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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.

Samuel Girod was Amish for 30 years. He was in a business partnership with his dad and owned two properties. He had everything an Amish man could ever want; however, deep down he felt a void -- a void that would finally drive him to leave his family, community and all that he owned.

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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.

I grew up in an Old Order Amish setting where I still live, and I thought I had a fairly normal life. I am the oldest of eleven children, and I probably got more privileges because of that. Our family got along reasonably well, except for the fact that Dad struggled with controlling his temper. This resulted in much tension in the home. In spite of this, I took pride in the fact that I was able to handle it well. I was seldom irked or upset by anything, but I was never happy either even though it might have appeared like it to people around me because I did a lot of whistling.

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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.

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. What you're about to see is a rare glimpse of Amish life from a family now excommunicated from the Amish order.

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."

I will try to write a few lines with a very sad breaking heart. John we still can’t believe that you have left us and most of all have let yourself down that far that you had to choose this very dangerous path. Never did we think or believe that you would choose that dangerous path in these last trying times.

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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.

I was born and raised Amish. I was raised on a dairy farm in Mesopotamia, OH. I am in the middle of six boys, three older and three younger. My sister is the oldest and I was very sheltered. I don’t remember seeing a television until I was about sixteen or seventeen. When I was seventeen, I was allowed to date. That meant that I was allowed to go out all weekend and did not have to report to my parents. It was scary having been so sheltered my whole childhood and then suddenly be able to have the freedom to go out all weekend and not have to come home until early Monday morning.

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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.

James Schwartz was raised in an Amish community in Michigan. In a segment on HuffPost Live, he shared his struggle to fit into this group when he realized he was gay. "If an Amish youth comes out to his parents and says 'I'm gay', then they really don't have any choice," he said. "They're going to have to leave. Unless they choose, of course, to stay in the closet."

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.

Content with life, practice nearly 30 years after trial --- Solomon Wickey doesn’t remember much about his trial. At least, that’s what he says. Wickey puts his fingers to his lips and gazes down. His hair, in a traditional bowl cut, is a deep white now and his beard gray. He sits in a small chair in his office wearing a blue shirt and black pants that note his Amish heritage.

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.

CLEVELAND -- Prosecutors will be able to tell jurors about alleged sexual "counseling" of Amish wives by a man charged with masterminding beard- and hair-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

Esther Miller is a mother of six from Sugarcreek in the US state of Ohio. She is also a cowgirl and professional rodeo rider. Raised in a traditional Amish family where young girls did not join in such athletic pursuits, Esther always dreamed of barrel racing on horseback.

For years I have not agreed with our Amish belief. I think either the Preachers & Bishops don’t understand their German Bible or hold the Amish tradition higher than Jesus teachings.

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Oh, if younce could only break loose of Satan and come home. Deep in your hearts you’re not truly happy, and you never can be as long as you stay out in the world.

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The curious involvement of an Amish-Mennonite sect in a high-profile case of international parental kidnapping will be on display — and perhaps become clearer — in a courtroom in Burlington, Vt., this week.