Now Mitt Romney has picked as his running mate the guy who has been gunning for Medicare! With Romney’s support, Ryan would end Medicare as we know it. This plan was part of a national budget that Ryan authored that is so radical that the New York Times called it “the most extreme budget plan passed by a House of Congress in modern times.”

Peter Robb’s assertion, in his letter published August 3, that “the top 1 per cent already pay 70 per cent of federal taxes and the top 20 per cent pay 95 per cent of the taxes” is so far from the truth that it deserves four Pinnochios.

On opening day of the 151st Agricultural Fair, Joseph and Jonathan Ruzzo, ages seven and four respectively, ran back and forth from the big barn to the judging stand, each time carrying a new set of goats in their arms. They wore knee-high rain boots and looked like seasoned pros, although this was their first time participating in the fair.

A group of retired athletes, academics, writers and social activists convened a forum on race and gender in sports here this week, and generally described a bleak landscape for the African American athlete in the 21st century.

The Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, headed by Prof. Charles J. Ogletree Jr., staged its annual Vineyard forum Wednesday, this year entitled Between the Lines: Race and Gender in Sports in the 21st Century.

As heated debate continues to swirl in Chilmark and beyond over how and whether to regulate very large houses, town planning board leaders said this week they were ready to send a draft bylaw to town counsel for review.

To anyone who has spent a languid summer afternoon tumbling in the waves on South Beach or watched the earth’s closest star dip into the horizon at Menemsha, the ocean can seem eternal and unchanging. But scientists are increasingly discovering that human activity is transforming what was once thought to be an invulnerable resource. The ocean is getting warmer, more acidic, louder and filled with the detritus of civilization. What effect these changes will have on the ocean’s inhabitants in the decades to come is unclear.

Temperature: Precip.

Day Max. Min. Inches.

Fº Fº

August 10 82 70 .00

August 11 81 70 .68

August 12 80 70 .48

August 13 80 69 .04

August 14 83 65 Trace

August 15 85 69 .00

August 16 81 67 .66

Water temperature in Edgartown harbor: 79º F.

A thin crescent moon will appear low in the southwestern sky on Monday night. The moon is three days old; only those with an unobstructed view of the southwest will see it soon after sunset.

Married in the Rain

Bena Lucia Duran and Eric James Bowen of Ladera Ranch, Calif. were married Saturday, August 11, with pouring showers, on the front porch at the family house in Oak Bluffs.

Walking in to acoustic guitar music, sharing vows in front of family and friends, the skies dried after dinner for dancing under the stars.

The third try was the charm for the Edgartown Shellfish department. After two attempts earlier this month to open up Edgartown Great Pond to the Atlantic Ocean, shellfish constable Paul Bagnall and his crew finally succeeded Monday in creating a channel through the South Shore, allowing the freshwater and the saltwater to mingle, as it were.

The third try was the charm for the Edgartown Shellfish department. After two attempts earlier this month to open up Edgartown Great Pond to the Atlantic Ocean, shellfish constable Paul Bagnall and his crew finally succeeded Monday in creating a channel through the South Shore, allowing the freshwater and the saltwater to mingle, as it were.