After nearly two days of foundering in the surf near a remote coastline in Aquinnah with hundreds of gallons of fuel on board, the Sherry Ann, a 46-foot offshore lobster boat out of Westport, was freed from her unwanted rocky berth and towed to a nearby salvage barge Thursday afternoon.

The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) yesterday announced its intention to file a lawsuit against Gov. Deval Patrick, and possibly also the town of Aquinnah, to protect its right to build a casino in southeastern Massachusetts and on the Vineyard.

Scott Crowell, a Washington state attorney who represents the Vineyard Wampanoags, said yesterday the tribe will file a lawsuit on Sept. 3 in federal district court.

More than a week after a two-car accident on the Fourth of July that proved fatal, two people involved in the accident remain in Boston hospitals.

Seth Jones, 26, of Dummer, N.H., was listed in serious condition at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston on Thursday, a hospital spokesman said. His mother, Margaret Jones, 51, was listed in good condition.

On Saturday, Mr. Jones’ girlfriend, Heather L. Laflamme, 21, died at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston after she was critically injured in the car accident on Barnes Road.

A rare algal bloom has shut down shellfishing in Lake Tashmoo during a week where other Vineyard swimming spots were closed because of bacteria.

Seth’s Pond, the popular swimming hole in West Tisbury, has been closed to swimmers for more than a week because of high levels of enterococcus bacteria. The same bacteria led to a brief closure of Pay Beach in Oak Bluffs.

Starting Wednesday, Lake Tashmoo was closed to shellfishing because of a toxic algae bloom that some said is rare to Vineyard ponds.

Lyme disease, the tick-borne illness that has been documented at epidemic levels on the Vineyard, is now the focus of a growing public health initiative that involves Island doctors, boards of health and university researchers.

The initiative, which aims to zero in on prevention, education, and improved data collection, is seen by at least one leading expert as a possible model for the rest of the state.

Kristen Kusama-Hinte arrived on-Island in early June. A couple of weeks later, her son had a fever. She tended to him, sleeping on the floor by his side. She checked her own and discovered a 100-degree temperature and didn’t pay much attention. She got a stiff neck and again didn’t pay much heed. When a terrible headache hit, she knew something was wrong.

The Highlands, as they are familiarly known, are located on East Chop, the general boundary being laid out like the Methodist Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs, with a central circle ringed by house lots along curving avenues.

The Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard has some beautiful cats available for adoption. They are: Butter and Chloe, two beautiful tortoiseshells; Deacon and Mango, two handsome ginger tiger cats; Panchie, a gray and white whose owner died recently; Thor, a big, older gentleman who really needs to have a home of his own. The shelter also has two adorable tiger kittens, Julia and Meredith, who are only six or seven weeks old and may be adopted by the time this appears in print. Anyone who wants a kitten may sign up on the shelter wish list and will be called as soon as one becomes available for adoption.

If you live on the Vineyard and haven’t had Lyme disease, it’s a good bet you know someone who has. The risk of contracting the disease while hiking, gardening or just headed to the beach is at its peak right now, when the nymphal deer tick that carries it is most active.

Oh what fresh hell is this?

Those were Dorothy Parker’s words, and who knows to what original hell she referred? Her wry brand of anguish has entered the lexicon of familiar quotations; we can invoke it for any horror, from a splash of red wine on a white shirt to a six-car pileup on the San Bernardino Freeway.