Ohio, group who was prosecuted with 15 of his followers for a series of beard- and hair shearing attacks on perceived enemies of the breakaway sect, was notified last weekend he had been "re-designated" to a prison in Texarkana, Texas.

LOYSVILLE, PA — A 5-year-old Loysville girl was flown to Penn State Hershey Medical Center after a car crashed into a horse and buggy in Perry County, according to state police in Newport. Police said the girl was one of four people in the buggy when it was struck Monday afternoon on Route 850 near Fisher Hill Road in Northeast Madison Township.

Last week, I had a story on an Amish trade show. It was mostly about power tools, but there was another other thing that we didn't mention in the online version: The booth selling computers to the Amish.

MONTGOMERY, PA — A nine-year-old Amish boy was pronounced dead following a barn accident on Monday.

Lancaster, PA — Lebanon Levi's sidekick is in legal trouble after a state constable nabbed him for a stack of criminal warrants, according to officials. However, John Schmucker's attorney said the fugitive arrest won't keep the "Amish Mafia" star off the small screen.