In addition to hosting a forum taking place at the Performing Arts Center at the regional high school on Wednesday, August 17, at 1 p.m. entitled Heard It through the Grapevine: Race and the Media in the 21st Century, Professor Charles Ogletree will, on Thursday, August 18, be accompanying the screening of the film The Presumption of Guilt. The film is based on his book, The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America and directed by Hafiz Farid, the CEO of Foremost Productions in association with NoCane Inc.

New Work at Old Sculpin

Beginning Friday, August 20, and running through August 26, the Old Sculpin Gallery in Edgartown (next to the Chappy Ferry) will be highlighting work by the late Libby Walbridge, new glass sculpture by Ian Whitt, and the continuing exhibitions of Anne D. Grandin, Gail Rodney, and the small works fundraiser. A reception for the artists will be held on Sunday, August 21, from 5 to 7 p.m.

For more details, call 508-627-4881 or to get a sneak preview of the exhibit visit oldsculpingallery.org.

Wearing a bright orange top and neon green running shoes, David Melly was easy to spot along Middle Road on Saturday morning. Then again, it wouldn’t have been difficult to find Melly at nearly any point during the 2011 Chilmark Road Race, as the 18-year-old from Newton, blew the field away on Saturday. His winning time of 16:22 was more than a full minute faster than the next closest competitor.

“I just wanted to put forth a strong effort,” Melly said. “I feels good to put a strong race together.”

The commercial season for striped bass ended this past Wednesday. The closure came when fisheries managers estimated that the 1,061,898-pound quota had been taken in Massachusetts. The season ran short this year.

Last year the 1.12 million-pound quota was taken at the conclusion of the third week of August. The fishery was closed on August 22.

Recreational fishing for striped bass continues. Anglers are required to possess a state saltwater recreational fishing license. They are allowed a bag limit of two fish per day; the minimum size is 28 inches.

In a final tally of their summer fund-raising effort that begins with Possible Dreams but knows no bounds, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services brought in $465,000.

DiAnn Ray, co-chairman of this year’s Possible Dreams auction, said: “We are very pleased. In the past, we had fewer streams of revenue, but now we have funds coming in from lots of places.”

In the beginning, there were 254 runners toiling up and over the hills of Middle Road.

Margaret Marshall is certainly no Pollyanna, but something about speaking with her kindles optimism.

The former Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has a way of looking at things, a calm, reasoned, broad view that leads you gently to accept — at least for awhile — her conclusion that “little by little, things are getting better.”

She likes to take the long view: change for the better is possible if you just keep plugging away at it.

Dollar for dollar, pound for pound, conch is the most valuable resource landed at the dock on the Vineyard in the summer. It is a huge, unsung fishery that draws little attention. One reason for this is almost no one on Martha’s Vineyard eats conch. Nearly all the conch is shipped to the mainland.

Nevertheless, it is a profitable business, more profitable than the lobster or bay scallop fishery. According to state figures, one million pounds of conch were landed on the Vineyard last year, nearly half of the 2.4 million pounds landed statewide.

Improvements to emergency services, including a new response system at the town beach, challenges facing the town fire department and the ever-present balancing act of managing the town budget were central topics at the Aquinnah summer taxpayers meeting on Wednesday night.

Aquinnah selectmen told a small but inquisitive group of seasonal residents that the town is holding close to a plan to keep spending at a minimum while maintaining top-notch services.

After a long, sultry August day in Oak Bluffs, summer residents were doused with a bucket of cold water on Tuesday at the annual summer taxpayers meeting when they learned of the town’s dire financial situation and across-the-board cutbacks in services.

“You call us summer taxpayers but I’m a year-round taxpayer,” said Thelma Baxter. “As a year-round taxpayer I’m concerned about all these cuts.”