The sword of Damocles apparently will dangle a while longer over the
finances of Dukes County government.

The county commission tentatively had slated a meeting for tomorrow
with the finance advisory board to discuss strategy in what could be a
major legal judgment against the county. But county manager E. Winn
Davis said yesterday the meeting had been canceled.

The 144th annual Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair set records in attendance, and participation, resulting in shortages in unexpected ways.

"This is even better than the Clinton years," said fair manager Eleanor Neubert, who reported attendance of 29,022 over the four-day fair, up more than a thousand from last year.

State Health Officials Document Increase in Tick-Borne Illnesses

By BRIEN HEFLER

Massachusetts public health officials have confirmed eight cases of
tularemia on the Island this year, the highest number since 2000, when
15 people were diagnosed. The report raises the number of confirmed
tularemia cases to 37 since the summer of 2000 and marks the sixth
successive summer that the rare disease has been documented on the
Island.

Boat Line Will Purchase Replacement Fast Ferry to Ply Nantucket
Route

By James Kinsella
Gazette Senior Writer

NANTUCKET - If at first you don't get it right, spend
almost $10 million to do it again. That is the approach taken by the
Steamship Authority, whose board of governors yesterday approved
spending $9.5 million to buy a high-speed passenger ferry to replace the
the problem-plagued Flying Cloud. The vessel is planned for the
Hyannis-Nantucket route.

MVC Chairman Blazes Housing Trail

By IAN FEIN

A pending proposal by the chairman of the Martha's Vineyard
Commission to carve a one-acre affordable housing lot off her West
Tisbury property has drawn criticism from one of the Island's most
vocal affordable housing advocates who lives next door.

Planning board members, who are now considering the proposal, in
turn criticized the housing advocate last month for what they suggested
was a hypocritical opposition.

Even before the lanterns were lit for the 136th Grand Illumination the grounds of the Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Association were aglow with lights. Children and adults streamed into the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs with blue, green and red glow sticks, glowing necklaces and flashing earrings.

The annual event is one of the cornerstones of an Island summer and has its roots in the time of Methodist camp meetings. The first Illumination Night took place in 1869 in honor of Governor's Day and was sponsored by the Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company.

Fisheries scientists reported this week that despite the tightest fishing regulations in history, cod stocks on Georges Bank declined as much as 23 per cent between 2001 to 2004. And when the numbers are counted for 2005, the picture may be even worse.

Commercial landings of Georges Bank cod by fishermen have also seen a precipitous drop. Fishermen landed 12,330 metric tons in 2001. Last year, the landings dropped to 4,583 metric tons - the lowest recorded in the history of cod fishing.

It may be only a few minutes shy of 10:30 in the morning, but as
Rocky Magnuson reminds the stream of people walking by, it's never
too early to enjoy a little kettle corn.

It is the crescendoing sound of summer, the shouts and giggles of
children outmatched only by a chorus of tractors and generators humming
and chugging in the distance.

It is the sweet smells of August, of cotton candy, fried dough,
greasy hamburgers and sticky sno-cones mixing in the thick afternoon
air.

It is the centrifugal force of the Sizzler, the lofty arch of the
ferris wheel and the rush of air on the face as bodies move higher and
faster toward the sky.

Fraud Charged in Tax Hearing

Attorneys for William W. Graham File Motion to Exclude Testimony of
Key Witnesses for Town, Cite Ongoing Contradictions

By IAN FEIN

BOSTON - Alleging that West Tisbury assessors and their
counsel may have deliberately withheld vital information from their own
expert appraiser, attorneys for West Tisbury resident William W. Graham
filed a motion yesterday to exclude the testimony of the town's
two key witnesses in a complex legal hearing before the Massachusetts
Appellate Tax Board.