Lancaster County

LANCASTER, Pa. - Lancaster's rolling hills are steeped in the traditions of the Amish, whose plain dress and humility are as much a tourist lure as their quilts and pies. But, as an iconic symbol, this Lancaster image could need a revision. Instead of Zerbe's potato chips, think chicharrones. Egg casserole? How about chilaquiles ? Pulled pork? Did someone say lechón asado ? Increasingly, the flavors of this south-central Pennsylvania region - famous for its mud sales and outlets - bear a marked Latin accent that goes beyond language and cuisine.

An ultralight aircraft with one person on board crashed at Smoketown Airport in Lancaster County about 5:45 p.m. Saturday, Federal Aviation Administration officials said. The county coroner's office identified the dead man as 30-year-old Michael Blank, but information on his hometown was not available. The Lancaster Intelligencer Journal reported Saturday night that the crash occurred shortly after takeoff. The cause of the crash was as yet unknown, pending an investigation at the scene.

A 13-year-old Lancaster County boy was killed by lightning Thursday night while baling hay with his father. Levi Lantz had been walking next to a horse-drawn baler on a farm on the 1100 block of Bartville Road in Sadsbury Township about 7:30 p.m., when the father, driving a team of horses, felt a tingling and heard a loud clap. He turned to see his son on the ground, according to Lancaster Online and WGAL-TV. Sadsbury Township borders Chester County and is about 20 miles west of Downingtown.

Pennsylvania's Judicial Conduct Board filed formal charges Friday against a Lancaster County district judge who had pleaded guilty to fixing her own traffic tickets. In November 2010, Kelly S. Ballentine received three summary traffic citations totaling $268.50 - two for parking violations and one for an expired registrations for a BMW sedan. Ballentine entered the court's computer system and dismissed her tickets. She pleaded guilty Feb. 1 to tampering with public records. Ballentine, 44, was elected a judge in January 2006.

Collectors and students of Americana expect something special when the Heritage Center of Lancaster County announces a new exhibition. This small historical museum, which fills the old city hall next to the farmers market in Penn Square in downtown Lancaster, has, in the past, featured Lancaster County quilts, coverlets, samplers, pewter, silver, pottery - even saddles and gravestones. This year's exhibition, which closes Dec. 20, focuses on elaborately carved and engraved long rifles and Federal furniture made in Lancaster County.

Head out toward the rolling fields of Amish Country and then past the quaint gentlefolk with their 19th-century ways. Go beyond the plentiful tourists they attract, the ersatz bargain outlets, "authentic" Amish farms and the traffic. Follow my family and me to an out-of-the-way corner of western Lancaster County that has its roots in the colonial period and whose residents are not German Amish or Mennonite but predominantly proud Scotch and Irish. Come to a place still wrapped in the mystique of the Susquehanna River trade that fueled America's westward expansion before the railroad barons gave the doctrine of "Manifest Destiny" its most powerful push.

Two Delaware County men were among three men arrested in the killing of a Lancaster County man during a robbery and home invasion on Aug. 18 Brothers Kyle "Chunks" Wunder, 22, and Cody Wunder, 24, of Aston, and Stephen M. Harmer, 26, of Kirkwood, Lancaster County, were charged Wednesday with homicide, burglary, robbery, and conspiracy, and held without bail at Lancaster County Prison. Authorities say the trio plotted to rob the home of Douglas C. Herr, 62, in Drumore Township on Aug. 17 because they knew he had a safe containing $200,000.

Lancaster County, where 300 years of history and tradition enrich a landscape that is one of America's great cultural treasures, is at a crossroad. Facing a juggernaut of proposed development, officials in four communities will make decisions over the next few weeks that could permanently mar Lancaster County's face and irrevocably alter its way of life. Large developers and national retailers are proposing to build four sprawling developments: a 500,000-square-foot "power center" (a cluster of superstores)

Tom Herr is the National League representative to the Player Relations Committee, so he has spent a lot of time lately discussing collusion and arbitration and salary caps and revenue-sharing. But one night last week, in the lobby of the Lancaster Sheraton, a few miles from his home, the Phillies' second baseman wasn't talking about that stuff. He was talking about the game, and about his home. "When you're younger, your love for baseball stems from playing the game," said Herr, who turns 34 on the day after opening day, provided the season begins on April 3. "If there are dark clouds in the sky and the threat of rain, you feel just doomed, because you might not get to play.

