Are rabbits really to blame for last summer's outbreak of tularemia and for what could be a repeat performance this year?

Sam Telford, a parasitologist from Harvard University and the newest member of a team sent here to investigate why such a rare disease has taken hold on the Vineyard, doesn't think so. What's more, Mr. Telford is just as skeptical about the prevailing theory that most victims breathed in air particles contaminated with the tularemia bacteria.

Not even a last-ditch effort - complete with a petition, more rhetoric and a town health official's surprising endorsement - could stop the smoking ban that went into effect Sunday in Island bars.

Golf Developers Target MVC

By JULIA WELLS

The developers who want to build a luxury golf club in the
southern woodlands section of Oak Bluffs aimed conflict of
interest charges at five members of the Martha's Vineyard
Commission last week, just days before a public hearing was due
to open on a new plan for the golf club.

Army Worms Invade Chappy

By JULIA WELLS

The people of Chappaquiddick may have declared an uneasy
truce in their recent war of words over whether to enact a
district of critical planning concern, but this week there was
an army on the move on the small island at the extreme eastern
end of Edgartown - and it had nothing to do with building
moratoriums or long-range planning.

It was an army of worms - in fact an army of army worms -
and at Pimpneymouse Farm they had just finished plundering a
large hayfield on the southwest corner of the farm.

Vineyard Braces for Holiday

By MANDY LOCKE

With Fourth of July falling in the middle of this coming
week, predictions about when the great surge of holiday visitors
will reach the Island are as uncertain as forecasting Vineyard
weather.

A new team of scientists, including one from the federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has begun
arriving on the Island to investigate what could be another
outbreak of pneumonic tularemia, and they are calling on
landscapers to help.

You can tell from his paintings that Stan Murphy likes work, especially the physical kind that toughens the hands.

Rebecca Gilbert and Randy Ben David have roots - both the
human and botanical variety.

On their farm off North Road in Chilmark they grow root
vegetables such as beets, carrots and onions, and they have wild
root herbs including sweet grass and ginseng.

Rebecca and Randy also have family roots that run as deep as
the rich, sweet soil they cultivate without chemical fertilizers
or pesticides.

The idea is not new. Dr. Milton Mazer had it some 30 years ago when he did his paradigm social psychology study on the Island that resulted in the book People and Predicaments. Dr. Felton Earls had it a few years later, when he launched a long-term study of how Island children handle stress.

Special town meetings are supposed to be tame housekeeping
affairs, but Thursday's session in Oak Bluffs will steer voters
into some dicey territory — asking them to reconsider the ban on
smoking in bars and to release $110,000 to settle unspecified
lawsuits against the town.