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AUBURN, KY - Two Amish men are suing the city of Auburn, Kentucky, in Logan County, saying a city ordinance is placing a substantial burden on their freedom of religion. The ordinance, passed in 2014, requires all horses within the city of Auburn to be outfitted with equine diapers to catch their waste. The plaintiffs are members of the Old Order Swartzentruber Amish religion, widely considered the most conservative Amish order, and affixing diapers to their horses is not permitted by the Swartzentruber church. Plaintiffs Dan Mast and Emanuel Miller say they and other Amish Auburn residents carry shovels with them and clean up any waste their horses leave behind.

TUSCAWARAS, OH - Jerry and John Miller just wanted to cook breakfast over the fire. After a night of camping in their backyard in Dundee, the 11-year-old Amish twins with matching dark hair and even darker eyes, wanted to enjoy one last Memorial Day weekend activity. It’s not something Leah Miller, their mom, would normally do — take so much time to cook a meal on a weekday morning. But she was feeling different that day, so she told the boys to go get the fire ready. As Leah gathered the dishes, a loud boom suddenly rattled the house. She looked up to see a gas can sprawled 20 feet from the fire. Outside, her youngest boy was up in flames. “Jerry’s on fire!” Leah screamed.

LEBANON, PA - A search for an Amish man with a severely cut hand who walked away from a mental health facility in Lebanon County Saturday afternoon ended hours later when he was found at a Harrisburg area truck stop. Multiple police agencies in Lebanon County had been looking for Brandon D. Schmidt, 36, of Clarksdale, Mississippi, after he left the Green Pastures facility in West Cornwall Township, according to a police news release issued Saturday. The news release did not specify how Schmidt was injured other than to say he cut his left hand.

ALLEN COUNTY, IN - A third person has died from injuries suffered when a pickup truck hit an Amish buggy about 8:30 p.m. Nov. 20 at Notestine Road and Indiana 37 near New Haven, the Allen County Coroner's office announced Monday. Two young women passengers in the buggy, Rebecca Graber, 18, of Grabill and Michelle Graber, 16, of Fort Wayne, died at the scene. A second man in the buggy also was taken to the hospital for treatment of his injuries.

WOOD COUNTY, WI - It's been a year since a pickup crashed into a horse-drawn wagon in Wood County, killing a father and son near their home and illustrating the dangers for non-motorized traffic on Wisconsin roads.WOOD COUNTY, WI - It's been a year since a pickup crashed into a horse-drawn wagon in Wood County, killing a father and son near their home and illustrating the dangers for non-motorized traffic on Wisconsin roads. Since then, little has been done statewide to improve safety for these travelers, despite multiple fatal crashes in Wisconsin involving horse-drawn vehicles and bicyclists. In fact, the Legislature repealed a law and cut funding designed to make roadways safer for these "vulnerable users."

HOLMES COUNTY, OH - The owner of a farm where a massive Amish drinking party was held in September will not be charged criminally for taking part in the event, or for charging admission to young people who were rounded up in the underage drinking raid. What is being called a "large Amish party" was broken up in Holmes County, Ohio, late Saturday night and into Sunday morning resulting in around 75 adult and juvenile arrests for underage drinking.

I left the Amish when I was eighteen years old. Looking back, I now realize that one of the biggest things I missed out on when I left was being there to experience memories with my family. I have been so focused on myself for the past eight years that I almost completely forgot about my little brother. It wasn’t until I recently visited my brother and got to help him a little bit around the farm that I realized this loss and the regret of not getting to be there for him. He was just ten years old when I left the Amish, but now he is eighteen years old, which is the same age I was when I left.

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LANCASTER, PA - Forty years ago, a widowed Amish woman and her daughter watched from their window late one night as someone in dark clothing walked up to their farmhouse near Gordonville, Lancaster County, and left a basket on the porch. Forty years later, that little Jane Doe — all grown up and raising children of her own in Lititz — hopes to find her birth family. Diane Bell has been an artist and pastry chef.

