Free Republic

LANCASTER - Police in central Pennsylvania say they arrested an Amish man on drunk driving charges over the weekend after he was found asleep in his moving buggy. East Lampeter Township Police say 22-year-old Elmer Stoltzfoos Fisher, of Paradise, was slumped over and asleep in a slow-moving buggy on Sunday night. An off-duty officer from nearby Quarryville reported seeing the horse pulling the buggy at a walking pace as it straddled the center line. Police say a breathalyzer test snowed Fisher's blood-alcohol content was 0.18, more than twice the 0.08 legal limit for drivers.

Asians students at a Philadelphia high school say they are too scared to even leave their homes. They claim they are targets of gangs at their school. As a precaution, there was an increased police presence at South Philadelphia High School on Friday. However, for some, it was a case of too little, too late. Some parents and students are upset after hearing reports that a group of Asian students were attacked by fellow students. "It was blacks and whites and they saw the Asians at the school. It all started with an argument," an unidentified student told Eyewitness News....

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — A Taliban suicide squad targeted Pakistani military officers and their families praying at a mosque Friday close to army headquarters in a gruesome display of the militants' ability to strike at the center of power in this U.S.-allied, nuclear-armed nation. The barrage of bombs and bullets left 37 people dead, including seven senior officers and 17 children. The deaths of so many top brass inside a heavily fortified area a few miles from the capital was a major coup for the Pakistani insurgents, who are under pressure as the army pushes an offensive against their stronghold of...

Communist Zealots: the Anabaptists Sometimes Martin Luther must have felt that he had loosed the whirlwind, even opened the gates of Hell. Shortly after Luther launched the Reformation, various Anabaptist sects appeared and spread throughout Germany. The Anabaptists believed in predestination of the elect, but they also believed, in contrast to Luther, that they knew infallibly who the elect were: i.e., themselves. The sign of that election was in an emotional, mystical conversion process, that of being "born again," baptized in the Holy Spirit. Such baptism must be adult and not among infants; more to the point, it meant that...

IMMOKALEE — Four Immokalee High School football players accused of having group sex with a 15-year-old girl on school grounds entered not guilty pleas at their arraignments this week. Joshua Edison, Deonte Clifton and Demandrea Fuller are to return to court on Dec. 21, while Kovan McSwain will have a hearing on Jan. 7. None of the teens, who are all 17, appeared before Collier Circuit Judge Lauren Brodie in juvenile court on Monday because written pleas had already been entered on a felony charge of lewd or lascivious battery. The charge involves sex with a person 12 to 15...

ORANGEBURG, SC (WIS) - An Orangeburg County highway was shut down for hours Tuesday after deputies stopped a man who they say had a rifle and seven live improvised explosive devices in his car. Authorities are also searching the man's motel room. Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams says Mark Kerron of New Jersey is "the real McCoy"

Prosecutors say defense to blame for witness intimidation Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer Wednesday, October 7, 2009 A San Francisco murder suspect's attorney sought assurances Wednesday that he would not be arrested for arranging what prosecutors called a "blatant act of witness intimidation" involving eight suspected gang members who stood up during a witness's testimony. The defendant, Charles "Cheese" Heard, 25, is accused of killing and attempting to rob Richard Barrett, 29, outside a Broadway nightclub in November 2008. Prosecutors say that Heard was after Barrett's gem-encrusted pendant of the Flintstones' Bamm Bamm character. During the first day of...

A Cape Girardeau police officer got more than he bargained for when he answered a call about shots fired. What he found when he arrived was a large street fight. As you can see, when he went to arrest one suspect a woman approaches the officer. He pushed her away and when she came back again swinging, the officer punched her. The Cape Girardeau Police Chief stands by what the officer did saying there's always a fear that a person will go for the officer's weapon. "Of course the major fear is that person may try to go for the...

