Dean’s List

Samantha Rose Smith of Chilmark has been named to the dean’s list at Bridgewater State University for the spring 2012 semester. Ms. Smith is majoring in Sociology, Early Childhood Education, Special Education and Sign Language.

Residential developments, historically perceived as a threat to wildlife habitats, are taking on a positive role through a new Nature Conservancy program called the Vineyard Habitat Network.

Residences that can actually foster healthy habitats? It’s not only possible, it’s being done already, habitat officials say.

Through conversation and rainy walks around West Chop, Art Buchwald, William Styron and Mike Wallace — dubbed The Blues Brothers — battled depression together.

And then the three men, each luminaries in their field — Mr. Buchwald, a humorist, Mr. Styron, a novelist, and Mr. Wallace, a journalist — took their struggle with mental illness public, using their talents and fame to lessen the stigma of depression and other illnesses.

We ordinarily associate fire with devastation, a barely controllable force that overtakes everything in its path. The metaphor is used throughout Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke’s Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare, which screened before a sold-out crowd of over 300 people Wednesday night at the Chilmark Community Center. The showing was followed by two lengthy discussion sessions nearly the duration of the film itself (the documentary is 95 minutes long).

Please Adopt Us

The Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard is grateful to all the people who have helped empty the cages at the shelter in the past few weeks by adopting cats.

The shelter now has only a few cats available for adoption. They are: Pete, a short-haired ginger tabby; Rex an older tuxedo cat who needs an understanding, gentle owner; and Sweet Potato, a young male tabby.

Parking in the North Bluff neighborhood of Oak Bluffs was back up for discussion on Tuesday, with several neighborhood residents saying a decision to create diagonal parking was creating safety issues.

Parking on Sea View avenue extension, which runs between the Steamship Authority terminal and the Island Queen ferry terminal, was recently changed from parallel parking to diagonal parking.

The family of a well-regarded avid sailor this week formally announced the establishment of a scholarship in his name, the Donald Rappaport Legacy Scholarship. Mr. Rappaport, 84, died a year ago on August 12. His home was in Washington, D.C. and he spent many summers sailing on the Vineyard. While he was very accomplished in his service to the federal government as a former chief financial officer and chief information officer of the U.S. Department of Education under President Bill Clinton, he was best known as a renaissance man, especially here, on the waters of the Vineyard.

Welcome Tyson

Leanne and Jade Cash of Oak Bluffs announce the birth of a son, Tyson Wolf Cash, born on August 9 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Tyson weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces at birth.

Cape Wind, the controversial 130-turbine project slated for construction on Horseshoe Shoal, cleared its final regulatory hurdle this week when the Federal Aviation Administration determined that the project would not pose a hazard to aviation.

On the drawing board for 10 years, Cape Wind is planned to be the country’s largest offshore wind farm, covering 50 square miles in Nantucket Sound.

It’s safe to swim in the water — again. That was the word on Seth’s Pond from West Tisbury health agent John Powers Thursday morning, only one day after the freshwater pond had been closed for swimming.

The popular swimming pond off Lambert’s Cove Road has been closed for most of the summer due to high levels of enterococci bacteria, organisms that may indicate the presence of fecal coliform bacteria. Seth’s Pond closed three times throughout June, then again for six weeks in July and August.