CLARK, MO - This past weekend my husband and I visited the Amish community in Clark. If you never have driven around this charming area, it's a lot like stepping back in time. In 1953, Amish families began moving into this agricultural area and buying farms. Their goal was to establish a new Amish community. Today, this is one of the largest Amish communities in Missouri, stretching to parts of Audrain, Randolph and Monroe counties.

AUBURN, KY - Amish residents of a western Kentucky town are fighting back against an ordinance requiring large animals to wear collection bags to catch their droppings, arguing that the law unfairly singles out their community.

LAWRENCE COUNTY, NY - A man wielding a pistol and a woman brandishing a knife forced an Amish man to open his safe late Saturday night. The man pushed his pistol into the chest of the Amish man, and after they had what they wanted, forced him to his knees, according to a statement from the St. Lawrence County's Sheriff's office. State police and sheriff's detectives are investigating a total of three robberies, which began a little after 7 PM. They're asking for the public's help in finding the robbers

FEASTERVILLE, PA - Lee Kaplan, the Feasterville man already facing charges for allegedly having sex with an underage Amish girl and fathering her two children was charged with additional rape counts Monday involving five of the girl's sisters. The youngest victim was 6 years old when she was sexually assaulted, Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub said at a press conference Monday in Lower Southampton.

MONTAGUE, P.E.I. - Home Hardware owner Mark Beck says they've been busy supplying new customers with lumber, hardware, and paint. They've even started stocking a specific model of straw hat. About 14 pioneer Amish families from southwestern Ontario have bought farms here this year, lured by low land prices, and settled in the communities of Dundas and Summerville. Many more families are expected.

COLDWATER, MI - There has been public outrage that the couple who took an Amish horse and buggy the wrong way down I-69 Sept. 17 were not charged with drunken driving. Michigan law does not allow that. Assistant Branch County Prosecutor Scott Smith said Michigan’s drunk driving law is very clear. As adopted in 1949, Section 257.625 of the Michigan Vehicle Code deals only with “Operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated” and does not include a horse, a horse and buggy or a walking person.

OHIO/PENNSYLVANIA - The Republican Party has been reaching out to the Amish for a number of election cycles, but saw their first real positive gains in 2012. With religious liberty—and a candidate who has made a vow to protect it for Christians a central theme of his campaign—it appears it may be paying off much more this year. There are about 70,000 potential Amish voters each in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The margin of victory for President Obama in those states was 166,000 and 310,000, respectively, in the 2012 election. So while the "Amish vote" can't necessarily swing either state on its own, it could be an indicator of a larger movement.

ARTHUR, IL - That old house sitting behind him on wheels hitched to eight Belgian Amish horses? Yep, Ervin Yoder was born in it 80 years ago. His seven brothers and sisters were raised there, too. They are to become the cornerstones of the newly established Illinois Amish Museum and Heritage Center. The Yoder home and the Schrock home, built in 1882, were nearly demolished in 1999. But thanks to the efforts of Ervin Yoder and Wilmer Otto, the president of the Illinois Amish Heritage Preservation Foundation, the homes were saved and stored near Yoder's Amish Kitchen in Arthur until Tuesday.

GLADWIN, MI - As long as he stays out of trouble for the next year, a Coleman man, Kevin D. Toner, 58, who crashed into a buggy, killing a pregnant Amish woman while he had THC in his system, won't be jailed. Toner in August pleaded guilty to one count of involuntary manslaughter in exchange for prosecutors' dismissal of operating a motor vehicle under the influence causing death.

LANSING, MI - The day that new paving went down on Southern Road - east of Fremont Road - last month, there were visible chips from hardened horseshoes from Amish buggies. The chips were clearly visible in the new blacktop, between the buggy wheel marks. State Rep. Joel Johnson (R-Clare) sponsored bills to charge a $50 registration fee for horse-drawn vehicles. The bill says the money can only be used for road repairs.

