Boatline Labor Contract Collapses Unexpectedly; Union Infighting Is
Cited

By MIKE SECCOMBE

Just as it appeared that four years of difficult negotiations had
finally produced a new workplace agreement between the Steamship
Authority and one of its major unions, the deal fell apart this week,
apparently as a result of a leadership contest within the union.

The White House, the American Civil Liberties Union, that
"idiot" the British Prime Minister, the United Nations, the
FBI, CIA, State Department, New York Times, Washington Post, National
Public Radio, CNN, and the Internal Revenue Service.

It's not often you hear them - and a lot of other
governments and organizations as well - lumped together as part of
the same problem.

For the past few years, talk of the planet's imminent demise
due to climate change and rising ocean levels has permeated the media to
the point where the notion is firmly in the collective consciousness of
the nation and the world.

But while documentaries on global warming have won awards and
politicians debate ways to regulate carbon emissions, there has been a
noticeable lack of progress to actually address the problem.

Lady Bird Johnson, the gracious widow of former President Lyndon
Baines Johnson, who was credited for her steadying influence on his
volatile personality, died Wednesday at her home in Austin, Tex., of
natural causes. She was 94.

Early Days of Apartheid Shaped Belief System for Chief Justice

By IAN FEIN

She first came to the United States as a high school exchange
student from apartheid-era South Africa in 1962, near the height of the
civil rights movement.

At a young age, Margaret H. Marshall, who is today the chief justice
of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, witnessed marches in the
street, listened to debates in Congress, and - in her words
– saw democracy working before her eyes.

Are you the harbor master?

That's usually the first question from boaters who have an
inquiry or request when they visit, call or hail the harbor master
station on the VHF radio. It might be a polite matter of course, but it
may also be a subtle response to the young face - or voice -
that answers back.

In a casual survey of the Island's four harbors this week,
there was no one over the age of 23 holding down the fort. The average
age was 19 and a half

The eve of the start of the 84th annual Edgartown Yacht Club Regatta
is a bit awkward for club manager William J. (Bill) Roman, 49.

For 21 years of working at the club, Mr. Roman has stayed low and
focused his attention on making sure the affairs of the club go without
a hitch. In a typically understated manner, he has hidden himself and
sought to meet the needs of the club, its 875 members and their friends.

Drs. Bela Matyas and Sam Donta agree on at least two points when it
comes to dealing with Lyme disease. One, there is not nearly enough
money spent on research. Two, the medical response to the disease as a
result is as much art as science.

When Island blues guitarist and singer Maynard Silva, 56, developed
cancer two years ago, his son Milo, 20, returned from college to care
for him, and then, as he recovered, to sing with him when Maynard
couldn't.

Interviews by Mike Seccombe

Maynard: "He had to take care of me while I was sick. And it
was a tough thing for an 18 year-old kid to be dealing with a guy who
was in the kind of shape I was at the time.

Several Oak Bluffs businesses were shut down and at least one person
was reportedly sent to the hospital Sunday morning following a volatile
oil delivery mishap near the Sand Bar and Grill that sent a powerful
geyser of diesel fuel into the air which rained down on rooftops as far
as two blocks away.