Call it a laboratory for learning about health care on
Martha's Vineyard. Or call it the Foundation for Island Health.

Either way you get the same thing: A young Island foundation aimed
at testing a patient-centered, self-funded community health system whose
cornerstones are prevention, education and state-of-the-art technology.

Now, two years after it was launched, the outlines for the
foundation have begun to take on a little more definition.

House Backs New Bedford Vote on SSA Board

Whaling City Wins Most Issues; Two Islands Get Little in Return

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

BOSTON - Ending a four-year hostile crusade by the city of New
Bedford to restructure the Steamship Authority, state legislators
finally surrendered this week, approving a bill that meets nearly all
the demands of the Whaling City, including an immediate voting seat on
the boat line board of governors.

House Backs New Bedford Vote on SSA Board

Whaling City Wins Most Issues; Two Islands Get Little in Return

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

BOSTON - Ending a four-year hostile crusade by the city of New
Bedford to restructure the Steamship Authority, state legislators
finally surrendered this week, approving a bill that meets nearly all
the demands of the Whaling City, including an immediate voting seat on
the boat line board of governors.

House Backs New Bedford Vote on SSA Board

Whaling City Wins Most Issues; Two Islands Get Little in Return

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

BOSTON - Ending a four-year hostile crusade by the city of New
Bedford to restructure the Steamship Authority, state legislators
finally surrendered this week, approving a bill that meets nearly all
the demands of the Whaling City, including an immediate voting seat on
the boat line board of governors.

Island Summer Labor Market Avoids Shortages of Past Seasons

By JOSHUA SABATINI

The word spread from Martha's Vineyard to prospective summer
workers all over the world: The Island has a high cost of living and
there were fewer jobs available at the start of the season.

Adelphia Troubles Worry Vineyard Customers

By JOSHUA SABATINI

The concerns of the more than 9,000 Vineyard subscribers to Adelphia
cable and the six Island towns who last year signed a 10-year contract
with the cable company have come to the forefront as the company faces
possible bankruptcy and a potential buyout.

Special town meetings in June are supposed to be humdrum affairs, but the one coming up Tuesday in Oak Bluffs puts voters face-to-face with two of the most controversial issues in town and on the Island - cigarettes and mopeds.

Mary Jacobson knows that the Red Sox took a beating last week from
the Arizona Diamondbacks. She also knows that if you're teaching
math to a second-grade boy, it's not a bad idea to throw in some
baseball talk.

Seventh and eighth graders on the Island are consuming alcohol, smoking marijuana and having sex at rates far higher than middle schoolers from two years ago.

The way golf enthusiasts talk about the Island’s newest course — which officially opened just over a week ago off Edgartown-West Tisbury Road in Edgartown — you expect to see guys walking around the clubhouse wearing kilts.

Well, don’t worry. The course at the Vineyard Golf Club may be unforgiving Scottish-inspired design, but the garb is just the kind of pastel microfiber blends you’ll find on most any golf course in the country.

Make that private course. A membership costs about $300,000.