SUGARCREEK, Ohio - The writers' grievances came in the form of angry letters, carried over bumpy rural roads to the newspaper office serving the Amish community. In a world where news still travels at a mail carrier's pace, the farmers, preachers and mechanics responsible for filling The Budget threatened to go on strike if the 119-year-old Amish weekly went ahead with its plan to go online. The writers, known as scribes, feared their plainspoken dispatches would become fodder for entertainment in the "English," or non-Amish, world. The editors hastily rescinded the plan shortly after proposing it in 2006, and today,...

TOPEKA, Ind. -- Dan Bontrager is a 54-year-old Amish man with flecks of gray in his long beard. He's also treasurer of the Tri-County Land Trust, an Amish lending cooperative created to support the Amish maxim that community enhances faith in God. This past spring, Mr. Bontrager was startled when a number of men he has known most of his life tied their horses to the hitching post outside his office and came inside to withdraw their money from the Land Trust. "We had a run," Mr. Bontrager says. "I don't know if you know anything about the Amish grapevine,...

Police Seek Fourth Teen in LR Burglary-Homicide Reported by: KARK 4 News Wednesday, Jul 1, 2009 @10:30am CST Little Rock Police are looking for local teen they're calling a person of interest in Tuesday's residential break-in that left a homeowner dead. The suspect is identified as Antonio Demetrius Terry, 16, of Little Rock. He is named in police reports read in court this morning when three other suspects were arraigned in the case. Maurice Clark, 67, was shot when the suspects broke into his home. Thomas Stacy Caffery, 17, Craig Deshaun Woods, 15, and Mashawn Kendrick, 14, all pleaded not...

Three suspects appeared in a Little Rock courtroom this morning and pleaded not guilty to murder charges in a burglary-turned-shooting Tuesday afternoon that left a homeowner dead. The three juveniles are all charged as adults in the killing of Maurice Clark, 67, at his home at 4 Lark Place, just south of Baseline Road. They're identified as: Thomas Stacy Caffery, 17 Craig Deshaun Woods, 15 Mashawn Kendrick, 14 Bonds for each of the teens, who are all from Little Rock, were set at one-million-dollars. They are also charged with theft of property and fleeing. According to police reports read in...

UPDATE: Police arrest man for robbing 2 Little Rock fireworks stands Last Update: 9:41 am Police have arrested a man in connection with two LIttle Rock firework stand robberies. Authorities say Courtland Dwayne Ray was arrested after bragging to his friends about the robberies. Pulaski County deputies say Ray and another suspect walked into the tent at 24 hour Fireworks World on Kanis Road at 3am Saturday morning but they didn't buy anything. Then deputies say the suspects came back a few hours later with at least five other people, pulled guns on the guardsmen and workers and demanded cash....

NICKTOWN — When she wakes from restless sleep in the middle of the night, Susan Miller thinks about the man who put her family out of their rural Blacklick Township farm. The Amish mother would like to talk to Cambria County Judge Norman Krumenacker, who ordered the house, barns and outbuildings padlocked because she and her husband John violated building codes and sewage regulations at their 49.5-acre homestead. "I sat up in bed the other night, and I was thinking that I feel bad he has to do this to us. I wanted to write him a letter to tell...

Birmingham police beating video: Five officers fired Posted by Carol Robinson - The Birmingham News May 20, 2009 9:08 AM Five Birmingham police officers have been fired for a January 2008 beating of an already-unconscious suspect with fists, feet and a billy club, a battering caught on videotape until a police officer turned off the patrol car camera, city and police officials said today. Authorities believe the video, [see the full chase here: http://videos.al.com/birmingham-news/2009/05/birmingham_police_beating_vide_1.html] taken after a high-speed chase by several area law enforcement agencies ended when the fleeing suspect's van flipped, has been seen by numerous Birmingham officers and...

LEON, N.Y. – Police cracking down on rowdy Amish youths ticketed a teenager for having beer in his horse-drawn buggy when they pulled him over on a western New York road. They said the 17-year-old was charged with underage possession of alcohol after he was stopped by deputies late Monday night in the town of Leon, 40 miles south of Buffalo. Detective Nathan Root said the teen admitted drinking beer, but passed a field sobriety test.

