The Vineyarders are off and running.

And running. And running some more.

Featuring an unrelenting rushing attack and with several key
defensive plays, including a decisive turnover with less than a minute
to play, the Vineyard football team rumbled past Carver's
Crusaders, 21-14, in their season opener Friday night in Carver.

Some of the nation's best sailors gathered for a long weekend
in Edgartown to compete for prizes in the Shields Nationals. The three
days of racing began on Thursday. Twenty-nine boats with plenty of
sailors came from all over the East Coast and from as far away as
Illinois and California.

The boats raced in all kinds of weather, from high winds to light
air. The boats have open cockpits and most of the sailors wore wet
weather gear.

As Political Season Opens, Well-Funded Campaign Targets State Senate
Seat

By CHRIS BURRELL

Yard signs are starting to sprout on Island lawns, and fundraisers
are in the offing, but the real proof that a hot race is under way for a
spot on Beacon Hill came last week: Financial disclosures revealed the
war chests and spending of candidates for the state legislature.

The message is clear.

Judge Finds No Pollution Threat at Plant

By ALEXIS TONTI

Marking one more win for the town of Edgartown in a long running
legal battle, a superior court judge this month ruled that discharge
from the municipal wastewater treatment plant does not threaten the
water quality in the Edgartown Great Pond.

Sixty-year-old Kenny Metell of Edgartown has never caught a winning fish in all his years as a participant in the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, but on Sunday he hit the ground running. Mr. Metell weighed in the first fish of the derby.

A recreational fisherman died yesterday in the water around Quick's Hole after his power boat caught fire and sank.

The name of the victim had not been released at press time pending notification of next of kin.

Guiding Lights: New Principals Are on the Job at Two Schools

By CHRIS BURRELL

It's the day before school starts, and these two new
principals - on the job just four days - barely have even a
few minutes to stop and talk.

But in a short amount of time, Michael Halt and Diane Gandy manage
to reveal something about themselves - a worldliness they share
from experiences outside the realm of education and a giddiness about
where they've landed.

Take Mr. Halt, for starters.

Wampanoag Sovereignty Arguments Are Heard at State Supreme Court

By JULIA WELLS

Attorneys on both sides of the sovereign immunity dispute in the
town of Aquinnah took their arguments to the Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court this week, in a landmark case whose outcome is expected
to have far-reaching implications for every town on the Vineyard.

In the end the case will test the strength of the historic 1983
Indian land claims settlement agreement in this tiny town that is home
to the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).

The ashtrays at two private clubs in Oak Bluffs - the
Portuguese-American Club and the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall -
came off the bar counters and table tops this week and were moved to the
front porch.

The last bastions for smokers who liked to light up while hoisting a
beer with friends are now smoke-free zones. The Oak Bluffs board of
health voted unanimously Tuesday to ban smoking in the two private
clubs.

Kindergarten In Primary Colors on First Day

By C.K. WOLFSON

The real world has summoned. Parents, properly awed, understand that
the occasion is momentous, and are freeze-frame struck by the sudden
awareness of time having passed. Cautiously they enter room 119 at the
Edgartown School, their children clinging to them like velcro.