I was hoping for beginner’s luck when a friend introduced me to the rites of surf casting on South Beach one morning. It was a very early morning, by this retiree’s standards, anyway — barely rise and no shine. Are fish clear-eyed at this time of day? Would the early worm get the fish?

Garage With a View

The controversy over Joseph G. Moujabber’s illegal garage in Oak Bluffs has gone on for a long time — too long — and that may be the only point on which Mr. Moujabber and his neighbors can agree.

But the neighbors have good reason to be upset, and indeed, this conflict has struck a chord that has rung out around the Island, far beyond the North Bluff neighborhood of modest bungalows situated about a nine-iron shot from Nantucket Sound.

Spring Litter

Last week on Earth Day, 26 Island beaches were cleared of empty bottles and cans, plastic odds and ends and other debris. The beaches are much the better for it; 250 volunteers filled 250 bags.

It is fun to find an occasional treasure on a Vineyard beach after the long winter, but such treasures are few and far between. So the annual Earth Day Cleanup sponsored by the Vineyard Conservation Society is welcome each spring.

Museum in Limbo

Less than two years ago, the board and staff of the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society, now called the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, were brimming with optimism about their chances for raising twenty-five million or more dollars to pay for an extensive new campus in West Tisbury. The time had come, they said, to give the society’s extensive historical collection the display that it had long deserved, in a beautiful and spacious setting on property along the Panhandle Road.

Boycotting The Olympics

By Jesse Shayne>

The issue of boycotting the Beijing Olympics has been raised to a whole new level. Recently, when asked if he would attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics, President George W. Bush said he is not sure yet.

Warm temperatures may have shaken some Vineyarders out of their winter slump last week, but for Islanders who came across the kids enjoying Safe Haven camp, the surest sign of vitality was the joy on their faces.

Despite the small size of the crowd, the debate among Chilmark voters at their annual town meeting this week was passionate and at times heated.

On Monday night voters gathered at the Chilmark Community Center to take up a 27-article warrant. Moderator Everett H. Poole presided.

A total of 113 voters attended, well over the quorum requirement of 25.

It was a meeting which saw a rare moment when Mr. Poole laid aside his gavel for the third time in his 31-year career to speak from the floor.

Faced with a near-certain fiscal crisis due to pressure from state officials and political maneuverings on Beacon Hill, Dukes County Sheriff Michael McCormack has quietly agreed to trade his independence for a state takeover of his department.

Two weeks ago, Sheriff McCormack joined with the sheriffs of Barnstable, Norfolk and Plymouth counties to back an amendment to Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposed 2009 budget that would place the four sheriffs and their employees under control of the commonwealth.

It’s been a long day for Bob Moore, the 53-year-old director of the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School, and sprawled in his office chair at the front of the school, he’s having trouble recalling the school’s six pillars of education.

For 10 years, Mark Luce, innkeeper at the Dockside Inn and Oak House, has employed the same seven-member Jamaican extended family to help run his business. But this year, they won’t be coming.

Darren Morris hires the drivers for the Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority. Every year he hires 15 or 20 Bulgarian workers to drive buses. But this year, none.