Seth’s Pond is closed to swimming due to high bacteria counts in Monday’s routine sampling results, West Tisbury board of health agent John Powers said Wednesday morning.

Signs are posted to warn bathers of the bacteria.

The announcement follows a series of inexplicable readings and beach closures around the Vineyard. Inkwell, Lambert’s Cove and other beaches also were closed temporarily in recent weeks, in the height of the summer tourist season.

Entries are due by midnight, Aug. 12, in the Vineyard Gazette's web video contest. We're looking for creative filmmakers/aspiring marketers who can take a fresh look at a historic brand and help us promote the Vineyard Gazette to a new generation of readers.

The Tabernacle wore a dress of paintings, collages and photographs, hung on a wire mesh, yesterday as it played host to artists of all ages entered in the 53rd annual All-Island Art Show.

Ultimately, war is merely the continuation of politics by other means. But intimately, it’s all about sociology and biology.

And that’s the aspect of war which engaged Sebastian Junger, in writing his book War, and making the documentary Restrepo — and also most of the overflow crowd which attended his address to the Hebrew Center Summer Institute on Thursday night.

Mr. Junger’s goal was not to explain the forces which drive the politicians who declare wars, but to explain the forces which drive those who fight them.

The Vineyard Playhouse raised $350,000 at its annual fundraiser on Sunday night, a huge boost for the capital campaign now under way to renovate the historic playhouse building on Church street in Vineyard Haven. The renovation project includes remodeling the stage, which will be named after the late actress Patricia Neal, it was announced at the event early Sunday evening.

The Vineyard will soon be surrounded on all sides by communities making the jump to next-generation energy infrastructure. On July 22 Falmouth, Nantucket and New Bedford each learned that they had won state grants to install electric car recharging stations, but for now the Vineyard will remain wedded to gasoline.

What happens to a dream deferred? Fortunately for the bidders and dreamers at the 33rd annual Possible Dreams auction last night, they’ll never have to know.

Beneath the canopy of a beautiful sunset in Oak Bluffs, the audience rallied to raise over $251,350 before the final tally for Martha’s Vineyard Community Services despite the troubled economic times.

There was an extra level of urgency at Morning Glory Farm on Saturday morning as two corn pickers worked their way through rows of corn plants in the Edgartown field. For the field crew, Saturday means arriving at 6:30 a.m. so they can pick for both the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market and the stand. By 7:30 a.m. 24 bushels of corn had been picked for market. At 62 ears a bushel, 1,488 ears of corn would make their way up-Island.

Drawbridge Clear Today

Drawbridge work scheduled for today has been postponed, according to county officials. MassHighway had planned to reduce traffic on the bridge to single-lane while an auxiliary motor was installed but the work will not take place today.

A Dukes county grand jury returned indictments last week against a former state probation officer who faces cocaine trafficking charges and two Oak Bluffs men who have been charged in connection with robbing an elderly Island man of his life savings.