We’ve got a new update following the March 27 explosion at the Spartansburg, Pennsylvania Amish school which left three girls seriously injured. Two of the girls were aged 6 and 11, and are students at the school, while the third girl, age 17, is their teacher. We learn in the update (shared in full below) that the 11-year-old and 17-year-old are sisters. Following the early-morning…
Last April, we learned of the theft of five Labradoodle puppies from an Amish farm in Lancaster County. Someone had slipped into the barn under cover of night, taken the pups — and also made off with the owner’s “black box” phone and a piece of paper. At the time, police were investigating, and a suspect hadn’t been named. And that was the last we…
Here’s something you don’t come across every day — an Amish homestead for sale in Mississippi. The Randolph community in Pontotoc County is one of only two Amish settlements in the entire Deep South. It was founded in 1995, primarily by settlers from the community at Ethridge, Tennessee — and close ties between the two communities remain. This is a Swartzentruber Amish community — one…
According to local officials,Amish traffic in Branch County, Michigan has been destroying roads – despite the county spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain them. And unlike in other cases, this goes beyond standard buggy traffic. From the Coldwater Daily Reporter: [Manager Jay] Miller said that despite hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on Ray-Quincy, Copeland, and Hamman Roads over the last three years,…
If you’ve followed my stops through the Somerset County, Pennsylvania Amish settlement these past several months – starting at the charming backroad bakery, stopping in at the tiny farm stand, and on to the hidden variety store – we now come to the final Amish business I visited on this wintry mid-December day. And I actually went one state over to reach it. That sounds…
In early March, an Amish man named Jason Yoder, age 30, was killed in a chain-reaction crash on a Holmes County, Ohio highway while riding an e-bike. The accident – which also left a Good Samaritan in critical condition – has put the spotlight back on safety concerns over the e-bike. As we’ve covered before, e-bikes have skyrocketed in popularity among Amish in the Holmes…
This year will mark the 20th anniversary of the Nickel Mines school shootings, in which five Amish girls were killed, and another five wounded (with a sixth girl passing away years later due to long-term effects of her injuries). BBC Radio 4 has done a program looking back at the incident, and including comments from the shooter Charlie Roberts’ wife, and how she endured the…
An Amish buggy horse lost its life. But fortunately no people were hurt. It’s a sad case and raises some questions. But I suppose the people involved also have to count their blessings, for it could have been far worse. This incident happened in Gallia County, Ohio on Friday evening. First, from the report at WTAP: RIO GRANDE, Ohio (WTAP) — The Ohio State Highway…
A new report draws attention to a study which found that over 46% of crashes in the study set were caused by “motor vehicle driver error.” Update: That is in all likelihood under-reporting the percentage, as Walter Boomsma points out in the first comment below. Headline has been accordingly updated, and hat-tip to Walter, who notes that when only considering the crashes where causes have…
Ben and Rose have released a song in time for Easter. This is a more contemporary tune, called “Mighty to Save”, originally written and performed by members of Hillsong Church. The description reads: “Ben & Rose sing “Mighty to Save” written by Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan celebrating Resurrection Day!” This one has a bit different feel to it. It kicks off with some nice…