Many Businesses Report a Healthy Summer

By JACK SHEA

Two months of warm, sunny weather and a modest but not overwhelming
increase in visitors over last year combined to make a rosy
end-of-season business report - at least by most accounts.

Heading into Labor Day weekend, some Island businesses are reporting
gains of five to seven per cent over last year, while some retailers and
restaurants had gains of 10 per cent or more.

Study Released by Youth Task Force Shows Drinking Remains Prevalent,
but Fewer Teens Smoke Cigarettes

Survey results released this week about risky behavior among Island
middle school and high school students reveal few surprises about drug
and alcohol use.

Globally, women are the fastest growing population of people
infected with AIDS. And women and girls of color in the United States
and around the world have been hit the hardest.

Two of Us: Robert and Marietta Cleasby: So Many Camp Ground Summers,
This Couple Has Stopped Counting

John Edwards came out swinging not only against Republicans, but also against his Democratic opponents during his Friday night campaign stop on Martha's Vineyard.

Mr. Edwards, struggling behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the contest for the party's nomination, said Mrs. Clinton was uncommitted to the big changes America had to make, and Mr. Obama was too conciliatory in his pursuit of change.

Chappaquiddick Homes Allowed

Appeals Court Backs Edgartown in Affordable Homesite Case; Attorney
for Town Blasts Ten Suing Neighbors

By JULIA WELLS

Without reservation, the Massachusetts Court of Appeals upheld the
town of Edgartown last week in the Chappaquiddick affordable homesite
case that has attracted attention throughout the Cape and Islands
region.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Saturday called the Bush administration incompetent, the federal Katrina response an embarrassment and the national health care crisis a moral imperative.

Amid compliments and congratulations, the Martha's Vineyard
Commission on Thursday unanimously approved the 35,000-square-foot YMCA
building to be built across from the regional high school on
Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road following a whirlwind session of
deliberations that wrapped up in under ninety minutes.

Boat Line Reports Summer Traffic Is Up

By MIKE SECCOMBE

If the traffic on Vineyard roads seems worse this summer and the
straggling crowds more numerous, it's not an illusion. The most
recent figures on ferry traffic prove it.

Numbers released by the Steamship Authority this week show more than
230,000 passengers and almost 40,000 cars were carried for the month of
June alone, a six per cent increase in people and almost three per cent
increase in cars compared with last June.

For the second time in his life, Dr. Kenneth Edelin on Tuesday
evening stood at the Shearer Cottage in Oak Bluffs plagued by
uncertainty. Thirty-two years and six days earlier, a group of Oak
Bluffs women had organized a benefit dance at the cottage to help raise
funds for the young doctor's legal fees. He had just been
convicted of manslaughter for performing a late-term abortion.