DALTON, Wis. — Here, the economic news travels slowly, by word of mouth and horse and buggy. It filters through Mishler's Country Store, where bills are totaled on battered manual adding machines and kerosene lamps light the aisles when the sun goes down. It circulates through the Salemville Cheese Cooperative, where families cart in fresh milk, straight from the farm. And it spreads to Raymond Bontrager's Maple Lane Woodshop, where a wood fire warms craftsmen who turn planks of oak, maple, cherry and pine into exquisite pieces of furniture. "We hear about it all the time from the customers," Bontrager...

NEW YORK – The city's ultra-Orthodox Jews took the Pennsylvania Amish on a walking tour of their world Tuesday "It's reinforcing to the Amish community to see us Jews living the way the Bible says Jews are supposed to live, and have lived since the time of Moses and Abraham," said Yisroel Ber Kaplan, program director for the Chassidic Discovery Center in Brooklyn. "The Amish are also living their lives as the Bible speaks to them." Dozens of Amish residents from Lancaster County, Pa., toured a Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn's Crown Heights to learn more about their culture. Today's Lubavitchers...

Ebensburg, Pa. (AP) -- A western Pennsylvania Amish farmer was sentenced Tuesday to 90 days in jail after refusing to bring a pair of outhouses into compliance with state sewage laws. Andy Swartzentruber, of Ebensburg, cited his conservative religious beliefs in refusing to abide by a court order to make the privies used by schoolchildren compliant and pay a $500 fine. Cambria County Judge Norman Krumenacker said he respected the Amish's religious beliefs but had no choice but to sentence Swartzentruber to jail and fine him $1,000 for being in contempt of court. "Quite frankly, this is not a religious...

Thems My Peeps! Put only farm-fresh, free-range organic peeps in your Easter basket this year.Even Doc Hardiway, a 15-year veteran of the Pennsylvania Agriculture Department's humane candy livestock treatment squad, had a hard time keeping his composure."When we busted in the door of the peep coop, there were thousands of them," said Hardiway. "And they just looked at us with those sad itty-bitty dot eyes. It was so sad, I had to step outside."Acting on a tip from a group of jealous Mennonites, Hardiway and his group raided the Jacob Longenfeffer's mashmallow poultry farm located in Lancaster County yesterday.The squad...

<p>HOUSTON — Except for her sunglasses and cell phone, the woman in the white cap and long flowing skirt looked like a pioneer from another era as she swung a hammer to secure barbed wire to a fence post.</p> <p>She is among the Amish volunteers who have traveled to the Gulf Coast to rebuild hundreds of miles of fence torn down by Hurricane Ike on Texas cattle ranches.</p>

In what's been referred to as a black hat and bearded version of Mumia Abu-Jamal and Bobby Sands political prisoner movements, Old Order Amish activists are rallying behind Andy Swartzentruber, who is facing persecution from Pennsylvania's extreme sanitation police.Swartzentruber was asked by the sewage enforcers not to deposit human sewage near his home and farm.Proper human waste disposal, according to Jacob Crapzengruber, chairman of the Free-eth Swartzentruber Committee Agin' Sewage Imperialism and Poop Hubris, is contrary to the Old Amish sect's strict religious practice of self-denial and annoying neighbors.

The Amish families claim the town of Morristown has refused to issue building permits that would allow them to practice their religion and build homes according to their beliefs. "The U.S. Constitution, and legal precedent all the way to the Supreme Court, are clear. The Amish, who are known throughout the world as master craftsmen and master builders, have the right to practice their beliefs. That includes building and living in homes that conform to those beliefs," Rassbach said. Before 2006, the Swartzentruber Amish in Morristown were granted building permits and allowed to build their structures according to traditional standards...