WYOMING, KY - Forrest Mast’s Kentucky congregation felt a call to plant a church where there are few Mennonites. They found that place in Wyoming — home to about 100 conservative Anabaptists in a small handful of congregations. “One of the goals of our churches is when they get to a reasonable size and financial means, we reach out,” he said. “We’ve been reaching out in the East; there are a lot of churches there, and I’ve always had this vision to start our type of churches in the West.”

MILLERSBURG, OH - About 75 people, adults and juveniles, were arrested for underage consumption of alcohol late Saturday night and early Sunday morning when local law enforcement raided a massive field party along County Road 400.

TOPEKA, IN - There is one stoplight in Topeka. It blinks red at the downtown crossroads, an indication that the 1,200 town residents are in no hurry to get from here to there. As Amish buggies trot by and bicyclists ride past on South Main Street at noon on Fridays, a large number of Muslim men gather to worship in a makeshift mosque they have created in a worn building that was once a restaurant. The mosque serves between 30 to 40 Muslim families.

MADISON, WI - Three people were arrested Monday in connection with a string of burglaries affecting numerous Amish homes in Columbia and Marquette counties, according to a release. Grant G. Pulver, 21, of Portage, Alex A. Moulton, 20, of Portage, and Dylan J. Bartaczewicz, 20, of Pardeeville, were arrested on a tentative charge of felony burglary.

FREWBURG, N.Y. - An intoxicated Frewsburg man who repeatedly tried to strike an Amish buggy and horse with his vehicle on Friday was arrested, New York State Police said. Ryan Fusco, 30, was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicate.

AKRON, OH - Supporters of presidential candidate republican Donald Trump want you get out the vote in Ohio from a group not known for participating widely in elections. They've set up an Amish PAC, a political action committee, to target the religious community. It's estimated about 70,000 Amish live in Ohio and about 17,000 of them are registered to vote. With me to talk about the outreach to the Amish is Benjamin Walters who came up with this strategy.

INDIANA CO., PA — State police reported an underage DUI incident involving five Amish men last month in Indiana County. The four passengers, 20-year-old Andrew D. Coblentz, 18-year-old William W. Byler, 20-year-old Raymond E. Kurtz, and a 16-year-old known juvenile, received citations related to their alcohol consumption and possession.

BETHANY, MO - An Amish man who admitted to poisoning his wife to death 10 years ago was sentenced to 25 years in prison Monday. Samuel Borntreger, 39, admitted to poisoning his former wife, Anna Borntreger, 26, over the course of about a month in 2006 while he lived near Bethany, Missouri, in Harrison County. In a written statement, Borntreger admitted to using antifreeze and battery acid to bring about his wife’s death.

WISCONSIN - In 1989, in a cornfield in southeastern Pennsylvania, Holmes Morton, MD, built a timber-frame clinic to care for the area's Old Order Amish and Mennonite children, many of whom had poorly understood, complex medical problems due to inherited disorders. Dr. Morton spent his first day in Wisconsin at a community health event at the Scenic Bluffs Community Health Center in Norwalk, near one of the more concentrated Amish settlements in the state.

INDIANA - A study published Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2015, explored reasons why asthma is so uncommon among Amish communities, where children play barefoot in dairy barns and farm fields. Experts have long recognized that exposure to farm animals – and the microbes associated with them – protects children from asthma.

CANTON, MO - A Lewis County man is facing a sex abuse charge for an alleged incident in 1997, according to the sheriff's office. Henry Schwartz, 53, of Canton, was arrested Wednesday on a first-degree sodomy charge.

PITTSBURGH, PA — Pennsylvania police are investigating a case of alleged animal cruelty after photos of the incident surfaced on Facebook. The woman who made the post claims the horse wasn’t able to pull a wagon full of watermelons, and the man began beating the animal.