Amish in the News

Zook, an Amish farmer, could face up to two years in jail and fines up to $5,000 if found guilty and depending on the feelings of the judge. In addition, a judge could require Zook to pay up to $5,000 to "replace" the eagle.

Kirksville MO -- Sam Burkholder and his wife Barbara are former members of the Old Order Amish Church who saw in their Christian relatives "a peace and joy that the Amish didn't have."

Pennsylvania - As oil companies move into Amish communities to extract oil through hydraulic processing, residents are speaking up, calling out oil companies for carrying out a long-term plan of deceit and manipulation. But not all Amish are in the same boat, with some benefiting from larger leasing payouts than their neighbors who signed onto contracts years ago.

DECATUR, Indiana - An Adams County woman has been sentenced to six years in prison for her role in robbing Amish.

Lancaster PA -- If a violent group of Amish "protectors" exists in Lancaster County as represented on a hit reality television series, Steven Echternach and Jonathan Heisse would know about it. The two local cops are District Attorney Craig Stedman's liaisons to the Amish community, working with local Anabaptist groups on crimes of all sorts.

Eastern Mennonite University: The link between genetics and mental illness continues to engage Abram Hostetter, a psychiatrist in his fourth decade of world-recognized research into why Old Order Amish are more susceptible to bipolar disorder than the general population.

Bergholz OH, More than a year before the violent beard-cutting assaults spread terror among the Amish of eastern Ohio, several followers of Samuel Mullet Sr., the leader of an insular settlement in Bergholz, used similar practices on each other. Left, a barn on the Mullet family compound is being renovated.

MILLERSBURG, Ohio — For Jacob Beachy, life moves along much as it always has. Every day, there are the 35 cows that need tending, and 90 acres of farmland. His isMILLERSBURG, Ohio — For Jacob Beachy, life moves along much as it always has. Every day, there are the 35 cows that need tending, and 90 acres of farmland. His is the life of an Amish farmer, in which family, work and faith intertwine on one plot of Ohio land.

York PA -- As those touched by the tragedy journey toward healing, they could look to our community in south-central Pennsylvania for help. The obvious place to start is in Nickel Mines, Lancaster County, where a young man shot 10 innocent Amish school children, killing five. The forgiveness shown by that religious community was astonishing in its immediacy.

Lancaster PA -- An intruder with a "rage" against the Mennonite religion invaded a rural Clay Township home and assaulted and tied up three elderly women on Friday, police said. The women, all between 84 and 90 years old, remained hospitalized Saturday after the incident in the 300 block of Indiantown Road.

If anyone thinks that the Discovery Channel is about actual discovery of, say, science, history, space, or tech, as their Web site claims, think again. Or if you think that its sister company, The Learning Channel (TLC), is about learning new insight or information, you are mistaken.After TLC’s first run of the reality television show “Breaking Amish,” with paid persons assuming the roles of rebellious ex-Amish, the Discovery Channel has produced a more scripted “Amish Mafia,” admitting on their site that scenes are reenacted. The show, which airs in early December, brags a behind-the-scenes “first-ever look at the men who protect and maintain peace and order within the Amish.”

In a two-day jury in October, Paul A. Graber, 46, was found guilty by a 12-member jury on two counts of fraud on a financial institution. In Kosciusko County Circuit Court today, approximately 20 members of the Amish community were present for Graber’s sentencing. One man said loudly in the courtroom before the judge entered, “Jesus Christ is Lord.”

CLEVELAND — Defendants convicted in beard- and hair-cutting attacks on fellow Amish lost a bid Wednesday to leave jail to attend a family wedding after prosecutors argued they might flee or commit similar attacks while on furlough. U.S. District Court Judge Dan Polster, who presided at the trial of 16 Amish convicted in the attacks, ruled against requests by five of the nine locked-up Amish, who are awaiting sentencing on Feb. 8. Seven other defendants remain free pending sentencing.