TOWN OF FRANKLIN, Wis. -- Daniel Borntreger's Jackson County home looks like hundreds of other Wisconsin farmhouses. But it could cost him thousands of dollars in fines. The Amish farmer built it without a permit.

WASHINGTON — A rare genetic abnormality found in people in an insular Amish community protects them from heart disease, a discovery that could lead to new drugs to prevent heart ailments, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. About 5 percent of Old Order Amish people in Pennsylvania's Lancaster County have only one working copy rather than the normal two of a gene that makes a protein that slows the breakdown of triglycerides, a type of fat that circulates in the blood, the researchers wrote in the journal Science. "People who have the mutation all have low triglycerides," said Toni Pollin of...

Amish farmers are to sue the US government on the grounds that plans to put electronic identity tags on livestock constitute imposing the "mark of the Beast". A group of seven Amish farmers in Michigan say the state's insistence that they use radio frequency ID devices on their animals "constitutes some form of a 'mark of the Beast' and/or represents an infringement of their 'dominion over cattle and all living things' in violation of their fundamental religious beliefs," according to their lawsuit. Some Amish, who have a booming business in producing organic milk, disagree with radio ID tagging so strongly...

We give the Amish entirely too much credit. Now you can pick up the “Best/Worst-Dressed” edition of People and read about Amish puppy-abuse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Seems that those unworldly folks of faith have figured out that Americans can’t resist cute puppy eyes in a pet store. Massive Amish puppy mills are churning out sub-standard pups, caging animals in enclosures too small to allow the animals to stand, and shooting sick and unproductive animals. At least one of these good people shot all of his dogs when he learned that the authorities were planning to pay him a visit....

Story from the Associated Press, so no quotes.

Collision might be due to growth in municipalities not accustomed to lifestyle Among the 600,000-plus hunters heading out for last year’s gun-deer season were three Clark County brothers who were cited for not wearing blaze orange — clothing, they said, that was against their Amish religion. Members of the religious sect noted for their black felt hats, dark trousers, long dresses and bonnets are barred from wearing bright clothing. But a Clark County judge ruled last month that there’s nothing in the Amish religion that compels them to hunt deer. So each brother was fined $143.10. It was the latest...

I hadn’t gotten beaten by my mom that day, and we hadn’t had any significant arguments over anything. I thought that if I died, I wanted to die without being mad at my mom. So I thought, I might as well take the opportunity to do so before I got back to the house—at which point who knows whether there would be another fight or a beating. I put a bullet in the chamber and raised the rifle up. The closer it got to my head, the faster my heart beat. I was taught that whoever committed suicide would go...

NEILLSVILLE, Wis., July 14 (UPI) -- Wisconsin officials say they're having more hunting- and farming-issue run-ins with the state's Amish population, which has doubled since 1992. The latest case happened during last year's deer hunting season when Clark County officials cited three Amish brothers for not wearing required blaze-orange clothing, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday. Attorneys for the brothers say it is against their beliefs to wear anything but traditional clothing. Other cases involve registration of farms needed by health officials to track outbreaks of swine flu and other animal diseases. Observers say the growth of the Amish population,...

(Collision might be due to growth in municipalities not accustomed to lifestyle) Among the 600,000-plus hunters heading out for last year’s gun-deer season were three Clark County brothers who were cited for not wearing blaze orange — clothing, they said, that was against their Amish religion. Members of the religious sect noted for their black felt hats, dark trousers, long dresses and bonnets are barred from wearing bright clothing. But a Clark County judge ruled last month that there’s nothing in the Amish religion that compels them to hunt deer. So each brother was fined $143.10.It was the latest in...

Can anyone JOIN the Amish people? I mean, can you become Amish and go live in their Society?That's sounding pretty good to me right now....

