Start talking to people about the state of the Vineyard economy, and you can detect an edginess, an air of concern that mirrors the condition of a nation in the midst of recession, war and ongoing fear of terrorism.

If there's a religious holiday that seems to encourage letting your hair down, it must be Hanukkah. At least that's how things looked over at the Martha's Vineyard Hebrew Center.

Island students looking forward to school trips overseas or even as close as New York and Washington, D.C., might not have to pack their bags after all.

For the second time in two weeks, Theophilus Nix Jr., an Oak Bluffs attorney, has come before selectmen holding a petition that could give voters a chance to pull their town out of the Martha's Vineyard Commission.

"Teenagers," said Dr. Robert Millman, a professor of public health and psychiatry at Cornell University, "have a basic and profound fear of the future. They don't know if they'll make it. The message is you make it if you're tough enough; otherwise, you fail."

When's the last time your doctor checked with your chiropractor about that back injury? Or how about that free screening for colon cancer?