The Martha’s Vineyard Commission will vote next month on a $1.2 million budget for the coming year, a 3.1 per cent increase over this year.

The increase stems mainly from an increase in retirement costs.

In a ceremony of remembrance and appreciation, the trees around the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital were lit for the holiday season late Wednesday afternoon. Fred B. Morgan Jr., 90, of Edgartown was this year’s official lighter for what was billed as the Trees of Lights ceremony. Following a short speech, Mr. Morgan, wearing a green bow tie shaped like a spring of holly, lit the tall tree in the hospital lobby.

A superior court judge has dismissed a political operative’s lawsuit claiming he was libeled by news stories in the Vineyard Gazette and The Boston Globe over his behavior, including his arrest, on the Island during the run-up to the 2008 presidential campaign.

Attorney fees for the lawsuit against the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s roundabout decision will not come out of the town’s annual operating budget, West Tisbury selectmen said this week.

“I think it’s better not to try to budget . . . extraordinary legal events,” selectman Cynthia Mitchell said at the board’s meeting, held on Tuesday this week. “It ought to be raised separately not as part of the budget. And in that way you get the opportunity to ask the voters how do you feel about such a lawsuit.”

The Oak Bluffs selectmen voted Tuesday against a request by West Tisbury psychotherapist Julia Kidd to install a “positive message” sign near the Steamship Authority building for two weeks. Town administrator Bob Whritenour said the board objected to the placement of the proposed sign, not to the positive message. Kidd, who has advocated for putting positive signs in various places around the Vineyard, proposed hanging a sign in Oak Bluffs that said “I want to hear every story you have to tell.”

Like most visitors to Martha’s Vineyard Chowder Company, Buster the black Labrador was hungry for a snack when he bounded through the doors Wednesday afternoon. But instead of ordering at the bar, Buster earned his treats by showing off the skills for which he’s been trained: sniffing out a small bag of marijuana, intentionally hidden in a curtain at the restaurant. The year-old dog planted himself on the floor by the curtain, placed his nose on the drugs and received treats from his handler, Oak Bluffs police officer Jeffrey Trudel.

Alcoholics Anonymous

Information: 508-627-7084.

All meetings are nonsmoking.

Sunday, 6:45 a.m., open discussion meeting, First Baptist Church, William street, Vineyard Haven.

Sunday, 10 a.m., open discussion, State Beach, first bridge, Oak Bluffs, (weather permitting).

Sunday, 11 a.m., open discussion meeting at the Council on Aging on Wamsutta avenue in Oak Bluffs.

Sunday, 7 p.m., grapevine meeting at old Oak Bluffs School, School street, Oak Bluffs.

Chez Panisse is arguably the best and most influential restaurant in the country. The restaurant’s founder, Alice Waters, has become the figurehead of the current farm-to-table revolution in America that has spread rapidly, including (thankfully) to Martha’s Vineyard. The chefs at Chez Panisse have to work their way up through a rigorous kitchen hierarchy, putting in countless hours peeling carrots and cardoons just for the opportunity to cook for those paying customers who have traveled from places near and far to sample their ingenuity.

It’s the most famous Island landmark hardly anyone has ever seen. Built in 1895 as a marine hospital, the old plantation-style manor, with gray shingles, white trim and a sweeping balcony, on its 4.4.-acre hilltop, once commanded a view of Vineyard Haven harbor. At some point over the years the building acquired a white clapboard façade, enhancing its resemblance to Tara in Gone with the Wind. Across the broad lawn, a ring of pine and oak trees grew tall, obscuring the water vistas, and, at the same time, the long deserted building too.

It’s A Wonderful Life, for anyone who has accidentally missed the 20th century, was originally a 1946 movie directed by Frank Capra starring Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, and Lionel Barrymore. This weekend, the Vineyard Playhouse is rebooting the story as a radio drama written by Phillip Grecian, the kind where the audience is stationed in front of a clutter of equipment and watches while a character actor takes out a stick of gum and chomps on it, and the sound guy hits the glockenspiel.