Moving with a Brazilian Beat, Businesses Lure New Customers

By CHRIS BURRELL

Walk down aisle nine toward the meat department at Reliable
Self-Service Market in Oak Bluffs, and you quickly notice something
different about the stock that now dominates the left lane. The coconut
milk, the sacks of bulgur wheat and the jars of chocolate cream and
eggplant paté are geared toward consumers whom some Island
businesses say they can't afford to ignore - Brazilians.

Debate Continues on Fair Share in Up-Island School Finances

By CHRIS BURRELL

Voters in West Tisbury will need more than a calculator to sort out
the dispute raging up-Island over school costs.

Less than one week after Vineyard schools leaders unveiled financial
scenarios showing that it would cost West Tisbury more than $600,000 in
one year if it withdrew from the school region, the finance committee is
busily crunching numbers and reaching an entirely different conclusion.

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) is launching two large building projects on the 190 acres of tribal land surrounding their headquarters in Aquinnah.

Over the next year and a half, the tribe plans to construct a community health center and a health and human services facility. The new structures are part of the tribe's master plan - a wish list of meeting rooms, health clinics, playing fields and a campsite the Wampanoags hope to complete in the next five years.

Foes of Patriot Act Convince Aquinnah

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

Aquinnah voters unanimously approved a resolution challenging the
Patriot Act at their special town meeting on Wednesday. The voice vote
brought unified applause. For those campaigning to bring the resolution
to other towns, the support was firm.

Specifically, the resolution aims to exempt the town from articles
in the USA Patriot Act, passed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,
2001, which limit the protections guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

Dukes County sheriff Michael McCormack confirmed this week that he
called for state police to investigate allegations of officer collusion
in two separate inmate beatings at the Dukes County House of Correction.

Mr. McCormack asked for the investigation last November after an
inmate charged that correctional officers had been involved in two
assaults last year. He said the investigation could be concluded by the
end of this month.

On the Islander: Ferry Riders Say Security Policy Will Not Float

By ALEXIS TONTI

On Tuesday morning the mezzanine deck of the Islander filled
quickly: the tables went first, then the bench seating. The passengers
went above - stopping for conversation or to buy coffee -
and back down the starboard side, toting shopping bags and luggage and
more than a few dogs.

Chilmarkers had just days from the time Alex Preston announced his plans to step aside as selectman to the deadline for returning papers for town office. In that short span, two candidates, J.B. Riggs Parker and Mary Murphy Boyd, stepped up to give the town what promises to be a lively, multigenerational race.

Both candidates are familiar figures in town and deeply rooted in Chilmark's affairs. Election day on April 28 will offer voters a choice between an Island political veteran and a young teacher making her first venture into the political arena.

A proposed hike in landing fees at Logan International Airport in
Boston could end up putting the Vineyard's main airline carrier,
CapeAir, out of business, its chief executive said.

SSA Management Sets a Course for Collision on Security Measures

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Turning a deaf ear on the growing uproar among Islanders over a
controversial new policy that will bar people from staying in their cars
on board ferries, senior managers at the Steamship Authority announced
flatly this week that the policy is expected to go into effect sometime
later this month.

Oak Bluffs Is Set to Accept Bid for Vineyard's Largest Library

By CHRIS BURRELL

The backyard of Oak Bluffs town hall doesn't look like much
now, but sometime this spring on a patch of dirt and grass that was once
a school playground, the Island's largest public library will
begin to rise up.

Bids for the new library were opened last week, and six of the seven
came within the $3.5 million budget.