Marian Martin, owner of a charming little nursery in Lancaster County, shares her favorite springtime plants. www.inquirer.com/ginny

It's Thursday morning, the air is crisp - 52 degrees - and Audrey Gillespie, Margaret Hunter, Peg Fitzhenry, and Donna Cole are exercising their annual rite of spring: a daylong trek to the Amish and Mennonite plant nurseries that straddle the Lancaster and Chester County line. The itinerary, long familiar to serious gardeners in the region, but virtually unknown to everyone else, is meticulously plotted in advance. It would take almost eight hours and 124 miles to complete, and would include nine stops - eight greenhouses and farm markets that sell plants, with a quick lunch at a Pennsylvania Dutch eatery in Blue Ball, where hamburgers cost $2.35 and lettuce-and-tomato sandwiches a nickel more.

Lee Heist's phone won't stop ringing. Just about every five minutes, it chimes with calls, from New York, from Philadelphia, from Lancaster County. They're calling with questions about Brenda Heist - Heist's ex-wife, who disappeared from Lititz, Pa., without a trace 11 years ago. After years of futile investigation, Brenda Heist was declared dead in 2009. Lee Heist, who was once a prime suspect in her disappearance, began a new life: He remarried four years ago and lives in a modest ranch house in Norristown with his wife and dogs.

Repurposing an existing drug, researchers in Lancaster and Philadelphia reported last week that they had prevented seizures in an extremely rare form of epilepsy and suggested future lines of attack against more common types of the disorder. The immediate finding involves a neurodevelopmental disorder almost unheard of in the general population. But an estimated 4 percent of Old Order Mennonites in Lancaster County carry the genetic mutation. Offspring of two carriers develop what the community calls "pretzel syndrome" because of the odd patterns babies form with their limbs.

Three Lancaster County residents were arrested Tuesday in the alleged importation and distribution of thousands of dollars worth of heroin in Lancaster and Berks Counties and Philadelphia. Jennifer Galarza, 35, of Lancaster, considered the leader, was charged with seven counts of delivery of heroin and one count of criminal conspiracy, according to a spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's Office. Investigators have called her a significant source of heroin in Lancaster County.

An ultralight aircraft with one person on board crashed at Smoketown Airport in Lancaster County about 5:45 p.m. Saturday, Federal Aviation Administration officials said. The county coroner's office identified the dead man as 30-year-old Michael Blank, but information on his hometown was not available. The Lancaster Intelligencer Journal reported Saturday night that the crash occurred shortly after takeoff. The cause of the crash was as yet unknown, pending an investigation at the scene.

Pennsylvania's Judicial Conduct Board filed formal charges Friday against a Lancaster County district judge who had pleaded guilty to fixing her own traffic tickets. In November 2010, Kelly S. Ballentine received three summary traffic citations totaling $268.50 - two for parking violations and one for an expired registrations for a BMW sedan. Ballentine entered the court's computer system and dismissed her tickets. She pleaded guilty Feb. 1 to tampering with public records. Ballentine, 44, was elected a judge in January 2006.

PARADISE, Pa. - Authorities have confirmed that a tornado caused a pavilion to collapse at a Lancaster County park, injuring 15 people and causing millions of dollars in damage. The EF-1 tornado touched down shortly after 8 p.m. Friday and over the next 10 minutes traveled about 16 miles from Fern Glen to Paradise in Lancaster County, packing maximum winds of 100 to 110 m.p.h., the National Weather Service said Sunday. Officials said several dozen people attending a baseball game near Paradise sought shelter at the 40-by-40-foot pavilion, but high winds collapsed it. Police said 10 to 12 people were injured, but the weather service put the injury total at 15. Authorities said most of the injuries were minor; one person had a broken bone.