From now through Sept. 3 the Oak Bluffs police department, along with the Massachusetts State Police and more then 240 other local police departments, will participate in a Labor Day program called Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest.

The Executive Office of Public Safety and Security has provided $725,000 in federal funding for the initiative.

Oak Bluffs police Chief Erik Blake said money from the program will be used to pay for extra police patrols on town roads over the long holiday weekend.

A Cape Cod-based priest who previously led masses at the Good Shepherd Parish in Vineyard Haven fled to his native Brazil this week after allegations surfaced that he sexually abused a minor in Connecticut.

The Grand Illumination at the Oak Bluffs Camp Ground is tomorrow night. The Vineyard Haven Band plays at 7:30 p.m. The community sing begins at 8 p.m., followed by the lighting of the first lantern at dark.

Following the resolution of a year-long contractual standoff between the University of Massachusetts and the state Department of Environmental Protection, a number of long-delayed reports on the health of the Vineyard’s ponds are again on track for completion.

The long dispute over who owned data used for computer modeling of water quality in bays and estuaries drastically slowed work on the federally-mandated effort to assess and then reduce pollution problems.

Crispy vegetable tempura. The Salt and Pepper shaker. Low-fat muffins. These are the things which were not at the first Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair held in West Tisbury 147 years ago.

And here are the things that were: goats for milking, oxen for pulling carts and chickens whose eggs made breakfast in the morning and whose meat went into supper.

In the wake of the devastating Independence Day fire that destroyed Café Moxie and badly damaged the Bunch of Grapes bookstore, the U.S. Small Business Administration has made emergency low-interest loans available to small businesses across the Island that were negatively affected by the blaze.

Longtime friends and followers of the late Dorothy West gathered on Saturday afternoon in the shade on a hot August day to pay tribute to the writer, who was the last surviving member of the Harlem renaissance, and to share memories.

In many ways they are polar opposites, as different as North and South, their lives divided by the Mason Dixon Line. One is the consummate mother, wife and gardener, her laundry done, hair parted straight, thoughts quiet and ordered. The other is a consummate hostess, house full of people, dog on the loose, hair flying, calendar cluttered, a poet who scribbles her lines at all hours with whatever writing implement is at hand. And despite all these differences — or perhaps because of them — Rose Styron and Lucy Hackney are also fast friends.

Spokesmen from the Martha’s Vineyard Arena — the Island’s only ice staking rink — appeared before the Martha’s Vineyard Commission on Thursday with an ambitious plan to build a 165-foot wind turbine that will double as a wireless communications tower that could boost cell phone reception in an area known for poor service.

Corrections

A story in the August 12 Tuesday Gazette about the 12-metre regatta was unclear about next year’s racing schedule. Next year’s 15th annual Edgartown Yacht Club 12-metre regatta will be held in Edgartown on the weekend of August 7, 8 and 9. The Worlds 12-metre sailboat races will take place next year in Newport in September.

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