A Kirkwood man will spend up to five years in prison for attempting to rob an Amish-owned grocery store last year — and leaving empty-handed. A female clerk at the Colerain Township store refused Matthew Larrabee's demands for cash but Larrabee is still headed to state prison, a judge ordered Monday.

After a 15-year stay in northwestern Cambria County, the Swartzentruber Amish are moving on. We expect they will leave behind many friends they made in Barr and Blacklick townships. And hopefully they are taking with them more fond memories than those of conflict and confrontation with agencies and the county courts. The ultraconservative sect of Anabaptists are migrating to what they hope will be greener pastures.

MIDDLEFIELD, Ohio — Mike Prorock slowly walked through an Amish cemetery nestled in an area of Middlefield where "Share the road" buggy signs outnumbered political placards last month. Clenched in his fist were small American flags, tokens of respect to be placed at the grave of a fellow World War II veteran.

PARKE COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - There's a part of our Wabash Valley community that leaves many answers unsolved. That community; the Amish. Hundreds live among us, with several families in Parke County, Indiana. However, for most people, how the Amish live is a mystery.

If spanking has all the negative effects that these researchers say that it does, why is it that the Amish people and the conservative Mennonites (those OK with automobiles and electricity) who spank their children without hesitation have a much lower rate of all those items such as aggression, violence and delinquency?

"...if he can help it, Emanuel doesn't want want to go heaven by Highway 38. "They've come up on us around the curve and they're up on us. You can hear the tires squeal sometimes," says Emanuel."

BERGHOLZ, Ohio -- Inside a one-room schoolhouse, Lizzie Mullet pulls her attention away from her students and focuses on the biggest issue facing them: their families. "We're doing the best we can to keep our spirits up, but we're worried about what will happen next," Mullet said.

Ethridge TN -- Diann Pollack isn’t exactly sure when the Amish first came to Ethridge. Some locals say it 1942. Others say 1944. “When I give a tour, I just say it was in the mid-1940s,” said Pollack, manager of the Amish Welcome Center along Highway 43 in Ethridge.

Mr Romney, who is trailing in the polls in Pennsylvania, should not pin too much hope on the Amish vote, though. Perhaps a thousand are registered to vote, I was told.

An attorney for another woman, Lovina Miller, said she has eight children she works hard to support and wasn’t a flight risk because she travels by horse and buggy and has strong beliefs against air travel. Schrock and Lovina Miller were among the seven defendants the judge allowed to remain free.

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio - Dozens of dogs were pulled from what investigators called deplorable conditions on Monday. Ohio SPCA members from across the state gathered at an Amish farm in Pickaway County, where deputies said as many as 50 dogs were being neglected. Investigators arrived late Monday morning to serve a search warrant to the property owner.

On Tuesday, the ex-wife of Jeremiah Raber, one of the stars of TLC’s ‘Breaking Amish,’ spoke out about the new show calling it “fake.

A yearlong sting operation and a 5 a.m. armed SWAT team raid on an Amish farm in Pennsylvania may seem surprising to some, but the federal government deemed it necessary in order to stop the selling of illegal contraband to willing Washington, D.C. residents. The contraband: unpasteurized milk.

They needed money for a move to the city and drugs. So they donned gas masks, carried baseball bats and cruised through the rural roads of Berne in a faded-green Chevy Malibu looking to target horse-drawn buggies. On Monday, they hit up four of them.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio Amish man who fired a shot into the air that killed a 15-year-old girl driving a horse-drawn buggy more than a mile away will go to jail for 30 days, a prosecutor said Wednesday. As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Marion Yoder, 28, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a misdemeanor count of negligent homicide, said Steve Knowling, the prosecutor for Holmes County in northern Ohio.

LAGRANGE COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) An Elkhart, Indiana woman is accused of burglarizing Amish homes in LaGrange County while the residents were attending church on Sundays.

In upstate New York, small farmers are being squeezed out by thousand-cow dairies and genetically modified crop producers. The buggy-driving members of a traditional sect may be hit hardest of all.