From WKBN: Approximately 200 Amish residents in Trumbull County gathered at the Mesopotamia fire station Monday evening for an open forum to discuss drug issues relating to heroin and methamphetamine. The meeting was called at the request of bishops within the Amish community, who reached out to police for help. Our station was asked not to show video from inside the meeting, but two police…
From the Watertown Daily Times: CANTON — An Amish couple is waiting to find out if child neglect charges against them will be dropped following a closed-door conference Thursday in Family Court. The couple, Annie L. and Levi M. Shetler, were charged last year after they refused open-heart surgery for their newborn daughter, Sarah, because they said the operation goes against the tenets of their…
A reader shares: It is not uncommon to see buggies in the NE Indiana community with stickers on their SMV triangles. Â I have seen Jayco stickers, KZ RV stickers, logos of fish, deer, horses, and a few religious bumper stickers. Â And it’s not just the youth either. Â I have seen several married people with stickers on their buggies. The youth are more likely to have…
Just out in the Columbus Dispatch, news on a possible compromise over the outhouse issue in the Amish community in Hardin County, Ohio: KENTON, Ohio — A truce has been reached, at least for now, between the Amish of Hardin County and health officials. The two sides have been at odds over rules for wells and outhouses at new Amish homes. With a clock ticking…
Energy companies are apparently losing enthusiasm for oil drilling in Ohio’s Utica Shale. Â Oil in the Utica has proven more difficult than expected to extract, according to this article from Bloomberg: U.S. drillers that set up rigs amid the rolling farmland of eastern Ohio on projections underground shale held $500 billion of oil are packing up. Four of the biggest stakeholders in untapped deposits known…
Amish in Hardin County, Ohio are embroiled in an outhouse controversy that’s been percolating for the past year (more details here). Amish are balking at requirements that new homes have a “proper well”, paid waste removal, and septic system. Common practice in this community is to spread outhouse waste on the fields. Health and environmental concerns are the reasons given for enforcement. Interestingly, old homes…
Fracking is slowly entering the Amish community at New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, located an hour north of Pittsburgh. The community lies above the Marcellus Shale, an underground rock formation stretching across a half-dozen states which contains vast supplies of natural gas. Fracking, in a nutshell, works by drilling into rock formations, and then injecting large amounts of water mixed with chemicals and sand to fracture the…
Over the weekend a number of readers sent me a Lancaster Online article which happens to be the best behind-the-scenes look at the ‘Amish Mafia‘ program, and reaction to it, that I’ve read. Â Some highlights below. On main character Lebanon Levi, from an Amish-raised man who knows him: “He’d rather sit back in a corner than go after somebody,” the man said, claiming he’s hung…
What are the boundaries of Amish work?  Besides tech limitations, conscience corrals the jobs Amish will do.  Morally-questionable businesses are out-of-bounds.  For instance, you won’t find Amish working at reservation casinos in Wisconsin, or selling liquor in downtown Philadelphia. But what about working in vineyards?  Grape cultivation falls under agriculture, a comfortable occupational zone for Amish.  Many Amish have their own home vines, using their…
A reader shares a photo of an Amish-owned business in the Shipshewana area of northern Indiana. Is paintball popular among young people in this community?  I’ve heard of paintball guns being used by Amish youth before, notably in a tragic incident involving Amish teen pranksters in Ohio. This isn’t the only sports facility owned by an Amish person.  The 850 Center is another notable one in…