SEA Jails Amish Criminals A Sign of Very Bad Things to Come You may never have heard of the SEA, and may not believe it when I tell you what it is. I am not making this up. The SEA is the "Sewage Enforcement Agency." The, "Cambria County Sewage Enforcement Agency," protecting society from two dangerous Amish outhouse operators, apprehended them for violating Pennsylvania state sewage laws. They "were sentenced Thursday to 90 days in jail." Their crime? "Andy Swartzentruber and Sam Yoder do not have permits for outhouses at a school and have been disposing of waste "improperly." The...

In a clash of conservative traditions and society’s modern laws, two Amish men may spend 90 days in prison for refusing to pay fines over the use of an outhouse. District Judge Michael Zungali on Thursday ordered Sam Yoder and Andy Swartzentruber to serve 90 days in the Cambria County Prison beginning July 21. The men had refused to pay $1,000 fines each for violating state sewage-disposal laws at the sect’s Barr Township school.

CEDAR SPRINGS, Mich. — A 33-year-old man's decision to run away with a 15-year-old Amish girl has left his family nearly destitute. Julissa Jaimes says she and the couple's four children are unsure of their future as her husband, Osvaldo, sits in a Mexican jail awaiting possible extradition to Michigan. Michigan authorities say he planned to marry the teenager. The Cedar Springs resident was arrested Monday trying to enter Mexico at the Laredo, Texas, border with the girl who was listed as a runaway. "I'm just waiting for an eviction notice or a shut-off notice so the FIA (Family Independence...

Denise George never thought she was breaking the law. Living on the outskirts of Dayton, Armstrong County, she didn't think twice about helping her Amish neighbors — whose religion prevents them from owning vehicles — make a trip or two into town during the week for supplies and other reasons. That is, until she got a letter informing her that her actions were illegal. The story is similar for Woodie Kirkwood, of Dayton. A longtime driver of the Amish, Kirkwood was a little shocked and upset when he received two letters warning him of the same. The letters, sent by...

BARR TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- Controversy over a manmade outhouse could end up with members of an Amish community in jail. Neighbors of the Cambria County Amish community complained about the bathroom facilities the Amish are using because they take waste from their outhouse and dump it onto their property. The property is in the same area near underground wells for nearby residents. The complaints made to the Cambria County Sewage Enforcement Agency were investigated and citations were filed against the Amish property owners. The owners said they refuse to pay any fines, because it is against their religious beliefs, and...

NICKEL MINES, Pa. The county coroner says at least six people were killed in a shooting at a one-room Amish schoolhouse, where state police said earlier a gunman killed "a number" of people Monday in Pennsylvania's bucolic Lancaster County. "So far six confirmed dead and the helicopters are pulling into (Lancaster General Hospital) like crazy," Lancaster County Coroner G. Gary Kirchner said. It was unclear if the shooter was among the six. State police Cpl. Ralph Striebig had said earlier the shooter was among the dead, and a number of people were injured. Three girls, all critical with gunshot wounds,...

HONEY BROOK, Pa. (Map, News) - A simple traffic stop in Chester County ended up involving a buggy and a truck before police captured a man wanted on warrants from three counties. State police say a trooper tried to pull a car over Thursday on Route 322 but the driver took off, drove into a parking lot, abandoned the vehicle and ran through neighborhoods and fields. He jumped into a moving Amish buggy, but jumped out when troopers closed in and ran into a cornfield. Then a motorist in a dry wall truck offered troopers a lift and they surrounded...

Lancaster, PA - Civil rights advocates criticized plans by the Police Department to map the county's Amish communities, calling it racial profiling. The LCPD's counterterrorism bureau plans to identify Amish enclaves in order to determine which might be likely to become isolated and susceptible to "violent, ideologically based extremism," said Deputy Chief Michael P. Drowning on Thursday. "We want to know where the Shakers, Quakers and Amish are so we can reach out to those communities," said Drowning, who heads the counterterrorism bureau. Downing said the plan is still in its early stages, but the LCPD wants to work with...

