The search for a new chief executive officer for the Steamship
Authority took an unexpected turn late yesterday when one of the leading
candidates for the job suddenly dropped out.

A month ago, the death decree for an Oak Bluffs dog implicated in a cat-killing incident was unanimous. But last week, acting on an appeal from the dog's owners, Edgartown district court magistrate Thomas Teller spared the pet's life and overturned the ruling of all five Oak Bluffs selectmen.

State Attorney General Files Brief in MVC Case

By JULIA WELLS

The Massachusetts Attorney General sided with a Connecticut housing
developer this week in a key legal dispute that is expected to decide
whether the Martha's Vineyard Commission has the right to review
low and moderate income housing projects under Chapter 40B, a section of
state law commonly known as the anti-snob zoning statute.

The groundbreaking case goes to the heart of the unique powers
vested in the commission by the state legislature more than 25 years
ago.

Tisbury Police Ask Voters for Staff Help

Union Wants Two Additional Officers;Issue Will Appear as April
Article on Town Meeting Warrant

By JOSHUA SABATINI

An unprecedented move by the Tisbury police union will put the
debate over staffing of the town police force before the voters at town
meeting time in April.

From the start, scientists have viewed the outbreak of tularemia on Martha's Vineyard as an ecological puzzle, never a case of bio-terrorism, despite tularemia's recognized status as a bacteria ideally suited for terrorism.

Steamship Authority Board Interviews Strong Field of Finalists for
CEO Position

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

The key to success for the Steamship Authority, a Coast Guard
admiral said yesterday, is to be clear in its own vision.

"I would set the vision for the organization," said Rear
Adm. George Naccara. "But I also need to know what the board
expects from me - what is your long-term vision?"

When the groundhog awakens from his long winter nap tomorrow at
dawn, he will rise from his hole in the ground and think he overslept.
If he lived on the Vineyard, he'd think it was already spring.

Forsythia are in bloom, and in the past week there have been
sightings of honeybees and, in West Tisbury, a butterfly. Snow drops are
in bloom in various places from Edgartown to West Tisbury.

It's probably not what any jail warden expected an art class
to look like: inmates wrapping sheets of glass and whole plates in a
towel and then smashing them to bits. Depending on how you looked at it,
the razorlike shards were either a huge security risk or an innovative
art material critical for making mosaics.

Three weeks after a leading surgeon at Martha's Vineyard
Hospital submitted his resignation, hospital board trustees devoted an
entire press conference to the matter, also releasing new letters, from
both the surgeon and a group of doctors, that paint a picture of souring
relations between hospital leadership and the medical staff.

State Budget Cuts for Dental Care for Low Income Families Threaten to Shut Down Facility in June