Emily Bramhall had already replaced the incandescent light bulbs at home and in her store with low-watt fluoresecents, helped her daughter buy a hybrid car and taken other steps to reduce her carbon footprint. Now she wanted to go further, and start making her own electricity.

But, as Kermit the Frog once sang, it’s not that easy being green, and Ms. Bramhall’s plan to install a wind turbine on her Chilmark property met some resistance before the town zoning board of appeals this week.

A state administrative magistrate has set aside most of the fines assessed by the state Department of Environmental Protection against Joseph N. and Evelyn R. Alosso for alleged septic violations at their home in Oak Bluffs.

In October 2004, the DEP had sought a $28,310 civil penalty against the Alossos for the alleged violations at the house they built on Carol Lane.

Women are failing their driver's license road tests at nearly twice the rate as men on the Vineyard, according to Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) data from January to September 2007.

While 24 per cent of males failed their road test on the Vineyard so far this year, 43 per cent of females failed. That difference of 19 percentage points is the biggest gender discrepancy of all 38 test locations in Massachusetts - mostly RMVs -for which 2007 data is available.

Announcing Kellry

Kenia Aredes and Jean M. da Silva of Vineyard Haven announce the birth of a daughter, Kellry Marques Aredes, born Oct. 4 at the Martha’s Vineyard Community Hospital. She weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces at birth.

An increase in special needs students is driving Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss to seek hundreds of thousands of dollars for a new combined elementary program targeting children with autism or severe communication disorders.