Link only: http://www.buffalonews.com/258/story/192038.html?imw=Y

Indianapolis - Five people were killed Sunday afternoon when the van they were riding in flipped on Interstate 69. The van was carrying families from Amish communities in New Haven and Rockville. State police say at one point last night they had seven helicopters lined up in the northbound lane of I-69 to transport the victims. Some were taken to Indianapolis hospitals, others to Fort Wayne. Five were pronounced dead at the scene. State police say around 4:45 pm Sunday afternoon, a 15-passenger van was headed southbound on I-69 when it left the roadway, crossed the median and flipped several...

Elizabethtown, Pa. - ONE year ago today, a shooter entered a one-room Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pa., dismissed all but 10 girls, and fired at them execution-style, killing five before shooting himself. Within hours, the Amish community forgave the killer and his family. News of the instant forgiveness stunned the outside world – almost as much as the incident itself did. Many pundits lauded the Amish, but others worried that hasty forgiveness was emotionally unhealthy... ...Members of the Amish community began offering words and hugs of forgiveness when the blood was barely dry on the schoolhouse floor... ...As the...

The Jefferson County sheriff said he and his deputies received several death threats from an Amish bishop with regard to a child custody dispute, prompting him to have the regional SWAT team on standby Tuesday. Sheriff Fred Abdalla was ordered to take Wilma Troyer's daughters, ages 21 months and 9 months, as part of a domestic dispute with her husband who currently lives with his family in Potter County, Pa. The sheriff said he and one other deputy went alone up to the school to serve the court order, but said Troyer, an Amish teacher, instead locked herself in the...

PHILADELPHIA - An Amish community that lost five girls in a Pennsylvania schoolhouse shooting massacre last year has donated money to the widow of the gunman, the community said Wednesday. The Nickel Mines Accountability Committee, which was set up to handle more than $4.3 million in donations from around the world after the shootings, said it had given an unspecified "contribution" to Marie Roberts, a mother of three. Her husband, Charles Carl Roberts, a local milk truck driver who was not Amish, tied up and shot 10 Amish schoolgirls aged 6 to 14 in their classroom last Oct. 2, killing...

PHILADELPHIA - An Amish community that lost five girls in a Pennsylvania schoolhouse shooting massacre last year has donated money to the widow of the gunman, the community said Wednesday. The Nickel Mines Accountability Committee, which was set up to handle more than $4.3 million in donations from around the world after the shootings, said it had given an unspecified "contribution" to Marie Roberts, a mother of three. Her husband, Charles Carl Roberts, a local milk truck driver who was not Amish, tied up and shot 10 Amish schoolgirls aged 6 to 14 in their classroom last Oct. 2, killing...

DEARBORN - Houssein Zorkot, a 26-year-old Dearborn resident, was arraigned Tuesday in 19th District Court on multiple felony charges, including carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent — a five-year felony. Zorkot, a third-year medical student at Wayne State University, was allegedly armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and dressed in black clothing with camouflage paint covering his face when he was arrested Saturday in Hemlock Park. According to police, Zorkot was observed attempting to leave the park in a black SUV after officers had received reports of a man carrying a rifle in the area. He was placed under...

Olivieri and representatives of the market's Amish merchants met Wednesday with board president Ricardo Dunston, general manager Paul Steinke, and two leasing committee members. The meeting was held after Amish merchant leaders supported Olivieri's request for the sit-down, threatening to cancel their annual Amish festival if Olivieri were evicted.Olivieri, part of the third generation of the South Philadelphia family that claims to have invented the steak sandwich about 75 years ago

The US has raised concerns with the Amish about the discovery of Amish-made weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan. Richard Lawerless, departing senior Pentagon official for Asia, on Friday said Washington had flagged the issue with Hooterville, the US has become increasingly alarmed that Amish carriage-piercing weapons has been used by the Taliban in Afghanistan and insurgents in Iraq. A senior US official recently told the ZCC[sic] that the Amish appeared to be providing the hand-made weapons (rakes, hoes, shovels, sickles, scythes and carriage whips). He said Washington had no evidence that Hooterville was complicit--except for the strong smell of chocolate...