The Edgartown selectmen have reported to the Massachusetts Ethics Commission the activity of the former chairman of the town dredge committee, who used the town-owned dredge for work on a private project in Katama Bay last month. The private dock work ordered by committee chairman Norman Rankow was done without a permit and in violation of state and town environmental laws.

Mr. Rankow has since resigned from the committee.

On Tuesday this week the selectmen took up the issue with their town attorney.

The contentious and sometimes emotional debate over the possible euthanization of two Akitas came to a conclusion this week when the West Tisbury selectmen ordered the animals into the ownership of an off-Island rescue group rather than destroy the dogs. Per the agreement between the town and the dogs’ owners, the dogs are never to return to the Island.

In a historic weekend for Vineyard sports, both the girls’ hockey and basketball squads punched tickets to the playoffs last Saturday afternoon, marking the first time in the regional high school’s history that all four winter varsity teams will compete in the postseason. The boys’ teams qualified for the state tournament earlier this month.

Assignments included making French toast, building a robot, taking a yoga class and spray-painting stencil graffiti. For homework: chopping wood for the fire. The tests, voluntarily taken, were those of the imagination — how to fashion an outfit of candy wrappers, what color to paint the clay figurine, how best to build a shelter in the Vermont woods.

Welcome to project period at the Martha’s Vineyard Public Charter School.

The Pit Stop is going legit. Though the Oak Bluffs club has been putting on unofficial shows for several months, it just recently was granted business and entertainment licenses from the town. Now it’s ready to celebrate with a weekend full of concerts.

The kickoff to the Pit Stop’s official run begins tonight with free live music by Willy Mason, Nina Violet, Marciana Jones and Adam Lipsky. On Saturday there will be a CD release party for Master Exploder. Doors open at 7 p.m. on both nights and music starts at 8 p.m.

For the first time in the history of high school sports on the Vineyard, all four of the high school’s winter sports teams—girls’ and boys’ hockey and basketball—have won enough games to qualify for post-season playoff tournaments.

Ezekial and Duke Arrive

Stacia and Stephen Broderick of Chilmark announce the birth of twin sons, Ezekial Rasmus Broderick and Duke Benjamin Broderick, born on Feb. 14 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Ezekial weighed 5 pounds, 3 ounces at birth and Duke weighed 5 pounds, 10 ounces at birth. The twins join big brother Hunter.

Editor’s Note: What follows is the text of a speech made by Laurie Perry-Henry at the NAACP Martin Luther King dinner held last weekend. Ms. Perry-Henry is president of the Vineyard chapter of the NAACP.

Good evening. It is an honor to be here with so many Islanders who are committed to justice. When I look at a crowd like this, I am reminded there is good reason why for 103 years the NAACP has never asked if we will win, but only when we will win.

I am just back from troubled Israel. There, an ultra-Orthodox Jew of the Haredi sect spat on an eight-year-old girl he deemed immodestly dressed and other ultra-orthodox members of that sect were insisting that women sit at the back of public buses. A settlement illegally built by ultra-orthodox Zionists on the Palestinian West Bank was demolished by Israeli Army soldiers. And the Israeli government, fearful of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, was hinting at making a pre-emptive strike against that country.

The crescent moon appears in our evening sky this weekend, and in the nights beyond. Tonight the moon appears underneath the bright planet Venus, and it gets even better tomorrow night when the two are closer.